Calendar View In SharePoint

Introduction

This article is the 37th part of my SharePoint series. Here are my previous articles.

1. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part One - Introduction
2. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Two - Web Application
3. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Three - Site Collections
4. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Four - Subsites
5. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Five – SharePoint Lists
6. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Six - Power Of Versioning
7. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seven - Lists Advanced Settings
8. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eight - Validation Settings in List Settings
9. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nine - Audience Targeting
10. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Ten - Rating Settings
11. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eleven - Form Settings in List Settings
12. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twelve- Save list as a template in List Setting
13. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirteen- Permission Settings in List Settings
14. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fourteen- Enterprise Metadata and Keywords
15. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fifteen - Retention Policy Under Information Management
16. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Sixteen - RSS Settings in List Setting
17. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seventeen - List Columns in SharePoint
18. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eighteen - Multiple Lines Of Text Column Type in SharePoint
19. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nineteen - Number and Choice Column Type in SharePoint
20. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty - Currency and Yes No Column types in SharePoint
21. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty One - Person or Group Column types in SharePoint
22. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Two - Date and Time Column types in SharePoint
23. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Twenty-Three – Look Up Column Type in SharePoint
24. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Four - Hyperlink or Picture Column Types in SharePoint
25. Learn SharePoint In Series -Part Twenty-Five - Calculated Column in SharePoint
26. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Six - Task Outcomes and External Data Column Type in SharePoint
27. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Seven - Introduction to Managed Metadata Column Types
28. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Eight - Introduction to Site Columns
29. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Nine - Editing and Deleting Site Columns
30. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty - Column Reordering in SharePoint
31. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-One - Indexing in SharePoint Lists and Libraries
32. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Two - Introduction to SharePoint Views
33. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Three - Creating a SharePoint List View
34. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty Four- Editing and Deleting a SharePoint List View
35. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty Five - Standard View and Datasheet View
36. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty Six - Gantt View in SharePoint

In the previous article, we have seen about Gantt View in detail. We have seen how to create Gantt Views. So in this article, I am moving one more step ahead and will be explaining the Calendar View in SharePoint.

In this article, I am going to cover the following topics.

• Background
• Introducing Calendar Views
• Creating Calendar View
• Editing and Deleting Calendar View
• Advantages of Calendar View
• Summary

Background

While working with any task or to do, dates are a very important factor to be considered. Every task or to-do has its own start date and due date. Consider a scenario where you have to display the list of holidays in an organization. Here, you have 2 options. First, display the holidays as a list of records as shown in the figure below.

 

The above representation is useful in displaying the holidays and it is correct also. But, it is not an efficient way of displaying the holidays, the reason behind this is that the representation looks more like raw data and not like information. So, another way to display the information  in an efficient way is a Calendar. The above information can be displayed as a calendar. Please find the below reference for the same.

 

So now, we can compare and conclude that the Calendar View for the holidays is much better than displaying holidays as records. SharePoint provides a Calendar View using which we can display the information into the Calendar View.

Introduction to Calendar View

Calendar View in SharePoint is created to display the data in a calendar like structure. This view is useful when dates are involved. For example, we can create Calendar View for displaying Tasks because it includes Start Date, Due Date, Completed Dates etc. We can also use Calendar View to display the issues, project management, displaying holidays and many more.

Creating Calendar View in List

In order to create a Calendar View, follow the below steps.

Step 1

In order to create a new View, you can always follow the steps given in this article. Once you click on the "Create a View" option, you will have the following screen available. Click on the "Calendar View" link.

 

Step 2

Enter the View Name, Begin, and End. Note that in Begin and End, only Date and Time columns will be allowed becuase this info is used to build the calendar.

 

Step 3

Select the scope of the calendar. Scope means Calendar itself can have multiple views within, such as Month, Day, Week. By default, it will show the Month View.

 

Step 4

Every other column description is the same as we discussed in this article. Once the information is filled, click on OK. Your Calendar View will be ready and it will look like below.

 

This is the Month View. Week View will look like the following.

 

And, the Day View will be like this.

 

In order to switch between the Calendar View, you can click on Calendar menu from the top ribbon and select your view name.

 

Editing and Deleting the Calendar View

In order to edit and delete the Calendar View, I have already written the article. You can follow the same article and refer to that.

Advantages of Calendar View

There are many advantages of Calendar view representation. A few of them are,

1. Calendar view helps us to visualize the monthly plan in graphical view.
2. If you have tasks planned or a holiday planned then it can be more beneficial to have calendar view instead of a tabular view.
3. You can switch between the views such as Month View, Week View and Day View. Due to this, you can easily plan your days.
4. This View can be used to organize the meetings and display the meeting details in the calendar.
5. More or less, you can manage your resource bookings in Calendar Views.

Summary

So, in this article, we have seen Calendar View in details. We have seen the basic difference between displaying data in Tabular View and Calendar View. We have also seen how we can create and configure the Calendar View. Apart from this, we have seen the advantages of Calendar View.

The Advantage or Calendar view is not limited to the points that are described in this article, there are many other benefits of having calendar view. That totally depends on the user’s requirement.

So if you have any query or feedback to this article, then please do mention it in the comments. My next article will be on the Contact List.