15

Manage scheduling

You can use the Outlook 2019 calendar to organize your daily activities and to remind you of important tasks and events. If you’re a busy person and you use the Outlook calendar to its fullest potential, it might at times seem as though the calendar runs your life—but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Using the calendar effectively can help you stay organized, on time, and on task. You can schedule and track appointments, meetings, and events, and block time as a reminder to yourself to take care of tasks. And because you can also set up Outlook on your mobile device, you can be assured of having up-to-date schedule information available wherever and whenever you need it.

If you have a Microsoft Exchange Server account, a calendar is part of that account. Some internet email accounts also have associated calendars. When you configure Outlook to connect to a different type of account, Outlook also connects to the associated calendar. If you don’t have a calendar as part of your account, Outlook creates a blank calendar for you. You can easily schedule appointments, events, and meetings on any Outlook calendar.

This chapter guides you through procedures related to scheduling and changing appointments, events, and meetings; responding to meeting requests; and displaying different views of a calendar.

Display different views of a calendar

Just as you can with other Outlook modules, you can specify the way that Outlook displays calendar information (the view) and the attribute by which that information is arranged (the arrangement).

The Calendar module has these four content views:

• Calendar This is the standard view in which you display your Outlook calendar. In the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement, Calendar view displays the subject, location, and organizer (if space allows) of each appointment, meeting, or event, in addition to the availability bar and any special icons, such as Private or Recurrence.

• Preview In the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement, Preview view displays more information, including information from the notes area of the appointment window, as space allows.

• List This list view displays all appointments, meetings, and events on your calendar.

• Active This list view displays only future appointments, meetings, and events.

When working in a list view, you can group calendar items by selecting a field from the Arrangement gallery on the View tab.

The available arrangements vary based on the view. In Calendar view and Preview view, the arrangements are based on the time span, and include the following:

• Day Displays one day at a time separated into half-hour increments.

• Work Week Displays only the days of your work week. The default work week is Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Time slots that fall within the work week are white on the calendar; time slots outside of the work week are colored.

• Week Displays one calendar week (Sunday through Saturday) at a time.

• Month Displays one calendar month at a time, in addition to any preceding or following days that fall into the displayed weeks.

• Schedule view Displays a horizontal view of the calendar for a selected time period. You can add other people’s calendars as rows in this view, so that you can easily compare multiple calendars for specific time periods.

  

  Schedule view for a group of coworkers

  This arrangement is very useful for comparing limited time periods for multiple calendars, such as those of the members of a calendar group.

You switch among arrangements by selecting the buttons in the Arrangement group on the View tab of the Calendar module ribbon.

In this view, you can display your entire work week at one time

You can use these additional tools to change the time period shown in the calendar:

• Display the previous or next time period by selecting the Back button or the Forward button next to the date or date range in the calendar header.

• Display the current day by selecting the Today button in the Go To group on the Home tab.

• Display a seven-day period starting with the current day by selecting Next 7 Days in the Go To group on the Home tab.

• Display week numbers to the left of each week in Month view and in the Date Navigator. If you implement this option, you can select the week tab to display that week.

  Tip

  Specific weeks are referred to in some locations and industries by number to simplify the communication of dates. (For example, you can say you’ll be out of the office “Week 24” rather than “June 7–11.”) Week 1 is the calendar week in which January 1 falls, Week 2 is the following week, and so on through to the end of the year. Because of the way the weeks are numbered, a year can end in Week 52 or (more commonly) in Week 53. To display week numbers in the Date Navigator and in the Month view of the calendar, select the Show Week Numbers... check box on the Calendar page of the Outlook Options dialog box.

To display your calendar for a month

• On the Home tab, in the Arrange group, select Month to display your calendar for the month.

• Press Ctrl+Alt+4.

To navigate in Month view

• To the left of the date range in the calendar header, select the Forward button to move the calendar forward one month or the Back button to move the calendar back one month.

• On the View tab, in the Current View group, select Change View and then, in the gallery, select Preview to display additional details on the monthly calendar.

