Adding Dates to Outlook Calendars

[DeepC]

I have been asked to find a way to insert dates of council meetings/committees into staff outlook calendars. My boss believes there is a way of doing it where you email a PST file (with the dates in it) to the staff and they import that.

Can anyone explain how to do this?

Thanks

DeepC

[airmail]

DeepC

You actually need to amend the .hol file in Outlook, PST files are for archiving. I had a quick look at Microsoft help about it and, even though I'm realtively IT literate, wouldn't want to mess about with it!

[Spitoon]

You should be able to do it with a .PST.

Create a new calendar. In Calendar view the option is File|New|Calendar.

Put in your dates and anything else that you want that can be associated with an appointment in your newly created calendar.

Export your new calendar to a PST file (put the exported file somewhere easy to find like your Desktop). Use File|Import and Export to start the wizard (why did MS ever call them wizards!?) and select 'Export to file' in the fist option box, select 'Personal Folder File (.pst)' for the next option. After that you need to highlight the calendar that has your council meeting dates in it - if you're using the default settings it will be a 'sub-folder' of Calendar in your Current Outlook Folder. The next option is where to save the file and I would suggest you select 'Allow duplicate items to be created' just in case your target has already entered an appointment of the same name. Fairly obviously, don't password protect the file.

Send the resulting file to your colleagues who will have to go through the reverse process of:

File|Import and Export, this time selecting the option to 'Import from another program or file'. Select 'Personal Folder File (.pst)' in the next option box followed by, in the next option box, the location of the file that you sent them. There then follow a number of further options such as where to import the data - your targets will have to highlight their chosen calendar in Outlook and can select either to use a separate calendar for council meetings or to merge it with their own Outlook Calendar.

If you have no further use for your recently created calendar you can now delete it (right-click on the Outlook folder view should offer the option).

Trying to explain it is far harder than doing it! Honest.

[Saab Dastard]

If the meetings are at the same time, on a regular basis - e.g. first Monday each month, or every week / fortnight etc. - you can do something similar by sending out meeting invitations for a recurring event.

SD

[DeepC]

Spitoon, and others...

Thanks. The PST route that you have described in detail will be used.

Regards,

DeepC