Monday, October 29, 2007

Getting data into your Oulook Calendar from EXCEL !!!

I now use this to import my weekly/monthly calendar data across into my Outlook Calendar at home to keep me up to date with my latest whereababouts, thanks to Allister for the loan of this information .....

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 3:35 PM by Allister_Frost


Another handy way to add appointments to your calendar is by importing from Excel. To do this you first need to create an Excel file containing the appointment information Outlook needs. Your first row should contain columns titles which match Outlook's appointment fields. You don't need many fields to get started, just try the following for a basic import of all day appointments:

Cell A1: Subject
Cell B1: Start Date

Now add the data you'd like to import into your Outlook calendar under each of these column headings, for example: cell A2 could be "Bob's Birthday" and cell B2 could be "11/05/2005"
Now, here's the important bit. Highlight the entire range of cells that you've used (in my example this would be A1:B2) and give this range a name under Insert, Name, Define (or just type into the Name Box just above the top of column A). Outlook needs this range name so it knows where to find the data to import. Save your Excel file and close it.

Now just pop into Outlook and choose File, Import and Export. Then select Import from another program or file, hit Next, then choose Microsoft Excel and hit Next again. Now locate the Excel file you created earlier, hit Next, select your Calendar, press Next again and check that Outlook finds the correct Range Name in your Excel file. Now press Map Custom Fields to verify how Outlook is mapping your Excel column headers to its own Calendar Appointment fields, changing if necessary, then hit OK, then Finish.

If you've done everything right, your Outlook Calendar will now contain the appointments you created in Excel.

There are 22 fields you can import into Outlook in this way. These are: Subject, Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, All day event, Reminder on/off, Reminder Date, Reminder Time, Meeting Organizer, Required Attendees, Optional Attendees, Meeting Resources, Billing Information, Categories, Description, Location, Mileage, Priority, Private, Sensitivity, Show time as.

Top tip: try importing in this way to your Task folder rather than your Calendar. This is a great way to move a list of 'to do' items from Excel or Project directly into your Outlook calendar.

8 comments:

Craig D said...

Very very helpful. I was able to import over 100 events in a matter of seconds!!!!!!

Thanks

J said...

This was such a help.. only I'm using windows vista.. and i've named my range. however once i try to import into outlook I get told that there are no input ranges named.. This is driving me crazy and I'm pretty sure that I'm doing things correctly perhaps theres a little something extra I need to do in Vista?

Anu said...

Thanks a lot... This worked and have saved a lot of time and effort.

Unknown said...

I have been trying to do this import all day and it hasn't worked. I tried your method but it still is not working. I followed your instructions to the last letter even using the same date but it still didn't work. What do you think I may be doing wrongly?
Isabella

Unknown said...

Still not working! I have been trying all day and followed your recommendation to the last letter.
Isabella

JJSurf said...

this works fine I have just tried it again with Excel 2003 to Outlook 2007. Obviously if you use Excel 2007 then save the file as a 2003 Excel spreadsheet for compatibility.
When naming ranges make sure to include the headings and check they are spelt EXACTLY as required, see the list in the original blog.

JJSurf said...

Vista shouldnt be a problem in fact both my machines are Windows Vista, its the version of MS Office that matters, IF using Excel 2007 save the spreadsheet as Excel 2003 compatible.

JJSurf said...

IZA743 drop me a line on jjsurf@btinternet.com and I will be able to guide you through it over the phone or email/msn etc

Jamie

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