To display a seven-day week in the calendar

1. In the Date Navigator at the top of the Folder Pane, point to the left edge of a calendar row that contains one or more bold dates.

2. When the cursor changes to point toward the calendar, click once to display the selected seven-day week in the calendar.

To display your work week schedule

• On the Home tab, in the Arrange group, select Work Week.

• Press Ctrl+Alt+2.

  The first time slot of your defined work day appears at the top of the pane. Time slots within your work day are white; time slots outside of your work day are shaded.

To display your calendar for a day

• On the View tab, in the Arrangement group, select Day to display only the selected day’s schedule.

To display today’s schedule

• On the Home tab, in the Go To group, select Today. If the calendar wasn’t previously displaying the current week, it does so now. The times displayed remain the same. The current day and the current time slot are highlighted.

To display your task list on the Calendar

• On the View tab, in the Layout group, select Daily Task List and then do any of the following:

  • Select Normal to display the task list area below the calendar.

  • Select Minimized to display a single row below the calendar. The minimized Daily Task List displays a count of your total, active, and completed tasks for the day.

  • Select Off to hide the task list.

    Tip

    The Daily Task List is available in the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement of the Calendar. It is not available in Month view or Schedule view.

To return the calendar to its default settings

1. In the Change View gallery, select Calendar to return the calendar to its default settings.

2. In the Current View group, select Reset View to return to the default calendar state.

Schedule appointments and events

Appointments are blocks of time you schedule for only yourself (as opposed to meetings, to which you invite other Outlook users). An appointment has a specific start time and end time (as opposed to an event, which occurs for one or more full 24-hour periods).

Events are day-long blocks of time that you schedule on your Outlook calendar, such as birthdays, payroll days, or anything else occurring on a specific day but not at a specific time. In all other respects, creating an event is identical to creating an appointment, in that you can specify a location, indicate recurrence, indicate your availability, and attach additional information to the event item.

You can schedule an appointment by entering, at minimum, a subject and time in an appointment window or directly on the calendar. The basic appointment window also includes a field for the appointment location and a notes area in which you can store general information, including formatted text, website links, and even file attachments so that they are readily available to you at the time of the appointment.

If your organization has Skype For Business or Teams, those options are available on the Appointment tab

If you create an appointment that immediately follows or precedes another, the InfoBar at the top of the window indicates that the appointment is adjacent to another on your calendar. If you create an appointment that has a time overlap with an existing appointment, the InfoBar indicates that the appointment conflicts with another.

To schedule an event, you need to provide only the date. You can schedule an event in an appointment window or directly on the calendar.

When the Calendar view is displayed, events are shown on the calendar in the date area; appointments are displayed in the time slots.

You can display basic details in a ScreenTip by pointing to the appointment or event

To open a new appointment window

• In the Calendar module, do either of the following:

  • On the Home tab, in the New group, select New Appointment.

  • Press Ctrl+N.

Or

• In any module, do either of the following:

  • On the Home tab, in the New group, select New Items, and then select Appointment.

  • Press Ctrl+Shift+A.

To schedule an appointment

1. Open a new appointment window.

2. In the Subject box, enter an identifying name for the appointment.

3. In the Location box, enter the appointment location, if it’s pertinent, or any other information that you want available in the appointment header.

4. In the Start time row, enter or select a date and time. Outlook automatically sets the End Time to a half hour after the start time.

5. In the End time row, enter or select a date and time. An appointment can span overnight or across multiple days.

6. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, select Save & Close.

Or

1. Display the calendar in the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement of the Calendar view.

2. Do either of the following in the calendar pane:

   • In the calendar, select the time slot at the appointment start time on the day of the appointment.

   • Drag from the appointment start time through to the appointment end time.

   When you release the mouse button, Outlook displays an editable bar that spans the selected time (or one time slot, as specified by the time scale of the calendar).

   

   Schedule simple appointments directly on the calendar

   SEE ALSO

   For information about setting the calendar time scale, see “Display different views of a calendar” earlier in this chapter.

