In the fast-paced world of law, efficient communication and collaboration are paramount. That’s where learning to share an Outlook calendar comes in handy. You’ll discover it is a simple yet powerful tool that streamlines scheduling and keeps everyone on the same page. Whether you are coordinating showings with clients, meeting with contractors, or juggling personal appointments, sharing an Outlook calendar can save you time and prevent those frustrating scheduling mix-ups.
But you might be wondering, why share your calendar in the first place? Because, when you share an Outlook calendar, it’s like handing over a master key to your schedule. It gives others a window into your availability, allowing them to seamlessly book meetings or schedule appointments without a constant back and forth. Plus, it boosts transparency and accountability, minimizing the chances of double bookings and missed connections. This way, you and your collaborators can focus on what matters most – your business.
Table of Contents:
- Methods for Sharing an Outlook Calendar
- Share an Outlook Calendar From Desktop
- Share an Outlook Calendar In Outlook Web
- Managing Permissions For Outlook Calendar Sharing
- Adding User’s Outlook Calendar To Your Outlook Calendar
- Stopping Shared Outlook Calendars
- Publish a Read-Only Outlook Calendar From Desktop
- Send a Static Outlook Calendar By Email
- How to See Who Has Access to an Outlook Calendar
- FAQs about share an outlook calendar
- Conclusion
Methods for Sharing an Outlook Calendar
Microsoft has given users the power to share their Outlook calendar through several different mediums, from directly sharing calendars to using specific links for different applications and even using the Calendar Sharing function available in Outlook on the Web.
Share View-Only Calendars
Sometimes, all you need to do is give people the option of seeing what is on your schedule, rather than giving them full edit permission. One way of doing this is by allowing users to see only what your availability is at any given moment.
For work and school accounts, if you want someone in the organization to simply know when you are busy but you do not want them to see any of the details, then you might give them the option of using “Can View When I’m Busy”, from the Calendar delegation options available for classic Outlook users.
If, however, you are trying to share your Outlook.com calendar, then the person receiving your share request must accept it using their own Outlook or Microsoft 365 account. This may make this option unusable when collaborating with those outside the Microsoft environment, especially as other users like those using Google’s Gmail will not see items marked as private. They will see when those private events are scheduled, just not what they contain, even those events that occur in a recurring series.
Sharing Full Details
But you also have the ability to share full details, giving users access to all aspects of your calendar just as if they were looking at it from your own account. You can choose what permission levels different users or groups of users have, as it isn’t a blanket set of options. Some people might get “Can View When I’m Busy”, while others may get permission levels like “Can Edit” or “Delegate”, all of which fall under the calendar view category of “Can View All Details”, as long as their email is valid and doesn’t belong to a Microsoft 365 group.
If you do, however, see the “This calendar can’t be shared” error when attempting to share an Outlook calendar with someone, then it might be caused by their email address either being invalid, belonging to a Microsoft 365 group, or because they belong to another organization and thus cannot be given the “Can Edit” permission. Regardless, the default level of access given to any shared user under your own organization (or those within federated organizations) will give them all permissions when looking at your schedule within the Scheduling Assistant. For additional details and insight, check out this insightful post from the Microsoft Tech Community.
Share a Calendar Through a Published Link
Another option to share your calendar is by creating a public calendar link and then sharing that with users. There are several reasons for using this method of sharing your Outlook Calendar rather than going through a direct invitation process.
There are two primary types of public Outlook calendar links available; HTML or ICS. HTML calendar links allow the person you share it with to look at your schedule in their browser window. ICS links allow people to download a specific ICS file that is then opened in a compatible Calendar application. While an ICS file can be downloaded and viewed by others, changes to the calendar are not synchronized so the individual receiving the file must request a new one if there are any schedule updates. Alternatively, if they use the ICS link through their own Outlook account, then the calendar synchronizes automatically and is updated on their end whenever a change is made to your schedule.
However, no matter how the user decides to access the calendar, either an HTML link or an ICS link, the calendar they open is always read-only. This means even if you give a person the edit permission level when sharing the calendar with them, they cannot actually make changes. Keep in mind, though, when sharing an ICS link, the recipient’s email provider determines how often their copy of your schedule is updated. So someone with a Yahoo account will see schedule updates at different intervals compared to a Gmail user or someone in your organization using a work or school email address.
