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scheduling with calendar

About appointments, meetings, and events

Appointments are activities that you schedule in your Calendar that do not involve inviting other people or reserving resources.

You can set reminders for your appointments. You can also specify how others view your Calendar by designating the time an appointment takes as busy (Blocks of time marked busy appear with a blue background and are seen as unavailable when other people view your Calendar) free (Blocks of time marked free appear with a clear background and are seen as available when other people view your Calendar. An appointment of zero duration, while visible in the selected block of time when viewing days, shows as free time to other people) tentative (Blocks of time marked tentative appear with a light blue background and are seen as available when other people view your Calendar) or out of office (Blocks of time marked out of office appear with a purple background and are seen as unavailable when other people view your Calendar) You can schedule recurring (Items that occur repeatedly. For example, an appointment or task that occurs on a regular basis, such as a weekly status meeting or a monthly haircut, can be designated as recurring) appointments. Clicking an appointment selects it, and double-clicking the left move handle (The left border of an appointment that you click to move the appointment. When viewing a single day in Calendar, click the left move handle and drag to move the appointment; click the top or bottom handle to resize the appointment) opens it. You can view your appointments by day, week, or month.

When you select start and end times for an appointment, you can take advantage of Autodate functionality and type text such as "next Tuesday" or "noon" instead of typing an exact date or time.

You can schedule an appointment in your own Calendar, and other users can give you permission to schedule or make changes to appointments in their Calendars. Appointments can also be made private (Other people cannot see an item marked private, even if they have permission to access your folders)

A meeting is an appointment you invite people to or reserve resources for.

You can create and send meeting requests and reserve resources (A conference room, TV, computer, or any equipment needed at a meeting. You can look up a resource's availability, compare a resource's schedule to yours, and block out time in a resource's Calendar. You invite resources to your meetings the same way you invite people) for face-to-face meetings or for online meetings. To create an online meeting, such as a NetMeeting, select the This is an online meeting using check box on the Appointment tab of your meeting request. When you create a meeting, you identify the people to invite and the resources to reserve, and you pick a meeting time. Responses to your meeting request appear in your Inbox. You can track responses by opening a meeting and then clicking Show attendee status on the Attendee Availability tab in the Meeting dialog box. You can also add people to an existing meeting or reschedule a meeting.

An event is an activity that lasts 24 hours or longer.

Examples of an event include a trade show, the Olympics, a vacation, or a seminar. An annual event, such as a birthday or anniversary, occurs yearly on a specific date, while a standard event occurs once and can last for one day or several days. Events and annual events do not occupy blocks of time in your Calendar; instead, they appear in banners (Event or holiday name that appears at the top of the dates you specify in Calendar. A banner can span multiple days. Items in banners are marked as free time and are represented by the color white when you view your Calendar) An all-day appointment displays time as busy when viewed by others, while an event or annual event displays time as free.

Open a Calendar item

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. Click the item (An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook [similar to a file in other programs]. Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, and notes) you want to open.
  3. On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Selected Items.
  4. If the item is a recurring item, click Open this occurrence or Open the series

Tip   You can also double-click the item to open it.

Schedule time in Calendar to complete a task

  1. Drag the task you want to schedule time for from Tasks into Calendar.
  2. On the Appointment tab, select the options you want.
  3. Click Save and Close.

What you can type in date and time fields

Instead of typing numbers for a date or time, you can type a description of the date or time in words. Outlook then converts the description to a number format for you. This conversion is called AutoDate. For example, if you type one week from today in a date field, Outlook displays the numbers that represent the correct month, day, and year.

The following list provides examples of what you can type in date and time fields. Use this list for ideas, and then try to type some descriptions yourself. Also, try typing abbreviations. For example, you can type Feb instead of February.

Dates spelled out

  • July twenty-third, March 28th, first of September
  • this Fri, two days from now, sixty days after
  • three wks ago, next week
  • one month from today

Times spelled out

  • noon, midnight
  • nine o'clock am, five twenty

Descriptions of times and dates

  • now
  • yesterday, today, tomorrow
  • next, last
  • ago, before, beforehand, beginning, previous, start
  • after, end, ending, following
  • for, from, that, this, till, through, until

Holidays that fall on the same date every year (punctuation is optional)

  • 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
  • Washington's Birthday

Note   If you type something in a date or time field and later change your mind, you can delete the entry or type none.

Delete a Calendar item

  1. Select the item (An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook [similar to a file in other programs]. Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, and notes) you want to delete.

