Chapter at a Glance
Using the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Calendar is a big step toward efficient time management. Earlier in this book, you learned how to enter and update various types of appointments in your calendar. To make your calendar work more effectively for you, and to simplify the process of finding the information you need, you can refine the default calendar settings.
In this chapter, you will learn about the different ways you can display calendar information. Then you will print daily and monthly calendars and attach calendar information to an e-mail message. Finally, you will link to a public calendar on the Internet and experiment with the different ways you can display and move between calendars. You also learn how to add region-specific holidays to your calendar, configure Outlook for use in multiple time zones, save information from your Calendar as a Web page, and create a OneNote page linked to a Calendar item, as well as ways in which you can delegate control of your calendar to another person or manage a calendar on behalf of another person.
Note
See Also Do you need only a quick refresher on the topics in this chapter? See the Quick Reference section at the beginning of this book.
Warning
Important No practice files are required to complete the exercises in this chapter. For more information about practice files, see Using the Companion CD at the beginning of this book.
Note
Troubleshooting Graphics and operating system–related instructions in this book reflect the Windows Vista user interface. If your computer is running Windows XP and you experience trouble following the instructions as written, please refer to the Information for Readers Running Windows XP section at the beginning of this book.
Note
See Also For information about working with Microsoft SharePoint calendar or sharing your calendar with other Outlook users, see Chapter 10.
In the Calendar module, the Navigation Pane includes the Date Navigator, lists of calendars you can connect to, and links to open, search, share, send, and publish calendars. To help you stay on top of your schedule, you can view your calendar in a variety of ways:
Day/Week/Month view. A calendar view displaying one of the following:
Day view, displaying one day at a time separated into half-hour increments.
Work Week view, displaying your work week, which by default is defined as Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. You can define your work week as whatever days and hours you want.
Note
See Also For information about modifying the work week shown in Outlook, see Defining Your Available Time later in this chapter.
Week view, displaying one week (Sunday through Saturday) at a time.
Month view, displaying five weeks at a time.
You switch among time periods by clicking the buttons at the top of the Calendar pane. In Month view, you can click the week tab at the left edge of a week to display only that week. In Week view, you can display the work week or the full seven-day week. In either view, you can double-click a day to display only that day.
All Appointments view. A list view displaying all appointments (but not events) grouped by frequency of recurrence (none, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly).
Active Appointments view. A list view displaying all appointments starting on or after the current day, grouped by frequency of recurrence.
Events view. A list view displaying only day-long events, grouped by frequency of recurrence.
Annual Events view. A list view displaying only events that recur yearly.
Recurring Appointments view. A list view displaying only recurring appointments and events, grouped by frequency of recurrence.
By Category view. A list view displaying all calendar items grouped by Color Category. Items assigned to multiple categories appear in each of the assigned category groups.
Outlook Data Files view. A list view displaying all calendar items grouped by Outlook Data File and then by frequency of recurrence.
By default, Outlook displays your calendar in Day view. To change the view, click the view option you want in the Current View list in the Navigation Pane, or click the view you want on the View menu. To return to the current Day view from any other view, click the Today button on the Standard toolbar.
You can display the previous or next time periods by clicking the Back or Forward button next to the date or date range, or you can display a specific day, week, or month by selecting it in the Date Navigator.
To display a month, click the current month name and then in the list, click the month you want to display. To scroll beyond the seven-month range displayed by default, point to the top or bottom of the month list.
To display a week, click the margin to the left of that week. Or, if you display week numbers in the Date Navigator and Calendar, click the week number to display that week.
Tip
Week numbers are used in some countries to reference events, vacations, and the like. Week 1 is the calendar week (Sunday through Saturday) in which January 1st 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 comprise Weeks 1 through 53. To display week numbers, click Tools on the Options menu, click the Calendar Options button, and then select the Show Week Numbers In The Month View And Date Navigator check box. Then click OK in the open dialog boxes.
To display a day, click that day.
Tip
If you’ve made changes to any view (such as the order in which information appears) and want to return to the default settings, point to Current View on the View menu, click Customize Current View, and then in the Customize View dialog box, click Reset Current View. If the Reset Current View button is unavailable, the view already displays the default settings.