Share an Outlook Calendar From Desktop
To share a calendar in Outlook on your desktop, you will need to begin from your Calendar Folder. Depending on which Outlook application version you use – New Outlook, which was launched as a way of updating Outlook’s interface, and Classic Outlook, the older version of Outlook’s interface – you will use slightly different procedures.
Sharing From Classic Outlook
When using the classic version of Outlook, begin by choosing the “Share Calendar” button while inside your Calendar folder and selecting it from the available drop-down options. Inside the “Calendar Properties” box, choose the “Add” button. Next, search through your address book to locate the users you want to add or type the email address of the people you want to add inside the “Add” text box. You can search for, and subsequently add, as many users as you want and they will populate inside the “Add Users” dialogue box, where selecting “OK” brings you back to the “Calendar Properties” dialog box.
From here, select the individual or individuals (one at a time) and from the dropdown choose what level of information you want them to see. Their name and email address will be inside the “Calendar Properties” box along with all users previously added from the “Add Users” dialogue box.
To send an invitation, click “OK” to finalize the changes made. An invitation is sent out to all users, regardless of the access level you assigned to their account, where they then have the option to either accept or reject the invitation to share their calendar.
Sharing from New Outlook
Start by going to your Outlook calendar, where selecting the calendar will open an options tab, one of which is the “Home” tab. This is where the steps differ from using classic Outlook, which instead begins in the “Calendar Folder” tab, as this “Home” tab was not added to Classic Outlook until sometime in 2023.
If you have more than one Outlook calendar – for example a personal calendar, a work calendar, and a project-related calendar – then be sure to select the right one. Once the correct Outlook calendar is chosen, select the “Share calendar” option.
This brings up a new section labeled “Enter an email address or contact name”. Enter the email of those you want to share the calendar with, or if you already have those users within your Outlook account, you can simply select them from the dropdown list. Once the user has been selected or added, a dropdown will appear next to their name listing several access levels, just as is available within Classic Outlook, such as “Can View All Details” and “Can Edit”, however other more specific permission options exist including “Can view when I’m busy” or “Can view titles and locations”. After a person or persons have been selected or added, and their permission level chosen, then select the “Share” button to complete the share process.
The process will have automatically generated an email and sent out invitations to the people you shared your calendar with where they can then choose to either accept or reject the sharing request.
Share Your Outlook Calendar On Mac
Open the “Calendar” app by selecting it from within your Apple Outlook for Mac. In the left pane, you will see a section labeled “My Calendars”. From here, you can right-click and open the Calendar options. Then simply choose “Share Calendar” from those options. You then will need to provide the email address of each person you want to share your Outlook Calendar with where, just like in the other share processes, you’ll choose an appropriate permission level such as “Can view all details” or “Can edit”, both of which fall under Calendar Delegation, and press “Enter”.
Share an Outlook Calendar In Outlook Web
Sharing an Outlook calendar in Outlook on the web allows people either within or outside of your organization to view your schedule. Keep in mind, however, not all organizations or individuals are eligible to use Calendar Sharing, while others have limited usage.
Using New Outlook Web
You’ll see a Calendar icon located on the bottom of the screen. After opening the calendar, go to the toolbar on the top of the page. If you see “Share” in the toolbar, it means your account is able to use Outlook Calendar Sharing.
There’s a drop-down option underneath Share that lets you choose which calendar you want to share, such as your default calendar labeled as “Calendar” or perhaps other calendar types you created like one for your family or for a special project. Just keep in mind, you can only share calendars that you own. Once the right Calendar is chosen, enter the name or email of those you want to add to the share. For every individual you add, several permission levels are available from the “Calendar delegation” function that controls view permission level, including “Can view when I’m busy”, “Can view titles and locations”, and “Can view all details”, as well as more open permission levels including “Can Edit” or “Delegate”, depending on what is allowed for your organization or account.
Just keep in mind though that when sending invites to users that are not using Outlook Web, like those with Gmail or another email service provider, they cannot accept it unless they use their Microsoft 365 account to view the Outlook Calendar, even if they just want “Can view when I’m busy”. This can create frustrating issues when attempting to share schedules, especially as anyone using an ICS link to open the shared Outlook Calendar will have a read-only calendar they cannot change, regardless of the permission levels that are allowed. There’s one other quirk related to sharing, when adding ICS calendars, synchronization may happen at various rates due to inconsistencies with external email providers and how they are able to communicate with Outlook.