3. In the editable bar, enter an identifying name for the appointment. When you begin typing, Outlook creates an appointment with the default availability and reminder time.

   

   When an appointment is being edited on the calendar, it has sizing handles on the top and bottom

4. If you want to change the appointment time span, drag the top or bottom sizing handle.

5. Press Enter or click away from the bar to create the appointment.

To schedule an event

1. Open a new appointment window.

2. In the Subject box, enter an identifying name for the event.

3. In the Location box, enter the event location, if it’s pertinent, or any other information that you want available in the event header.

4. In the Start time row, enter or select the event date. Then at the right end of the row, select the All day event check box.

5. Enter any additional information as you would for an appointment. Then save and close the event.

Or

1. Display the Calendar view of the calendar.

2. Do either of the following:

   • In the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement of the calendar, on the day that you want to create the event, click or tap the space below the day and date and above the time slots. This is the event slot.

   • In the Month arrangement of the calendar, click or tap the day that you want to create the event.

3. Enter a title for the event, and then press Enter.

Convert calendar items

All Outlook calendar items are built from the same basic template. These two factors define a calendar item as an appointment, event, or meeting:

• Whether the item has specific start and end times or is all day

• Whether you invite other people through Outlook

You can easily convert an appointment into an event or meeting, or convert an event into an appointment or an invited event.

If you want to schedule an appointment, event, or meeting based on the information in an email message that you receive, you can easily do so by dragging the message to the calendar. For example, if a friend or coworker sends you a message that contains the details of the grand opening for a local art gallery, you can add that information to your calendar. You can retain any or all of the message information as part of the calendar item so that you (or other meeting participants) have the information on hand when you need it. After creating the calendar item, you can delete the actual message from your Inbox.

To create an appointment from an email message

1. Display your Inbox.

2. Drag the message from the message list to the Calendar link or button on the Navigation Bar.

3. After the cursor changes to a plus sign, release the mouse button to create an appointment based on the message and open the appointment window for editing. The appointment has the subject and content of the original message. The start and end times are set to the next half-hour increment following the current time.

4. Set the date and times for the appointment, and do any of the following:

   • In the Options group, change the availability, reminder time, or recurrence.

   • In the Tags group, assign a category to the appointment, mark it as private, or change the priority.

   • In the content pane, edit the original message content to suit the requirements of the appointment.

5. In the appointment window, select Save & Close to save the appointment to your calendar.

To convert an appointment to an event

1. Open the appointment window.

2. At the right end of the Start time row, select the All day event check box.

3. Change the event date, options, or tags, and then save and close the event window.

To convert an appointment to a meeting

1. Open the appointment window.

2. On the Appointment tab in the Attendees group, select Invite Attendees to add a To box to the header and display the meeting window features.

3. Enter contact information for the people you want to invite to the meeting.

4. Add a location if necessary, and then select Send.

To convert an event to an invited event

1. Open the event window.

2. On the Event tab, in the Attendees group, select Invite Attendees to add a To box to the header and display the meeting window features.

3. Enter contact information for the people you want to invite to the event.

4. Add a location if necessary, and then select Send.

To convert an event to an appointment

1. Open the event window.

2. At the right end of the Start time row, clear the All day event check box.

3. Set the appointment start and end times, and change the options as necessary. Then save and close the appointment window.

Configure calendar item options

Appointments, events, and meetings share many common elements, and you use the same techniques to work with those options in all types of calendar items. The five options that you can configure for all items are:

• Time zones You can specify the time zone in which an appointment, event, or meeting occurs. This helps to ensure that the start and end times are clearly defined when you’re traveling or inviting people in multiple time zones to an online meeting. You have the option of specifying different time zones for the start time and the finish time. This is useful when your “appointment” is an airplane flight with departure and arrival cities located in different time zones, and you want the flight to show up correctly wherever you’re currently located.

• Availability When creating an appointment or event, you indicate your availability (referred to as Free/Busy time) by marking it as Free, Working Elsewhere, Tentative, Busy, or Out Of Office. The appointment or event is color-coded on your calendar to match the availability you indicate. Your availability is visible to other Outlook users on your network and is also displayed when you share your calendar or send calendar information to other people.

