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2020/2021 Academic calendar in Microsoft Word

The only specific 2020/2021 calendar template in Microsoft Word is an academic calendar from August 2020 to July 2021, here’s how to use it and make it better.

In File | New search for ‘academic calendar’ there are a few options.  We’re looking at ‘Academic year calendar’.

A few notes before moving on.

  • Ignore what the notes say, this template works for any academic year.
  • Obviously, this is suitable for places that have an August start to the educational year, meaning mostly the northern hemisphere. There’s no equivalent for the Greater or Southern Hemisphere <g> but they can use standard calendar year templates.
  • The template is only available with a Sunday start of the week.

At the bottom of the calendar are some instructions”

“To shade (or clear) cells in the month tables, select the cells to shade and then, on the Table Tools Design tab, choose Cell Shading.

To view this calendar with all formatting and layout, on the View tab, choose Reading View.”

Change the text

Obviously, change the dates in the semester / session at the bottom. Also the name of the institution at the top.  This is a straight-forward Word template, no macros, so feel free to change anything.

Not quite so obvious, add more sessions by cloning an existing heading/color bar combo. There’s room after removing the help text and even the redundant ‘Important dates’ heading.

Remove Months

If you’d like more space, remove unwanted or past months.  We’re doing this in December so the entire top row of months (Aug-Oct) can be deleted.

Each month is a table within an overall table, delete a individual month’s table to make more room for text or an image.

Changing semester/session colors

Each of the colored bars is a single row table, select the table then change the look from Table Tools | Design.

Change the cell colors

Changing the cell colors shows up a limitation in Word’s Table Styles.  There’s no way to have different cell styles within a table.

You have to select individual cells and apply shading to each from Table Tools | Design | Shading.

Make sure you’ve selected the entire cell/s not just the text inside the cell.

Don’t choose a Table Style from the gallery, that will change the entire month.

See: Make Excel calendars better for you.

Making Yearly calendars and more from Word

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2021 Calendars in your PowerPoint slides

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