Sean Wallbridge
By default, Microsoft Outlook doesn’t add entries for any statutory or civic holidays to its calendar function. There are two steps to adding the latest holiday information to your Outlook calendar. The first step is to update the Outlook holiday file (this step can be skipped if you are using Outlook 2007), and the second step is to add the holidays to your personal Outlook calendar.
To download the latest holiday file, following these steps:
1. Open the following link in your web browser: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=32C24709-50B5-4698-B5CB-BE7D6765FE3A
2. Click Continue to complete the required validation and then click Download
3. When prompted to run or save the file, click Run
4. Click Run on any additional security warnings
5. When prompted to install the update, choose Yes
6. Click Yes to accept the License Agreement
7. Allow the installation to run (it may take a few minutes), when a pop-up appears indicating ‘The update was applied successfully’, click OK
8. Outlook now has all the holiday information up until 2012
To add Canadian holidays to your Outlook Calendar, follow this quick procedure:
1. From within Outlook, choose the Tools menu and click Options…
2. Under the Calendar section, click the button labeled Calendar Options…
3. In the Calendar Options window, click the Add Holidays… button
4. Scroll through the list and place a tick mark next to Canada and then click OK
5. Outlook will add all the Canadian holidays up to 2012 to your calendar
Note, this doesn’t work for Outlook 2007 (update July 26, 2009 – thanks Andrew)