    To delete more than one Calendar item, press and hold down CTRL and click the items you want.

  2. Click Delete .

Schedule an appointment, meeting, or event

An appointment is an activity that you schedule in your Calendar that does not involve other people or resources. A recurring (Items that occur repeatedly. For example, an appointment or task that occurs on a regular basis, such as a weekly status meeting or a monthly haircut, can be designated as recurring) appointment repeats on a regular basis.

A meeting is an appointment you invite people to or reserve resources (A conference room, TV, computer, or any equipment needed at a meeting. You can look up a resource's availability, compare a resource's schedule to yours, and block out time in a resource's Calendar. You invite resources to your meetings the same way you invite people) for. A recurring meeting repeats on a regular basis. Meetings can be face-to-face or online. You can only send meeting requests if you use Outlook to send e-mail.

An event is an activity that lasts 24 hours or more. An annual event, such as a birthday or anniversary, occurs yearly on a specific date. Events and annual events do not occupy blocks of time in your Calendar; instead, they appear in banners (Event or holiday name that appears at the top of the dates you specify in Calendar. A banner can span multiple days. Items in banners are marked as free time and are represented by the color white when you view your Calendar)

Copy an appointment

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. Hold down CTRL and drag the item to a new time in Calendar or to a new date in Date Navigator.

    To copy an appointment to a different date and time, first copy the appointment to the date you want in Date Navigator, click that date in Date Navigator, and then, in Calendar, drag the appointment to the hour you want.

Set an appointment reminder

  1. Open the appointment or appointment series if the appointment is recurring.
  2. Select the Reminder check box, and then enter the amount of time before the appointment when you want the reminder to occur.
  3. To customize the reminder sound for this appointment only, click reminder , and then select the sound you want played.

Set or remove reminder options for new appointments

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Preferences tab.
  2. To have a reminder automatically turned on or off for new appointments, select or clear the Default reminder check box.
  3. If you selected the check box, enter the amount of time before the appointment when you want the reminder to occur.

Edit an appointment

  1. Open the appointment you want to change.
  2. On the Appointment tab, select the options you want to change.

Tip   In Calendar, you can drag the appointment to a different date. You can also edit the subject by clicking the description text and typing your changes.

Move an appointment

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. Drag the item to a new time in Calendar or a new date in Date Navigator.

    To change both the date and time of the appointment, move the appointment to the date you want in Date Navigator, click that date in Date Navigator, and then, in Calendar, drag the appointment to the hour you want.

Notes  

  • If the appointment is recurring, only the selected instance of the appointment is moved. To move all instances of an appointment, open the appointment, click the Actions menu, click Recurrence, and then change the recurrence pattern.
  • You can also open an appointment and change the day or time there.

Make an appointment recurring

  1. Open the appointment you want to make recurring.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Recurrence.
  3. Click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) at which you want the appointment to recur, and then select options for the frequency.
  4. Click OK, and then click Save and Close .

Edit a recurring appointment

  1. Open the recurring appointment you want to change.
  2. To change the appointment time, recurrence pattern, or range of recurrence for all instances of an appointment, click the Actions menu, click Recurrence, and then select the options you want.
  3. To change all other options, such as location or subject, for all instances of an appointment, select the options you want to change on the Appointment tab.

Tip   If you only want to change one instance of a recurring appointment, open the appointment, click Open this occurrence, and then make your changes on the Appointment tab.

Turn an appointment into a meeting

  1. Open the appointment.
  2. Click the Attendee Availability tab.
  3. Invite attendees and resources.
  4. Determine a meeting time.
  5. Click the Appointment tab.
  6. If you did not schedule a room, enter the location in the Location box.
  7. Click Send.

Tip   To quickly turn an appointment into a meeting, open the appointment, click the Actions menu, click Invite Attendees, and then enter names in the To box.

Save an appointment in vCalendar format

  1. Click the appointment you want to save in vCalendar format.
  2. On the File menu, click Save As.
  3. In the Save in box, click the location where you want to save the file.
  4. In the File name box, type a name for the file.
  5. In the Save as type box, click vCalendar Format.

A meeting is an appointment you invite people to or reserve resources for.

