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How to View Published Calendars on Mac

Michael Reinhart
Updated

In an organization that uses Hosted Exchange Server, it's possible to view the calendars of these Resources if your Administrator has enabled a feature known as Calendar Feeds (done by "Publishing" the calendar on the Exchange Server). For example, the Resource Calendars for meeting rooms or other company assets might be published as feeds.

This allows staff to "Subscribe" to the Calendar Feed for viewing right inside the Apple Calendar Application. Note though, that you can't edit the contents of a calendar feed-- they're for reference only.

Subscribe to a Published Calendar Feed: Option 1

The easiest way to subscribe to a published calendar feed is to use a special link that may be provided by your Administrator. These links can be identified by their beginning and end parts-- "webcal://" and ".ics" respectively. When a link (URL) for a Calendar feed appears on a web page, in an email message, or in a document, you can click on it which will signal the Apple Calendar app to begin the subscription process. See "Setting up the subscription" below for next steps.

Subscribe to a Published Calendar Feed: Option 2

If you know the feed URL (i.e. beginning with webcal:// and ending with .ics), you can use the File --> New Calendar Subscription menu in the Apple Calendar App. Paste the URL into the Calendar URL field.

Setting up the Subscription

After using one of the options above to begin the subscription process, the Calendar App will present you with a dialog box containing the URL and Cancel and Subscribe buttons. Click the Subscribe button to continue.

Fine Tuning the Subscription Behaviour

After clicking the Subscribe button as in the above step, you'll see the Calendar Info dialog box.

It's important to configure some of the settings so the feed behaves sensibly.

  1. Name the Feed so you can easily identify it once it's on your Calendar
  2. Set the Location of the feed-- in most cases, you may want the feed only on your Mac. If you use iCloud, you may choose to Locate it there.
  3. You may want the feed to refresh itself from the source frequently if the underlying calendar is actively being edited.

Click OK to complete the subscription process.

Viewing the Subscription

In the Calendar App, with the settings as shown in the illustration above, the feed will appear in the Calendars list with the feed icon.

Making Sense of All the Calendars

If you have many busy calendars, it can be confusing to view them all at once. Think of the calendars as "overlays" that can be hidden or visible. To hide one of the calendar overlays, uncheck the checkbox to it's left. For example, in the illustration below, the personal calendar is unchecked and therefore hidden:

Power Tips!

  • Hide all the calendars: hold the Command (⌘) key and click on one of the checkboxes that contains a checkmark.
  • Unhide all the calendars: hold the Command (⌘) key and click on one of the empty checkboxes.
  • Rename a Calendar: Right Click (or Command (⌘) + Click) the calendar in the calendars list and choose Get Info.

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