  The default availability for new appointments and meetings is Busy, and for events is Free.

• Reminder By default, Outlook displays a reminder message 15 minutes before the start time of an appointment or meeting, or 12 hours before an event (at noon the preceding day). You can change the reminder to occur as far as two weeks in advance, or you can turn it off completely if you want to. If you synchronize your Outlook installation with a mobile device, reminders also appear on your mobile device. This is very convenient when you are away from your computer.

  Tip

  Reminders can be indicated on the calendar by a bell icon. This option is turned off by default in Outlook 2019. You can turn it on in the Calendar Options section of the Calendar page of the Outlook Options dialog box.

• Recurrence If you have the same appointment, event, or meeting on a regular basis—for example, a weekly exercise class, a monthly team meeting, or an anniversary—you can set it up in your Outlook calendar as a recurring item. A recurring calendar item can happen at almost any regular interval, such as every Tuesday and Thursday, every other week, or the last weekday of every month.

  Configuring a recurrence creates multiple instances of the item on your calendar at the time interval you specify. You can set the item to recur until further notice, to end after a certain number of occurrences, or to end by a certain date. The individual occurrences of the recurring item are linked. When making changes to a recurring item, you can choose to update all occurrences or only an individual occurrence of the appointment.

  Recurring items are indicated on the calendar by circling arrows.

• Privacy You can tag a calendar item as Private if you want to ensure that the details aren’t displayed when you share your calendar or send calendar information to other people.

  Private items are indicated on the calendar by a lock and are identified to other people as Private Appointment rather than by the subject.

You can specify time zones, your availability, the reminder time, and the recurrence, and mark an item as private, when you create the item. Alternatively, you can edit the item later and configure any of these options. The time zone can be specified only in the item window; the other options can be set on the item type–specific tab in the item window or the item type–specific tool tab that appears on the Outlook ribbon when you select an item on the calendar. In single-occurrence items, these tabs are labeled Appointment, Event, Meeting, or Invited Event. In recurring items, the tab names include Occurrence or Series to indicate that you’re editing one or all occur-rences of the item.

Outlook evaluates recurring items and provides information

You can assign categories and importance to appointments, events, and meetings in the same way that you do to messages and other Outlook items. In many ways, categories are more useful in the Calendar than in other modules.

Color categories provide information at a glance about your schedule.

To specify the time zone of an appointment or meeting

1. Open the item window.

2. On the Appointment or Meeting tab, in the Options group, select Time Zones to display the time zone controls in the Start Time and End Time rows. The time zone controls display the time zone your computer is currently set to.

3. Select the time zone control that you want to change, and then select the time zone.

   

   Set the time zones to ensure that the time is accurate from any location

To hide the time zone controls

1. Select identical entries in the Start time and End time time zone controls.

2. On the Appointment or Meeting tab, in the Options group, select the Time Zones button to remove the controls.

To modify an appointment, event, or meeting

1. Display the calendar in the Day, Work Week, or Week arrangement of the Calendar view, with the appointment visible.

2. In the calendar pane, click or tap the item once to select it. Then do any of the following:

   • On the item type–specific tool tab, make any changes to the options or tags.

   • Drag the item from the current time slot to a new time slot.

   • Drag the top sizing handle to change an appointment start time.

   • Drag the bottom sizing handle to change an appointment end time.

3. To open the item window, in which you can make other changes, do either of the following:

   • Press Enter.

   • On the item type–specific tool tab, in the Actions group, select Open.

To indicate your availability during an appointment, event, or meeting

1. Open the item window, or select the item on the calendar.

2. On the item-specific tab or tool tab, in the Options group, select the Show As list, and then select the availability.

The default availability for appointments is Busy

To change the default reminder for an appointment, event, or meeting

1. Open the item window, or select the item on the calendar.

2. On the item-specific tab or tool tab, in the Options group, select the Reminder list, and then select the time (or select None to have no reminder).

