How To Use A Microsoft Teams Calendar

Microsoft Teams features a variety of tools to increase productivity and improve communication between employees with text chat, voice and video calls, file sharing functionality, online shift records, and its shared calendars.

Microsoft Teams’ shared calendar functionality allows group members to create meetings directly within the Teams app, specify details, and add other members so that they’re not only notified of the event but have it added to their synced Microsoft Teams calendar as well.

How Microsoft Teams Calendars Work

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool designed for organizations or groups and is thus structured with a group, or team, focus in mind. You may be able to log into a Microsoft Teams group with your regular email, but more often than not, you are assigned a company email that you use to access Teams and other related Microsoft 365 apps and services.

This article applies to the Microsoft Teams apps on Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices in addition to the web version.

The Microsoft Teams app has one main calendar that’s assigned to your entire group or organization. Group members can add meetings or events to this calendar that automatically show up in the calendar for other members. Individuals can also be added to calendar events or meetings if they’re required to attend.

Calendars can also be shared within Microsoft Teams from Outlook or other scheduling services such as Google Calendar.

Technically, the built-in (or default) calendar is called the Group calendar while external calendars that are shared within Microsoft Teams are Shared calendars. These terms are frequently mixed up, however, and the distinction between them has blurred.

It is a good idea to refer to calendars in Microsoft Teams by unique names rather than using the Shared or Group terms to avoid confusion.

How to Create a Microsoft Teams Shared Calendar Event

Here’s the process for creating an event, referred to as a meeting in Microsoft Teams, that can be shared with other group members and automatically added to the group calendar.

• Open the Microsoft Teams app.
• Select Calendar.
• Click New meeting.
• Choose the appropriate time zone from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.
• You don’t need to worry about what time zone your team members are in as the time of your meeting will automatically adjust for them.
• Type a name for your meeting in the Add title field.
• In the Add required attendees field, type in the names of the people that you want to be notified of the event. Once you start typing, names should automatically appear for you to select.
• If you want to share this calendar event with people who are not within your Microsoft Teams group, or perhaps don’t even use Microsoft Teams, you can do so by entering their full email address instead of their name.
• Click Optional to add group members that you want to know about the meeting but don’t have to attend.
• Once the meeting has been created, all invited parties will be sent an invitation to their associated email address.
• Next, specify the start and end time for your meeting.
• Click Does not repeat to open a menu and make the meeting a regular event if it needs to be recurring. For example, you may want to have this same meeting every weekday, weekly, or once a month.
• Click Add channel if your meeting is specific to a certain category within your company’s Microsoft Teams setup. For example, you may want to place it within a Managers channel so that only those team members who use that channel know that a meeting is happening.
• You can leave many of these fields blank if you wish.
• Next is the Add location field. Despite its name, this isn’t actually for specifying a physical location. Instead, this is for selecting a connected Microsoft Teams-enabled Room system or conference phone device.
• If your company doesn’t use such devices, you don’t need to worry about completing this field.
• In the large field at the bottom of the screen, type details for the meeting field, enter a description of your meeting, a meeting agenda, or a message to the attendees.
• Finally, click Send. This will add the event to your Microsoft Teams calendar and will invite those who you have added. Once they RSVP, the event will be automatically added to their calendars as well.
• If you haven’t added anyone to the event, you will be shown the Save button instead. This will simply save the event to your personal Microsoft Teams calendar.

What Does the Microsoft Teams Scheduling Assistant Do?

The Scheduling Assistant option that’s shown when creating a meeting in Microsoft Teams on a computer is an alternate way to create or edit an event. It uses a more visual user interface that displays the options down the left side of the screen and lets you select a time period with your mouse which automatically makes the changes to schedule.

This example uses the Windows 10 Microsoft Teams app, but these instructions and the menus used are identical across all the other versions.

Open the Microsoft Teams app.

Select Calendar.

Click New meeting.

Choose the appropriate time zone from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.

You don’t need to worry about what time zone your team members are in as the time of your meeting will automatically adjust for them.

Type a name for your meeting in the Add title field.

In the Add required attendees field, type in the names of the people that you want to be notified of the event. Once you start typing, names should automatically appear for you to select.

If you want to share this calendar event with people who are not within your Microsoft Teams group, or perhaps don’t even use Microsoft Teams, you can do so by entering their full email address instead of their name.

Once the meeting has been created, all invited parties will be sent an invitation to their associated email address.

Click Optional to add group members that you want to know about the meeting but don’t have to attend.

Next, specify the start and end time for your meeting.

Click Does not repeat to open a menu and make the meeting a regular event if it needs to be recurring. For example, you may want to have this same meeting every weekday, weekly, or once a month.

Click Add channel if your meeting is specific to a certain category within your company’s Microsoft Teams setup. For example, you may want to place it within a Managers channel so that only those team members who use that channel know that a meeting is happening.

You can leave many of these fields blank if you wish.

Next is the Add location field. Despite its name, this isn’t actually for specifying a physical location. Instead, this is for selecting a connected Microsoft Teams-enabled Room system or conference phone device.

If your company doesn’t use such devices, you don’t need to worry about completing this field.

In the large field at the bottom of the screen, type details for the meeting field, enter a description of your meeting, a meeting agenda, or a message to the attendees.

Finally, click Send. This will add the event to your Microsoft Teams calendar and will invite those who you have added. Once they RSVP, the event will be automatically added to their calendars as well.

If you haven’t added anyone to the event, you will be shown the Save button instead. This will simply save the event to your personal Microsoft Teams calendar.