In calendar views that include the Date Navigator, increasing the width of the Navigation Pane also increases the number of months shown in the Date Navigator. You can allocate up to 50 percent of the program window to the Navigation Pane.
You can use the Outlook 2007 Instant Search feature to quickly locate appointments, events, meetings, or holidays by searching on any text within the calendar item.
Note
See Also For more information about Instant Search, see Quickly Locating Contact Information in Chapter 2 and Quickly Locating Messages in Chapter 5.
In this exercise, you will display different periods of time in the Date Navigator and in your calendar, and display different views of your schedule.
Note
USE the calendar items you created in Chapter 6. If you did not complete the exercises in that chapter, you can complete them now, or use any appointments, meetings, or events in your own calendar.
BE SURE TO start Outlook before beginning this exercise.
In the Navigation pane, click the Calendar button to display the Calendar module.
By default, Outlook displays your calendar for the current day, which is indicated in the Date Navigator by a red outline. Tasks due today are listed in the Tasks area at the bottom of the Calendar pane.
In the Date Navigator, click a bold date to display your calendar for a day on which you have scheduled appointments or meetings.
Dates with scheduled events (but no appointments or meetings) do not appear bold.
At the top of the Calendar pane, click Week.
Outlook displays your calendar for the work week of the selected date, and highlights the corresponding days in the Date Navigator. The Tasks area displays tasks due each day.
At the top of the Calendar pane, click Show full week.
Outlook displays the full seven-day week. Time that falls outside of your defined work week appears shaded.
At the top of the Calendar pane, click Month.
Outlook displays your calendar for the month. Alternating months are shaded to provide an obvious visual indicator of the change. The Tasks area is not available in Month view.
You can display a different month by scrolling the Calendar pane or by clicking the month you want to view, in the Date Navigator.
At the top of the Calendar pane, to the right of Details, click Medium.
The calendar changes to display only events as readable items; appointments and meetings appear as horizontal lines, with the width of the line indicating the amount of time scheduled for that item. The lines representing items assigned to color categories appear in the assigned color.
Click one of the week labels that appears along the left edge of the Calendar pane.
Outlook displays the selected week in the most recent week view (Work Week or Full Week) you selected. No detail level is available in Day or Week view; Outlook shows all the calendar items.
To the left of the date range in the calendar header, click the Forward button.
The calendar moves forward one week.
Click one of the day labels that appears in the calendar header.
Outlook displays the selected day in Day View.
On the Standard toolbar, click Today to return to the default view.
Adding and Removing Local Holidays
You can add the national holidays of any country to your Outlook calendar, as follows:
On the Tools menu, click Options. Then on the Preferences tab of the Options dialog box, click Calendar Options.
In the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box, select the check boxes of the countries whose holidays you want to add to your calendar, and then click OK.
After Outlook adds the selected country’s holidays to your calendar, click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.
Outlook 2007 assigns a color category named Holiday to all holidays in your calendar. If the only holidays in your calendar were added in Outlook 2007, you can view a list of holidays by displaying the calendar in By Category view and then scrolling to the Holiday category. You can then remove all holidays from your calendar by selecting the Categories: Holiday group header and pressing the Delete key.
To remove holidays created in a previous version of Outlook, or if you want to remove only the holidays of a specific country, follow these steps:
Display the Calendar in All Appointments view.
On the View menu, point to Current View, and click Customize Current View.
In the Customize View dialog box, click the Group By button.
In the Group By dialog box, clear the Automatically group according to arrangement check box if it is selected. Then click the Group items by arrow, and in the list, click Location.
Ensure that all the Then by lists display (none), and then click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.
In the Calendar pane, collapse the displayed groups or scroll the pane until the Location group of the holidays you want to remove (for example, Location: Sweden) is visible.
To remove all the holidays of the displayed country, click the Location group header, and then press the
key. If a Outlook displays a message box warns you that this action will apply to all items in the selected group, click OK.To remove selected holidays, click the holiday(s) you want to delete (hold the
key to select multiple holidays), and then press .
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.
By default, Outlook defines the work week 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 on weekends. Your 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.
Note
See Also For more information about looking at other people’s calendars, see Accessing Other People’s Folders in Chapter 10.
In this exercise, you will view and change your work week. There are no practice files for this exercise.
At the top of the Calendar pane, click Show work week.
