How to Create Calendar Files
Increased use of smartphones may portend the demise of paper calendars. Whether it's via an iPhone, BlackBerry or Palm, savvy consumers enjoy the convenient portability of electronic calendars. Recent data indicate smartphone use is on the rise. The NPD Group, a market research company, says that in the fourth quarter of 2008, smartphone sales represented 23 percent of all cellphone purchases in the United States, up from 12 percent for the same period in 2007. According to a 2009 Trend Micro survey, 66 percent of smartphone owners use a calendar on their phones. If website visitors increasingly use electronic calendars, then the dates for events listed on websites should be able to be recorded electronically. Microsoft Outlook allows you to generate industry standard iCalendar files with absolutely no programming knowledge.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open Microsoft Outlook. Click on the calendar icon or go to the tool bar and choose "File>New>Appointment." A new calendar window will open.
-
2
Make certain that you are using the "Day" view rather than week or month. Navigate to the date that you need in the new window. Right click at the correct time and choose "New Appointment." A new window will open.
-
-
3
Type in the subject of your event and the location. Choose the correct start and end times. Click on "Save and Close." Notice that a new appointment is now saved in your calendar.
-
4
Click once on the appointment that is now saved in your calendar. From the menu, choose "File>Save As." A new window will open.
-
5
Look in the new window and notice where this new file will be saved. You will need to access it later. Under "Save as Type," choose "iCalendar Format (*.ics)." Click "Save." Your calendar file is now ready to be used.
-
6
Open up Notepad from "Accessories" under your program files. From the Notepad menu, choose "File>Open." Under "Files of Type," choose "All Files."
-
7
Navigate to the location where you saved your .ics calendar file and open it. The code in the Notepad window is the code you will need to insert into your website to allow your users to add the event to their own electronic calendar.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
On your website, attach the calendar code to an image of a calendar. That way users will intuitively know to click it to add the event to their own electronic calendars. Although you are using Outlook to create the iCalendar files, any electronic calendar using the iCalendar format, including Google Calendars, can process the .ics files.
If you are not comfortable editing your own HTML code, have your web developer add the calendar files to your website.
References
Resources
More Like This
Comments
-
Would be useful to show the actual code and what it looks like for Mac and Dreamweaver users. Is this just a simple link or is it more?
