Getting the Most Out of the Calendar


It seems almost redundant to describe modern life as "busy." Everyone is working harder, cramming more appointments and meetings into already-packed schedules, and somehow finding the time to get their regular work done between crises. As many a management consultant has advised over the years (charging exorbitant fees to do so), the key to surviving this helter-skelter, pell-mell pace is time management. And although there are as many theories about time management as there are consultants, one of the keys is that you should always try to make the best use of the time available. Although that often comes down to self-discipline and prioritizing your tasks, an efficient scheduling system can sure help.

That's where Outlook's Calendar feature comes in. At first glance, Calendar just looks like an electronic version of your day planner. You move around from day to day and month to month, entering tasks and appointments at their scheduled times. But Calendar goes far beyond this simple time-keeping function. For example, you can use it to schedule meetings via email and, depending on the responses, update your schedule automatically. You can put your Calendar on a public network folder so that others can see when you're available and set up appointments with you based on this information.

In other words, Calendar helps you spend less time scheduling, which gives you more time to do real work. This section takes you through the full spectrum of Calendar's features and functions, including setting up appointments, meetings, and events.

Starting Outlook in the Calendar Folder

By default, Outlook opens with the Inbox folder displayed, which makes sense because most people use Outlook primarily for email. If most of your Outlook time is spent in the Calendar, instead, you might prefer to display the Calendar folder automatically at startup. Here's how to do it:

1.

Select Tools, Options to display the Options dialog box.

2.

Select the Other tab.

3.

Click Advanced Options.

4.

Beside the Startup in this Folder box, click Browse.

5.

Select the Calendar folder.

6.

Click OK until you exit all the open dialog boxes.

Using the Calendar Folder

When you display the Calendar folder, Outlook displays a window similar to the one shown in Figure 5.16. As you can see, Calendar is laid out more or less like a day planner or desk calendar. Here are two items to note right up front:

  • CalendarThis takes up the bulk of the Calendar folder and it shows one day at a time, divided into half-hour intervals. The appointments and meetings you schedule appear in this area.

  • Date NavigatorThis part of the Navigation pane shows six weeks of dates, including the current month, the last few days from the previous month, and the first few days from the next month. As its name suggests, you use the Date Navigator to change the date shown in the Calendar area. Dates for which you have already scheduled appointments or meetings are shown in bold type. Note that today's date always has a red square around it.

Figure 5.16. Outlook's Calendar folder.


Using the Date Navigator

Calendar always opens with today's date displayed. However, if you want to work with a different day, the Date Navigator makes it easy. All you have to do is click a date, and Outlook will display it in the Calendar. If the month you need isn't displayed in the Date Navigator, use either of the following techniques to pick a different month:

  • Click the left-pointing arrow in the month header to move backward one month at a time. Similarly, click the right-pointing arrow in the month headers to move forward one month at a time.

  • Move the mouse pointer over the month header, then press and hold down the left mouse button. A pop-up menu displays seven monthsthe month you clicked and the three months before and after. Drag the mouse to the month you want and release the button. For later or earlier months, drag the mouse pointer off the bottom or the top of the list and Outlook scrolls through the months.

Displaying Two Months at a Time

If you liked the old Outlook Date Navigator that showed two months at once, you can get the same view in Outlook 2003. Move your mouse pointer over the border that separates the Navigation pane and the Calendar so that the horizontal resize pointer appears. Drag the border to the right to roughly double the size of the default Navigation pane. When you release the mouse, Outlook displays two months in the Date Navigator.


Changing the Number of Days Displayed

Calendar's default view is the Day calendar, which shows a single day's worth of appointments and meetings. However, Calendar is quite flexible and is happy to show two days, three days, a week, or even a month at a time.

Changing the Time Scale

By default, the Day view displays time in half-hour blocks. If that doesn't work for you, you can change the time scale by right-clicking the time display and then clicking the interval you prefer (60, 30, 15, 10, 6, or 5 minutes). If the time is not displayed in the current view, right-click the Calendar and then click Other Settings. Use the Time Scale list to select the interval you prefer.


The easiest way to change the view is to use Calendar's Day, Work Week, Week, and Month commands:

  • For the Work Week calendar, select View, Work Week, or click the Work Week toolbar button.

