Sharing Your Calendar with External Users

Publishing your Outlook Calendar for External Use

Occasionally, you may get a request for an external user to see the free/busy information on your calendar.  This is a semi-secure way that allows appointment updates to be automatically distributed.

1. From your Outlook Calendar, select Publish Online

Outlook ribbon with publish calendar circled

This will open a browser window to Office365 Outlook and open the Calendar Sharing Settings  It may require you to login with your SVC username and password.

Shared calendars settings image

2.  Select your calendar under Publish a Calendar (you will likely only have one)

Image showing select a calendar dropdown options

3. Select the permissions you want people viewing this calendar to have.  You can only have ONE permission set per calendar, and ANYONE with the link will have those permissions, so choose carefully from the following options:

  • Can view when I'm busy - Anyone with this link can see your calendar as colored blocks representing when you have meetings scheduled or are out of the office.  
  • Can view titles and locations - In addition to the above, anyone with the link can see the title of the meeting as set in the appointment, and the location.  If the location is a Zoom link, the external user may be able to see and click on the link.
  • Can view all details - Anyone with this link can see all fo the information above as well as any invitees, the text of the meeting message, any links or attachments in the meeting appointment.

image of the select permissions dropdown menu options

4. Click Publish.  This will generate links like the ones in the image.  These links are specific to your calendar and permissions.

image of the shared calendar settings page with the publish button enabled and blue

5. Click on the ICS link to copy to your clipboard.

image of the dropdown that appears when you click on the ics link

image of resulting popup when you copy the ics link

6.  Send this link by pasting it (Ctrl+V) into an email to the external user with an explanation on what the link is for.  For example:  You asked to see my calendar.  This is a link to an online version of my calendar that will auto update daily.

7. The external user will need to follow the instructions for their system to import or subscribe to this calendar.  For gmail, for example, follow the instructions at Use a link to add a public calendar.

Important things to remember:

  • ANYONE with the link will have the access you set up.
  • Updates are NOT instantaneous.  They can take 12-24 hours to sync changes to your appointments
  • If you change the permissions, or unpublish the link, you will have to resend the new link to anyone you were sharing with.
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