Attach files to a meeting invitation in Google Calendar

A well organized meeting, whether online or in person, makes everything more efficient.  If your company uses Google Apps for Business you can attach all of your meeting documents in Google Calendar.  This is more efficient than agendas being emailed and re-emailed.  

Check with your Google Apps Admin because turning this Labs feature on also requires Google Drive.

The best way to do this depends on if your Google Apps administrator has enabled Calendar Labs for your domain. (If Calendar Labs are enabled for your domain, you’ll see a Labs tab when you select Settings from the Gear menu.)

If Calendar Labs are enabled for your domain

First, make sure the Event attachments Calendar lab is enabled.

1. Select Settings from the gear menu, and go to the Labs tab.

2. Select Enable next to Event attachments.

3. Click Save.

To add an attachment using this lab:

1. Open your meeting.

2. In the Attachment section, click Add attachment.

3. Check the box next to one or more Google Drive files, and click Select.

Or, for other file types (like PDF), click Upload and follow the prompts to upload your file(s).

4. Review your attachments. Here’s an event with both an attached Google Doc and a Microsoft Word document that was uploaded to Google Docs:

5. After you’ve entered all event details, remember to click the Save button.

If Calendar Labs are not enabled for your domain

For this option, your attachment has to be a Google Doc or otherwise available via a URL. (Google Docs generates URLs for each of your documents.) To attach a Microsoft Office or PDF document, just upload it first to Google Docs, and--optionally--convert it to Google Docs format.

Once you have a URL for your document, here’s how to add it to your event:

1. Open your meeting.

2. In the Description field, copy and paste the URL that Google Docs generates.

3. After you’ve entered all event details, remember to click the Save button.

Note: Alternatively, you can add an attachment using either of these methods:

• Send the attachment in a separate email message to guests.

• Schedule the event through Gmail. Compose a new message and attach the file. Then click Invitation and enter information about the event. However, you can’t book a room from Gmail, so you’ll have to edit the event in Google Calendar later.