You can create and send meeting requests and reserve resources (A conference room, TV, computer, or any equipment needed at a meeting. You can look up a resource's availability, compare a resource's schedule to yours, and block out time in a resource's Calendar. You invite resources to your meetings the same way you invite people) for face-to-face meetings or for online meetings. To create an online meeting, such as a NetMeeting, select the This is an online meeting using check box on the Appointment tab of your meeting request. When you create a meeting, you identify the people to invite and the resources to reserve, and you pick a meeting time. Responses to your meeting request appear in your Inbox. You can track responses by opening a meeting and then clicking Show attendee status on the Attendee Availability tab in the Meeting dialog box. You can also add people to an existing meeting or reschedule a meeting.

Schedule a meeting

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Plan a Meeting.
  3. Invite attendees and resources.
  4. Click AutoPick, and then click an option.
  5. Click Make Meeting.
  6. In the Subject box, type a description.
  7. If you did not schedule a room, enter the location in the Location box.
  8. Select other options you want.
  9. Click Send.

Tip   To send agendas or meeting minutes, attach a file to your meeting request.

Schedule a recurring meeting

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Plan a meeting.
  3. Invite attendees and resources.
  4. Click AutoPick, and then click an option.
  5. Click Make Meeting.
  6. In the Subject box, type a description.
  7. If you did not schedule a room, enter the location in the Location box.
  8. Select other options you want.
  9. On the Actions menu, click Recurrence.
  10. Select the recurrence pattern and range of recurrence options you want.
  11. Click OK, and then click Send.

Invite attendees and resources to a meeting

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Plan a Meeting.
  3. Click Invite Others.
  4. In the Type name or select from list box, enter the name of the person or resource you want at the meeting.
  5. For each name entered, click Required, Optional, or Resources. (The Required and Optional attendees appear in the To box on the Appointment tab, and Resources appear in the Location box.)
  6. Click OK, and then use the scroll bars to view the free/busy time (In Calendar, when viewing days, blocks of time that have been scheduled appear with a color or pattern to indicate how the time is used. The color or pattern identifies time as free, busy, tentative, or out of office. 
    This free/busy time Appears with
    Free  Clear (no color )
    Busy Blue
    Out of office Purple
    Tentative Light blue
    Unknown Diagonal lines

    )for invitees.

  7. Click a time when all invitees are available. You can use AutoPick to find the next available free time for all invitees.
  8. Click Make Meeting.

Tips

  • You can quickly schedule a meeting with someone in your Contacts list. In Contacts, click the contact, click the Actions menu, and then click New Meeting Request to Contact.
  • To get details on conference rooms, click each item in the Resources list, and then click Properties.

Use personal distribution lists in a meeting request

  1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Meeting Request.
  2. In the To box, type the name of the personal distribution list.
  3. Click the Attendee Availability tab.
  4. Click the plus sign (+) next to the name of the personal distribution list to see the availability of individual members, or to remove them from the meeting request.

Change meeting information after sending the invitation

  1. Open the meeting.
  2. On the Appointment tab, select the options you want to change.
  3. To make the meeting recur, click the Actions menu, and then click Recurrence.
  4. Enter start and end times.
  5. Click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) at which you want the meeting to recur, and then select options for the frequency.
  6. Click OK, and then click Send.

Tip   You can quickly change the time for a meeting. When viewing days, click the appointment left move handle (The left border of an appointment that you click to move the appointment. When viewing a single day in Calendar, click the left move handle and drag to move the appointment; click the top or bottom handle to resize the appointment) or when viewing weeks or months, click anywhere on the appointment and drag the meeting to a new time or to a new day in Date Navigator.

Remove or add attendees and resources

  1. Open the meeting.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Add or Remove Attendees.
  3. To remove an attendee or resource, click the name you want to remove, and then press DELETE.

    To add an attendee or resource, enter the name you want to add in the Type name or select from list box, and then click Required, Optional, or Resources.

Create a meeting request from a contact

  1. Select the contact, click the Actions menu, and then click New Meeting Request to Contact.
  2. In the Subject box, type a description.
  3. In the Location box, enter the location.
  4. Enter start and end times.
  5. Select other options you want.
  6. Click Send .

Automatically delete responses without comments

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Preferences tab.
  2. Click E-mail Options, and then click Tracking Options.
  3. Select the Delete blank voting and meeting responses after processing check box.

Review responses to your requests before processing

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Preferences tab, click E-Mail Options, and then click Tracking Options.
  3. To review responses in your Inbox before they are recorded, clear the Process requests and responses on arrival check box.

    To automatically record responses in the original item, select the Process requests and responses on arrival check box.

