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YearSpread: Visualize your year in a spreadsheet

YearSpread is a yearly calendar template to help you plan out your year(s) in a digital format. Use it to block out time for all-day events, weekend trips, vacations, etc. or keep track of annual events like festivals or conferences. You can also sync entries with your preferred Google Calendar.

👉 Get the spreadsheet

Sync your spreadsheet with a Google Calendar

YearSpread features one-way syncing (spreadsheet → calendar) with a Google Calendar of your choice. To enable this, follow the steps below:

Part 1 of 2: Add Your Calendar ID

  1. If you have not already done so, make a copy of the spreadsheet.
  2. In your spreadsheet, navigate to the ⚙️CONFIG sheet.
  3. In cell B3 (white box), enter the ID of the Google Calendar you wish to sync spreadsheet entries with. Find your Google Calendar ID using these instructions. It should look something like <list of letters and numbers>@group.calendar.google.com.

All events in the calendar you specify will be DELETED prior to syncing. It is strongly recommended you create a new calendar to use exclusively with this spreadsheet.

Part 2 of 2: Setup Periodic Syncing

Now that the calendar ID is added, we will setup a time-driven trigger to sync spreadsheet entries with our Google Calendar each hour:

  1. On the top menu bar, click Extensions > Apps Script. You should be directed to the Google Apps Script interface.
  2. Hover over the left sidebar and click Triggers (clock icon).
  3. On the bottom right, press the Add Trigger button.
  4. Specify the following settings: - Set Choose which function to run to syncEventsWithGoogleCalendar. - Set Select event source to Time-driven. - Set Select type of time based trigger to Hour timer. - Set Select hour interval to Every hour (or whichever time interval you prefer).
  5. Click Save. An authorization window should appear.
  6. In the authorization window, select your Google account.

After selecting your Google Account, you should receive a warning that "Google hasn't verified this app". This is a standard warning indicating that the script you're authorizing requires sensitive info from your Google Account (in this case, authorization to create events in calendar you specified on the ⚙️CONFIG sheet).

While this warning should give you pause, there is no need to be alarmed. ALl the script does is create a calendar event for each entry in the calendar spreadsheet. There is no malicious code being run.

If you are hesitant to proceed, you are welcome to press Back to Safety, go to the Editor tab and inspect the script yourself. This code is local to your account and can only be edited by you, so feel free to modify as you please.
  1. In the authorization window, click Advanced.
  2. Click Go to sync-spreadsheet-events-with-google-calendar (unsafe).
  3. Review the information. If you are ready to proceed, click Allow.

🎉 Woo hoo! Any events you add to your year calendar will now be automatically synced to the calendar specified.

Testing

  • To verify that sync is working, navigate to the 2024 sheet and enter an event title into any of the cells.
  • After an hour passes, search for the event title in your Google Calendar - it should come up.

Adding Multiple Events To One Date

  • To add multiple events for a single date, enter the title of each event separated by a "|". There is no limit to how many events you can add per cell.
    • For example: Let's say you wanted to add two events, "My First Event" and "My Second Event" on January 1st, 2024.
      • Navigate to the 2024 sheet and edit the cell next to January 1st.
      • Enter "My First Event | My Second Event".
      • During the next sync, the script create two separate calendar events for My First Event and My Second Event.

Issues

If you encounter any issues with this spreadsheet or would like to submit a feature request for review, please submit an issue in the associated GitHub repository. A GitHub account is required to submit issues. If you do not have a GitHub account, you can create one here.