To create recurrences of an appointment, event, or meeting

1. Open the item window, or select the item on the calendar.

2. On the item-specific tab or tool tab, in the Options group, select Recurrence to open the Appointment Recurrence, Event Recurrence, or Meeting Recurrence dialog box. The default recurrence is weekly on the currently selected day of the week.

   

   When configuring a recurrence, you can change the times, days, and frequency from the Appointment Recurrence dialog box

3. In the Recurrence dialog box, do any of the following:

   • In the End list, select the arrow and select an end time for the recurring meeting.

   • In the Recurrence pattern section, select how often you want the meeting to recur.

   • In the Range of recurrence section, select how many times you want the meeting to occur, or select the last date you want the meeting to recur.

4. Select OK in the Recurrence dialog box to replace the Start Time and End Time fields in the appointment window with the recurrence details.

Schedule and change meetings

A primary difficulty when scheduling a meeting is finding a time that works for all the people who need to attend it. Scheduling meetings through Outlook is significantly simpler than other methods of scheduling meetings, particularly when you need to accommodate the schedules of several people. Outlook displays the individual and collective schedules of people within your own organization, and of people outside of your organization who have published their calendars to the internet. You can review attendees’ schedules to locate a time when everyone is available or have Outlook find a convenient time for you.

You can send an Outlook meeting invitation (referred to as a meeting request) to anyone who has an email account—even to a person who doesn’t use Outlook. You can send a meeting request from any type of email account (such as an Exchange account or an internet email account).

The meeting window has two pages: the Appointment page and the Scheduling Assistant page. The Appointment page is visible by default. You can enter all the required information directly on the Appointment page, or use the additional features available on the Scheduling Assistant page to find the best time for the meeting.

The Appointment page of a meeting window

The Room Finder is open by default on the right side of each page of the meeting window. This handy tool helps you identify dates and times that work for the greatest number of attendees, and available locations. The monthly calendar at the top of the Room Finder indicates the collective availability of the group on each day, as follows:

• Dates that occur in the past and nonworking days are unavailable (gray).

• Days when all attendees are available are Good (white).

• Days when most attendees are available are Fair (light blue).

• Days when most attendees are not available are Poor (medium blue).

Managed conference rooms that are available at the indicated meeting time are shown in the center of the Room Finder. At the bottom of the Room Finder pane, the Suggested Times list displays attendee availability for appointments of the length of time you have specified for the meeting.

Selecting a date in the calendar displays the suggested meeting times for just that day. (Scheduling suggestions are not provided for past or nonworking days.) Selecting a meeting time in the Suggested Times list updates the calendar and the meeting request.

People you invite to meetings are referred to as attendees. By default, the attendance of each attendee is indicated as Required. You can inform noncritical attendees of the meeting by marking their attendance as Optional. You can invite entire groups of people by using a contact group or distribution list. You can also invite managed resources, such as conference rooms and audio/visual equipment, that have been set up by your organization’s Exchange administrator.

A meeting request should have at least one attendee other than you, and it must have a start time and an end time. It should also include a subject and a location, but Outlook will send the meeting request without this information if you specifically allow it. The body of a meeting request can include text and web links, and you can also attach files. This is a convenient way to distribute meeting information to attendees ahead of time.

The secondary page of the meeting window is the Scheduling Assistant page, if your email account is part of an Exchange Server network. Otherwise, the secondary page is the Scheduling page, which doesn’t include the Room Finder feature.

You can view information about meeting attendees’ schedules on the Scheduling or Scheduling Assistant page

The Scheduling and Scheduling Assistant pages include a group schedule that shows the status of each attendee’s time throughout your working day. Outlook indicates your suggested meeting time on the group schedule. If free/busy information is available for meeting attendees, the status is indicated by the standard free/busy colors and patterns that match the legend at the bottom of the page. If no information is available (either because Outlook can’t connect to an attendee’s calendar or because the proposed meeting is further out than the scheduling information stored on the server), Outlook shows the time with gray diagonal stripes. The row at the top of the schedule, to the right of the All Attendees heading, indicates the collective schedule of all the attendees.

