If you’re on the Mac, and using Apple Address Book for your contacts and Apple iCal for your calendar, how do you give your assistant/partner/spouse/best friend full access to this information, so he/she can add, change, and delete entries?

 

With iCloud

If you have an iCloud account, it’s easy to do it via a web browser.  First, make sure your contacts and calendar are set up to sync with your iCloud account. Then give your assistant (etc.) your iCloud login and password, and he/she will be able to see and change your calendar entries and your contact info at https://www.icloud.com.

With Google

Or instead you can give your assistant (etc.) access to your calendar and contacts by synching your iCal and Apple Address Book with Google, and then giving your assistant your Google login information. Here’s how.

Sync of iCal with Google Calendar

You can sync your Apple iCal calendar with your Google Calendar. Google has a page of instructions on how to do it:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#ical

There are some known issues, namely that you can’t create iCal to-dos for Google Calendar, nor can you create a new (secondary) Google Calendar in iCal. More information on known issues is here:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99360#

Sync of Apple Address Book with Gmail Contacts

You can also sync your Apple Address Book with your Gmail Contacts.

Instructions: In Address Book, click on the File menu in the upper left hand side of the screen, and select Preferences. Under General, there is a checkbox for “Synchronize with Google.” Check this box, and Address Book will ask you for your login information. From now forward, it will keep your contacts in sync.

We recommend you back up your Address Book and your Gmail Contacts before starting this process.

Note: Gmail contacts sync is possible only if you are running OS X 10.5.3 or greater.