Excel Mini Calendar Picker

In our recent webinar featuring Transitioning to Excel Online, it was recommended to explore the free add-ins that are available in the Microsoft Store. The Mini Calendar and Date Picker is one such recommendation. This free Excel add-in is useful when you frequently need to refer to a calendar while working with time sheets, schedules, project plans, data logs, and much more!

To install the add-in, navigate to the Insert ribbon tab and select Get Add-ins>Store. You can browse through the many add-ins available or type “calendar” in Search to quickly find the app. Once installed, it displays as a monthly calendar image and can be repositioned anywhere on your Excel spreadsheet. You can use it to enter a date or the current time in a cell, toggle the size, choose different themes, change the calendar system (US or ISO), display week numbers, or highlight dates on the calendar from a selected range. You can use the previous or next month arrows to change the month display. You can highlight dates in the calendar by selecting a range of dates entered in your spreadsheet. You can also toggle the size of the calendar, show week numbers, change the calendar system (U.S. or ISO), and choose a color theme.

To show or hide the calendar settings toolbar, select the gear icon. Here’s how to use its settings:

Toggle Calendar Size

The “Toggle Calendar Size” icon offers two sizes (small or original) to display the calendar. It is often convenient to place the calendar in the header of a spreadsheet and use freeze panes so that the calendar is always visible (in these cases it may be useful to change to the smaller version of the calendar). Note—when you zoom in or out to adjust your worksheet view, the calendar zooms as well!

Change Calendar Theme

There are several built-in themes to choose a color scheme with a variety of borders and shading styles for the calendar. Just select the “Change Calendar Theme” icon to toggle between the different themes.

Change Calendar System

By selecting the "Change Calendar System (world)" icon, you can toggle the calendar (US or ISO) to cycle through several displays of the 7 days of the week.

Toggle Week Numbers

By selecting the “Toggle Week Numbers (52)” icon, you can display the yearly week numbers. For example, week #1 is defined as the week containing Jan 1.

Highlight Range of Dates

The “Highlight Range of Dates (calendar)” icon displays a dialog box to enter a selected range containing date values entered as a list on the worksheet. Similar to the Outlook thumbnail calendar, these dates will appear bold and shaded on the calendar. This is a very useful feature, particularly if you are using a time sheet and want to highlight holidays or track other important dates.

  • Enter a vertical list of dates on the worksheet.
  • Click on the “Highlight Range of Dates (calendar)” icon to bring up a dialog box that will prompt you to select the range containing dates.
  • Note—when you change a date in the bound range, it will update on the calendar too!

Watch how it can do quite a lot for a free add-in: