(4 votes, average: 3.25 out of 6)
Loading ...I received the following question today:
I have created multiple, different calendars in Outlook 2007. Rather than viewing the calendars in the side-by-side mode, I want to merge two or more into a single Outlook calendar. How do I do this?
Additionally How do I merge calendars into one, AND also maintain a copy of the individual calendars.
MS Office / Outlook Help does not seem to provide guidance on how to accomplish either of these tasks.
Nice challenge! I read this and did my best impression of a dog hearing a whistle and cocking its head to the side inquisitively – then it dawned on me. . .
This is a lot easier than you might expect! We aren’t actually going to merge the calendars in Outlook, but I think this will accomplish the effect you are looking for.
In Outlook go the the Calendar view. In the Navigation Pane on the left, check the boxes for all the calendars you want to see “merged”:
By default, the calendars are going to be in Side-By-Side view like this:
In this example you only see two calendars, but you could have 3, 4, 5 or more – (actually, up to 30!)
To view these as “one” there are two ways you can go.
First, the really easy way: VIEW -> VIEW IN OVERLAY MODE. Which will lay the calendars on top of each other:
Selecting the tab at the top will bring that calendar into focus but you will still see the appointments for the other calendars!
If you look closely at the tabs you will see an arrow:
This brings us to the other other really, really easy way to overlay calendars – just click the arrow to “stack” or “unstack” calendars.
If you have 3 calendars open in side-by-side mode, clicking the arrow on one of them will overlay it with your main calendar and leave the other unselected one still in side-by-side mode.
Click some arrows -kick the tires, see what she will do!
As always – comments welcomed!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Dan:
Thanks for your timely response on how "Viewing and Working with Multiple Calendars As One in Outlook".
I failed to indicate that I had already had gotten to the point of viewing a single "overlay" calendar. What I really was after was how can three calendars (for instance) be MERGED them into one, so that when I opened Outlook in the calendar function I have only one to view and work w/ rather than three side-by-side or one overlay.
Sooo, I got the directions below by asking Microsoft Online Support Services (w/o charge once MS verified that my MS Outlook was valid) the same question (caveated by the observation above that I wanted something more than an overlain single calendar):
"If you want to have a single calendar, then view one calendar, hit View -> Current View -> All appointments. Select everything listed and copy them over to the other calendar or Edit > Select All > drag and drop all appointments into your chosen calendar."
I then went to the Outlook folders list, opened Calendar, right clicked on the two calendars (xyz & pqr) from which I had copied info from (and no longer wanted listed), and selected "delete calendar xyz", did the same for the second unwanted pqr calendar, leaving me w/ a single Outlook calendarlisted in the list of Outlok folders.
All of this was being done to assure that calendar entries made on an iPhone would synch w/ a single calendar, and that the Outlook user and iPhone user (my spouse) would not have to worry about or be confused about which calendar she was "in" when. Eventhough iPhones have an "all calendar" option to select when setting up iPhone synch preferences, I frequently found that calendar items entered on the iPhone were not being placed on the main Outlook calendar.
Also before synching the iPhone the first time w/ the new single Outlook calendar,it was necessary to reset the iPhone synch history on the computer so that the iPhone would treat tha calendar data as new and synch w/ the only calendar on the computer, that being the one just created as a single calendar (i.e., do a one way computer-to-phone synch). Future synchs will then be two way.
Whew, sorry for the long comment. Feel to revised / conndense as necessary if you want to post this follow-up.
THX again,
BH
Denver
October 20th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
@BH
Thanks for the detailed follow-up. I suspect people reading this will be looking for variations of one of our solutions!
Cheers!
October 21st, 2008 at 4:41 am
I am using the multiple calender overlay view.
Can I print the overlay?
October 29th, 2008 at 6:27 am
@Kevin – Yes! I am writing another posting to address this.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:42 am
I am looking for a way to automatically synch events entered into individual deparmtent employees' calendar with a community department calendar so I don't have to view in overlay. Does anyone know how to post events into multiple calendars?
November 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I have two outlook calendars on my laptop. One is for work and the other is empty and when i sync my windows mobile it only picks up the original empty calendar. On the windows mobile device centre there isnt enough options and i have tried everyone can you help.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I am not sure why you have one empty and one work calendar . . . Is there any reason you cant transfer existing items into the empty calendar and delete the work one? If the default calendar is empty this would explain why your syncs are yielding blanks.
Outlook will only sync the default calendar, so whi not export all of the items from WORK, import them into HOME (blank) and then delete WORK?
November 25th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I do something similar using Google calendar as a go-between.
Set up a google calendar, link it (sync it) to Outlook. We'll call this the MASTER. Master google calendar syncs with MASTER Outlook.
Then for each of the other persons outlook – set up the sync from their calendars to the MASTER google.
Employee A updates their calendar -> It updates MASTER google -> which updates MASTER outlook
Employee B updates their calendar -> It updates MASTER google -> which updates MASTER outlook
Employee C updates their calendar -> It updates MASTER google -> which updates MASTER outlook
you will have to tweak it to suit your needs. Not beautiful but it works! Keep in mind you can set the sync to be 2-way or 1-way, think about the logic in this when you set it up.
MASTER may only want to sync 1 way from google to Outlook. You are just "reading" the other calendars.
