Overview of Calendar Features

Using Outlook, you can set appointments or events or invite other people to meetings. After the events are on your calendar, you can use views to control which events are shown on your calendar and how they're displayed.

The default view on the calendar uses the Day/Week/Month view with the Date Navigator thumbnails on the left, along with a list of available calendars, including all calendars in your message store and shared calendars (see Figure 11.1).

Figure 11.1. The Outlook 2003 calendar's default view.

The number of date navigators shown varies with the size of the Outlook window and the width of the Navigation Pane. When you use a very high screen resolution setting and have set the Navigation Pane at its maximum size (one-half the screen width), you might have twenty or more calendar date navigators. When you enable V iew, A rrange By, S h ow Views in Navigation Pane, you'll have fewer calendar date navigators in the Navigation Pane.

Only Exchange Server users can use the Open a Shared Calendar option, but it's listed in the Navigation Pane even if you don't have an Exchange Server account in your profile. The Share My Calendar option is listed only if you have Exchange service in your profile.

The sections in the Navigation Pane aren't adjustable; they adjust automatically as you change the width of the Navigation Pane or add more folders to the My Calendar and Other Calendars sections. If you prefer using the TaskPad with your calendar, enable it using the View, TaskPad menu selection (see Figure 11.2).

Figure 11.2. When the TaskPad is enabled, the date navigators on the Navigation Pane disappear.

Drag the bar dividing the date navigators and the TaskPad to the top of the screen to hide the date navigators on the right side. Doing so causes the date navigators to reappear in the Navigation Pane.

Outlook's calendar is essentially infinite, for all practical purposes, with an ending date of 8/31/4500. When you're scrolling the calendar in Day/Week/Month view, it might appear that the calendar spans two years ”one year each before and after "today" ”based on the size and position of the scrollbar button. However, unlike other Windows programs, the scrollbar slider is one size and its position at the top or bottom of the window doesn't indicate the beginning or end of the calendar.

To continue scrolling the calendar once you've reached the top or bottom of the scrollbar, you must use the scrollbar arrow buttons or the Page Up and Page Down keys.