  • For the Week calendar, select View, Week, or click the Week toolbar button (you can also press Alt+hyphen).

  • For the Month calendar, select View, Month, or click the Month toolbar button (you can also press Alt+=).

  • To return to the Day calendar, select View, Day, or click the Day toolbar button.

Besides these predefined views, Outlook also lets you view however many days you want. Move the mouse pointer into the Date Navigator and drag the pointer over the days you'd like to see. When you release the button, Outlook displays the selected days. For example, in Figure 5.17, I dragged the mouse over the 9, 10, and 11. You can also use the following techniques:

  • To view multiple consecutive dates, click the first date, hold down Shift, and click the last date.

  • To view multiple, nonconsecutive dates, click the first date, then hold down Ctrl and click the other dates.

  • To view an entire week (Sunday through Saturday), move the mouse pointer to the left of the week and click.

  • To view multiple consecutive weeks, move the mouse pointer to the left of the first week and then click and drag down or up to select the weeks.

  • To view multiple nonconsecutive weeks, move the mouse pointer just to the left of the first week and then click; hold down Ctrl and then for each of the other weeks, move the mouse pointer to the left of the week and click.

Figure 5.17. Outlook can display any number of days in the Calendar.


Quickly Displaying Any Number of Days

You can also display x number of days by pressing Alt+x. For example, pressing Alt+3 displays the three days beginning with the currently selected day. Press Alt+0 for 10 days.


Giving Weekends Extra Space

Outlook assumes you use the Calendar less on weekends, so it compresses the Saturday and Sunday fields in the Week and Month views. If you need more space on the weekends, right-click the Calendar and then click Other Settings. Deactivate the Compress Weekend Days check box and then click OK.

You can also include Saturday and/or Sunday in the Work Week view. Select Tools, Options, and in the Preferences tab click Calendar Options. In the Calendar Work Week group, activate the check boxes for the days you want to include in the Work Week view (such as the Sat and Sun check boxes).


Working with Calendar's Views

As with all of Outlook's folders, you can view your calendar in several ways. For example, you can set up the Calendar folder to show only the events you've scheduled.

The Day, Week, and Month calendars are part of Calendar's default Day/Week/Month view. To look at your appointments, events, and meetings in a new light, try one of Calendar's five other predefined views:

  • Active AppointmentsDisplays a tabular list of all the items you've scheduled, sorted by date.

  • EventsDisplays a tabular list of scheduled events, sorted by the event's start date.

  • Annual EventsDisplays a tabular list of all the events you've scheduled with an annual recurrence.

  • Recurring AppointmentsDisplays a tabular list of all the recurring appointments you've created.

  • By CategoryGroups the appointments by category.

Outlook gives you two methods for changing the view:

  • Select View, Arrange By, Current View, and then choose the view you want from the menu that appears.

  • Use the Current View drop-down list in the toolbar.

Custom Calendar Views

You can also create your own views of the Calendar folder. See "Defining a Custom View," earlier in this chapter, to learn how to create custom views. Note, too, that when you use any of the tabular views, Outlook lets you modify the columns that are displayed in the table, as well as sort, filter, and group the appointments.


Other Navigation Techniques

To complete your look at Calendar's navigation aids, here are a few more techniques you can use:

  • To move to today's date, select Go, Today, or click the Today button on the toolbar.

  • To move to a specific date, select Go, Go to Date, or press Ctrl+G to display the Go To Date dialog box shown in Figure 5.18. Enter the date you want in the Date text box, or drop down the box to display a calendar and click the date. You can also use the Show In list to select the calendar view you want: Day Calendar, Week Calendar, Month Calendar, or Work Week Calendar. Click OK to display the date.

    Figure 5.18. Use the Go To Date dialog box to navigate to a specific date.


  • Use the keyboard shortcuts summarized in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1. Calendar's Navigation Keys

Press

To Select...

