Realizing the full potential of SharePoint Calendars

In a nutshell, SharePoint Calendar collects all information that is based on time and date, aggregates it in one place and allows multiple people to access it. What results is a kind of ‘master schedule’ that keeps everyone in the loop, exposes schedules and deadlines that may conflict, alerts delays in stages of completion and streamlines things for a smooth workflow.

All team events, including training sessions, conferences, meetings and workshops can be managed through the SharePoint calendar. Time-bound events like a product release date and all the activities leading up to it can be tracked against specific milestones.

Being a Microsoft creation, SharePoint calendar can easily linkup with Microsoft Office environment. Thanks to the built-in compatibility, the SharePoint calendar and Outlook email service can export data to each other. You can simply ‘drag and drop’ your appointments in Outlook on to your calendar in SharePoint; when the Send/Receive in run on Outlook, the SharePoint calendar get auto-synchronized. Moreover, the SharePoint calendar and Outlook calendar can be viewed side-by-side and even overlaid on top of each other – you get to see them color-coded for a spot-on understanding.

Not only can items be added to SharePoint by sending emails, but even attachments can be added to the items by email. Approvals can be made necessary for calendar items submitted, and certain set of people can also be allowed to view such items before they are approved and seen by all. A SharePoint work schedule can move into Outlook, with everyone in the loop being kept on top of things.

Over and above the regular by day, by week or by month views, customized views can also be created to view and manage the schedules. Both forward and backward navigation of the SharePoint calendar is possible with the additional option of a grid-format browsing.

In the true spirit of all things SharePoint, the SharePoint calendar is ideal for team-based collaboration, with its superb ability to precisely manage plan details and execution timings.