The calendar is a very handy tool for doing business. Most often, tasks affect a whole range of people. And then it may become necessary to work together on the calendar. If you are faced with such a task, then it is quite possible to do it on an iPhone, iPad or Mac. But adding users one at a time to your shared calendar can be a tedious task. To avoid it, you can use the public calendar feature. It is implemented in the Calendar application on macOS.
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Why create a public (open) calendar?
If you’ve worked with the standard Calendar app before, you might have come across the tool’s built-in sharing functionality. Thanks to this feature, you can conveniently organize meetings with your colleagues, jointly plan events or simply control your schedule. But in addition to this, there is also the additional function of the public calendar. When activated, anyone can access your calendar, albeit in read-only mode.
In our opinion, this is simply an irreplaceable function in the service sector. For example, you are a host of events or a hairdresser. You have a large customer base that sometimes distracts you with questions about available dates. By creating an open calendar, your regular customers will always know the information about the availability of free places (time) for the provision of services without the need to contact you.
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How to create a public (readable) calendar on iPhone or iPad?
1. Open the app The calendar…
2. Select Calendars at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click Add, and then in the context menu that appears, click again Add…
4. Enter the name of the calendar (will be displayed only on your devices).
5. In the column Account iCloud must be specified. If the field contains the value iPhone (iPad), open the application Settings, select your name (at the top of the page) and go to the iCloud section. Set the switch here Calendars into position Included…
6. Select the desired color for the calendar and press Ready…
7. Click the “i” button next to the created calendar in the list of all calendars in iCloud.
8. Install the switch Open calendar into position Included…
9. Click Share link… and select the method of link transmission (e-mail, instant messengers).
Here you can simply copy the link, save it, for example, in Notes and share it at the necessary time.
The user who received the link to the open calendar will only have to click the button Subscribe to, enter the desired name for the calendar and press Add…
The user who added your calendar will be able to monitor your work schedule without distracting you.
Please note that simply turning on the open calendar feature will not make the calendar immediately available to everyone. Only people who have the URL (link) of your calendar can access it and all the events stored in it. And unlike the regular sharing feature, you can’t prevent a specific user from accessing the shared calendar.
In addition, it is important to understand that people who have access to your shared calendar will be able to see the text of the note in the event (if any), but they will not be able to make any changes to it or to the events in it. The conditions for such access are read-only. You probably shouldn’t include confidential data (names, phone numbers, clients, etc.) on your open calendar. For these purposes, it is better to create a personal (closed calendar).
If the purpose of an open calendar is only to familiarize subscribed users with your schedule, then all events in the calendar can be called, for example, “Busy”… In the same way, you can mark all days (hours) when you are not working (for example, Wednesday afternoon 🙂 or a whole week after the New Year).
If you want other people to make changes too, you need to keep your calendar private by not giving everyone access, and add users one at a time using the usual sharing method.
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How do I create a public calendar on a Mac?
The following steps apply to all recent versions of macOS as the built-in app “The calendar” practically did not change. So, without further ado, let’s move on to the description of the actions.
1. Open the app “The calendar” on Mac.
2. To open the list of available calendars in the sidebar, click the corresponding button in the upper left corner of the application window.
3. Create a new calendar if necessary. To do this, right-click on an empty space on the sidebar and select “New calendar”… The same command is available on the menu bar under “File”…
4. Hover the cursor over the required calendar and click on the icon that appears and in the context menu that opens, check the box next to “Open calendar”and then hide this window by clicking on any free area in the application window.
5. The calendar has become publicly available. Click the icon to the right of the calendar name in the sidebar again. In the window that opens, a link to the open calendar will appear, as well as a button Sharewhich allows you to share the URL of your open calendar via iMessage or Email with anyone who needs access.
7. To stop sharing the calendar at any time with all users, you can simply uncheck the option “Open calendar”…
That’s basically all you need to do to make the calendar publicly available on your macOS computer.
If you want to share your calendar events with a large group of people, the sharing feature can help a lot with that. Let us know in the comments how actively you use Calendar with other people and whether you will use the opportunity to publicly access it.
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