Outlook 2010: Managing Your Calendars

Lesson 5: Managing Your Calendars

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Introduction

Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010

Outlook 2010 includes powerful scheduling features in Calendar view. From there, you can create appointments and manage your time.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to schedule appointments and create multiple calendars. We'll also talk about how to organize your schedule, including how to apply categories and reminders.

Calendar view

Calendar view makes it easy to schedule appointments and keep track of important dates, just like a desk calendar. But unlike a physical calendar, Calendar view allows you to quickly edit and rearrange your schedule whenever you want. While most frequently used in the workplace, Calendar view can also be helpful for managing a busy personal schedule on your home computer.

The Calendar view interface

  • To access Calendar view, locate and select the Calendar View tab in the lower-left corner of the screen. Calendar view will appear.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Accessing Calendar view

Click the buttons in the interactive below to become more familiar with Calendar view

labeled graphic

Appointment

Appointments appear on your calendar as they are added. Simply double-click to edit appointment information, like time or location.

Meeting

Upcoming meetings appear on your calendar just like appointments. Meetings will appear on everyone's calendar who has accepted the meeting request.

Meetings are distinguished from appointments by the dashed line on the left.

My Calendars

Your calendars will appear in the Navigation pane. Click the checkbox to show or hide your calendars.

Shared Calendars

Any calendars that are shared with you will appear below your personal calendars. Click the checkbox to show or hide your shared calendars.

Share Calendar Group

The commands in the Share Calendar group allow you to share your calendar with others and modify calendar permissions.

Manage Calendars Group

The commands in the Manage Calendars group allow you to open shared calendars from your contacts list and create new group calendars.

View Options

You can choose a variety of view options for your calendar, including a daily, weekly, or monthly summary of your upcoming appointments and meetings.

Go To Group

Use the commands in the Go To Group to jump to your Daily and Weekly Calendar.

New Meeting

Click New Meeting to schedule a meeting with other people.

New Appointment

Click New Appointment to create a new appointment on your calendar. You'll be able set the time, location, reminder options, and much more.

Schedule View

Schedule view allows you to view multiple schedules from shared calendars at the same time, making it easy to schedule group meetings.

Quick View Calendar

Click any date in the Quick view calendar to see it in the View pane.

Click the arrows to move between months.

To create an appointment:

Whenever you schedule a new appointment, it's easy to add it to your calendar.

  1. Locate and select the New Appointment command on the Ribbon.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Create an appointment
  2. The New Appointment dialog box will appear. Enter the desired information for the appointment. At the very least, you should include a subject, time, and location, but you can also include lots of other information, such as reminder preferences and detailed notes.
  3. When you're done entering the appointment information, click Save & Close.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Entering and saving appointment information
  4. The appointment will be saved and added to your calendar.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010The appointment added to the calendar

You can also schedule a new appointment by selecting the desired time on your calendar. The New Appointment dialog box will appear with the selected time.

Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Scheduling an appointment directly from the calendar

If you have a standing appointment—for example, a weekly staff meeting or lunch date every Wednesday—you can create a recurring appointment that will appear on your calendar automatically. Simply click the Recurrence command when scheduling an appointment, then choose how frequently the appointment should be scheduled.

Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Creating a recurring appointment

Using multiple calendars

If you keep a lot of different appointments, you can use multiple calendars to help organize your schedules. For example, you might use one calendar to keep track of your personal tasks and another to manage upcoming meetings with clients.

To create a new calendar:

  1. Click the Folder tab on the Ribbon, then click the New Calendar command.
    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Clicking the New Calendar command
  2. The Create New Folder dialog box will appear. Enter a name for the new calendar, make sure Calendar is selected, then click OK.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Creating a new calendar
  3. The new calendar will appear in the View pane. Click the check box in the Navigation pane to toggle the calendar on and off.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010The newly created calendar

Doing more with calendars

Once you're familiar with the basics of Calendar view, you can start taking advantage of its most helpful features with these additional tips.

To apply categories to appointments:

If you schedule a lot of different appointments, you can keep them organized by applying categories, just like email messages. If you've already customized categories to manage email messages (see Lesson 3), you'll be able to apply those same categories to your appointments.

  • To apply a category, select the desired appointment, then click the Categorize command on the Ribbon.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Applying categories to appointments and meetings

To create multiple-day appointments:

If you have an appointment that will span multiple days, such as a vacation or conference, you can schedule the appointment to extend across multiple days on your calendar.

  1. When creating the appointment, set the Start and End time for the full length of the appointment.


    Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Creating a multiday appointment
  2. The appointment will appear on your calendar across multiple days.
Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010A single appointment spanning multiple days

To create appointment reminders:

You can create reminders for your most important appointments, which can be especially helpful if you keep a busy schedule. For example, you might schedule a reminder for an important lunch date that would appear 30 minutes before the appointment.

    1. To create a reminder, simply set a reminder time on the Ribbon when creating a new appointment.


      Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Setting an appointment reminder
    2. The reminder will appear in a pop-up dialog box at the scheduled time.


      Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010The scheduled reminder

To print calendars:

If you need to reference your schedule on the go, it's easy to print your calendars.

    1. Click the File tab on the Ribbon.


      Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Clicking the File tab
    2. Backstage view will appear. Locate and select Print.


      Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Clicking Print in Backstage view
    3. The Print pane will appear. Choose your desired layout, including daily, weekly, and monthly summaries of your appointments and meetings, then click Print.


      Screenshot of Microsoft Outlook 2010Printing calendars

Challenge!

  1. Navigate to Calendar view.
  2. Create a new appointment and set a reminder for 30 minutes before the appointment.
  3. Create a new calendar.
  4. Apply a category to an appointment.

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