Q. I’m still using Outlook 2003, which only allows me to add holidays to my calendar through 2007. Is there a way to get updated holiday information for the program?
A. The ability to mark holidays for your particular country or region on your personal calendar is a handy feature of Microsoft’s Outlook program. But you don’t have to be stuck in time if you’re sticking with Outlook 2003. Microsoft has issued a software patch for Outlook 2003 that lets you add holidays through 2012. You can download and install the update at snipurl.com/22r1s.
If you encounter problems installing the update, Microsoft has a technical support document at support.microsoft.com/kb/924423. Outlook’s official blog explains how to add your own custom holidays to your calendar at snipurl.com/22r2n.
On the Mac side, Entourage users can add holidays to their calendars by going to the File menu to Import and choosing the “Import Holidays” option in the box. Mac users looking to add holiday calendars for Apple’s iCal program can download and subscribe to a variety of different dates at apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars.
Covering sporting events, SAT testing dates, Blu-ray disc releases and even Belgian school holidays, the iCalShare site also offers 2,500 calendars for download at icalshare.com. The files are compatible with Microsoft Works and other programs using the iCalendar standard.
The online calendars offered by Yahoo and Google also let you add holidays to your digital datebook. For Yahoo, click on “Calendar Options” on the right side of the screen, and then on “Time Guides” to get to the “Add/Edit Holidays” link. For Google, click on the tiny “Manage Calendars” link on the bottom left side of the screen. Click the Calendars tab and then on the “Add Calendar” button to get to the link for “Holiday Calendars.”