How to Share or Export a Time Selection from WorldTimeBuddy

Updated

WorldTimeBuddy gives you several ways to move a chosen meeting time out of the tool and into the place where your attendees actually live: a link, a calendar file, a Google Calendar event, the clipboard, Gmail, or an embeddable event widget. The right option depends on whether you want people to view the time, add it to their own calendar, or embed it on a page. All of these controls sit in the same toolbar area above the time grid, alongside the Outlook / iCal, Google Calendar, Clipboard, Gmail, and "Link to this selection" options.

What you're actually sharing

Before picking a method, it helps to know what WorldTimeBuddy treats as "the selection." The tool shows a grid of hour tiles across the locations you've added. When you click an hour tile, you mark a specific slot — and that slot is what the export and share buttons act on. So the workflow is always: add your locations, click the hour you want, then share or export that selection.

If you haven't added locations yet, the grid has nothing meaningful to convert. The site's own getting-started steps are: add locations (or remove, set home, order), mouse over hours to convert time at a glance, and click hour tiles to schedule and share.

Sharing options and when to use each

Option What it produces Best for
Link to this selection A URL pointing at your current view/selection Sending the time to someone who just needs to see it
Outlook / iCal A calendar file for Outlook or iCal Attendees who use desktop calendar apps
Google Calendar An event added to Google Calendar Teams already on Google Workspace
Clipboard The selection copied for pasting elsewhere Dropping the time into chat, docs, or email
Gmail A share flow into Gmail Quick email invites without leaving the tool
Event Widget An embeddable widget Putting the time on a website or internal page

Link to this selection

This is the lightest-weight option. It creates a link to the current view so the recipient sees the same set of time zones and the same highlighted slot you're looking at. Use it when the goal is agreement on a time, not a calendar entry — for example, pasting it into a group chat to confirm "does 12:15 p.m. New York work?"

Outlook / iCal and Google Calendar

These are the two paths for turning the selection into an actual calendar event. Choose Outlook / iCal if your attendees rely on desktop clients; choose Google Calendar if they live in the browser. Either way, the point is that the recipient gets the time in their local zone automatically, which removes the most common source of meeting-scheduling errors.

Clipboard and Gmail

Clipboard copies the selection so you can paste it into whatever tool you're already using — a Slack message, a project doc, a plain email. Gmail is the shortcut for when email is the destination. Both are useful when you don't want to generate a calendar object and just need the time in text form.

Event Widget

The Event Widget is for embedding rather than sending. If you're publishing a webinar or recurring call on a webpage, the widget lets visitors see the time in their own zone without leaving your page. This is the option to reach for when the audience is unknown and you can't assume a single time zone.

A practical sequence

  1. Add the locations you need (for example, New York, Buenos Aires, and London).
  2. Click the hour tile that represents the meeting time you want.
  3. Decide the destination: a link (view only), a calendar file (add to calendar), the clipboard or Gmail (text), or the widget (embed).
  4. Use the matching control in the toolbar — "Link to this selection," Outlook / iCal, Google Calendar, Clipboard, Gmail, or the Event Widget.

The expected result is that the recipient sees or receives the correct local time without doing the math themselves.

Things worth knowing

  • Signing in saves your settings. The site notes that signing in to save settings is free, and offers sign-in via Facebook or email. Without signing in, your configuration isn't persisted.
  • JavaScript is required. The page explicitly asks you to enable JavaScript for it to work properly, so sharing controls won't function if scripts are blocked.
  • The view has display settings. Options like showing time zones, marking weekends, and calendars affect what your shared view looks like, so set these before generating a link if appearance matters.
  • The tool is built for exactly this. Its stated purpose is comparing multiple time zones at a glance and planning conference calls, webinars, international phone calls, and web meetings — so sharing a selection is a first-class feature, not a workaround.

If your only goal is to get everyone to agree on a slot, the link is enough. If you need the time to land in people's calendars, use Outlook / iCal or Google Calendar. If you're publishing to an unknown audience, use the Event Widget.