You can change the time and duration of the meeting to work with the displayed schedules by selecting a different time in the Start Time and End Time lists, by dragging the vertical start time and end time bars in the group schedule, or by selecting the time you want in the Suggested Times list.

Outlook tracks responses from attendees and those responsible for scheduling the resources you requested, so you always have an up-to-date report of how many people will attend your meeting. The number of attendees who have accepted, tentatively accepted, and declined the meeting request appears in the meeting header section when you open a meeting in its own window.

You might find it necessary to change the date, time, or location of a meeting after you send the meeting request, or to add or remove attendees. As the meeting organizer, you can change any information in a meeting request at any time, including adding or removing attendees, or canceling the meeting. Meeting attendees receive updates. Changes to meeting details are tracked so that attendees can quickly identify them.

To open a new meeting window

• On the Home tab of the Calendar module, in the New group, select New Meeting.

• On the Home tab of any module, in the New group, select New Items, and then select Meeting.

• In any module, press Ctrl+Shift+Q.

To create a meeting request

1. Open a new meeting window.

2. In the To box, enter contact information for the attendees.

3. In the Subject box, enter an identifying name for the meeting.

4. In the Location box, enter the meeting location. If your organization uses Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business, you can select the corresponding button on the Meeting toolbar to enter meeting information in the Location box and content pane.

5. In the Start time row, enter or select a date and time. Outlook automatically sets the End Time to a half hour after the start time.

6. In the End time row, enter or select a date and time. A meeting can span overnight or across multiple days.

   

   A basic meeting request

7. Verify the meeting details, and then select Send to add the meeting to your calendar and send the meeting request to the attendees.

To identify times that colleagues are available for meetings

1. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, select Scheduling Assistant. The All Attendees list on the Scheduling Assistant page includes you and any attendees you entered in the To box. The icon next to your name, a magnifying glass in a black circle, indicates that you are the meeting organizer. The icon next to each attendee’s name, an upward-pointing arrow in a red circle, indicates that he or she is a required attendee.

   Tip

   If you’re inviting someone as a courtesy, you can indicate that he or she does not need to attend by selecting the Required Attendee icon to the left of the attendee’s name and then, in the list, selecting Optional Attendee.

2. If necessary, scroll to the bottom of the Room Finder to display the Suggested times list. The times shown are based on your schedule and the schedule information available for the attendees.

3. To add attendees, enter their email addresses in the All Attendees list, and then press Tab to update the Suggested Times list in the Room Finder.

4. If you need to change the meeting time or duration, you can do so by dragging the start time and end time bars on the group schedule or by entering times in the boxes below the group schedule.

5. Select Appointment in the Show group to return to the Appointment page, which reflects the current attendees and meeting times.

6. Verify the meeting details, and then select Send to add the meeting to your calendar and send the meeting request to the attendees.

To edit a meeting request

1. Open the meeting window for editing.

2. If the meeting is one of a series (a recurring meeting), Outlook prompts you to indicate whether you want to edit the meeting series or only the selected instance of the meeting. Select Just this one or The entire series.

3. Modify the date, time, notes, options, or attendees. Then select Send Update.

4. If you modified the attendees, Outlook prompts you to specify whether to send updates to all attendees or only to the changed attendees. Select either of the following to send the meeting updates:

   • Send updates only to added or deleted attendees

   • Send updates to all attendees

     Tip

     You don’t need to cancel and reschedule a meeting to change the date or time, or to add or remove an attendee. You can edit the meeting request, remove the attendee, and then send a meeting update to the affected attendees.

To cancel a meeting or a meeting occurrence

1. Select the meeting on your calendar, or open the meeting window.

2. Do either of the following:

   • On the Meeting tool tab, in the Actions group, select Cancel Meeting.

   • On the Meeting Series tool tab, in the Actions group, select Cancel Meeting, and then select Cancel Occurrence or Cancel Series.