The real benefit of the Scheduling Assistant is how it displays all the schedules of group members. This makes it easy to see what times and days everyone is available and removes the hassle of having to ask group members what time best suits them.

Microsoft Teams’ Scheduling Assistant is a completely optional tool, al though some may prefer it over the default meeting creation option.

Schedules will only appear within the Scheduling Assistant if they’ve been entered into Microsoft Teams by the admin or other users. If your organization doesn’t use Microsoft Teams to manage schedules, this feature won’t be useful.

How to Accept a Microsoft Teams Calendar Invite

Once you’ve been added to a meeting in a Microsoft Teams calendar, you should almost immediately receive an invitation via email.

When you receive this email, click the Join Microsoft Teams Meeting link to accept the invitation. The Microsoft Teams app opens and adds you to the event. If you don’t have Microsoft Teams installed, you are prompted to install it.

Some email services may prompt you to add these Microsoft Teams events to their own calendar system. You can do this if you like but you will still need to click on the text link in the email to accept the invitation.

If you haven’t received an invitation, check with the event creator to make sure that they used the correct email address. You may also want to check your spam or junk mail folder.

How to Use Outlook Teams Event Creation and Sharing

Microsoft Teams requires a Microsoft account to use. Usually, your company or organisation will provide you with a new Microsoft account which can be used to access Microsoft Teams and a variety of other Microsoft Office services.

The email associated with this Microsoft account can be used to log in to Outlook and, because this account is also used to access Teams, calendar meetings can be created in Outlook and automatically synced to Microsoft Teams.

This can be done both with the Outlook apps and via the web experience and the entire process is nearly identical to how you would make a meeting within Microsoft Teams as shown above.

For this to work, you need to be using the same Microsoft account for Outlook and Microsoft Teams. For example, you can’t use your personal Outlook email account to create an event for a work Microsoft Teams calendar.

To access the calendar within Outlook, simply click the Calendar icon at the bottom of the left menu. Once the calendar is open, click on a day to begin the event creation process.

How to Share Another Calendar in Microsoft Teams

While Microsoft Teams features its own built-in calendar feature, it’s also possible to import additional calendars from Outlook, Google, or any other scheduling service that provides a shareable web address for its calendars.

If you want an event made in Outlook to register within Teams, you need to activate the switch next to Teams meeting, which can be found alongside the Search for a room or location text. If you don’t, the Microsoft Teams shared calendar functionality won’t activate and the event will simply be a basic event in your Outlook calendar schedule.

This can be useful if your team is using another app or service for managing events outside of the Microsoft Office ecosystem.

This example uses Google Calendar, but the process is identical for other such services.

• Open Google Calendar in a web browser as usual.
• Hover your mouse cursor over a calendar name so that the three dots appear to the right of its name. Click the three dots to open the menu.
• Click Settings.
• Click on the web address under Public URL to this calendar and press Ctrl + V to copy it to your clipboard.
• Open Microsoft Teams and go to a group or chat that you want to add the calendar to.
• Click the + symbol at the top of the screen.
• Click Website.
• Paste your calendar’s address into the URL field.
• You can also add a custom name for it by typing in the Tab name field and choose if you want to alert the group of the calendar’s addition by checking the box next to Post to the channel about this tab.
• Click Save.
• Your calendar will now be shared within Microsoft Teams and be viewable by everyone within this new custom tab.

How to Edit a Microsoft Teams Meeting

To edit a Microsoft Teams meeting that you’ve created or have access to, all you need to do is click on it from your calendar within the Microsoft Teams app and make the changes to the appropriate fields.

Open Google Calendar in a web browser as usual.

Hover your mouse cursor over a calendar name so that the three dots appear to the right of its name. Click the three dots to open the menu.

Click Settings.

Click on the web address under Public URL to this calendar and press Ctrl + V to copy it to your clipboard.

Open Microsoft Teams and go to a group or chat that you want to add the calendar to.

Click the + symbol at the top of the screen.

Click Website.

Paste your calendar’s address into the URL field.

You can also add a custom name for it by typing in the Tab name field and choose if you want to alert the group of the calendar’s addition by checking the box next to Post to the channel about this tab.

Click Save.

Your calendar will now be shared within Microsoft Teams and be viewable by everyone within this new custom tab.

You can add or remove attendees, change the time or location, and also edit the event name and description. Just make sure to click Send Update when you’re done to save the changes.

You can also edit Teams events in Outlook by opening the event on the calendar and then clicking Edit.

If the changes aren’t showing for you or your team members, try closing the app completely and then re-opening it.

• Where are Teams calendars stored?
• Teams calendars are stored in Microsoft’s cloud service called Exchange Online. Your personal calendar is stored in your mailbox, and group calendars are stored in the group mailbox.
• How do print a Microsoft Teams calendar?
• You can’t print calendars in Microsoft Teams. However, events in the Teams sync with your default Outlook calendar, so you can print the calendar in Outlook.
• How do I change my Microsoft Teams calendar time zone?
• To change your time zone in Teams, go to Settings > Time & Language > Region. Close and reopen Teams for the changes to take effect.

Teams calendars are stored in Microsoft’s cloud service called Exchange Online. Your personal calendar is stored in your mailbox, and group calendars are stored in the group mailbox.

You can’t print calendars in Microsoft Teams. However, events in the Teams sync with your default Outlook calendar, so you can print the calendar in Outlook.

To change your time zone in Teams, go to Settings > Time & Language > Region. Close and reopen Teams for the changes to take effect.

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