When you have an OOB calendar created with SharePoint 2010, connecting the calendar to display the information on our Outlook is an easy task: one click on the “Connect to Outlook” button and follow the wizard.
However, I add the following requirements couple days ago where a SharePoint user with full control privileges wanted to display the content of her Outlook calendar to a SharePoint calendar. I assume that this task will be a matter of a one click again. However, it is a little trickier than it seems.
In fact, her team was using that Outlook calendar to update information and events. She was planning to keep updating via that same calendar in order to display on the SharePoint site. Unfortunately, the solution that I propose involve using a new calendar and copy all existing events to the newly SharePoint calendar. Moreover, the word “copy:” will appear in front of every single calendar item.
Therefore, the solution that I proposed is a work around to get the task done. This solution can be performing using the SharePoint UI and Outlook.
The task that we are going to perform in order to display all events and be able to update via Outlook is:
- Create a new calendar on SharePoint
- Connect the calendar to Outlook
- Copy all items from the Outlook calendar to the new SharePoint calendar
- Test that all updates from the Outlook calendar propagate diligently to the SharePoint calendar
Task #1
- Go to your SharePoint site and create a new calendar using “site actions” >> “More options”
- Filter by “Lists” and select “calendar”
- Name it accordingly and hit “Create”
Task #2
- Once on the newly created calendar, click on “Connect to Outlook” from the global navigation menu
- On the popup windows, click “Allow”, “Allow” and “Yes”. You should be able to see your SharePoint calendar on Outlook
- Open in parallel the calendar that you want to copy over
Task #3
- On the calendar that you are trying to copy, go “Change View” and “List”
- Once on the list view, make sure that you are targeting the right calendar
- Select them all (Ctrl + A) and copy them all (Ctrl + C)
- Go to the SharePoint calendar on the list view
- Past them all (Ctrl + V)
- Confirm any popup window and let Outlook copy all items over
Task #4
- Once all items are copied, go back to your SharePoint site calendar view
- All future addition can be done via the Outlook interface or the SharePoint interface