Using Classic Outlook Web
If you’re stuck using Classic Outlook Web, click the Application Launcher from the top of your browser. Then choose the “Calendar” option and at the top you’ll see a button that reads “Share”. This brings up several dialog boxes labeled “Your calendars” and “Send a sharing invitation in email”. In the “Send a sharing invitation in email” text box, enter either the individual’s email address or their name so an invite can be generated. Each person added to the share has various permission level options available that controls what information is visible on the shared Outlook calendar, much like in New Outlook Web, except this function is referred to as “Calendar Permissions”. This is different from those found in classic Outlook, such as “Can Edit”, which isn’t available in the “Sharing Permissions” list and instead comes with additional information found in Calendar delegation in Outlook on the web. In this particular case, however, you might select an option from “Calendar delegation in Outlook Web”, such as “Can view titles and locations”, “Can view when I’m busy”, “Can view all details” or any other available option such as “Delegate”. You also have the ability to stop sharing calendars before an invite is even sent, simply choose “Remove” and the person you had selected to add to the share will disappear from the text box. It is important to know though, the delegate access permission, which is part of “Calendar delegation in Outlook Web”, will only allow the individual you added to see those “Calendar items marked private” which otherwise would only show their time slot as unavailable, while other private calendar details, like location, are obfuscated, even those series marked private which might contain multiple calendar entries.
When sending invitations through the sharing function, one quirk about Classic Outlook Web that some might find inconvenient is if you select to share any calendar besides your default, those people you share it with are not given the option of “Delegate”, but they will always be shown all the details. They also cannot make changes and can only view what is shared on your schedule, even if you choose “Can edit”, unlike when you select to share your primary Outlook calendar in the share process.
Managing Permissions For Outlook Calendar Sharing
Outlook lets you fully customize the access a user, group, or organization has to see what is on your calendar, though how this is implemented varies across each version of Outlook as well as what permissions you personally are able to use.
To change permissions, right-click the calendar and go to its “Permissions” section within “Calendar Properties”, where there is a button to add a new user or the ability to select one or more individuals that already have share access so you can adjust their permission levels, either individually or by group. Microsoft has already predefined permissions, found within “Calendar delegation”, including “Can edit” and others like “Can view titles and locations”, which you are able to set in the “Permissions level” pull-down menu or change as you see fit using individual settings options available inside check boxes located directly beneath the pull-down.
Adding User’s Outlook Calendar To Your Outlook Calendar
Just like those who use a Classic Outlook, users of a “New Outlook” account also are given the ability to add other user’s Outlook Calendars to their own Outlook, this time found in the section labeled “Calendar Properties”. Unlike when you are using Outlook.com, when using either a new or classic Outlook, this added user’s calendar is always shown as the same level as “My Organization”, the default level given to all members of the organization (including those of federated organizations) regardless of their account permission level. In addition, when opening any shared calendar through New Outlook, you will need to request those who have an Outlook.com email to follow the “Share your calendars” process (for Outlook.com) found within New Outlook if you want them to appear inside your Outlook calendar, which, while not mandatory to open those calendars, is essential to seeing them populate in your New Outlook. You’ll know the process is successful once the recipient hits “Accept” in their invitation.
Alternatively, to add calendars within “Classic Outlook”, those who have an Outlook.com account will be given an “Accept” option at the bottom of any invitation they receive after you click the “Share” option to give them access. Once a person has accepted the share invite and the process has synchronized, their Outlook.com calendar will populate into your list, and their account can then be managed directly from within your Outlook.
Stopping Shared Outlook Calendars
Whether using “New Outlook”, “Classic Outlook” or the “Outlook Web” version, users will see nearly identical methods for removing sharing privileges given to users for your calendars. You have full control over what they see, even if your schedule has previously been fully visible because of access level settings like “Can view all details”.
Removing Calendars in Classic Outlook and New Outlook
Begin by going to your Outlook calendar. Select it to open “Calendar Properties”, and from there select the tab labeled “Permissions”. Find those whose calendars are no longer needed or adjust access levels so those added can no longer use permissions like “Can edit”, where they now will only be allowed more restricted permission settings such as “Can view when I’m busy”, or even “Remove” their access completely. Just be sure to select “OK” once those permissions are updated, which then will begin synchronizing those changes across “Microsoft 365” to everyone’s account, as they now will not have the same view privileges and may even find they cannot see the calendar.