That said . .. you may just want to have the employee calendars update individual google calendars and share those calendars with a master one you can read online – bypassing a MASTER Outlook calendar.
November 27th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Thanks for your reply but its not possible to delete my works admin calendar as it syncs with work automaticaly along with 5 other colleagues and would cause too many problems. So is it possible to sync my works calendar with the original calendar empty calendar?.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Are you using exchange server at work?
It is very odd that the default calendar would be empty and your IT department added an additional calendar to sync to the exchange server – odd, but not impossible.
So am I assuming – you receive a meeting request via email and you see the item tentatively added to your calendar, you accept and it is added to you calendar, you can select associates calendars and see them in overlay mode . . .
Or is this a completely different setup?
The more details the better, and are you comfortable exporting and importing from the PST or OST file? Dealing with the server settings in Outlook?
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Read post on calendar view in overlay mode. How can I combime these two and save as one?
January 26th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Do a FILE –> Export on one calendar, then a FILE –> Import.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Do a FILE –> Export on one calendar, then a FILE –> Import from the other one!
January 26th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Do a FILE –> Export on one calendar, then a FILE –> Import from the other one!
February 13th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I need to print three (multiple) calendars on one page. I do not want to print the separately. How can I print multiple users calendars as one in Outlook 2003 or 2007 or web access 2007?
February 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I have my primary Exchange calendar in Outlook 2007; I now also have a secondary calendar that I subscribe to through iTrip, which manages all of my travel itineraries.
Ideally I would like to merge the two or somehow have data that posts to the internet calendar automatically sync to my primary calendar so my availability is updated.
Overlay mode is nice to provide a combined view, but won't make the necessary changes to my availability. Ideas
March 11th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Easy. Change to Lotus Notes, where this function has been available at least 10 years. You can even select which types of items go in the common calendar and which don't
I think you can do it by just changing the mailclient to Notes, and keeping your exchange server.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:13 am
My company has a Public Calendar and individual calendars. This is somewhat problematic for one of the Admin Assistants since she has to drag these appointments to multiple calendars. Is there a way to use the "Copy to My Calendar" feature to copy to multipule calendars? (For example, if person A creates the appointment can the click the "Copy to My Calendar" feature and instead of copying to their calendar it copies to person B,C, and D's shared calendars?
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I have recently bought a software program that allows me to have a 'yearview' calendar. Now I want to copy all my existing appointments and events onto that new calendar. I know how to overlay two calendars, but I would like to actually copy them over permanently. Is there a way of doing this?
April 13th, 2009 at 11:57 am
awesome solution to having more than one calendar
but i have to know…..how did this happen to me? I have one life…why do I have 2 calendars? one is Outlook Calendar and the other one is Calendar???
August 26th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Can the two calendars be merged permanently into one calendar if desired?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:09 am
I am using google calendars in Outlook and want to sync all calendars from Outlook onto my iphone. itunes only gives the option to sync the Outlook default calendar. Does anyone have step-by-step instructions on how to get all my calendars on my phone?
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 am
I would also like to know how to do this. I need to sync specific calendars to my phone and not just the Outlook Default calendar. If you find out how to do this without copying and pasting the information, please let me know. Thanks.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:39 am
Is it possibly to have the Overlay View of the multiple calendars show up in the To-Do Bar?
December 13th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Great !!~ Been creaking my head for the solution & finally found this article.
Really appreciate your kind sharing
December 15th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Brilliant. My computer crashed and after setting it up my iphone calender was only new stuff, then I discovered I had 2 calenders and hav been trying to merge for weeks. Thanks
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:50 am
Thank You! Such a simple solution. Why can't the people that write Help screens give such clear and concise answers? Thank you again. Got a new question and will search for answer. How do I delete duplicate appointments?
January 24th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Wow, it worked. My wife thanks you.
January 31st, 2010 at 10:36 am
Hello – I have a similar problem to the main one here but with a different spin on it – similar to at least on of the other commenters.
I work away from my university lots and so do not have a computer that links principally to our Outlook Exchange server.
Instead I connect remotely using Outlook through the Outlook Away set up. This means that I have my exchange mailbox with all my work appointments, and then a Personal FOlders Calendar on my home computer or laptop that is empty.
When I try to sync my phone to my calendar it only seems to connect with the personal folders Calendar and not my Exchange one.
Therefore, I need to keep the personal folders calendar synced with the Exchange one (
and not just do a once and for all copy of dates (this is because my colleagues need to view my Exchange calendar appointments from the University.
Any suggestions?
February 21st, 2010 at 11:38 am
how do i sync multiple outlook calendars onto my windows mobile phone? i have 3 calendars on my computer, but only the first established calendar will sync.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:40 am
BRILL BRILL BRILL !! This was nearly disastorus as I lost all calendar and contacts on iphone which previously had synched with X caledar as I now have 2 calendars X calendar which I use and Y which I dont BUT itunes was synching now with Y with nothing in it!!
TOP TIP – I did similar for CONTACTS although selecting all didnt work – I dad to go into outlook data files view and then copy and paste rows – very simple and it worked!
Many thanks
You are a loife saver! Clare
March 13th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Thank you so much for this, been trying to figure it out but the Help screens have been getting me nowhere! What an easy solution … once you know how! Thanks again.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:13 am
thanks…never knew this existed.