Introduction

Outlook 2010 includes powerful scheduling features in Calendar view. From there, you can create appointments and manage your time.
In this lesson, you'll learn how to schedule appointments and create multiple calendars. We'll also talk about how to organize your schedule, including how to apply categories, reminders, and more.

Calendar View

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

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

Click New Meeting to schedule a meeting with other people.
Use the commands in the Go To Group to jump to your Daily and Weekly Calendar.
You can choose a variety of view options for your calendar, including a daily, weekly, or monthly summary of your upcoming appointments and meetings.
Schedule view allows you to view multiple schedules from shared calendars at the same time, making it easy to schedule group meetings.
The commands in the Manage Calendars group allow you to open shared calendars from your contacts list and create new group calendars.
The commands in the Share Calendar group allow you to share your calendar with others and modify calendar permissions.
Click any date in the Quick view calendar to see it in the View pane.
Click the arrows to move between months.
Your calendars will appear in the Navigation pane. Click the checkbox to show or hide your calendars.
Any calendars that are shared with you will appear below your personal calendars. Click the checkbox to show or hide your shared calendars.
Appointments appear on your calendar as they are added. Simply double-click to edit appointment information, like time or location.
Upcoming meetings appear on your calendar just like appointments. Meetings will appear on everyone's calendar who has accepted the meeting request.
Meetings are distinguished from appointments by the dashed line on the left.

To Create an Appointment:

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

1. Locate and select the New Appointment command on the Ribbon.
2. The New Appointment dialog box will appear. Enter the desired information for the appointment. At the very least, you should include a subject, time, and location but you can also include lots of other information, such as reminder preferences, detailed notes, and more.
3. When you are done entering the appointment information, click Save & Close.
4. The appointment will be saved and added to your calendar.

Using Multiple Calendars

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

To Create a New Calendar:

1. Click the Folder tab on the Ribbon, then click the New Calendar command.
2. The Create New Folder dialog box will appear. Enter a name for the new calendar, make sure Calendar is selected, then click OK.
3. The new calendar will appear in the View pane. Click the checkbox in the Navigation pane to toggle the calendar on and off.

Doing More with Calendars

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

To Apply Categories to Appointments:

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

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

To Create Multiple-Day Appointments:

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

1. When creating the appointment, set the Start and End time for the full length of the appointment.
2. The appointment will appear on your calendar across multiple days.

To Create Appointment Reminders:

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

1. To create a reminder, simply set a reminder time on the Ribbon when creating a new appointment.
2. The reminder will appear in a pop-up dialog box at the scheduled time.

To Print Calendars:

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

1. Click the File tab on the Ribbon.
2. Backstage view will appear. Locate and select Print.
3. The Print pane will appear. Choose your desired layout, including daily, weekly, and monthly summaries of your appointments and meetings, then click Print.

Challenge!

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