Removing Calendars in Classic Outlook Web and New Outlook Web
Both Classic Outlook Web and New Outlook Web use nearly identical methods to prevent users from being able to view a shared Outlook calendar. Start by finding the calendar icon and select the “Share” option at the top. This brings up two text fields that contain either the individual’s name or their email. Look for the specific person who you would like to either remove calendar sharing privileges for, such as those you gave “Can Edit”, and change their settings to the “Calendar delegation in Outlook Web” function of “Can view titles and locations”, or if you want to prevent them from seeing it at all, you can use “Remove”, which is found beneath the name or email address of every added individual.
You will need to choose this “Remove” function for each person if you want to prevent them all from being able to access your Outlook calendar.
Publish a Read-Only Outlook Calendar From Desktop
Publishing an Outlook calendar gives users an alternative to directly sharing, especially useful when dealing with compatibility issues found in Classic Outlook and New Outlook where only users from your organization are given the ability to directly open a shared calendar without requiring they go through an invitation and synchronization process. Using this process gives other users the power to open a read-only Outlook calendar for any calendar folder by using one of two calendar link types – ICS or HTML. With HTML links, recipients must open the calendar in a browser, and ICS links require a person subscribe to it, just as with those ICS calendars sent as a static copy, except here, updates occur at whatever rate is normal for the individual’s email provider, whether Outlook, Yahoo or another provider like Google’s Gmail.
Before publishing an Outlook calendar, you’ll first need access to a “WebDAV” compatible Web Server, just like those who attempt to share a calendar from Classic Outlook rather than New Outlook.
After confirming with your IT provider, administrator or “internet service provider” that “WebDAV” support is available, open your “Outlook calendar”. Then from your desktop select the Home tab. There you will see an icon for “Publish online”, however, when trying to share an Outlook calendar on “Microsoft 365”, those trying to use an internet calendar will have to first remove “{Anonymous: CalendarSharingFreeBusySimple}” from their account sharing policy or the calendar cannot be published. Doing so, though, will prevent anyone from using the Exchange calendar publish function found within Exchange. This is because Exchange lets users publish to a server through the “Publish This Calendar” dialog box found inside the application where all that’s needed is to select the appropriate publish settings you prefer and click the “Start Publishing” button to finish the publish process.
Once that is complete or if an individual does not need to remove anything from their sharing policy, simply enter the address of the “WebDAV server” into the text field labeled “Location” found in the dialog box and hit the “Ok” button to start the publishing process.
Send a Static Outlook Calendar By Email
Sometimes, you don’t want those who you share your schedule with to automatically receive changes or updates to their copy of your calendar, instead, you want them to be sent a static copy they must manually request changes to. Outlook allows users to email a copy to anyone they add to the “To” field, giving users full control of who sees their calendar, the level of details they have permission to see (including private calendars) and the timespan for which the copy encompasses, just like in classic Outlook.
Unfortunately though, due to recent changes, those using a Microsoft 365 subscription cannot utilize this function, though others who prefer a more “classic Outlook” are still able to generate static copies.
You can find the option to email a static calendar under the Home tab and then by selecting “Email Calendar” which opens a “Properties” dialog box. If the user decides to share their Outlook calendar through the “Email Calendar” dialog box rather than other Calendar share functions found within the Home tab like “Publish This Calendar”, several other customization features, found within the “Calendar delegation in Outlook”, will become unavailable, so do take time to analyze if “Email Calendar” is the right option before creating the static copy.
A drop-down menu allows you to choose which calendar from your account you want to share. If it’s just for a single day, choose “Today” from the menu or any other time range that is available including a customized start and end date or the next 7 days. Then you are ready to click “OK”, which brings up a standard new email. Enter the recipient’s information in the “To” box. There you are also given a space to add an optional custom message and after adding content click the send button. That’s it. You just shared a static Outlook calendar with everyone added to the recipient list.
How to See Who Has Access to an Outlook Calendar
To quickly and easily find everyone you’ve shared your Outlook calendar with, go to your Outlook calendar. Inside Calendar, you will see several tabs, the first of which is the “Folder” tab, and inside you will find the “Calendar Properties” button. After selecting the button, another tab listing your account “permissions” will be visible where underneath you will find the label “Currently sharing with”. There, every individual with an accepted calendar sharing invitation will be shown along with those from within the same or federated organizations as the individual attempting to share their calendar.