Cancel a meeting

  1. In Calendar, open the meeting you organized.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Cancel Meeting.

Tip   You can delete the meeting by clicking the meeting and then clicking Delete .

How can I schedule travel time before and after a meeting and preserve the meeting start time?

Create two separate "travel time" appointments, one before and one after your meeting, for the amount of time you need.

An event is an activity that lasts 24 hours or longer.

Examples of an event include a trade show, the Olympics, a vacation, or a seminar. An annual event, such as a birthday or anniversary, occurs yearly on a specific date, while a standard event occurs once and can last for one day or several days. Events and annual events do not occupy blocks of time in your Calendar; instead, they appear in banners (Event or holiday name that appears at the top of the dates you specify in Calendar. A banner can span multiple days. Items in banners are marked as free time and are represented by the color white when you view your Calendar) An all-day appointment displays time as busy when viewed by others, while an event or annual event displays time as free.

Edit events

  1. Open the event you want to change.
  2. On the Appointment tab, select the options you want to change.

Tip   You can change an event into an appointment, causing the time to be blocked out in your Calendar, by clearing the All day event check box and then entering start and end times. Events are defined as lasting from midnight to midnight; clearing this check box allows you to enter specific times.

About saving a calendar as a Web page

You can save a calendar as a Web page and then share it with others. For example, you might post a calendar with important project dates as a page on your company intranet, or your soccer team's game schedule as a page on your personal Web site. You can then easily refer others to the calendar by distributing its URL (Uniform Resource locator [URL]. An address to an object, document, page or other destination [for example, a newsgroup or a World Wide Web page] on the Internet or on an intranet. A URL expresses the protocol [such as FTP or HTTP] to be accessed and where the destination is located. A URL may also specify an Internet e-mail address. Some examples of URLs are:

http://www.example.microsoft.com
ftp://ftp.server.somewhere/ftp.file
news:alt.hypertext
gopher://gopher.someones.homepage/default.html
file:///\\server\share
file:///c:\)

When you save a calendar as a Web page, you can specify the start and end dates for the calendar, and whether to include appointment details that are entered in the text section of the appointment. You can also add a background.

You can post your calendar to any Internet service provider (ISP)'s Web server running NCSA HTTPD, APACHE Web Server or any other standard Web server installed with the default configuration and running the FTP (File Transfer Protocol [FTP]. A protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files from one location to another over the Internet. URLs of files on FTP servers begin with ftp://) protocol. Microsoft FrontPage servers and Microsoft Windows NT Internet Information Servers (version 4.0 recommended) with Posting Acceptor installed can accept calendar Web pages created by using Outlook through an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol [HTTP]. The behind-the-scenes Internet protocol that delivers information by way of the World Wide Web. The protocol makes it possible for a user to use a client program to enter a URL [or click a hyperlink] and retrieve text, graphics, sound, and other digital information from a Web server. URLs of files on Web servers begin with http://) connection. Contact your ISP for information on posting.

Save a Calendar as a Web page

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. On the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
  3. Under Duration, enter dates in the Start date and End date boxes, and then under Options, click the options you want. For Help on an option, click and then click the option.
  4. Under Save As, enter a title for the calendar in the Calendar title box.
  5. In the File name box, enter the file protocol (The part of an Internet address before the colon [such as http, ftp, and news] that specifies the access scheme for the address. Some examples of protocols within an Internet address are:

    http://www.example.microsoft.com
    ftp://ftp.server.somewhere/ftp.file
    news:alt.hypertext )     followed by the path to the location where you want to save the files.

Notes 

  • If you do not want to view the calendar in your browser after you save it, clear the Open saved Web page in browser check box.
  • If you are saving the files to a local drive, type file:// before the path.
  • If you are saving the files to an Internet site, use FTP (File Transfer Protocol [FTP]. A protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files from one location to another over the Internet. URLs of files on FTP servers begin with ftp://), or HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol [HTTP]. The behind-the-scenes Internet protocol that delivers information by way of the World Wide Web. The protocol makes it possible for a user to use a client program to enter a URL [or click a hyperlink] and retrieve text, graphics, sound, and other digital information from a Web server. URLs of files on Web servers begin with http://). Type ftp:// or http:// before the path.
  • To stop saving your calendar as a Web page after the operation begins, click Cancel.

Specify a background for a calendar saved to the Web

  1. Click Calendar.
  2. On the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
  3. Under Options, select the Use background graphic check box, and then type the path to the graphic or click Browse to choose the path.