     Tip

     The Cancel Meeting button is available only for meetings that you organize, not for meetings you’re invited to.

   A meeting window containing cancellation information opens.

   

   Cancelling a meeting removes it from attendees’ calendars

3. Do either of the following:

   • In the meeting header, select Send Cancellation. Outlook sends an updated meeting request to the attendees and removes the meeting from their calendars.

   • If you change your mind about cancelling the meeting, select the Close button (X) at the right end of the message window title bar. Outlook reminds you that you haven’t sent the cancellation and provides options. In the message box that appears, select No, don’t cancel. Close the meeting. Then select OK.

     

     You can’t cancel a meeting without notifying the attendees

Respond to meeting requests

When you receive a meeting request from another Outlook user, the meeting appears on your calendar with your time scheduled as Tentative. Until you respond to the meeting request, the organizer doesn’t know whether you plan to attend.

A meeting request in the Reading Pane

The meeting request displays your current calendar information at the time of the meeting, so you are aware of any schedule conflicts at that time. You can respond to a meeting request in one of these four ways:

• Accept the request Outlook deletes the meeting request and adds the meeting to your calendar.

• Tentatively accept the request This option indicates that you might be able to attend the meeting but are undecided. Outlook deletes the meeting request and shows the meeting on your calendar as tentatively scheduled.

• Propose a new meeting time Outlook sends your request to the meeting organizer for confirmation and shows the meeting with the original time on your calendar as tentatively scheduled.

• Decline the request Outlook deletes the meeting request and removes the meeting from your calendar.

If you don’t respond to a meeting request, the meeting remains on your calendar with your time shown as tentatively scheduled and the meeting details in gray font rather than black.

When accepting or declining a meeting, you can choose whether to send a response to the meeting organizer. If you don’t send a response, your acceptance will not be tallied, and the organizer will not know whether you are planning to attend the meeting. If you do send a response, you can add a message to the meeting organizer before sending it.

To respond to a meeting request

1. In the meeting window, in the Reading Pane, or on the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click the meeting request, select Accept, Tentative, or Decline.

2. Choose whether to send a standard response, a personalized response, or no response at all.

To propose a new time for a meeting

1. In the meeting window or in the Reading Pane, select Propose New Time, and then in the list, select Tentative and Propose New Time or Decline and Propose New Time to open the Propose New Time dialog box.

   

   You can respond to a meeting request by proposing a different meeting time

2. In the Propose New Time dialog box, change the meeting start and end times to the times you want to propose, either by dragging the start time and end time bars or by changing the date and time in the lists, and then select Propose Time.

3. In the meeting response window that opens, enter a message to the meeting organizer if you want to, and then select Send to send your response and add the meeting to your calendar as tentatively scheduled for the original meeting time. If the meeting organizer approves the meeting time change, you and other attendees will receive updated meeting requests showing the new meeting time.

Key points

• You can create and manage appointments and all-day events in your calendar.

• Other people in your organization can find out whether you are free, busy, or out of the office by reviewing the appointments, events, and meetings scheduled in your calendar.

• You can personalize the display of your available working hours, and mark appointments as private to hide the details from other people.

• You can use Outlook to set up meetings, invite participants, and track their responses.

• Outlook can identify a meeting time based on participants’ schedules.

• If your organization is running Exchange Server or you have an Exchange Online account through Office 365, you can use the Scheduling Assistant features to quickly identify meeting times of a specific duration during which your planned attendees are available.

• You can display many different views of your calendar. You can change the dates and date ranges displayed in the calendar by using the Date Navigator, by using navigational buttons located in the calendar header, or by using commands on the ribbon.

Practice tasks

No practice files are necessary to complete the practice tasks in this chapter.

The introduction includes a complete list of practice files and download instructions.

Display different views of a calendar

Display your Calendar in Calendar view, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Display your calendar for the current month.

2. In the Date Navigator, notice the shading that identifies the current day. Select a different day that shows no appointments, to display your calendar for only that day. Then select the Next Appointment bar on the right side of the day to display the day of the next appointment on your calendar.

