Microsoft Outlook Group Calendars - User Guide
Group Calendars exist for additional convenience. Your individual/personal calendar must remain up-to-date and it's your MAIN calendar; main point of reference.
Group Calendars enable members to view events saved directly to the calendar. However, individual calendar events are not automatically synced with the Group Calendar—they must be added manually. For instance, a manager might ask team members to record specific events, such as field visits or time off, in the Group Calendar. This helps provide a comprehensive overview of team availability, operational coverage, and employee locations, which can be crucial for reasons like health and safety.
But first, where are the calendars? Group Calendars in Outlook are under the “Groups” dropdown in the left panel, whereas your personal calendar is under “My calendars”.
There are two methods to ensure an event appears in both your personal and group calendars. Choosing the appropriate method depends on whether you want all group members to receive an invitation.
1. Add an event to a group calendar and invite yourself
- From the group calendar, select the time at which you'll schedule the meeting.
- Enter an event title, location, and end time in the details window.
- By default, the meeting invitation are not sent to every member's inbox in the group. If you want to invite the individuals, add the group to the attendees list.
- Should you want the event to be added to your personal calendar, add yourself as an attendee.
- Select Send.
2. Add an event to your personal calendar and invite the group
- Open your calendar (not the group calendar).
- Select the time at which you'll schedule the meeting or event.
- Enter a meeting title, location, and any meeting details.
- In Invite attendees, enter the name of the group you want to invite. This will send individual invitations to everyone in the group.
- Select Send.
With this in mind, you may want to create your vacation from the Group Calendar and invite yourself. This way, your colleagues can see when you are away directly from the Group Calendar, but each of them won't receive an invitation to attend it!
Warning: When creating an event, ensure that you are selecting the appropriate Calendar from the dropdown.