Scroll the calendar page so that you can see the beginning or end of the work day.
Non-working hours are indicated by colored shading.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Preferences tab of the Options dialog box, click Calendar Options.
In the Calendar work week area, select the Sun and Sat check boxes, and clear the Tue, Wed, and Thu check boxes.
The work week is now set to Friday through Monday.
Click the Start time arrow, and in the list, click 3:00 PM. Then click the End time arrow, and in the list, click 11:00 PM.
Click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.
Your calendar displays your new work week settings.
If you frequently travel to locations outside of your usual time zone, you will find it helpful to change the time zone on your computer. You can do this from Windows or from Outlook. When you change the time zone, information such as the receipt time of e-mail messages and appointment times changes to match the new time zone, and if you display the clock in the Windows taskbar notification area, the time shown there also changes.
To change the time zone:
On the Tools menu, click Options. Then on the Preferences tab of the Options dialog box, click the Calendar Options button.
In the Advanced Options area of the Calendar Options dialog box, click the Time Zone button.
In the Time Zone dialog box, click the Time zone arrow, and in the list, click the time zone you want. Then click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.
When preparing to travel, or if you schedule meetings involving participants in different time zones, you might want to configure Outlook to display two time zones in your calendar. Outlook then displays the time zones in Day view in two columns to the left of the Calendar pane.
To simultaneously display two time zones in your calendar:
On the Tools menu, click Options.
In the Options dialog box, on the Preferences tab, click the Calendar Options button.
In the Calendar Options dialog box, click the Time Zone button.
In the Time Zone dialog box, select the Show an additional time zone check box. Then in the second Time zone list, click the time zone you want to display.
Type a label for each time zone (such as San Diego and Copenhagen) in the corresponding Label box.
Click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.
If you set up two time zones in your Outlook calendar, you can quickly switch between them by clicking the Swap Time Zones button in the Time Zone dialog box.
From time to time, you might find it convenient to print a day, week, month, or other period of your calendar; for instance, if you’re traveling without a laptop or want to have your weekly schedule quickly available in your briefcase. You can easily print any time period of your calendar. The amount of detail that appears depends on the period you print.
Outlook offers several built-in print styles, and you can create others if you want. The available print styles vary based on what view you’re in when you choose the Print command. The default print styles include:
Daily Style. Prints the selected date range with one day per page. Printed elements include the date, day, TaskPad, reference month calendar, and an area for notes.
Weekly Style. Prints the selected date range with one calendar week per page, including reference calendars for the selected and following months.
Monthly Style. Prints a page for each month in the selected date range. Each page includes the six-week range surrounding the month, along with reference calendars for the selected and following months.
Tri-fold Style. Prints a page for each day in the selected date range. Each page includes the daily schedule, weekly schedule, and TaskPad.
Calendar Details Style. Lists your appointments for the selected date range, as well as the accompanying appointment details.
You can select the date or range of dates to be printed and modify the page setup options to fit your needs.
In this exercise, you will learn two ways of selecting print styles as you preview and optionally print your calendar in the Daily and Tri-fold styles. There are no practice files for this exercise.
Warning
Important To complete this exercise, you must have a printer installed. If you don’t have a printer installed, you can preview the various print options, but not print. To install a printer, click the Start button and then click Control Panel. In Control Panel, under Hardware And Sound, click Printers, and then click Add A Printer. If you are working on a network, your administrator can provide the information you need to install a printer.
Note
BE SURE TO display your calendar in Day view before beginning this exercise. For best results, display a day on which one or more appointments, meetings, or events appear on the calendar.
On the Standard toolbar, click the Print button.
The Print dialog box opens, with the Daily Style format and today’s date selected.
In the Print dialog box, click Preview.
Outlook displays a Print Preview window depicting how your calendar will appear when printed.
On the Print Preview window toolbar, click the Actual Size button to magnify the calendar page so it is legible.
On the Print Preview toolbar, click Print.
In the Print dialog box, ensure that the printer you want to use is selected in the Printer area, and then click OK.
Outlook prints today’s schedule in the Daily Style format, which approximates the calendar Day view.
On the File menu, point to Page Setup, and then click Tri-fold Style.
