Do you use Outlook calendar to keep track of important meetings, events and birthdays, but you’re missing the opportunity to see holidays?

Every version of Outlook includes holidays that you can add to your Outlook calendar.

Oct 26, 2016 Each version of Outlook includes holidays you can add to your calendar by going to Tools, Options, Calendar options, Holidays. Select the country (or countries) that has the holidays you want on your calendar and import. If you use a version of Outlook longer than 3 years or so, you'll need to find an alternate source for holidays. Log into your Microsoft Account and get to the calendar. (If using Outlook UI, click drop down arrow next to Outlook, then calendar. If using Hotmail, click Hotmail then Calendar). Click the subscribe hyperlink and leave it there. In a new tab or window, log in to your google account, and go into Calendar. Click settings gear, then. How To Add American Holidays To Outlook 2016 For Mac. This article tells you how to add Exchange and Office 365 accounts to Outlook 2016 for Mac. If you want to know how to add other types of accounts, such as Outlook.com or Gmail, see. Internet explorer for mac. Add your first account. In Outlook, select Tools Accounts. To add custom holidays to Outlook calendar, do the following: 1. Open the outlook.hol file (after first making a safe copy of it somewhere else): For example, it can be here: C: Program Files (x86) Microsoft Office root Office16 1033 outlook.hol. Go to the end of the file, and add events using the following format. Click Calendar Icon in lower left corner; In the left side bar Right Click the calendar you want to share, then click Properties. Click the Permissions tab; Click Add to add permissions for a new user, or click the name of the existing user in the list to change their current permissions.

The first time you start Outlook, there are no holidays, but you have the ability to add holidays from several different countries.

Follow these steps to add holidays to your calendar:

1. Click Files > Options.
2. Chose Calendar and click Add holidays.
3. Check the box for each country and region you want to add to your calendar and press OK..

Step 1.

Step 3.

Note: If a country or region’s holidays already is added to your calendar, there will be check mark next to the country. If you click OK and mistakenly add the same country or region again, you will see double holidays in your calendar.

Fortunately, help is near, see below how to delete holidays and duplicates.

Tips: If you often plan conference calls with colleagues abroad, it is a great help to have added the respective colleagues holidays in your calendar, that way you avoid booking conference call when they are on holiday.

Watch the video were we will add holidays in Outlook 2016

Delete holidays and duplicates from your calendar

You can delete holidays and duplicates in several ways:

• Sort and delete all entries from a specific date.
• Sort and delete all items from a category.
• Delete individual items.

Below you will se the steps on how to delete individual items:

1. Go to Calendar, click Show > Change view > list.
2. Select the holidays you want to delete, Right click and chose delete.
3. To return to the calendar display, click View > Change view > Calendar.

Step 2.

Tip: You can choose to delete all holidays if you accidentally added a country or region several times. First you need to sort all item after Categories and then right-click on the category Holidays as shown in the video and click delete, now add holidays again for the countries you need.

Watch video were all holidays will be deleted

I’ve imported holidays into my Calendar folder and I’ve also added birthdays and anniversaries to some of my closest contacts so that they’ll be added to my Calendar as well.

While I really like this feature, they do blend in with my regular appointments and meetings a bit too much for my taste.

Is it possible to highlight or color code these events so that they are different from the other Calendar entries?

Outlook has 2 methods to color code your Calendar entries: Color Categories and Conditional Formatting. Which one to use depends on how the calendar entries were created but also a bit on your personal preference.

How To Add American Holidays To Outlook 2016 For Mac Download

Note: While this guide discusses holidays, birthdays and anniversaries, you can use the methods discussed for any calendar entry or types of calendar entries which you wish to highlight as well.

Color Categories for Holidays

When you use Color Categories for Calendar entries, the Calendar entries will be shown in the color of the category which you assigned to it.

This method is highly recommended to be used with imported holidays as they already have the “Holiday” category assigned to them. However, by default this category is not yet in your “Master Category List” so no color is assigned to it.

To add the Holiday category to your Master Category List and assign a color to it:

1. Select a holiday entry in your Calendar.
2. Open the Color Categories dialog
   • Outlook 2007
     Edit-> Categorize-> All Categories…
   • Outlook 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019 / Office 365
     tab Appointment/Meeting-> Categorize-> All Categories…
3. Click on the category name: Holiday (not in Master Category List)
4. Press New…
5. Leave the name as it is but select a color for it.
6. Press OK and OK again to return to your Calendar; all your Holiday entries should now be in the color that you selected.

Add the Holiday category to the Master Category List to assign a color to it.

Conditional Formatting for Birthdays and Anniversaries

Conditional Formatting (called Automatic Formatting in Outlook 2007) is a view setting to color code items based on specific properties.

It is also an easy method to color code your birthdays and anniversaries in case you do not want to assign Color Categories first.

1. Open the Conditional Formatting dialog
   • Outlook 2007
     View-> Current View-> Customize Current View…-> Automatic Formatting…
   • Outlook 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019 / Office 365
     tab View-> View Settings-> Conditional Formatting…
   • Office 365 (simplified Ribbon)
     tab View-> Current View-> View Settings…-> Conditional Formatting
2. Press: Add
3. Name the rule. For instance: Birthday
4. Select a color.
5. Press: Condition…
6. Add one of the conditions as indicated below the screenshot.
7. Repeat step 2 to 6 for each condition that you want to add.
8. Press OK until all open dialogs are closed to return to your now color coded Calendar.

Automatically color code Calendar items with Conditional Formatting.

Birthdays

• tab: Appointments and Meetings
  Search for the word(s): Birthday
• tab: Advanced
  • Field: Recurrence
  • Condition: Equals
  • Value: Yearly

Anniversaries

• tab: Appointments and Meetings
  Search for the word(s): Anniversary
• tab: Advanced
  • Field: Recurrence
  • Condition: Equals
  • Value: Yearly

Note 1: Colors assigned via Color Categories overrule the colors assigned via Conditional Formatting.

Note 2: For more Conditional Formatting examples see the guide: Color Code Your E-mails Advanced

Color Categories for Birthdays and Anniversaries

Even though Conditional Formatting is the easiest way to go, you can also use Color Categories for birthdays and anniversaries. However, you’ll first need to assign them a category as they don’t have any by default.

As all birthday and anniversary entries are marked as such in their subject, you can find them quickly by typing the following in the search field:

• Birthdays
  birthday isrecurring:yes
• Anniversaries
  anniversar isrecurring:yes

You can then easily select all the results by using CTRL+A and use the Categorize feature to assign them a newly created Color Category called “Birthday” or “Anniversary”.

How To Add American Holidays To Outlook 2016 For Macs

Note 1: Yes, the search query indeed only says “anniversar” without the “y”. Due to some strange bug in either Outlook or the Search Indexer, for the full word “anniversary” it sometimes doesn’t return all results.

How To Add American Holidays To Outlook 2016 For Mac Update

Note 2: By adding isrecurring:yes we filter out any single appointments or meetings which also hold the word “Birthday”. For instance, it will filter out the Dutch Holiday called “Queen’s Birthday”.