Listener Steve Holden pointed out that while reading messages, he noticed that the Gmail web interface has a link on the right side of the screen to add the event to your Google calendar when a date appears in the body of the message. I tried doing little experimenting to see if I could trigger the link, but was unsuccessful. Once Steve sent me a sample, I found out the format.

If you have a line of text in your message, then on the next line a date followed by a semicolon and a time, the link will appear. Gmail is pretty good about recognizing a wide format of dates. I have used month/day/year digits as well as spelling out the month then digits a comma and a year. As long as the date and time are on their own line and a semicolon separates them, the link will appear. I will include some examples in the show notes on the web site.

My Special Event

Pay Taxes (US)

Why is this useful you ask? For the same reason Gmail presents a link when it recognizes package tracking IDs or a Google Map link when it recognizes an address – to be more helpful and save you time. When sending an email to a gmail user, you can include a date and time for an event and have it easily added to the calendar.

Quick Tip: If you have shortcut keys enabled, you can use the “#” key to delete messages. From the conversation index, begin by checking the messages, or using the “x” key, then clicking “#”. If you need more information on how to enable shortcut keys, have a listen to the podcast from January 2005.