Monthly Archive for July, 2009

We are slowly in the process of upgrading all of our user’s Office 2003 installations to Office 2007. During this transition phase, we came across an issue where users who are on Outlook 2003 are not able to view shared calendars from Outlook 2007. When you share a calendar in Outlook 2007, an email with a link to the calendar is emailed to the user you are trying to share it with. Unfortunately, Outlook 2003 users can’t simply click the link and open up the calendar.

Microsoft’s Knowledge Base Article 912265 deals specifically with this issue. Essentially, you have to share the mailbox – yes the mailbox – with the user you are trying to share the calendar with. Only the reviewer permissions is necessary, so you need not worry about them reading your email. Next, share your calendar by adding the user in the permission tab, and assigning them the appropriate permission level. If you need a description of the permission levels, go here and expand the section under step 4.

One thing that Microsoft left out of their documentation is what to do when you want to share a calendar that isn’t your initial calendar – I refer to this as the “default” calendar even though that probably isn’t the proper term. Again, with Outlook 07 to Outlook 07, it’s very simple since an email link is sent to the user. However, the process to share those calendars with Outlook 03 is a little different.

As previously mentioned, you have to share the mailbox with the user and assign them the reviewer level. The next step is to share your “default” calendar. If you don’t want the user to see your appointments, then give them reviewer access as well. Once these two steps have been completed, then you can share your newly created calender to the user with the permission level you want them to have.

Even though the user will see your mailbox, your “default” calendar, and the shared calender in their list, they won’t be able to view anything without having the appropriate permission level.