How to Create a Calendar in Modern SharePoint Online Site?

Requirement: Create a calendar list in SharePoint Online.

How to create a calendar in SharePoint Online?

The SharePoint calendar provides a convenient and visual way to organize meetings and events. You can display calendar lists in daily, weekly, and monthly views. The key benefits are that multiple people can access and add events to the same calendar, you can view it from anywhere online, and you can set alerts to notify you of upcoming events or changes. Maintaining organization-wide calendars in SharePoint keeps everyone on the same page. This post will walk us through the steps to create a new SharePoint calendar easily.

Unlike the SharePoint server, adding a calendar to a SharePoint Online modern site is a bit tricky, as it’s moved under “Classic Apps”. To create a calendar in SharePoint, follow these step-by-step instructions:

1. Login to your SharePoint site >> Click on the “New” toolbar >> Choose “App” (You can also click on the settings gear icon in the top right corner >> Site contents and click on New dropdown menu).
2. Click on the “Classic Experience” link on the SharePoint Apps page. This will take you to the classic apps page. (URL shortcut: https://YourDomain.sharepoint.com/sites/Your-Site/_layouts/15/addanapp.aspx).
3. Scroll down (or search) and pick the “Calendar” app from the list of apps.
4. Enter the calendar name and click on “Create”.

Now, you have a calendar list created on the SharePoint Online modern site. To add events, navigate to the calendar, click on a date, and fill out the event details like title, location, and start date/end date/time interval. As your needs change, You can edit calendar settings to control default permissions, notifications, etc. Combining multiple calendars is also possible: How to create a calendar overlay in SharePoint?

By leveraging SharePoint calendars, groups can view and manage one unified calendar from anywhere. Events, appointments, milestones, and more can be centrally tracked to align projects and resources. You can also connect SharePoint calendar views to Outlook and sync the events: Click on the Calendar tab >> “Connect to Outlook” button from the ribbon.

Apart from the group calendar web part, SharePoint Online has no calendar web part. To embed a SharePoint calendar to a SharePoint page, refer: How to Add Calendar to SharePoint Online Modern Page? It is also possible to create a new view on SharePoint lists from list settings and pick “Calendar” as the view type.

SharePoint Online: PowerShell to Create a Calendar

Calendars are essential tools for organizing schedules, managing events, and meeting deadlines across teams and organizations. Rather than relying on disjointed personal calendars and messy email threads to coordinate, platforms like Microsoft SharePoint integrate customizable shared calendars for streamlined scheduling.

Let’s create a calendar in SharePoint Online using PnP PowerShell:

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com"
$CalendarName = "Firm Events" 

Try { 
    #Connect to PnP Online
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive
 
    #Create a Calendar in SharePoint
    $Calenar = New-PnPList -Title $CalendarName -Template Events -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-host "Calendar List Added to the Site!" -f Green
    }
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "`tError:" $_.Exception.Message
}

Create Calendar List in SharePoint Online using PowerShell CSOM

Here is the CSOM way to add a new calendar list in SharePoint Online:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Events"
$CalendarName = "Firm Events"

Try {
    #Get Credentials to connect
    $Cred = Get-Credential
 
    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)

    #Create a Calendar
    $ListInfo = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListCreationInformation
    $ListInfo.Title = $CalendarName
    $ListInfo.TemplateType = 106
    $List = $Ctx.web.Lists.Add($ListInfo)
    $List.Description = $ListTitle
    $List.Update()
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    Write-host "Calendar List Added to the Site!" -f Green
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "`tError:" $_.Exception.Message
}

Summary

In summary, SharePoint calendars provide an easy and flexible way to schedule and track events, appointments, and deadlines. Setting up a SharePoint Online calendar only takes a few minutes: navigate to the Site Contents page, add the Calendar app, name it, select permissions, and customize settings as needed. Whether you need to create a team calendar to track deadlines, team events, share schedules, or manage resources, leveraging SharePoint calendars eliminates the hassles of managing multiple local calendars.