Outlook Calendar Tip

Prerequisites:

The following applies to Outlook 2003 although this method will work for Outlook 2007 as well.

This method also assumes that you have Microsoft Excel installed and that you have created a custom calendar in Outlook.

Problem: If you import a calendar file (vcs or ical) into Outlook, by default the items will be imported into your Outlook default calendar.

But let's assume you have created a custom calendar (for this example we'll call it Sports) and you want to import team schedules into your custom Sports calendar.

Solution: Drag & Drop from your default calendar

You could import the items into your default calendar then drag and drop them into your Sports calendar.

However this can get tedious when dealing with a large number of items across many different dates.

Alternate Solution: Import & Export via Excel

1. Create a new Outlook profile (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Add>create your new profile and you can put in a real email address or just a fake one as only the calendar will be used)

2: Change Outlook to prompt for a profile when starting up (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Prompt for a profile to be used)

This will allow for quick checking of calendars between different profiles

3. Start Outlook and when prompted, select the new profile that you created

4. Import the calendar file into Outlook (File>Import and Export>Import an iCalendar or vCalendar (.vcs) file>browse to the calendar file you want to import, highlight and click OK).

Open the calendar and verify that all the items were imported successfully

5. Export the calendar file (File>Import and Export>Export to a file>Microsoft Excel>Calendar>Give the file a name and make sure it's saved as an Excel file with the .xls file extension)

6. A window will open that prompts you to select the date range to export. Make sure the beginning and ending dates capture all the items that you want to export

7. Close Outlook

8. Open Outlook and when prompted choose your original profile (NOT the new one you just created)

9. Import the Excel file (File>Import and Export>Import from another program or file>Microsoft Excel>browse to the Excel file you just created, highlight and click OK.

When you see "Select destination folder" select your Sports calendar)

10. Click Finish and you're done

Optional:

Change Outlook back to open your original profile automatically (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Always use this profile>select your original profile and click OK).

If desired, you can also delete the new profile you created as it's no longer required. (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>highlight the new profile and click Remove).