Prerequisites:
The following applies to Outlook 2003 although this method will work for Outlook 2007 as well.
This method also assumes that you have Microsoft Excel installed and you have created a custom calendar in Outlook.
Problem: Suppose you’ve gone to your favorite teams website and downloaded the season schedule as a vcs file. And let’s assume you have created a custom calendar called Sports and you want to import the downloaded calendar file into your custom Sports folder. By default the items will be imported into your Outlook default calendar NOT your Sports folder.
Solution 1:
Drag & Drop from your default calendar
You could import the items into your default calendar then drag and drop them into your Sports folder. However this can get tedious when dealing with a large number of items across many different dates.
Solution 2:
Import & Export via Excel
1. Create a new Outlook profile (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Add>create your new profile and you can put in a real email address or just a fake one as only the calendar will be used)
2: Change Outlook to prompt for a profile when starting up (Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Prompt for a profile to be used)
3. Start Outlook and when prompted, select the new profile that you created
4. Import the calendar file into Outlook (File>Import and Export>Import an iCalendar or vCalendar (.vcs) file>browse to the calendar file you want to import, highlight and click OK. Open the calendar and verify that all the items were imported successfully.
5. Export the calendar file (File>Import and Export>Export to a file>Microsoft Excel>Calendar>Give the file a name and make sure it’s saved as an Excel file with the .xls file extension
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When using Microsoft Outlook without an Exchange server your data is stored in a local file on your computer. This file is called a personal folders file and the filename has the extension pst. Unfortunately pst files are subject to corruption so it’s always a good policy to have a backup, just in case. You can use the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool to create and maintain a backup copy of your Outlook data. Instructions for installation and configuration can be found here.
Do NOT make the mistake of putting the pst file on a network drive. Pst files were designed for local use only and when used across a network are prone to corruption. You can read more in the post
Network Stored PST files … don’t do it!
Before being subsumed by Microsoft and turned into the overbearing Windows Desktop search this tiny plugin provided super fast searches for your Outlook items. I still use Lookout to this day and fortunately this freeware is still available (although no longer updated) for download here: http://majorgeeks.com/Lookout_d4808.html
I have also used Lookout successfully with Outlook 2007 but before installing, you may want to view this post:
http://www.belshe.com/2007/12/06/how-to-install-lookout-on-outlook-2007/
Add a custom hyperlink to Outlook’s toolbar:
Outlook>view>toolbars>customize
Drag one of the icons to the toolbar until you see the solid black vertical bar appear and then let off to place the icon. Since we’re going to assign a custom action to the icon, it doesn’t matter what the default function of the icon is. Right click the icon and from the menu select Assign Hyperlink>Open. Browse to your desired document and click OK. Right click the icon again and change to name to whatever you desire. Optionally you can select to show only the icon, icon plus text, text only, etc. When you’re finished, close the Customize box and click on your new icon for quick access to your favorite doc.
