Adding Holidays to Calendars

Outlook and Entourage have a built-in feature to add holidays from different countries and religions to your Calendar.  As a service to KU, Information Technology is also making the KU Academic Calendar available.
Follow the instructions below to add holidays from 2007 through 2012 and/or KU Academic Calendar items from Spring 2007 through Summer 2012.

Outlook Web Access users:
Outlook Web Access has no function that allows you to add the holidays to the calendar. However, if you follow this procedure while accessing your account from Outlook 2003/2007 or Entourage 2004/2008, you will be able to view these items afterwards on your calendar using Outlook Web Access. In any of our computer labs, you can access your account in Outlook 2007 by creating an Outlook profile.

Windows users:
Outlook 2003/2007

Mac users:
Entourage
If you need assistance with these instructions, please call the IT Customer Service Center at 864-8080.

Outlook 2003 & Outlook 2007

Start by replacing the old file where the holiday information is stored with one with updated holiday information. Follow the instructions below to do this.

1. Right-click on this OUTLOOK.HOL link and choose Save Link As or Save Target As from the resulting menu to download the new file. Save it to the Desktop of the computer.
2. Next, find the 1033 folder, which is the current location of the old OUTLOOK.HOL file. Refer to the instructions for your computer's operating system (Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7) below:
   
   Windows XP:
   1. From your Windows Desktop, click on the Start button, and highlight Search, then select For Files and Folders in the resulting menu.
   2. Choose "All files and folders" from the Search Companion window
   3. In the search window that comes up, type 1033 in the All or part of the file name box on the left side of the window and click OK.
   4. When the search completes, left click on the "Name" column header sort the contents and group the folders together
   5. In the search results, double-click on the 1033 folder to open the folder. If you have more than one 1033 folder, look in the In Folder column for the one in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12, for Office 2007 (or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11, for Office 2003) and open that folder.
   6. Leave the 1033 folder open and proceed to step 3.
   
   Windows Vista:
   1. From your Windows Desktop, right-click on the Windows button in the bottom left corner of the Windows desktop to bring up the menu. Choose Explore to enter Windows Explorer.
   2. Find Computer in the Folders list on the left side of the Explorer screen. Click on the little triangle to the left to open the folder.
   3. Click on the little triangle to the left of Local Disk(C:) to see the folders on the hard disk.
   4. Click on the triangle next to Program Files to open. Find Microsoft Office in the resulting list of folders.
   5. Click on the triangle next to Officexx (xx= your version of Microsoft Office. Office 2007 is Office12, Office 2003 is Office11).
   6. Double-click on the 1033 folder to open it.
   7. Leave the 1033 folder open and proceed to step 3.
   
   Windows 7:
   1. From your Windows Desktop, click on the Start button. Click in the Search Programs and Files box on the menu.
   2. Type search in the Search box at the bottom of the menu and press Enter.
   3. Look in the top right corner of the resulting screen to find the search box with a little magnifying glass at the end. Search Searches will be written in the box. Click in that search box and type Outlook.hol and press Enter to start the search.
   4. You will see a message saying This folder is empty.
   5. Look below that message for Search again in: Click on Computer to search the computer for the file.
   6. In the results of that search, look for the Outlook file in the Microsoft Office Outlook Holidays category.
   7. Right-click on that Outlook file and choose Open File Location from the resulting menu.
   8. Leave the 1033 folder open and proceed to step 3.
   
   
3. Copy the downloaded OUTLOOK.HOL file from your Desktop into the open 1033 folder.
4. Windows will ask you if you want to overwrite the current OUTLOOK.HOL; choose Yes or OK, depending on your version of Windows.
5. Launch Outlook, if not already open.
6. Click the Tools menu and select Options; then select Calendar Options.
7. In the Calendar Options dialog box, click Add Holidays.
8. In the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box, check the box next to any of the countries and religions for which you want to add holidays. The United States box may already be checked.
   In alphabetical order, there will be an entry for KU Academic Calendar 2007-2010 and an entry for KU Academic Calendar 2010-2012. Check the box(es) for the academic calendar dates you wish to add to your Outlook calendar and click OK.
9. If you previously added any of the holidays, Outlook will ask you if you wish to install them again. Click OK to continue if this is the first time you have installed the 2007-2012 holidays.
   If you have already installed the KU Academic Calendar 2007-2010 holidays and are adding a different set of holidays, click No or CANCEL and return to the Add Holidays dialog box.
   Uncheck the click box(es) next to the holidays that you have added previously, and then click OK to proceed. This will prevent the holidays you've already added from being duplicated on your calendar.
10. Click OK twice to close all the dialog boxes and return to your Outlook calendar.

Entourage

To avoid duplicates, you will need to replace the existing Holidays file. Follow the instructions below to do this.

1. Save Holidays to the desktop.
   • In Safari, control- or right-click the Holidays link and click Save Linked File to the Desktop.
   • In Firefox, control- or right-click the Holidays link, click Save Link As, select Desktop as the save location, and click Save.
   • Other browsers should work similarly.
2. Open the Office folder:
   • Entourage 2008:  Open /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office.
3. Drag Holidays from the desktop to the Office folder.
4. Finder will ask you if you want to replace the older Holidays; click Replace.
5. Launch Entourage, if not already open
6. Click the File menu and select Import.
7. Click Holidays (Entourage 2008), then click the right arrow to continue.
8. Check the box next to any of the countries and cultures for which you want to add holidays. The list is in alphabetical order. There are entries titled KU Academic Calendar 2010-2012, and United States. Put a check in the boxes next to all the holidays that you want to add to your Calendar. If you've previously added the United States or KU Academic Calendar 2007-2010 holidays, they will be duplicated if you add them again.
9. Click the right arrow to continue.
10. Entourage will notify you that "The Holidays you selected have been added to the Calendar." Click OK.
11. Click Finish.