Creating Multiple Calendar Events in Outlook
Thursday, 13. August 2009, 16:31:47
Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/287387.html
Each year, I'm faced with the boring task of creating calendar events in Outlook for each of Alabama's home football games. It's not too time consuming since there are only around 7 or 8 games. But starting two seasons ago, I also began doing it with home baseball games. That gets quite redundant. Fast.
This season I wanted to also include the home soccer games. Too much! Eventually I noticed that rolltide.com offers downloadable .csv files that you can import into Outlook. Woo! After looking at it, I realized it's easy to manipulate the file to import the schedule exactly as I want.
This is how the .csv file was originally structured:
And so on and so forth. After importing this the first time, I then had to go back and change two things. First, I have a category called "Sporting Events" that I use for sports because it's red and easy to see in the calendar. Second, Outlook automatically set me as "busy" for all of these events. So I had to go back and categorize all the events and set myself to show as "free" during them.
As soon as I was done doing all of this, I realized it was a damn snap to just edit the .csv file and re-import the schedule. All I had to do was add a couple of columns, like so (I removed the DESCRIPTION column):
It's not important what you name the columns. When you import the .csv file in Outlook, you have to map the fields. Drag START_DATE over to Start Date and drop. Wash, rinse, repeat for the others.
Voila. I now have the Alabama home soccer schedule imported. This whole process might sound sort of convoluted, but this was much, much faster than creating each calendar event one by one. And I will be a very happy person when it comes time to import the baseball schedule.
Each year, I'm faced with the boring task of creating calendar events in Outlook for each of Alabama's home football games. It's not too time consuming since there are only around 7 or 8 games. But starting two seasons ago, I also began doing it with home baseball games. That gets quite redundant. Fast.
This season I wanted to also include the home soccer games. Too much! Eventually I noticed that rolltide.com offers downloadable .csv files that you can import into Outlook. Woo! After looking at it, I realized it's easy to manipulate the file to import the schedule exactly as I want.
This is how the .csv file was originally structured:
| START_DATE | SUBJECT | LOCATION | START_TIME | END_TIME | DESCRIPTION |
| 8/13/2009 | Alabama Soccer vs. Mercer | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 5:00 PM | 7:00 PM | For more info visit rolltide.com |
| 8/15/2009 | Alabama Soccer vs. Clemson | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 1:00 PM | 3:00 PM | For more info visit rolltide.com |
And so on and so forth. After importing this the first time, I then had to go back and change two things. First, I have a category called "Sporting Events" that I use for sports because it's red and easy to see in the calendar. Second, Outlook automatically set me as "busy" for all of these events. So I had to go back and categorize all the events and set myself to show as "free" during them.
As soon as I was done doing all of this, I realized it was a damn snap to just edit the .csv file and re-import the schedule. All I had to do was add a couple of columns, like so (I removed the DESCRIPTION column):
| START_DATE | SUBJECT | LOCATION | START_TIME | END_TIME | CATEGORIES | SHOW_AS |
| 8/13/2009 | Alabama Soccer vs. Mercer | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 5:00 PM | 7:00 PM | Sporting Event | Free |
| 8/15/2009 | Alabama Soccer vs. Clemson | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 1:00 PM | 3:00 PM | Sporting Event | Free |
It's not important what you name the columns. When you import the .csv file in Outlook, you have to map the fields. Drag START_DATE over to Start Date and drop. Wash, rinse, repeat for the others.
Voila. I now have the Alabama home soccer schedule imported. This whole process might sound sort of convoluted, but this was much, much faster than creating each calendar event one by one. And I will be a very happy person when it comes time to import the baseball schedule.
WIDGETIZE
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