Publish your Outlook calendar onto the Internet

I didn’t realise that so few people knew about this feature of Outlook 2007, about sharing Internet calendars, but my friend Ian (who works for Dell) came over for some wine the other day and told me his wife was complaining as she never knew where he was.  I mentioned that I published my Outlook calendar onto the Internet so my husband can see my availability at any time so can book social engagements without any conflict in schedules.

So how is it done?

1. In Calendar, in the Navigation Pane, right-click the calendar you want to publish.

   Note   If you are using the Navigation Pane in Minimized view, in the Navigation Pane, click , click Navigation Pane, and then right-click the calendar you want to publish.

   Tip   If you want to publish your default Calendar, click Publish My Calendar in the Navigation Pane, and then proceed with step 3.

2. On the shortcut menu, click Publish to Office Online.
3. If this is the first time you have published a calendar to Office Online, you must register for Office Online by using your Windows Live ID account. If you do not have a free Windows Live ID account, you can create one. Follow the instructions on your screen.
4. Next to Time Span, select the number of days for which you want to share your calendar.

   

5. Next to Detail, click the arrow and choose the amount of detail to share. If you want, select the Show time within my working hours only check box to restrict shared details to your working hours specified in Outlook.    

6. Next to Permissions, choose whether your calendar information can be viewed only by specified people or searched and viewed by anyone using Office Online.

   • Only invited users can view this calendar   If you click this option, an Outlook sharing e-mail message opens after the calendar is published to Office Online. You can send the sharing e-mail message to each person who you want to grant access to your calendar. The sharing message automatically includes a link to the calendar and you can type a message if you want to.
   • Anyone can view and search for this calendar on Office Online   If you click this option, anyone who knows the link to your calendar can view it. People do not need a Windows Live ID account to log on or sign in to a service. In addition, Office Online users can find this calendar when searching for calendars.
7. If you are publishing a calendar that anyone can view and search, type a description of your calendar in the Description box. This information helps other Office Online users find your calendar.

   By default, this calendar will be periodically updated. Changes to the calendar are published to Office Online during the next manual or automatic send/receive. By default, there is a 30 minute interval between each send/receive for each Send/Receive group. If you change the automatic send/receive interval to less than 20 minutes, calendar updates to Office Online are sent at a minimum 20 minute interval.

   To upload this calendar and then never provide updates, click Advanced, and then click Single Upload: Updates will not be uploaded.

8. Click OK.

And that’s it.  you don’t need to worry about the other person having an Exchange server, only the person you invited can view your calendar and your other half won’t nag you for not knowing where you are at any time.

 

Or perhaps being incognito isn’t such a bad thing after all…