Does your boss have you add outside dates to his or her calendar? Say for example they have a subscription to the Metropolitan Opera or season's tickets to all Chicago Bears games. It's kind of a pain to manually enter all those dates, isn't it?

Well if you have Outlook 2007 or later (and some other calendar programs too), you may be able to take advantage of functionality that allows you to sync up with those calendars by using internet calendars, if they are available (and a LOT of them are!).

Internet calendars come in two flavors. One version is static (just like printing out the page - if the game gets cancelled, the calendar won't reflect it). The other version is dynamic - game time gets changed from 3:00 to 4:00; the calendar automatically updates to reflect it.

Guess what else? You can actually publish your own calendar so that other people can subscribe to it! How about publishing your family calendar with birthdays and anniversaries to your family around the country?

Here's a page that gives an overview of this nifty new feature in Outlook 2007:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101673251033.aspx

Here's a page that gives you step by step instructions for how to do it:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2058421_add-internet-calendar-outlook-2007.html

OK, you're sold and dying to try it out for yourself?

Start here!

http://icalshare.com/index.php - This website has over 1500 shared calendars - everything from theater performances to professional sports to concert venues. Check it out! Plus, it doesn't just work with Outlook 2007. It actually works with a number of other programs as long as they support the iCal format.