Google Docs

How to Make a Calendar in Google Docs

November 20, 2020

Are you struggling to keep track of everything you need to do? Whether it’s a work-related task or a fitness plan for the following week, you just wish you had everything in one place.

And you’re not alone. Many people working in marketing are dreaming of having a perfect editorial calendar to schedule their future posts. And even if you’re not in marketing, you may need a calendar along with weekly schedule templates for personal needs and tasks related to parenting or hobbies.

But you’re not a fan of carrying huge planners around …

Luckily, there’s an ideal solution − you can create an online calendar quite easily. It’s simple to make, readable, and has all the necessary options to make your job easier.

This article aims to provide a complete walkthrough of how to make a calendar in Google Docs. We’ll share some tips to help you customize it and make it suitable for your needs.

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What is a Google Docs Calendar?

Google Docs is an excellent online tool to keep you organized and productive.

And the best thing about it is that you can create a calendar to really be at the top of your game. Google Docs calendar is a customizable table that helps you create weekly or monthly schedules or plan the entire year.

When you create a calendar in a Google Doc, you can unleash your creativity. They work perfectly as marketing calendars, fitness plans, monthly budget plans, etc.

There’s also a separate app called Google Calendar. Still, it doesn’t give you as many options as making your own plan within Google Docs.

Why Use a Google Docs Calendar?

Google Calendar works well if you only need to schedule an event’s time and date, but not if you want to add more information about your activities. That’s one reason it’s better to create a calendar of your own in Google Docs or even Google Sheets. They work just as well.

You can also share a Google document with your team to work on your calendar. They can add comments or cross off the things you’ve completed. It’s a fantastic addition to a set of tools you may be using to work with your remote team.

Bonus Read: How to Bring Employees Back to Work After COVID-19

How to Make a Calendar in Google Docs: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Are you struggling to create a suitable calendar in docs? If you need a little guidance, we’ve prepared something to help you out.

Here’s an easy-to-follow guide to teach you how to make handy and original calendars in Google Docs.

Step 1

Open your web browser. Go to Google Docs and click on a new blank document to get started. Before you do this, of course, make sure you’re logged in to your Google account.

Google Docs make calendar step 1

Step 2

If you want to create a weekly plan, type in the days of the week as titles. Make sure there’s space between them, so they fit the calendar squares when you add them. Another option is to put an additional row while creating the calendar and enter the names of the days there. In this case, you can name your schedule something like Jenny’s Meal Plan.

Google Docs make calendar step 2

Step 3

Navigate to the bar at the top of the document and click on the Insert tab. From the dropdown menu, choose Table and select the desired number of columns and rows to create the calendar. If you’re making a weekly schedule, choose 7×1, 7×2, or whatever suits the number of daily activities or post you want to enter later.

Google Docs make calendar step 3

Step 4

Add titles for each square if necessary. For instance, you might want to insert the time for each square if you’re creating a social media posting plan. If you’re planning an exercise routine, you can name the squares ‘Morning Routine’ and ‘Night Routine.’

Google Docs make calendar step 4

Step 5

Enjoy being creative! Now it’s time to customize the calendar by adding colors, choosing fonts, resizing the squares, etc. You can use color to mark the status of a task as pending or completed or assign tasks to different people from your team.

Note that you can go back and change your calendar settings whenever you want to.

Google Docs make calendar step 5

Can Others Access Your Calendar and Enter Data?

If you share your Google Doc calendar, others will be able to access it. Depending on the permissions you’ve assigned your collaborators, they may be able to enter new data, too. 

One of the benefits of creating a calendar in Google Docs is how easy it is to share and edit your calendar with friends, family, and colleagues. Once you’ve created your calendar, you can press the blue Share button in the top right corner to give others access to your document. 

From there, you can type in any person’s email address to quickly share your calendar with them. If that person is using a Google account, you can choose whether that person has Viewer, Commenter, or Editor permissions. You can offer the same permissions to anyone who has the link to your calendar or anyone in a particular organization, too.

Someone with Viewer permissions will have read-only access to your calendar. Commenter access lets someone add a comment that everyone can view to your calendar, but they can’t change any of the content in your calendar. 

With Editor permissions, someone can enter, erase, or change any data in your Google Docs calendar.

If you don’t want others to access or edit your calendar, you can stop or limit sharing for your calendar at any time. You can also change a collaborator’s permissions by clicking on the Share button, finding their name and photo under Share with People and Groups, and selecting a different access type from the drop down box to the right of their name. 

Does Google Have a Calendar Template?

While there is a standard calendar template available for Google Sheets, Google Docs does not have a preexisting monthly calendar template.

However, you can download a variety of Google Docs 2021 calendar templates from CalendarLabs. These monthly planner templates are a great way to save time on designing a calendar yourself. 

How to Make a Google Docs Calendar Using Templates

Even though Google Docs doesn’t have a built-in calendar template, you can download a Google Docs template from an external website and use that template right away. 

When you download a blank calendar template from CalendarLabs, it will automatically create a copy of a planner-style table within a new Google Sheet. Once your copy has opened, rename your Google Sheet, fill in the important dates on your new calendar, and share your calendar with anyone you’d like!

Similar sites may have you download a template to your computer and manually add the file to Google Drive. 

To add the downloaded file to Google Drive, click the New button on your Google Drive dashboard. Select File Upload from the drop down menu. Find a downloaded template in your Downloads or Recents folder, and click Open. 

This will create your template as an editable Google Doc, where you can add any details to your monthly calendar. 

Conclusion

We hope that this article has taught you how to make a calendar in Google Docs. It’s a simple process, and the result can be unique and very useful. You can use a Google Doc calendar online or print it out. It’s suitable for the tasks you share with your co-workers, and for your personal plans, such as exercise routines.

The only thing you need to get started is an active Google account, and you’re ready to unleash your creativity. In just a few clicks, you can have a great calendar that’ll help you increase your productivity to the max.

Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.
Kevin Kessler
Kevin J. Kessler is a published author of five fantasy novels, a professional wrestler, and a puppeteer (not all at the same time). Kevin is a content writer at Codeless.