How to hide calendar details in gmail?

April 13, 2006. For many of us, this date doesn’t have much significance. But, it was the beta release for Google’s time-management and scheduling calendar. In July of 2009, Google Calendar was released to the general public. Over the last decade, it’s become an indispensable tool used by a lot of people — roughly 1.5 billion people use Gmail and Calendar.

There are many reasons why Google Calendar has become so popular. It’s free and works across pretty much every device — Android, but also Apple devices. It’s also easy to use and comes packed with a wide range of features that make it one of the leading productivity and organizational tools available.

One such feature creates as many reminders, events, and calendars as you want. There probably is a limit, but, you’ll most likely never reach that amount.

While that can definitely be useful as a way to keep all aspects of your life organized, it can also become cluttered. Just imagine opening up your calendar and seeing something like 20 calendars listed on the left side of your screen. Not only would managing all of these calendars be a headache-inducing chore, but it would also be distracting. You may want to view your upcoming work schedule, but then get curious about the calendars regarding an upcoming vacation or favorite sports team.

Thankfully, you can easily hide these calendars so that it doesn’t become such a hassle.

You probably do not need to hide all of your calendars. After all, that may defeat the purpose of using Google Calendar in the first place. But, if that’s your prerogative, it’s pretty easy to do.

Just open-up your calendar. On the left side, you’ll see a list of all of your calendars. You’ll notice there’s a checkbox next to each. Go ahead and uncheck the calendars that you no longer want to be displayed. In my opinion, you should focus on those that you don’t rely on all that frequently. Or, in other words, your low priority calendars.

For example, you may create a calendar for your summer schedule. But, since it’s several months out, you don’t really need to see this schedule every time you’re in your calendar. But, when it’s time to use this specific calendar, you can just put a checkmark in the box.

Another option would be to ditch the sidebar when you don’t need them. The sidebar is what shows your monthly view, as well as all your calendars. It’s a simple enough way to free up more space and focus on what’s truly important.

All you have to do is click the three-line menu icon — it’s located the top left-hand corner. Now you have the option to collapse or expand the menu bar. If you require any more space, you can hide the right-side menu containing Google Keep and tasks by clicking the small arrow in the bottom left-hand corner.

Here’s the thing though. When you hide a calendar, it will only remove events. That means that it will still appear in your calendar list. But, here is another quick fix for that issue. Place your cursor over the calendar and found those three dots. Tap on them and select “Hide from list.”

The calendar will no longer appear in your list of calendars. If you wish to restore the calendar, go into “Settings.” Any calendar event that is not visible will be marked by a crossed-out eye. Toggle the icon to restore the calendar.

Hide when you’re “off the clock.”

More recently, Google Calendar introduced an out of office feature. Now, the time you create an event, you can select the “Out of office” Calendar entry type. It’s an effective way for people to see when you are and are not in the office. And, best of all, Google will also automatically decline any meetings that take place during this time.

Besides hiding specific calendars, you can also hide reminders. At first, this may not seem like a priority. But, as Andy Walton explains on Classroom, “Having too many Google Calendar reminders can quickly become annoying, clogging up your email inbox and resulting in a succession of auto-generated text messages.”

At the same time, “disabling reminders altogether can leave you at risk of missing important commitments.” To prevent these hiccups, try using hidden reminders. These “are pop-up reminders that only trigger when you are on the Google Calendar page itself,” adds Walton. “Hidden reminders keep your email and text inboxes reminder-free, and can be stopped by simply closing the Google Calendar window.” Also, you’re permitted “to set hidden reminders for all existing events as well as new calendar items.”

If you’ve shared your calendar with others, then you can change your privacy settings. Now, if you want, you can control what information others can or can not see on your calendar.

Change the privacy settings for an event.

On your desktop, open Google Calendar and open the event that you wish to update. Double-tap this appointment and click visibility. Next, select the privacy setting for this specific entry. In this case, you would want to choose “Private.” There’s also the ability to switch the visibility settings from “Busy” to “Free.” Keep in mind, however, that this will only be applied to your calendar and not the calendars of the other participants.

Make sure you click “Save,” when you’re done.

On you’re Android device, open your calendar and select the event you want to edit. Next, tap “Visibility” and then choose your preferred privacy setting. Again, don’t forget to hit “Save” — The save option is found at the top of the page.

Believe it or not, the process is the same if you’re using an iPhone or iPad.

Change the privacy settings for an entire calendar.

If you want to keep an entire calendar private, open your calendar and head over to “My calendars.” Hover your mouse over the calendar that you would like to change. When you do, you’ll see three dots that will take into the “Settings and sharing.” Click on this option to choose the calendar’s privacy settings.