3. Switch to the Work Week calendar arrangement, and turn on the display of the Daily Task List below the calendar.

4. Change to the Active view of your calendar to display only your future appointments, events, and meetings.

5. If you want to, add the holidays from your country or region to the calendar. Notice the change in the calendar content displayed in the Active view.

6. Configure the Calendar to display the view and arrangement that you like best.

Schedule appointments and events

Start Outlook, display your Calendar, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Create a new appointment with the subject SBS Study Session, and configure it as follows:

   • Set the date to one week from today.

   • Set the time from 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. 513

   • Specify the location as Library Meeting Room.

     • Keep all other default settings, and save and close the appointment.

2. Create a new all-day event named National Dessert Day, and configure it as follows:

   • Set the date to the next occurrence of October 14.

   • Keep all other default settings, and save and close the event.

Convert calendar items

Display your Inbox, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Locate the SBS Test message that you sent to yourself in Chapter 13, “Send and receive email messages.”

2. Create an appointment based on the message, and configure it as follows:

   • Change the subject from SBS Test to SBS Rafting Trip.

   • Set the date to next Saturday, and the time from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.

   • Specify the location as To Be Determined.

   • Keep all other default settings, and save and close the appointment.

3. Display your Calendar.

4. Locate the SBS Rafting Trip appointment, and then do the following:

   • Convert the appointment to an all-day event.

   • Keep all other default settings, and save and close the event.

5. Locate the SBS Rafting Trip event, and then do the following:

   • Invite a friend to the event.

   • In the content pane, enter I’m practicing my Outlook scheduling skills. Please accept this invitation.

   • Send the event invitation.

Configure calendar item options

Display your Calendar, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Locate the SBS Study Session appointment that you created in the first set of practice tasks for this chapter.

2. Open the appointment window, and display the time zone controls.

3. Change the Start time and End time to occur in a time zone that is one hour earlier than your own.

4. Set your availability during the appointment to Out of Office.

5. Set a reminder for 1 hour before the appointment.

6. Configure the appointment to recur Monthly, on the first Monday of each month, and to end after 3 occurrences.

7. Save and close the appointment series.

Schedule and change meetings

This practice task is designed for Outlook users in Exchange environments.

Display your Calendar, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Create a new meeting with the subject SBS Project Review, and configure it as follows:

   • Invite a colleague from your Exchange network.

   • Specify the location as My Office.

   • Set the date to next Thursday.

2. In the Room Finder, look at the Date Navigator and scroll the Suggested Times list for information about availability. In the Suggested times list, select a half-hour time slot that shows No conflicts.

3. On the Scheduling Assistant page of the invitation, do the following:

   • Wait for the group calendar to display your colleague’s availability. Notice the color blocks that identify the working hours and availability of each person and of the group.

   • Verify that the selected time is shown as available for both of you. If it isn’t, change the time by dragging the start and end time markers.

4. Return to the Appointment page of the meeting invitation and verify the meeting information. In the content pane, enter I’m practicing scheduling meetings. Please accept this meeting request. Then send the meeting invitation.

5. On your calendar, locate the SBS Project Review meeting, and open the meeting window.

6. Display the Scheduling Assistant page of the meeting window, and do the following:

   • Add another colleague to the attendee list, and wait for the group calendar to display his or her availability.

   • Scroll the group calendar backward and forward a few days to identify times that you and your colleagues are busy or out of the office.

   • If necessary, change the meeting time and date by selecting them in the area below the group calendar.

7. Return to the Appointment page of the meeting invitation and verify the meeting information. Then send the meeting update to all attendees.

Respond to meeting requests

This practice task is designed for Outlook users in Exchange environments.

Display your Inbox, and then perform the following tasks:

1. Ask a colleague to send you a meeting request.

2. When you receive the meeting request, review the information in the Reading Pane, and then open the meeting request.

3. From the meeting request window, display your calendar. Notice the colors and patterns that represent the unaccepted meeting request and your availability during that time.

4. Return to the meeting request. Respond as Tentative, and propose a new time for the meeting.