The Page Setup dialog box opens, displaying a preview of the Tri-fold print style. In the Options area, you can select the calendar elements you want to print in each of the three panes.
In the Page Setup dialog box, click Print.
Note that Outlook doesn’t retain your settings from one print session to the next.
In the Print range area of the Print dialog box, click the End arrow, and then in the list, click the date two days from today. Then click Preview.
The Print Preview window displays the tri-fold calendar as it will appear when printed. The insertion point changes to a magnifying glass.
Click once near the center of the previewed page to magnify the calendar page.
In the lower-left corner of the Print Preview window, the status bar indicates that you are viewing the first of three pages, to match the date range you selected.
With the default options, each page displays the daily calendar on the left, your task list for that day in the center, and the weekly calendar on the right. You can preview the second and third pages by scrolling the document.
On the Print Preview toolbar, click Print, and then in the Print dialog box, click OK.
Outlook prints three pages (one page for each day of the selected date range), and then closes the Print Preview window.
Experiment with different print styles and date ranges, previewing the results of each.
Saving Calendar Information as a Web Page
You can share your schedule with co-workers by publishing it as a Web page on an intranet site, or with a larger group of people by publishing it as a Web page on an Internet site. Outlook provides a simple method of saving selected calendar information as a static HTML page.
To save calendar information as a Web page:
Display your calendar. Then on the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
Enter the start and end dates for which you want to publish your calendar information.
In the Options area, select whether to include appointment details or a background graphic.
In the Save as area, append a file name (the extension is unnecessary) at the end of the path shown in the File name box. You can change the title that will be displayed on the Web page, and change the location where Outlook saves it.
By default, Outlook saves calendar Web pages in your Documents folder.
With the Open saved web page in browser check box selected, click Save.
If Outlook displays a security notice asking you to confirm that you trust the link to the Web page you just created, click Yes.
If Outlook displays a message box asking you whether to open or save the Web page, click Open.
The page opens in your default Web browser. (The browser loads the file from your computer, not from the Internet—you haven’t yet published the schedule to the Internet.)
Review the calendar. If an Information Bar appears at the top of the window, click it, click Allow Blocked Content, and then in the Security Warning message box, click Yes to allow Windows to run an ActiveX control in order to display nicely formatted content.
You can publish the calendar Web page to any intranet or Internet site that you have authoring permissions on.
You might frequently find it necessary to share information about your schedule with colleagues, friends, or family members. With Outlook 2007, you can easily embed selected calendar information as a static image in an e-mail message that you can send to any person who uses an HTML-capable e-mail program (not only people who use Outlook).
You can choose the period of time for which you want to share information (Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 Days, Next 30 Days, or Whole Calendar, or you can specify a custom date range) and the level of detail you want to share:
Availability only. Includes only your availability (Free, Busy, Tentative, or Out Of Office) during scheduled time periods.
Limited details. Includes only your availability and the subjects of calendar items.
Full details. Includes your availability and the full details of calendar items.
The details of calendar items marked as Private will not be shown unless you specifically choose to do so.
Note
See Also For information about private appointments, see Scheduling and Changing Appointments in Chapter 6.
In this exercise, you will embed information about your schedule in an e-mail message. There are no practice files for this exercise.
In the Navigation Pane, click Send a Calendar via E-mail.
Outlook opens a new message window and the Send A Calendar Via E-mail dialog box.
In the Advanced area, click Show to display all the options.
If you have multiple calendar folders in Outlook, you can choose which calendar you want to send information from.
Click the Date Range arrow, and then in the list, click Next 7 days.
Click the Detail arrow, and then in the list, click Full details.
You can choose whether to include private appointment details and attachments, and whether to present schedule information as a daily schedule or only a list of events.
With Daily schedule selected in the E-mail Layout list, click OK.
Outlook embeds the selected calendar information in the e-mail message window and also attaches the same information as an .ics file. You can send the e-mail message to any recipient. A recipient using an e-mail program that supports .ics files can add your calendar information to his or her calendar list.
Scroll the e-mail to view its contents. Then experiment with other time periods, details, and layout options on your own.
A variety of specialized calendars tracking professional sports schedules, holidays, entertainment, scientific data, and so on are available from the Microsoft Office Online Web site. You can link to these Internet calendars from the Calendar module so that you have up-to-date information conveniently available, in the same place as your own scheduling information.
