How to Make a Perfect Calendar in Excel from Scratch

November 12, 2024 Matt Mills How to 0

Some people use Google Calendar or Apple’s Calendar but then setting up a custom calendar to create it in excel gives us the option to tailor everything to our own wishes. Using Excel, you can schedule daily, weekly or monthly schedules with flexible colors, formatting and more.

We’ll take a quick look at how to get started, from using pre made templates to building your own custom calendar right from the ground up.

custom calendar is being created

1. Customize Calendar Templates using Excel

And the easiest is to use Excel templates to build your own calendar without additional downloads. Here’s how:

  1. Go to New, within the left sidebar of Excel.
  2. Type Calendar in the search bar and hit Enter.
  3. You can view the calendar templates, and if you like one you can browse the preview.
  4. Select the template you like, set colors, cell sizes and the other items.

2. Create a Calendar in Excel from Scratch

Making your own from scratch gives you full control over how your calendar would look, and how you would fill it up. Follow these steps:

  1. Open a new workbook in Excel.
  2. In the first row of the first column, add the month name by typing =TEXT( TODAY(), “mmmm” ).
  3. Write ‘Monday’ in the first cell and drag to autofill the rest into rows (creating a row for days of the week).
  4. Select the cells of the month header from Monday to Sunday and Merge & Center.

3. Set Up the Calendar Layout

You’ll have to change your cell sizes and layout to start filling in the days of the month. Here’s how:

  1. Click on the cells (A3 to G8) to create a calendar grid.
  2. Click and move to the Home tab and select Format from the drop down menu in the Cells section.
  3. To adjust the Row Height, and Column Width of your calendar layout as desired.

4. Customize the Look

Once the structure is in place, you can personalize the colors, fonts, and borders:

  1. Select your favorite color and choose how to format the title cell of the month title, i.e. the text size or style.
  2. Choose the day of the week row to color and bold the text.
  3. To create a clear calendar grid, select Borders on the Home tab, add borders to all cells.

5. Duplicate for Other Months

Instead of starting from scratch each month, you can duplicate your sheet:

  1. Click the sheet tab at the bottom then right click.
  2. Click on the Move or Copy option, Create a copy and OK.
  3. Modify the dates and the days of each new month.

6. Print Your Calendar

To keep your calendar accessible offline, consider printing it:

  1. Go to File > Print.
  2. Switch to Landscape.
  3. In Scaling, select ‘Fit Sheet on One Page.’
  4. Go to Sheets tab in Open Page Setup and check Divider Lines.
  5. Click OK, then Print.

You’ve now got a fully customised Excel calendar that you can use and print! With this flexible solution you can schedule tasks, events and appointments with or without the need of a separate app.