Day Calendar

 

Up arrow

The previous block of time

Down arrow

The next block of time

Left arrow

The previous day

Right arrow

The next day

Tab

The next appointment

Shift+Tab

The previous appointment

Home

The beginning of the workday

End

The end of the workday

Ctrl+Home

The beginning of the day

Ctrl+End

The end of the day

Alt+Up arrow

The same day in the previous week

Alt+Down arrow

The same day in the next week

Alt+Page Up

The first day of the current month

Alt+Page Down

The last day of the current month

Week Calendar

 

Up arrow

The previous day

Down arrow

The next day

Home

The first day of the week

End

The last day of the week

Page Up

The same day of the week in the previous week

Page Down

The same day of the week in the next week

Alt+Page Up

The first day of the current month

Alt+Page Down

The last day of the current month

Month Calendar

 

Left arrow

The previous day

Right arrow

The next day

Home

The first day of the week

End

The last day of the week

Up arrow

The same day of the week in the previous week

Down arrow

The same day of the week in the next week

Alt+Page Up

The first day of the current month

Alt+Page Down

The last day of the current month


Displaying a Second Time Zone

If you have colleagues on the opposite coast, clients in Europe, or if you can never figure out what the time is in Indiana, Outlook allows you to display a second time zone in the Day and Work Week views. Here's how:

1.

Right-click the time display and then click Change Time Zone to display the Time Zone dialog box. (Figure 5.19 shows a completed version of this dialog box.)

Figure 5.19. Use the Time Zone dialog box to select a second time zone to display in the Calendar's Day and Work Week views.


2.

In the Current Time Zone group, use the Label text box to enter a label that appears at the top of the current time zone. (Labeling the time zones makes it easy to know which one you're working with.)

3.

Activate the Show an Additional Time Zone check box.

4.

Use the Label text box to enter a label that appears at the top of the second time zone.

5.

Use the Time Zone list to select the time zone you want to add.

6.

If the time zone supports daylight saving time (DST) and you want Outlook to adjust the time zone for DST automatically, activate the Adjust for Daylight Saving Time check box.

7.

Click OK.

Figure 5.20 shows the Day Calendar with two time zones displayed.

Figure 5.20. Outlook's Day Calendar with the Eastern Time (EST) and Pacific Time (PST) zones displayed.


Adding Custom Holidays to Your Calendar

Outlook comes with a list of holidays for more than 80 countries, and you can add the holidays for one or more countries to your Calendar. You probably need the holidays only for your own country, but adding those of another country is a good idea if you regularly deal with people from that country or are planning a trip there. Here are the steps to follow:

1.

Select Tools, Options.

2.

Click Calendar Options.

3.

Click Add Holidays. The Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box appears.

4.

Activate the check box for each country's holidays that you want to add. (Note that the check box for United States is activated by default.)

5.

Click OK. Outlook adds the holidays.

6.

Click OK to exit all dialog boxes.

This works well if all your holidays are covered by one or more of the default holidays supported by Outlook. However, you might have nonstandard holidays to deal with: special company dates (picnics, the owner's birthday, and so on), personal dates (birthday, anniversary), or religious holidays. For these nonstandard holidays, you can add all-day events by hand, but that could be quite time-consuming, particularly if you need to enter multiple years' worth of dates.

A better solution is to customize Outlook's holiday file to include your own dates. To do this, first open the holiday file in Notepad by selecting Start, Run and then enter the following command into the Run dialog box (change the path if you installed Microsoft Office in a different location):

 notepad "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\1033\outlook.hol" 

Figure 5.21 shows a portion of the Outlook.hol file.

Figure 5.21. Edit the Outlook.hol file to add your own custom holidays to Outlook.


For each country, the holiday list uses the following general form:

 [Country] Holidays Name,yyyy/m/d 

Here, Country is the name of the country (this is the check box text that appears in the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box), Holidays is the number of holidays listed, Name is the name of the holiday, and yyyy/m/d is the date of the holiday. Instead of a country name, you can use your company name, family name, or whatever is appropriate. Figure 5.22 shows a custom holiday list for a company.

Figure 5.22. The Outlook.hol file with a custom holiday list.


When you open the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box after customizing the holiday list, you see your company name (or whatever you added) in the list, as shown in Figure 5.23.

Figure 5.23. After you customize Outlook.hol, the "country" name you entered appears in the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box.


Printing a Blank Calendar

It's often handy to print out a blank calendar for a particular month. For example, you might want to pin the calendar to a company bulletin board so that people can write in appointments or events. Unfortunately, it's likely you won't be able to print a blank monthly calendar directly from your Outlook Calendar because it's probably filled with appointments and events. However, it's possible to create a second Calendar folder and then print directly from that.

