MS Outlook Calendar: How to Use, Add and Share It Perfectly?

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Outlook calendar. I will explain how to add tasks and meetings to your calendar. We will also explore how to share an Outlook calendar.

Meetings, tasks, and other items that impact our schedule — they all have something in common. Sometimes we are notified of them via email.

It might be badly arranged to close your Microsoft Outlook mail and open another application to discover your gatherings and work. And then reopen Outlook once you have the schedule information you need. It is inconvenient and also unnecessary.

Many people do not realize that MS Outlook has a pre-established calendar. If you know what to do, you can easily switch between your inbox and the MS Outlook calendar.

How to Access MS Outlook Calendar?

Your Outlook calendar is a useful tool that you can open from your email, by clicking on a single icon if you are know-how.

Step 1. View a Thumbnail of the Outlook Calendar

Start with your Outlook inbox open:

Find the Calendar icon at the bottom left of your email interface (below the Navigation pane). If you mouse over the icon, you will see a thumbnail of your calendar with your next appointments.

Step 2. Open your Outlook Calendar View

To open your calendar, click on the Calendar icon. Your Outlook calendar appears:

Note that the default view is in one month. This is called Month View. The current date is highlighted, although you can select multiple calendar days to work with.

The Outlook calendar also includes some features:

• There is a local weather report on top of the calendar. Personalize this information by entering your city name or postal code.
• There are thumbnails of the month before and after the current month on the left of the screen. To hide these thumbnails, grab the right side of the panel containing the thumbnails and drag to the left.
• There is a search bar at the top right of the calendar. You can search through calendar events with keywords or phrases.

Now we have explored the view of the month, we can take a look at some of the available views.

Step 3. Change your Outlook Calendar View

You can change the Calendar view. At the top of the Outlook calendar, click from the View menu:

In the View tab, you will see various settings that will allow you to customize the appearance of your calendar. The five that we want to focus on in this tutorial are:

1. Day. The Day view allows you to view the events of the day. The day view looks like a planner page. Use the scroll bar on the right side of the Day view to moving up and down the page.
2. Business days. The Business Days view allows you to view five days of your program (Monday through Friday) at the same time.
3. Week. The Weekly view is like a business day view, except that it includes weekends. This view can be useful if you work outside traditional hours or if you include personal meetings in your calendar.
4. Month. We have examined the Month view, which allows you to see an entire month.
5. Schedule View. This view allows you to view a day’s appointment in a form like a graph bar. This allows you to identify conflicts and commitments that can be found in your schedule.

To open a view, click the icon for the view calendar view you want to open. For this example, click on the Schedule View. This view is shown:

Note that this example has two kinds of overlapping citations. Knowing about the scheduling conflict allows you to manage your time efficiently. You can plan to go to only one of the meetings and reschedule the other. Or, you could go to the part of each meeting.

Likewise, this Schedule View outlines that there is a morning meal meeting at 7:00 – before the beginning of the workday.

Note: Multiple views also appear on the Home tab of your Outlook calendar, and you can access them from there.

How to Create an Appointment or Task?

You can add various types of items to your Microsoft calendar, including:

• Dating: A date typically only involves you and a person. For example, you can make appointments with your doctor or accountant. Sometimes (but not always) an appointment is set with someone outside your organization.
• Meetings: A meeting usually involves a group of people. If you are the meeting organizer, you would be responsible for not only scheduling the meeting but also for sending the invitations.
• Tasks: A task is to take some time on your calendar to reach certain goals.

You can also set any item to be a recurring item or a multiple-day item.

Step 1. Prepare a New Appointment

Start from any schedule see, however, ensure you’re on the Home tab. For this model, we’ll start with the Month see open:

Click on the New Appointment icon. A blank Appointment screen is displayed:

Put your appointment information in the appropriate fields. Here is a brief description of each field and how to fill each one:

• Subject: Put a brief description of your appointment.
• Place: Put the place where your appointment will take place.
• Start Time: Enter the date and time that your appointment will start. Click on the calendar thumbnail to select a month and day. Click the down arrow to choose a time. Check the box to the right of this field if the event will last all day.
• End Date: Enter the date and time that your appointment ends. Use the calendar thumbnail and the down arrows.

To make appointments last more than a day, select a “Finish” date after the “Start” date.

