Microsoft Outlook is not just one of the most widely used e-mail programs – the software also provides extensive groupware functions to manage contacts, tasks, and appointments.
Many companies rely on Outlook Calendar to organize collaborative work or schedule customer appointments. Collaborative scheduling is particularly convenient because employees can access their customer’s calendars. This is done using Outlook Calendar Release, meaning that different employees within a company can collaborate on plans, as well as customers, business partners, and external service providers.
What Outlook can provide for sharing calendar information with friends, acquaintances of colleagues, or business associates depends on whether the software is used as a stand-alone application, as part of the Microsoft 365 online service, or in combination with an exchange server.
While Microsoft 365 provides various Office applications as an online service in the cloud, Outlook is a locally-installed desktop application. In the private sector, it is primarily used as an e-mail program that allows users to manage different e-mail accounts through the same user interface. Within an organization, however, Outlook usually acts as a client program for the Microsoft Exchange Server, a central repository for e-mails, appointments, and tasks.
Below, we will provide you with a guide to the different sharing functions the Outlook desktop application provides, as well as the Microsoft 365 App calendar.
In this article, we will provide step-by-step tutorials for the applications Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007.
If you are using Outlook 2016 or 2013, you have the following options for granting others access to your calendar information:
The screenshot below was created with Outlook 2013.
Regardless of how Outlook is used in your home or business, the desktop application will allow you to send a snapshot of your calendar by e-mail. Follow these steps:
Outlook Calendar sharing is not limited to just the default calendar automatically generated in each Outlook profile. Create as many calendars as you like and share them with different people as needed.
A window will open for a new message, and the dialog box “Send Calendar via Email” will appear.
If you mark an appointment as private in Outlook, it will not be shown when you share or take a snapshot of your calendar, unless you explicitly include privately marked items with a tick in the corresponding checkbox.
If you have selected your chosen calendar and have adjusted your time settings, detail level, and form of presentation, you can confirm by clicking “OK”. Outlook will then insert a copy of the selected calendar section as a snapshot into a new email.
Each message created using the “Send Calendar by Email” feature also includes an iCalendar (ICS) file that allows the recipient to open the selected section in any calendar program. The file format is supported by a variety of products from different providers. The most popular of these applications include Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, IBM Lotus Notes, Yahoo! Calendar, Evolution, eM Client, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and Novell GroupWise.
If you use your Outlook desktop application in conjunction with an exchange server, the software allows you to share calendars that are updated automatically. To share an Outlook calendar, you just send an invitation to share to people inside or outside your company. This allows those selected to view the shared calendar in their own calendar viewer. Alternatively, Outlook offers the option of publishing your calendar as a website.
To share your Outlook Calendar with a person in your organization, follow these steps:
A recipient who receives a sharing invitation by email just needs to click the “Open Calendar” button to include the sharing calendar in their own calendar list.
Do you want to share your Outlook Calendar with people outside your organization? It is more or less the same process as sharing a calendar with colleagues. However, something to note is that many networks limit your ability to share detailed calendar information with non-agency people.
How many details your organization can share with external users is set out by your network administrator in the sharing policy settings. If you are trying to share information that is being blocked by the network administrator, you may receive an error message. In this case, contact your network administrator or select a different level of detail to share.
If you have shared your calendar with people outside your network, Outlook will let you customize the details on each calendar for each person at any time. Proceed as follows:
Outlook opens the “Calendar Properties” dialog box.
Another way to share an Outlook Calendar with people outside your organization is to publish it on a dedicated website. Outlook offers the option to publish online. Note that this requires a web server that supports the WebDAV protocol. Follow these steps when publishing:
The drop-down menu will show you the feature “Publish to WebDav Server…” Select this.
Alternatively, some Outlook versions provide the option to publish calendar webpages directly to the exchange server within their own network.
Calendar information that you post on a website is visible to anyone who knows the website’s URL.
Even older versions of Outlook’s email and groupware program allow you to share calendar information with other people.
Microsoft is fundamentally redesigning the desktop application interface every time it releases a new version of the program. However, the “Share Calendar” feature has been available in every version of Outlook from 2007. The prerequisite is that software should be used in combination with an exchange server. We have summarized the click paths for sharing the default calendar in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 below.
In both versions of Outlook, the sharing invitation contains the calendar information as an .ics file. This allows the recipient to add the shared calendar to their own Outlook Calendar list. Note: ICS files are only supported on Outlook 2007.
Outlook 2007 and 2010 also make it possible to then adjust or deactivate calendar shares using the “Calendar Authorizations” button.
Do you use mail and calendar functions in Microsoft 365, the online service? Then you can share calendar information easily with the Microsoft-hosted exchange server. Just use the “Share” feature of the calendar web app.
If necessary, Microsoft 365 allows you to share calendar information with anyone who has email accounts in your Microsoft 365 domain. All these accounts are grouped under “My Organization”. In this case, the Microsoft 365 exchange server establishes a secure connection between your domain’s accounts.
“Can show when I’m busy” (availability only).
“Can show names and places” (restricted details).
The selected detail level can be adapted at any time for a calendar scheduled to be released at a later date.
The recipient has the option of viewing the shared calendar online, or downloading it using a URL as an ICS file and then adding it to their personal calendar view in Outlook or another email program.
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