Defining Your Available Time

You can tell Outlook what your work schedule is so that other people can make appointments with you only during the times that you plan to be available. This defined time is called your work week . The work week is colored differently in your calendar, and by default is the only time displayed to other people on your network who look at your calendar.

By default, the work week is defined as Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. You can change this to suit your needs ”for instance, if you work a late shift or weekends.

See Also  

For more information about looking at other people s calendars, see Viewing Other Users Calendars in Chapter 21, Scheduling and Managing Meetings.

In this exercise, you will view and change your work week.

OPEN your own Calendar.

1. On the toolbar, click the Work Week button.

   The calendar displays your current work week.

   Troubleshooting  

   If your work week does not match the default days and times described here, work through this exercise using your own settings.

2. Scroll the calendar page so you can see the beginning and end of the work day.

   Notice that the working hours are shaded differently from the rest of the day.

   

3. On the Tools menu, click Options .

   The Options dialog box appears.

4. In the Calendar area of the Preferences tab, click Calendar Options .

   The Calendar Options dialog box appears.

5. In the Calendar work week area, select the Sun and Sat check boxes, and clearthe Tue , Wed , and Thu check boxes.

   The work week is now set to Friday through Monday.

6. Click the down arrow to the right of the Start time box, and click 3:00 PM . Then click the down arrow to the right of the End time box, and click 11:00 PM .

   

7. Click OK , and in the Options dialog box, click OK again.

   Troubleshooting  

   Outlook doesn t allow you to define a workday that crosses midnight, or to define different start and end times for different days.

8. The Calendar displays your new default work week.

9. On the Tools menu, click Options , and then click the Calendar Options button.

10. Select the check boxes for your actual work days.

11. Set your actual start and end times.

12. Click OK to close each of the dialog boxes and set your default work week.

BE SURE TO set your default work week the way you want.

Working with Multiple Time Zones

If you frequently work with people from other countries or regularly travel internationally, you might want to change the time zone displayed in your Calendar or simultaneously view two time zones.

Each time zone is measured in reference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Universal Time (UTC). GMT is defined as the time at the Greenwich Observatory in England.

To change your current time zone:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options .

2. On the Preferences tab, click the Calendar Options button.

3. In the Calendar Options dialog box, click the Time Zone button.

4. In the Time Zone dialog box, click the down arrow to the right of the Time zone box, click the time zone you want, and then click OK three times to close all the dialog boxes.

Note that changing your time zone in Outlook is equivalent to changing your time zone in Control Panel. It affects the time displayed on the Windows taskbar and in any other Windows programs.

To simultaneously display two time zones in your Calendar:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options .

2. On the Preferences tab, click the Calendar Options button.

3. In the Calendar Options dialog box, click the Time Zone button.

4. In the Time Zone dialog box, select the Show an additional time zone check box.

5. In both areas of the dialog box, click in the Label box, and type the label you want for the time zone. (For example, home or office .)

6. Click the down arrow to the right of the second Time zone box, click the second time zone you want to display, and click OK three times to close all the dialog boxes and return to your Calendar.

You can use the Swap Time Zones button in the Time Zone dialog box to replace the current time zone with the second one. Swapping time zones changes all time- related fields, such as when messages are received or the time of appointments, to the new time zone.