We would like to talk about a group calendar that enables you to see multiple calendars at the same time. For example, a group calendar is helpful when you schedule a team meeting because you can see the availability of team members and conference rooms.

Another great feature is to overlay your another SharePoint calendar onto it to create a combined calendar view. For example, when you overlay a calendar to a SharePoint group calendar, you can see your own schedule and the group schedule at the same time. This can be helpful for choosing a time for a team event or planning a time to present training.

Note: You can overlay another SharePoint calendar as long as both SharePoint calendars are in the same site collection.

Overview: Group Calendar

Microsoft Office 365 provides fantastic collaboration options.

• Collaborate with your colleagues and management
• Work smarter not harder

Advantages

• No risk of double booking or underused resources
• Benefit from SharePoint features, without having to know a lot about SharePoint
• Great features for keeping your team organized

When to use:

• CEO of a company would like to share his/her calendar to all business heads so that it will help them to schedule their meeting accordingly.
• HR can create a holiday rooster and share with all the employees. It would help project managers to plan their project plan accordingly.
• This functionality can be extended to share information about Events, Seminars, Tradeshow, etc.

Overview: Overlay Calendar

Colour coded calendars for team members to

• Organizing, scheduling, and sharing information (Jobs, Projects, bookable resources, etc.)
• Role-specific access permission

Advantages

• Simple, Flexible, Time-saving
• No risk of double booking or underused resources
• Benefit from SharePoint features, without having to know a lot about SharePoint

When to use:

• Reservation: Use it to book everything from rooms and equipment.
• Team / Staff Calendar: It’s easy to know where everyone is and who’s working on what. All updates are accessible to the whole team in real-time.
• Event Calendars: Event calendars show all events on one page. Color code event categories, filter, and share with anyone anytime. Great for schools, non-profits, sports clubs, and corporations.

This functionality can be extended to share information about Events, Seminars, Tradeshow, Sports events, etc.

Configure a calendar as a group calendar

NOTE:  To change calendar settings, you must have at least the design permission level for the site.

1. In a calendar, in the ribbon, click the Calendar tab, and then click List Settings.
2. Under General Settings, click Title, description, and navigation.
3. In the Group Calendar Options section, set Use this calendar to share member’s schedules to Yes. This enables you to create events in the calendar with attendees.
4. If you want to use this calendar to scheduled resources, such as conference rooms, as well as people, set Use this calendar for resource reservation to Yes. This enables you to create events in the calendar that include resources, such as conference rooms.
5. Click Save.

NOTE:  If the Use this calendar for resource reservation option is not available, the Group Work Lists feature is not enabled for the site.

View multiple users’ calendars in a group calendar

NOTE:  The view created using the following procedure is temporary. Each time you refresh the browser, only the initial calendar will display.

1. Go to the group calendar and click the Calendar tab in the ribbon.
2. In the ribbon, in the Scope group, click Day Group or Week Group.
3. In Add Person, type the name of the person or group whose calendar you want to view and then click the check names icon. You can also click the browse icon, and search for the person or group.

Following is an example of a group calendar created using the previous procedure.

Overlay a SharePoint calendar with a calendar from SharePoint

The following procedure describes how to overlay a calendar onto a SharePoint calendars for a SharePoint calendar. After you overlay the calendar, you can use this calendar to create a special calendar view.

To overlay a SharePoint calendar, follow these steps:

1. In a SharePoint calendar, in the ribbon, on the Calendar tab, click Calendar Overlays.

2. In the Calendar Overlay Settings page, click New Calendar.

3. In the Name and Type section, type the Calendar Name and select SharePoint.

4. In the Calendar Overlay Settings section, type a Description for the calendar (optional), and change the default Color theme for the calendar (optional).

5. Click Find to automatically fill in web addresses and click Resolve.

6. If you want this calendar to always appear with the SharePoint group calendar, click Always Show. When Always Show is not checked, you will be able to turn overlays on and off from the page. If it is checked, the overlay calendar will always appear on the page’s calendar.

7. Click OK and then click OK again.

NOTE: Repeat steps 2-7 to add another calendar(s).

The final output would look like as shown below.