Syncing your Google and Outlook calendars
A few months later, Google released a free program that not only moves data between the two calendar apps, but it also syncs the calendar entries automatically at the interval of your choice.
Google Calendar Sync is so fast and simple to use that my calendars were synced before I knew it. When you install the program, you're asked where you want to place the utility's shortcuts; by default, they'll be added to your Start menu and desktop.
Uncheck the installer's shortcut options to prevent a new icon to be added to your Start menu or desktop.
(Credit: Google)When the installation completes, the program's main window opens, prompting you to add your Google ID and password, and to select either two-way syncs, syncs from Google Calendar to Outlook, or syncs from Outlook to Google Calendar. You can also reset the frequency of updates; the default is every two hours.
Decide whether you want two-way calendar syncs, or one-way transfers between Google Calendar and Outllook.
(Credit: Google)If Outlook's not open on your machine, you'll be prompted to enter your Outlook username and password. Then the data in each calendar will be added to the other (if you selected the two-way option). When I installed the Google sync utility, I was surprised how quickly the dozens of entries in my Google Calendar were added to Outlook.
I didn't I notice any missing or garbled entries. In fact, the similarity of the two calendars' appearance was a little spooky: I thought for a second that Google had taken possession of my copy of Office. (I probably jumped the gun on that thought by a couple of years.)
Google offers some caveats about using its Calendar Sync program. For example, you need to uninstall any third-party calendar-syncing applications on your PC beforehand. If you've been using another method, you must choose which of the two calendars you want to use as your primary one and clear the entries from the other. Finally, you have to perform a one-way sync from the primary to the secondary before you can schedule automated syncs.
Another limitation of the utility is that only your pop-up event reminders will transfer from Google Calendar to your Outlook calendar because Outlook doesn't support e-mail and SMS alerts. If you encounter problems using Google Calendar Sync, check the information on Google's troubleshooting page for the program.
After seeing what Google can do to enhance Office applications, I'm thinking that a Windows-killing desktop operating system from the company isn't such a bad idea.
Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for Ziff-Davis's Computer Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
On top of that, I use Googles Calaboration app for my Mac to keep iCal synced!
Now, no matter where I add or delete an event, it shows up in the right place. The BEST part of all of this is that my wife can add entries to my Google Calendar from her Mac and it shows up in Outlook and on my iPhone.
It's the sync nirvana I've been looking for for years. There's a couple of minor bugs, but all in all, it works well.
mike
Great article. Congrats!
I am a hard Google services user. G Docs, G Mail, G Calendar, etc.
As an IT/Engineer professional, I keep my PC, notebook, mobile, all sync.
Regarding calendar, I am using G Calendar + Outlook sync for some days, and it works great. Even when I access it using my mobile.
Have you ever consider using "Remember The Milk" with G Calendar and even G Mail ?
(and even access RTM using mobile)
Hum, but today I read some article that mentioned tasks services at G Mail.
(see at Seetings>Labs, and insert it at G Mail).
I am such a huge fan and evangelist about using services at mult-platform: desktop, notebook, and mobile.
And welcome cloud computing!! :)
Best regards,
Dalton R. Oliveira, MBA
IT Project Engineer
http://gobusinessbr.wordpress.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/daltonro
São Paulo - SP - Brazil
- by rshah29 December 11, 2008 2:07 PM PST
- If you want to sync Contacts between Google and Outlook, or sync multiple calendars, use CompanionLink:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(5 Comments)http://www.companionlink.com/google
It does more and offers free support.