After you link to an Internet calendar, you can display or hide the linked calendar at any time by selecting or clearing its check box in the Other Calendars section of the All Calendar Items list. You can display Internet calendars within the Calendar module as you would any other, viewing them independently or next to another calendar, or displaying a combined view of information from multiple calendars. You can remove the linked calendar from your list of available calendars by right-clicking the calendar’s tab and then clicking Delete.
In this exercise, you will link to an Internet calendar. There are no practice files for this exercise.
At the bottom of the Navigation Pane, click Search Calendars Online.
The Internet Calendars page of the Office Online Web site opens in your default Internet browser.
In the Find free Internet Calendars area, click the Internet Calendar directory.
Click any category and any Internet calendar that interests you.
If an Internet Explorer Security message box appears prompting you to allow Outlook to open Web content, click the Allow button.
In the Microsoft Office Outlook message box asking whether you want to add the calendar to Outlook and subscribe to updates, click Yes.
Outlook adds the selected Internet calendar to your Other Calendars list, and displays it in the Calendar pane, side by side with your own calendar.
The linked calendar also appears in the Other Calendars list in the Navigation Pane. Any calendars you link to that aren’t your own—for example, SharePoint calendars, calendars of co-workers, and so on, appear in this list.
It is often useful to have more than one Outlook calendar. The process of creating a secondary calendar is the same as that of creating an address book or mail folder—you simply create a folder designated to hold calendar items. Other Outlook users can also share their calendars with you—with or without delegating control of the calendar to you. Calendars shared with you appear in the People’s Calendars section of the All Calendar Items list. You display or hide a shared calendar by selecting or clearing its check box.
You can display calendars individually, or you can display more than one calendar at a time. For instance, you might have separate business and personal calendars and want to view them together. You can view multiple calendars next to each other, or you can overlay them to display a composite view of the separate calendars. When you view and scroll multiple calendars, they all display the same date or time period.
You can drag items from one calendar to another, and copy items between calendars by dragging with the right mouse button and then clicking Copy on the context menu.
In this exercise, you will view multiple calendars next to each other and then as a composite. There are no practice files for this exercise.
Note
BE SURE TO display your calendar and complete the previous exercise, Linking to an Internet Calendar, before beginning this exercise.
In the Navigation Pane, in the My Calendars or Other Calendars list, select the check box for at least one other calendar.
By default, Outlook displays the calendars side by side and in different colors.
In Side-By-Side mode, the title bar tab of each calendar other than your own displays a View In Overlay Mode button.
On the title bar tab of any secondary calendar, click the View in Overlay Mode button.
The secondary calendar overlaps your own calendar (or whichever calendar is active). Appointments on the overlapped calendar appear in a muted font.
Delegating Control of Your Calendar
You can delegate control of your calendar so that a co-worker can create and respond to meeting requests on your behalf. Then meeting requests sent to you are delivered to your delegate rather than to you. You receive copies of the meeting requests and copies of your delegate’s responses, but you don’t have to respond. Your delegate can create meeting requests on your behalf (that is, they appear to come from you).
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Delegates tab of the Options dialog box, click Add.
In the Add Users dialog box, click the person you want to delegate control to, click Add, and then click OK.
In the Delegate Permissions dialog box, click the Calendar arrow, and then in the list, click the level of permission you want to delegate.
Select any other permissions you want to delegate.
Select the Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions check box, and then click OK.
In the Options dialog box, select whether you would like to receive copies of meeting requests and responses. Then click OK.
Click the Calendar tab to display your calendar on top of the Internet calendar.
On either of the overlaid calendars, click the View in Side-By-Side Mode button to return to the standard display.
You can display a traditional calendar view of your schedule by the day, work week, full week, or month. You can display multiple list views of calendar items.
You can display multiple time zones, change your calendar as you travel between time zones, and schedule appointments or meetings that start and end in different time zones.
You can print selected schedule information in a number of different layout styles.
You can share schedule information by sending it in an e-mail message or by publishing it to a Web site.
You can subscribe to many types of calendars available from the Internet. Internet calendar information is automatically updated.
You can view two or more calendars next to each other or as a composite. Outlook displays each calendar in a different color so you can easily tell them apart.