How do you change the year on a Word calendar template? It's still showing 2025 although we're in a new year

Question

How do you change the year on a Word calendar template? It's still showing 2025 although we're in a new year

Answer 1

Older versions of Microsoft's calendar templates made use of macros so that you could change the year and get an updated calendar. Lately, Microsoft has removed macro-enabled templates from their site.

You can try calendar templates created by Greg Maxey or Jay Freedman (both are known contributors in Microsoft forums):

https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/calendar_maker_addin.html

https://jay-freedman.info/

Answer 2

Here is some more information and background.

Microsoft used to have macro-enabled templates that let you set the year or month and have the dates adjust. The information for templates still refers to the Calendar tab. It has vanished, though. They have stopped offering those, perhaps because people were afraid of the macros.

As of January 13, at least, this is a fixed year template set to 2025, which would require a tremendous amount of editing to be used.

Per Bob Jones, apparently, in the Mac interface, the template named "Calendar" also still contains the macros and the Calendar tab as in the description.

If you have used a macro-enabled template from Microsoft in the past for this, it should still be on your computer in the folder you have designated as the default location for saving custom office templates.

When you use one of the templates from Microsoft, it is stored there.

I expect that sometime in January Microsoft will come out with 2026 calendars. This is based on experience since they discontinued the macro-enabled calendar templates.

There are good free alternatives available.

You can use the free calendar add-in from former Word MVP Greg Maxey that you can download from here: https://gregmaxey.com/wonrd_tip_pages/calendar_maker_addin.html This has several choices of formats.

You can also find free 2026 calendars on MVP Jay Freedman's download site. (https://jay-freedman.info/) These are simple macro-free templates.

You can find a free perpetual calendar maker add-in on MVP Graham Mayor's site. This allows a choice of background colors.

These templates are from trusted experts and have been used by thousands of users.

No one here can change how word works.

No one who can change Word sees what is written here.

This is a user-to-user forum. You are corresponding with your fellow users. We can tell you how to better use Word as it is.

People who can change Word never see what is posted here. To get their attention, use the Feedback mechanisms. Here is more information about how to do that and what to expect.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/giving-feedback-on-microsoft-word-or-other/8df81a9b-84aa-46ef-bf88-24fb7fec96ba

Microsoft is not hearing about your problems from what you post here. You are discussing a problem with your fellow users here. We can give good advice about how to work with Word as it is and give suggestions for making it work properly.

Designers and their supervisors do see feedback. (You will almost certainly not get a direct response to that feedback but they do see it.)

I suggest using the [Public Feedback Portal] so other users can see your feedback, comment and vote. If you want, you can post the URL of your feedback with your question here to lead others with the same problem to your feedback. Be the “squeaky wheel” that gets fixed! [https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472]

Here is a link to some of the feedback on this issue:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/search/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472?q=calendar

You can comment and vote if you want. I do not expect this to change, though. I recommend using the items from Jay Freedman, Greg Maxey, or Graham Mayor.

 

Answer 3

Again, use the feedback mechanisms if you want to get the easily changed calendar templates again.

As of now, a number of templates for 2026 calendars are available including the following:

Answer 4

Hi,

Word calendar templates are designed for a specific year and are static. They don’t automatically update because they’re not linked to dynamic date functions.

What I suggest is:

1. Open the calendar template in Word.
2. Manually edit the year in the header or title.
3. Adjust dates for each month manually, or download a new template for the correct year from Microsoft’s template gallery.

I hope this helps!