I didn't know that!

I love Google Calendar and Gmail, both on my computer and on my Android phone. I’ve been using them both since they were first introduced, and considered myself kind of an expert, but I keep finding new-to-me features and tricks.

Subscribe to calendars

My Google Calendar shows me all my appointments, holidays, birthdays, and what time my favourite sports teams are playing.

Wait, what?

Yes. You can subscribe to other calendars and display them along with yours. To do this from a computer:

Open your Google Calendar
On the left side, click on the arrow next to Other calendars
Click on Browse Interesting Calendars
Click on Sports, and drill down until you find your team
Click on Subscribe

You’ll see the calendar listed over on the left. You can toggle events from this (or any) calendar off and on by clicking on the name of the calendar. 

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Undelete events

Recently I found a way to recover from a common, self-inflicted problem in Calendar. Sometimes I delete an event by accident. I’ve known for a long time that immediately after you delete an event there’s an Undo option for a few seconds at the top of the screen, but if you don’t get to that in time you’re still going to be okay. 

Hover your mouse cursor over the calendar from which you deleted the event
Click on the arrow
Click on Trash
Check the box(es) next to the event(s) you want to restore
Click on Restore selected events

How awesome is that? You’ve got a list there of everything you deleted in the past 30 days.

I haven’t found a way to do this yet in the Android or iOS apps. But events you delete using the apps show up in that 30-day deletions list, so you can restore them from Calendar using a browser.

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There is a Preview Pane in Gmail

You can have a preview pane to the right of your message list, like Outlook. You can have a preview pane beneath your message list, like good ol’ Outlook Express. Who knew?

Open Gmail
Click on the cog icon | Settings | Labs| Preview Pane | Enable
Click on Save changes (you probably have to scroll way down to see that)

Now in your In box view, you’ll see an icon next to the cog that will let you change your view. I frequently change from the “normal” No split view to Vertical split.

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Quick Links are the greatest thing since sliced bread

Gmail has a powerful search feature. Of course it does, it’s Google! But did you know you can bookmark an individual email like you can a web page? Me either. But you can and it’s great.

Open Gmail
Click on the cog icon | Settings | Labs| Quick Links | Enable
Click on Save Changes

This adds a little box in the left side of the page that gives you a one-click method to open any email. To make a quick link open the email you want to link to and click on Add quick link. Name the link something informative and save it.

For some reason you can only save the link with the Preview Pane disabled, but you can open the links again in any view.

Gmail and Calendar play nicely together, too. More about that in a future column. If you’re new to Gmail, you can learn about it here. To learn about Calendar, have a look over here. 

What are your favourite features and tips about Gmail and Calendar?

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Links

Welcome to the Gmail Help Center 

Get Started with Google Calendar 

Computer Care Kelowna 

Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives 

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.