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Active Desktop Calendar can import calendar data from so called comma separated values (CSV) files, but at this moment it requires them to be structured in a certain expected way. Luckily, it is quite easy to do what is needed because Outlook's exporting capabilities are very flexible.

When you come to its "Export to a file" dialog click Map Custom Fields, then on the right side (To: list) click Clear Map, then drag & drop fields from the list on the left in the following order: "Subject", "Start Date", "Start Time", "Description", "End Date", "End Time", "All day event". Click Ok, Finish and complete the export. When done this way an exported .CSV file is readable by Active Desktop Calendar.

In Outlook:

1. Choose Import and Export option from the File menu.
2. In the list of actions choose Export to a file, click Next.
3. Choose Comma Separated Values (Windows) as the file type, click Next.
   
4. Select calendar folder to export from, click Next.
5. Browse to the target folder, type in some file name and click Ok, click Next.
6. Click Map Custom Fields.
   
7. On the right side click Clear Map, then drag & drop fields from the list on the left in the following order: "Subject", "Start Date", "Start Time", "Description", "End Date", "End Time", "All day event". Click Ok.
   
8. Click Finish, set date range and click Ok to complete the export.

In Active Desktop Calendar:

• Right click on the program's icon in the system tray and choose Layers.
• Click Import data from a file, select CSV file with data exported from Outlook and click Open.
• Choose the target layer and click Finish.

Notes:

• For target layer we recommend you to go with "Import as new layer" option because that way you will have greater control over imported data. If you import data into an existing layer then you will only be able to remove them manually.
• If it happens that Finish button is greyed out in Active Desktop Calendar then either the file has no data at all or you have made some mistake when exporting from Outlook (for example, data fields are not in the expected order) so CSV file structure is not good and the program can not read data from it.
• Dates in CSV files to import have to be written in the same format as in an exported file on the same computer because date format depends on the regional settings. That means if you export to CSV on a computer that has US regional settings and try to import it on a computer that has German regional settings the import will not succeed.