A SharePinter's Tale

A comprehensive team calendar is a very valuable tool on a SharePoint team site. But it can overwhelm the home page. A better implementation here is to show upcoming events for the next week or two.

Unfortunately, this functionality is not available out of the box.

You’ll need to create a new column and define a new view for the Team Calendar. The new column is required because you cannot create a view based on the Calendar’s built-in Start Date. I think it’s because the Start Date column isn’t a field that can be calculated. Why? I don’t know.

Here’s how to create the new column in the Calendar:

1. On the team site home page, click Site Actions.
2. Under Site Administration, click Content and structure.
3. Hover over the the site’s Calendar entry, click the down arrow, and click Edit Properties.
   
4. In the Columns section, click Create column.
5. In the Name and Type section, type a name in the Column name text box (for example Date for Home)
6. Click the Calculated radio button.
7. In Additional Column Settings section, type =[Start Time] in the Formulatext box.
   

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8. For the data type, click the Date and Time radio button.
9. For the format, click the Date Only radio button.
10. Ensure that the check box for Add to default view is checked.
11. Click OK.

Congrats! You’ve created the column. Let’s create the view:

1. Go to your team site’s home page.
2. In the Lists section of the left navigation area, click Calendar.
3. On the Calendar page, click Settings from the toolbar area. Click Create View.
   
4. Click Standard View.
5. On the Create View: Calendar page, there are many settings. Scroll down to the Filter section.
6. Click the radio button for Show items only when the following is true.
7. Following my example, select Date for Home from the first drop down list.
8. Choose is greater than or equal to from the second drop down list.
9. In the text box, type [Today].
10. Click the And radio button.
11. Again, choose Date for Home from the drop down list.
12. Choose is less than or equal to from the next drop down list.
13. Type [Today]+7.
    
14. Click OK.

Three cheers! You’ve created the View. Now you need to configure the home page to show it.

1. Go to your team site’s home page.
2. To the far right on the Calendar Web Part, you should see a down arrow. Click that and click Modify Shared Web Part.
   

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3. The entire page will become editable. Look to the far right of the Web page (you might need to scroll right). You should see the configuration panel. In the Selected View drop down list, click 1 Week Ahead (again following my original example).
4. When you select this, you might see a Message from webpage dialog box about disabling connections. Click OK because you don’t have any option, really.
5. Click OK in the Calendar configuration box.

The modified calendar should be visible.

It’s an involved process, but it’s worth it.