Caution: If your selected dates and times overlap with other meetings or appointments, you may see a warning in the upper left of the screen. However, Outlook will still allow you to add, even if it conflicts.

In the large square below the meeting information, put any notes you have about the appointment. In the example below, I have filled the Appointment screen with information about the parent-teacher conference.

To plan a repetitive arrangement, click the Recurrence symbol on the strip (which shows up as a circle). The Recurrence dialog box appears:

Select a Recurrence Pattern for the meeting. You can also define how long it will continue. In the example above, I have set up a monthly parent-teacher conference. When you’re done, click OK to return to the Appointment screen.

When you’re done putting in the appointment information, click the Save & Close icon in the upper left of the Appointment screen. The appointment is added to your calendar.

Step 2. Prepare a New Meeting

Whether you need to gather a group for a business project or a social gathering, you will find the New Meeting tool. It starts with the Outlook calendar open:

Click Start> New Meeting. The respective screen opens:

Use this screen in order to schedule a meeting or invite participants. Here is a view on how to fill out the invitation:

• The Default From field is your default email.
• Click in the To field to select the participants for your meeting from your Contact Book.
• Put a brief description of your meeting in the Subject field.
• Put the meeting location in the location field or use the down arrow to the right of the field to select recently used locations.
• Select a start and end date and time. If the meeting will last for many days, make the start date after the end date.
• If the meeting will last all day, check the box next to All Day.

Once you have filled in the meeting information, use the box below the message heading to write a short note to send a message to the participants. Here is an example of what a completed meeting looks like:

On the off chance that this is a common gathering, utilize the Recurrence symbol on the Ribbon to characterize how regularly this gathering will happen.

When your invitation is ready to be sent, click the Send button at the top left of the window. Your meeting is added to the calendar. All recipients included in the To field will receive the attached meeting invitation.

Step 3. Prepare a New Task

Undertakings contrast from gatherings and arrangements in that they ordinarily just include you. You can set up the assignments in your schedule to set up a sort of plan for the day on the web. You can also use the task function in the Outlook calendar to assign a task to another person or send a status report.

To prepare a new task, again start with the open calendar. Click Start> New Items. And a dropdown menu appears:

Select the Task option. The New Task window appears:

Put the name of the task in the Subject line. Choose a Start Date and a Delivery Date for the task. If you want, you can also assign values ​​to the following fields, by clicking the down arrow on each field and make a selection:

• State
• Normal
• % Completed

If you want the system to send a reminder, check the Reminder box. You can also use the Recurrence icon on the Ribbon to do the recurring task. Or define the task to last more than one day by choosing a different date for the start and end.

Put more data or directions about the assignment in the crate beneath the header data.

When you’re done filling out the New Task window, click Task> Save & Close. Your task is added to your calendar’s to-do list, but it won’t appear on your calendar unless you’re in Tasks view.

To see your calendar’s to-do list, go to View> To-Do List Bar. A drop-down menu appears:

Click on the Tools option. A panel opens on the right of your calendar. Your task list appears at the bottom right of your Microsoft Outlook calendar, below the month calendar thumbnail:

To open a task and view more details or update it, double-click the task. You can also mark a task as urgent by clicking on the box to the right. The Task Bar view remains open until you close it. If you go to your inbox, the task list remains visible in the lower right corner of your MS Outlook window:

To close the task list, click the X in the upper right corner.

Step 4. How to Delete a Calendar Item?

Delete a meeting or appointment from your calendar quickly. Scroll to the calendar view that contains the calendar item you want to delete. Click on the calendar item to select (in this case, an appointment); then right-click and a drop-down menu appears:

Note: In the illustration above I have selected an appointment with one more participant. If you had selected a meeting with more than one participant, the drop-down menu option would be Cancel Meeting. In the wake of choosing the Cancel Meeting choice, you would be allowed the chance to send an undoing note to all gathering members.

Select the Delete choice from the dropdown menu. In the event that the component is repeating, you will have the chance to pick on the off chance that you need to erase all the occasions of the schedule component (Delete Series) or just one occurrence (Delete Occurrence) that you have selected. The calendar item is removed. The Delete Occurrence option is good to use if you have a regular meeting, but you need to cancel an instance due to a vacation or scheduling conflict.

The process of deleting a task from your task list is even simpler. Simply click on the task in your To-Do List, then right-click. Select the Delete option from the drop-down menu.