Beneath their names you’ll see an access level option that includes the Calendar view functions available with their assigned account access permissions, like “Can Edit”, those with private calendar viewing permissions, like “Can view when I’m busy”, and any others like those who have permissions listed in “Calendar delegation”. This way, users always have an accurate representation of which permission levels every added person has as well as if there are any pending invites. It is the exact same procedure for those wanting to see everyone with share privileges when sharing a Calendar from New Outlook or from Classic Outlook.
FAQs about share an outlook calendar
FAQ 1: How do I share my Outlook calendar with another person?
There are a couple different ways to share your Outlook calendar depending on what permission levels you would like users to have. You have the option of “Can View When I’m Busy” which obfuscates calendar information while still showing those who you share your calendar with when events are scheduled or “Can View All Details” for calendars opened as an HTML or ICS calendar link, giving everyone a read-only version they are not allowed to edit or change. In addition, you may directly invite others within your organization by adding their email to your calendar, whether you prefer using the New Outlook app or Classic Outlook, whereas Outlook Web users, both those who have Classic Outlook and a New Outlook, may also invite anyone from either within their organization or even a different one, depending on what account permission levels are available.
FAQ 2: How do I share a calendar with someone?
To share a calendar with someone, first determine how much detail they need to see. To simply let them know when you are available, consider using the option, “Can View When I’m Busy”. To give more access, utilize a view function, found within Calendar Delegation, like “Can View All Details”, which grants a read-only access level when opened as either an ICS link or an HTML link, depending on your specific needs. Additionally, you may add them directly through your Outlook calendar (if both of you use Outlook and are in the same organization) or if your organization uses Outlook Web, you’re allowed to add users from anywhere regardless if they use Microsoft’s Outlook web service or something completely different, like those who have Gmail or a Yahoo email.
FAQ 3: How do I share my Outlook calendar availability?
It’s easy to share Outlook calendar availability through several Calendar viewing permissions that you are able to fully customize and control. Users with a “Classic Outlook” email address and those using “New Outlook”, are given the option of sending a direct share request to anyone from their address book where there are a plethora of settings found within the Calendar Delegation option to customize and control exactly how much of the calendar is viewable by any added users, with “Can edit” being an option that allows them to change your schedule directly, assuming your administrator or internet service provider has given your organization permissions to use those view permission options. One method is through “Can View All Details”, a basic permission that grants read-only access when someone uses a link, whether an HTML or ICS calendar link, or those attempting to access it through a static copy emailed directly from Outlook Calendar, just be sure to customize it to meet your specific needs. Other Calendar view permission settings, such as “Can View When I’m Busy”, provide additional benefits like preventing a shared user from viewing details such as a scheduled event’s title or its location.
FAQ 4: How do I share my Outlook calendar with my iPhone?
When attempting to use your “iPhone” to view your “Outlook Calendar”, you might experience issues with Calendar Sharing, such as trying to send a static copy, whether you chose a single day with “Today” or customized a date range using either a “Classic Outlook” or a “New Outlook” app because those calendars may be read-only, while users in organizations that block certain functions found in Calendar delegation may find some view permission options are limited, such as “Can edit”. There’s one workaround available for these types of calendars, a published Outlook Calendar sent as a static copy through the Email Calendar dialog box found in a classic Outlook account. When opened on an iPhone using the Mail application, the user can directly click the included ICS file and from there choose which calendar app it should open in. This way, an Outlook Calendar created and emailed from a “desktop” Outlook program such as Classic Outlook (because of compatibility issues), will directly open in the user’s iPhone and the entire process takes just a few clicks. To keep everyone on the same page, make sure they are aware that their calendars may need to be updated. Although invitations to share directly cannot be sent from either a “new Outlook” or “classic Outlook”, those sent as a “Microsoft 365 Insiders” account invitation from Outlook Web are accepted.
Conclusion
Whether you’re collaborating on projects, setting up appointments, or keeping family members in sync, learning how to share an Outlook calendar opens up a world of possibilities. Sharing your Outlook calendar allows for more effective communication and organization. You can eliminate the guesswork involved in scheduling and get everyone on board with a centralized schedule accessible from nearly anywhere using any application. This frees up valuable time to work with clients, scout locations, or perhaps just take some time to relax. Remember, in the fast-paced world of law firms and beyond, sometimes all it takes to stay ahead is the ability to share an Outlook calendar.