Outlook calls an iCal link a "published calendar" with an ICS link. In this article you'll publish a calendar and copy the link. For meeting rooms, there's a section for your Microsoft 365 admin at the end.

You'll need: access to the calendar in Outlook on the web or the new Outlook for Windows. For room calendars, you'll usually need your Exchange or Microsoft 365 admin.

Publish your own or a team calendar

These steps are the same in Outlook on the web (outlook.office.com) and the new Outlook for Windows.

  1. Select Settings (the gear icon, top right).
  2. Select Calendar, then Shared calendars.
  3. Under Publish a calendar, choose the calendar in the first menu.
  4. In the second menu, choose how much to share:
    • Can view when I'm busy: times only. Screens show every meeting as "Busy".
    • Can view titles and locations: times, titles and rooms. Usually the right choice for a room board.
    • Can view all details: also includes descriptions. Rarely needed on a screen.
  5. Select Publish.
  6. Two links appear: HTML and ICS. Select the ICS link and choose Copy link.

Paste it into CompleteVantage under Calendars, Add calendar. See Add a calendar.

The link looks something like https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/…/calendar.ics.

Classic Outlook for Windows

Classic Outlook doesn't show the ICS link itself. Use Outlook on the web instead: sign in at outlook.office.com with the same account and follow the steps above.

Meeting rooms in Microsoft 365

A meeting room is a room mailbox. Nobody signs in to it, so the Publish a calendar option isn't available to ordinary users. An admin can publish it in a few minutes.

For your Microsoft 365 admin

  1. Allow calendar publishing. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Settings, Org settings, Services, Calendar. Allow users to share their calendars with anyone (anonymous access), and pick the most detail you're happy to allow, such as times, subjects and locations. Without this, publishing is blocked for everyone.
  2. Publish the room's calendar in Exchange Online PowerShell:
Connect-ExchangeOnline
Set-MailboxCalendarFolder -Identity "boardroom@baysidehotels.example:\Calendar" -PublishEnabled $true -DetailLevel LimitedDetails
Get-MailboxCalendarFolder -Identity "boardroom@baysidehotels.example:\Calendar" | Format-List PublishedICalUrl
  1. Copy the PublishedICalUrl value and give it to the person setting up screens (or paste it into CompleteVantage yourself).

-DetailLevel controls what screens can show: AvailabilityOnly (times only, everything shows as "Busy"), LimitedDetails (times, subjects and locations) or FullDetails.

Stop publishing

To stop sharing, go back to Settings, Calendar, Shared calendars and select Unpublish next to the calendar. For a room, the admin runs Set-MailboxCalendarFolder with -PublishEnabled $false. The old link stops working immediately, so remove or update the calendar in CompleteVantage too.

What's next