The process is pretty much the same for mobile devices. Open your calendar and select the calendar that you want to change. The only difference is that you’ll need to tap the down arrow to take you to “Share this calendar.” Go ahead and choose the privacy setting. And, click “Save,” when you’re done.

Remember that crossed-out eye icon that temporarily removed a Google Calendar? Your calendar is actually still there, but, you just can’t see it.

That’s not a concern if you plan on using that calendar down the road. But, what if it’s no longer useful to you? You can completely remove the calendar from your list in just a couple of clicks.

Click the calendar name and select “Remove calendar” from the drop-down menu. From here, you have two options.

The first would be to “Unsubscribe.” Going with this option means that the calendar is still in existence. However, you’ll no longer view the events on your main Google Calendar. Also, it will no longer be visible on your list of calendars. Be aware that this can only be applied to the calendars that you’ve subscribed to.

What’s useful about this option is that if it’s a shared calendar and still used by others, they’re still able to access and see its contents.

The second option you have is to completely “Delete” the calendar.

Obviously, this means that it would be wiped from existence. If I’m not clear on this, that means everything in the calendar, including events and reminders, will be completely trashed. Additionally, you can’t reverse this option — a.k.a., it’s permanent. But, doesn’t Google back-up calendar events? No, they do not back-up anything for you. So, only use the “completely delete” option if you’re 100 percent certain that you no longer need this calendar.

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When you receive email with dates or times, add them as Google Calendar events without leaving your inbox.

Keep track of all your reservations, meetings, or travel dates by viewing the synchronized events from your Gmail inbox in Google Calendar.

When you get an email about an event like a flight, concert, or restaurant reservation, it's added to your calendar automatically. You can choose who can view these events in your calendar.

If you don't want events from Gmail on your calendar, you can delete a single event, or change your settings so that events aren't added automatically.

Start your day with a daily agenda in your Gmail inbox, based on your Google Calendar schedule. You can even give your daily agenda to your team or an assistant so they know the best times to reach you.

Getting Google Calendar responses you don’t want in your inbox? Let Gmail automatically filter them so you can keep a clean inbox.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• On the left, find the “My calendars” section.
• Hover over the calendar you want to share, and click More.
• Under “Share with specific people,” click Add people.
• Add a person's or Google group's email address.
• Click Send.

To prevent other users from seeing event details, you can set individual events as private. To do this, select Private in the Visibility section when you create an event. To manually select who can see your calendar, you can override the default sharing settings set by your administrator.

Whether you're already using Google Calendar on the daily or you're new to it, it's helpful to know how to manage your privacy settings for both your calendar itself and individual events.

Knowing how to customize your privacy settings is especially important if you're using Google Calendar through an organization, like school or work.

If your Google Calendar is linked to your personal Gmail, then all events and event details should be private. However, should you decide to share your calendar with others, there are several privacy options to choose from, depending on how much access you'd like them to have.

It's important to know that you can only customize your Google Calendar on desktop, and not in the Google Calendar app.

Here's how it's done:

Google support tells users to use caution when sharing their calendars, as anyone with full permissions has the power to respond to invitations, create and edit events, and share a calendar with whoever they want.

Note that if your Google account is managed through an organization, you may not have access to all of these permission options.

1. On your Mac or PC, open Google Calendar.

2. Find the "My calendars" section on the left side of the screen. Hover your cursor over the calendar that you want to edit sharing settings for, then click the three dots in the upper-right corner.

3. Click "Settings and sharing."

4. Under "Access permissions" you can choose to make your calendar available to the public or get a shareable link.

5. To share your calendar with specific people, click the  "+ Add people" button under the "Share with specific people" section. Type in the individual or Google group's email address and select your sharing setting.

6. Click "Send."

You can stop sharing your calendar publicly or remove someone from your share list at any time.

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.

2. Find the "My calendars" section on the left side of the screen. Hover your cursor over the calendar that you want to edit sharing settings for, then click the three dots in the upper-right corner. Click "Settings and sharing."

3. Under "Access permissions" you can unselect public sharing. To stop sharing your calendar with specific people simply click "Remove" next to their name.

Once you've shared your Google Calendar, any events that you add to it will automatically have the same sharing settings. However, you can edit the visibility settings for individual events.

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.

2. Click on the event that you want to edit, and then click the pen icon to edit the event.

3. Click "Default visibility" to open a dropdown menu with sharing options, and then choose a privacy setting.

4. Click "Save." Note that if your calendar isn't shared with anyone, this event will only be visible to you, no matter which option you choose.

If your calendar isn't shared with anyone, you might not see these settings.

Note: When you change the privacy settings for an existing event from "Private" to "Public" or the visibility settings from "Busy" to "Free" the change will apply to your calendar, but not to other event guests' calendars.

To change the privacy settings for an entire calendar, learn how to share or unshare your calendar.

Choose how your calendar is shared to learn more about what event settings are available.