First, here's how you create the blank Calendar folder:

1.

Switch to Month view and display the month you want to print. (For a blank day or week calendar, switch to the appropriate view and display the day or week you want to print.)

2.

Select File, New, Folder (or press Ctrl+Shift+E). The Create New Folder dialog box appears.

3.

Enter a name for the new folder.

4.

Click OK.

Outlook adds the new Calendar folder to the My Calendars list in the Navigation pane.

Now follow these steps to print the blank calendar:

1.

Activate the blank calendar's check box in the My Calendars list.

2.

Close the main Calendar by deactivating the Calendar check box in the My Calendars list.

3.

Select File, Page Setup, Monthly Style.

4.

Click Print.

5.

Adjust the Start and End dates to print only those dates you want in the blank calendar.

6.

Click OK.

Taking Advantage of AutoDate

One of Outlook's most interesting features is its capability to accept natural-language entries in date and time fields and to convert those entries into real dates and times. If today is November 9, for example, entering next week in a date field will cause Outlook to enter November 16 as the date. Similarly, you can enter noon in a time field, and Outlook "knows" that you mean 12:00 p.m.

This slick feature is called AutoDate, and after you understand its ways, you'll find that it saves you lots of time when entering dates and times for appointments, events, and meetings. I won't give you a full description of what AutoDate understands, but a few examples should give you an idea of what it can do, and you can experiment from there.

Here are some notes about entering natural-language dates:

  • AutoDate will convert yesterday, today, and tomorrow into their date equivalents.

  • You can shorten day names to their first three letters: sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, and sat. (Notice, too, that case isn't important.) You can also shorten month names: jan, feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, and dec.

  • To specify a date in the current week (Calendar's weeks run from Sunday through Saturday), use the keyword this (for example, this fri).

  • To specify a date from last week or last month, use the keyword last (for example, last aug).

  • To specify a date in the next week or month, use the keyword next (for example, next sat).

  • If you want to use the first day of a week or month, use the keyword first. For example, first mon in dec will give you the first Monday in December. Similarly, use last to specify the last day of a week or month.

  • To get a date that is a particular number of days, weeks, months, or years from some other date, use the keyword from (for example, 6 months from today).

  • To get a date that is a particular number of days, weeks, months, or years before some other date, use the keyword before (for example, 2 days before Christmas).

AutoDate's Built-In Holidays

Yes, AutoDate also recognizes a number of holidays that fall on the same date each year, including the following: Boxing Day, Cinco de Mayo, Christmas, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, Halloween, Independence Day, Lincoln's Birthday, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, Veterans Day, and Washington's Birthday.


  • To get a date that is a particular number of days, weeks, months, or years in the past, use the keyword ago (for example, 4 weeks ago).

  • AutoDate also accepts spelled-out dates, such as August 23rd and first of January. These aren't as useful because they probably take longer to spell out than they do to enter the date in the usual format.

For time fields, keep the following points in mind:

  • AutoDate will convert noon and midnight into the correct times.

  • AutoDate understands military time. So if you enter 9, AutoDate converts it to 9:00 a.m. However, if you enter 21, AutoDate changes it to 9:00 p.m.

  • Use now to specify the current time.

  • You can specify time zones by using the following abbreviations: CST, EST, GMT, MST, and PST.

Color-Coding Appointments

If you have a lot of appointments, consider taking advantage of Outlook's capability to color codeor labelimportant appointments. This means that you apply a particular background color to the appointment. Each of the available colors is associated with a particular label, such as Important, Business, and Personal.

To set the label for an existing appointment, right-click the appointment, click Label (or click the Calendar Coloring toolbar button), and then select the label. If you're creating a new label, select the label you want from the Label list.


If you don't like Outlook's default labels, you can change them by selecting Edit, Label (or clicking the Calendar Coloring toolbar button) and then selecting Edit Labels. In the Edit Calendar Labels dialog box that appears, edit the labels you want to change and then click OK. Note, however, that you should think twice about editing the labels if you plan on sharing your calendar with other usersbecause those users won't be familiar with your custom labels.



Tricks of the Microsoft Office Gurus
Tricks of the Microsoft Office Gurus
ISBN: 0789733692
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 129

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