How to Add a Meeting or Task from an Email Message?

One of the convenient things to do is that your calendar doesn’t have to be open to adding a calendar item. Add a calendar item directly from an email message. Here’s what to do:

Step 1. Select an Email Message

Start with your inbox open. Click on a message to select it. Then double-click the message to open it:

In the example above, a meeting invitation has been sent to me. The email was not sent as a calendar invitation, but I want to add the event to my Outlook calendar. One way to do this is to use the Answer with Meeting icon on the Ribbon. (It looks like a calendar with an arrow.)

When you click the Reply with Meeting icon, a reply window opens — but more important is in the format of a meeting:

Note that the place information is blank and that the default date and time is the current date and time. You will need to correct this information using the details found in the original email. Then put your email reply to the original sender. When you’re ready, click the Submit button on the left.

You have sent a reply email to the person to whom you sent the meeting notification and added the meeting to your calendar in one step.

Step 2. Add a Task to your Calendar and Mail Task List.

It’s also easy to add a task to your Outlook task if you have your Task Bar view open. Start with your inbox open. Click on a message to select it; then drag the selected message to the task list on the right of your inbox:

You will see a red line in the task list where the new task is close to being inserted. When the email is embedded into your plan for the day, double-tap it to see the subtleties of the message.

Note: Although Outlook will insert email into your to-do list, the message will also remain in your inbox.

How to Get Outlook Calendar to Send You Reminders?

Another convenient Outlook feature is the ability to have the reminder system as you prepare a new meeting or appointment, click the down arrow on the Reminder icon on the Ribbon (looks like a bell):

Select how far in advance you want the reminder to appear. Then, click on the Sound icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu to select a reminder sound.

Once your reminder has been prepared, a reminder will appear every time you open your email or calendar:

To stop a reminder from appearing, click the Discard button. If the window is reminding you of many calendar items, you will need to click the Discard All button.

How to Share an Outlook Calendar?

Share your calendar by mail or by giving access to others. This could be valuable in the event that you need to impart portions of your schedule to a colleague or in the event that you are attempting to plan an opportunity to meet with somebody. There are three different ways you can share a schedule:

1. Email: Share part of your calendar via email.
2. Sharing feature. If your installation of Outlook runs through Microsoft Exchange Server, you can give someone else access to your calendar. You can also use the Set Calendar Permissions icon to define who has access to your calendar and what level of access they have.
3. Publish online: Publish your calendar to an online server to provide access to others.

Since my installation of Outlook does not run on Microsoft Exchange Server, we will focus on the first and third methods of sharing your Microsoft calendar in this tutorial.

1. Share a Calendar via Mail

With your calendar open, go to Home> Send Calendar. A blank message appears with the Send a Calendar via the Mail dialog box.

If you have more than one calendar, click the arrow below the calendar field to select which calendar you want to share. Then click the down arrow next to the Date Range field to specify which dates to share. So, click the down arrow in the Detail field to choose a level of detail to share — choose from the following levels:

• Availability: The recipient will see when you are available and when you are free. They will not see what meetings and appointments are.
• Restricted Details: The beneficiary will see just the subject of your gatherings and arrangements and when you are booked.
• All the Details: The recipient will see your meetings and appointments, and the place of each one of them. You can get to see in-depth details about each meeting or appointment.

Check the box if you only want to share the calendar to show the working hours. If your work hours are not defined, click Specify Work Hours. When you’re done, click the OK button in the Send Mail via the Mail dialog box. Then click the Send button to send the email.

The email recipient receives an email with your schedule in the email and an attached calendar showing that schedule.

2. Share a Calendar by Posting It Online

You can also share your calendar online with a shared server. With your calendar open, go to Home> Post Online. The Publish Calendar appears:

Start by putting the URL of the server where you will publish your calendar. Then define the range of dates you want to share. For the Detail, option chooses between Availability Only, Limited Details, Full Details. If you just want to post your calendar between business hours, click the box.

When you’re done, click the OK button. Follow any notification that appears.

conclusion

You have learned how to use the Outlook calendar correctly. Making Outlook calendar helps you be more organized and more productive.

Now that you have your schedule in order, you may want to master your inbox. For a free guide to managing your inbox, grab a copy of our free book. The Ultimate Guide to Inbox Mastery. It is packed with advanced inbox management techniques.

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