How to share your Outlook calendar with others

Whether you’re creating a shared family calendar or need to compare schedules with a colleague, sharing your Outlook calendar saves you the time and energy of back-and-forth scheduling. Learn how to share your calendar in Outlook and find other tips for organizing your weekly schedule.

Instructions for sharing your Outlook calendar

With Microsoft Outlook, sharing your calendar only takes a few minutes and a handful of simple steps.

Select Calendar > Share Calendar.
Choose the calendar you’d like to share.
Press Add and choose a recipient.
Select Ok and add recipients with default permission access.
To change their permission access, choose a name, update the access level, and select Ok.

To open a calendar someone shared with you, start by opening Outlook on your device.

Open the email with a shared calendar and press Accept.
Select Calendar > Shared Calendars to view your calendars shared with you.
Choose the shared calendar you’d like to open.
Press View in Overlay Mode to layer the shared calendar over your own Outlook calendar.

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How to export an Outlook calendar

Sometimes you might need to share your calendar with someone who doesn’t use Outlook. Luckily, it’s easy to export your calendar by following these steps.

Select Calendar and choose a calendar to export.
Click File > Save Calendar.
Save with the default name or rename your calendar in the File name box.
If you don’t want to save the entire calendar, select More Options.
Adjust the Date Range or select Specify dates to enter your desired range.
Select Ok to save your calendar to your computer.

Email your calendar file to anyone you’d like to share your schedule with or keep it saved on your device for your own reference.

“Create multiple calendars in Outlook to keep your personal life separate while still being able to share important work events.”

Tips for using a shared Outlook calendar

Once you’ve shared an Outlook calendar, you’re ready for more collaborative organizing. Use these tips to stay on track with all your meetings, appointments, and after-work plans.

Create multiple calendars

While sharing your calendar has great benefits, you might not want your coworkers to see the nitty-gritty details of your personal schedule. Create multiple calendars in Outlook to keep your personal life separate while still being able to share important work events. Having multiple Outlook calendars also makes it easier to view and organize all your events, as you can toggle between each calendar based on what you want to view.

Sync with your phone

If you want to stay up to date with your calendar at all times, sync Outlook to your smartphone for on-the-go scheduling. Outlook easily syncs to your iPhone or Android mail apps. For even more functionality, download the Outlook app and access all your favorite features and tools from your phone.

Add an event from an email

Even if you don’t share your calendars with everyone you know, Outlook makes it easy to stay connected through email. If you’d like to create a calendar event based on an email you’ve received, simply drag and drop the email to the calendar icon in Outlook. You’ll be able to set up an appointment and adjust the time and day. Press Invite Attendees to add other recipients to the meeting.

Get one step closer to reaching inbox zero by sharing your Outlook calendar with your coworkers or family members. Customize your calendars to make your digital organization as seamless as possible.