Use My Calendars (Parent Portal), with Outlook on a Windows computer

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1 Use My Calendars (Parent Portal), with Outlook on a Windows computer Outlook is a windows /calendar program. It is different from Outlook Express in that Outlook has a Calendar component. Outlook is a piece of software that must be purchased separately for most Windows computers. One useful feature is that you can use it to subscribe to your child s classroom assignment calendars, in the My Calendars feature of the Powerschool Parent Portal. WASD does not offer support for Outlook, but you may find support on the Microsoft website. Why Subscribe to a Classroom Calendar? To Subscribe to a remote calendar, means to put information about the location of that calendar into your calendar software so events from the remote calendar, will show up in your calendar. You can subscribe to your child s classroom assignment calendar via the Powerschool Parent Portal. Implementation of this calendar is controlled by your child s teacher. Please contact the teacher if you have questions about the content of the calendar. After subscribing, you may see class assignments with detail about content or due date. While the official statement of the publisher of Powerschool is that My Calendars only works with Apple computers, it actually works well on Windows computers. This process is relatively easy to perform but is not supported by the WASD helpdesk. It requires a few more steps on a Windows computer, than on an Apple computer, but produces the same result. 1

2 Follow the steps below to use Outlook software on your Windows computer and view your child s class assignment calendars. 1. Open your web browser (like Internet Explorer) Make sure that you can view the Status bar in your web browser (bottom left corner of Internet Explorer). The status bar shows you where you will navigate when you click a link. 2. Log onto your account on the PowerSchool Parent Portal. (NOTE: add the s to https to make your connection more secure.) 3. To find more information on how to log onto the parent portal, download this pdf file Click on the My Calendars icon on the navigation bar. 5. Select one of your child s classes, by Pointing (not clicking) at the Subscribe link for that class. You may do this process multiple times for multiple classes. Choose whether you wish to see the assignments only or assignments and grades, as they become available As you point your mouse at the word subscribe, the URL (or link) will show in your browser status bar in the lower left corner of Internet Explorer. It will have a format something like this. webcal://powerschool.wasd.org/ical/6368/00120/1/homework.ics 8. In order to subscribe, using Outlook, you must write this URL down. If you wish to have several of your child s classes show in the calendar on your computer, note the URL of all of those classes. 2

3 9. If you see a dialog box like this you have gone too far. Cancel the dialog box and go back to the screen above in step Now that you have the URL written down (example: webcal://powerschool.wasd.org/ical/6368/00120/1/homework.ics) switch to the Outlook application. 11. Start Outlook on your computer. 12. Click the Calendar tab on the lower left side of the screen. 13. Select Data File Management from the File menu. 3

4 14. Click the Internet Calendars tab in the screen that appears. 15. Click the New button to subscribe to a new calendar. On the next screen you need to type, in the Location box, the URL that you copied from the status bar in your web browser. Example: webcal://powerschool.wasd.org/ical/6368/00120/1/homework.ics Click Add. 16. On the next screen, give the new calendar an appropriate name, and click OK. 17. In the Outlook program, you now have an additional calendar, on the left side of your screen. You can view it by placing a checkmark in front of it. And, you can hide it by removing the checkmark. 4

5 New dates should be showing up in your calendar. You can right click a date and choose open to show more detail about that assignment. 18. You may delete a calendar at anytime. This has no effect on the original calendar on the school website. You may also hide it from view by unchecking the box in front of the calendar. Repeat this process for each of your child s classes, you wish to track. This calendar should be updated, each time you open Outlook. 5