Manage Scheduling in Microsoft Outlook 2016

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.

Important

In this book, we assume you are working in Calendar view, and refer to the standard Calendar view arrangements as Day view, Work Week view, Week view, Month view, and Schedule view.

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.

  See Also

  

  For information about modifying the days and hours of the work week shown in Outlook, see “Define your available time” in Chapter 10, “Manage your calendar.”

• 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 the 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.

  

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  Schedule view for a group of co-workers

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

  See Also

  

  For information about calendar groups, see “Share calendar information” in Chapter 10, “Manage your calendar.”

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

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If you’ve made changes to any view (such as the order in which information appears) and want to return to the default settings, click the Reset View button in the Current View group on the View tab. If the Reset View button is unavailable, the view already displays the default settings.

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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 clicking the Back button or the Forward button next to the date or date range in the calendar header.
• Display the current day by clicking the Today button in the Go To group on the Home tab.
• Display a seven-day period starting with the current day by clicking the Next 7 Days button 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 click the week tab to display that week.

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Specific weeks are referred to in some countries or regions 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

1. Do either of the following:

   • On the Home tab, in the Arrange group, click the Month button to display your calendar for the month.
   • Press Ctrl+Alt+4.

To navigate in Month view

1. Do either of the following:

   • To the left of the date range in the calendar header, click 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, click the Change View button and then, in the gallery, click Preview to display additional details on the monthly calendar.

Use the Date Navigator

By default, the Outlook 2016 Calendar module displays the current month and next month in the Date Navigator at the top of the Folder Pane. These compact monthly calendars provide quick indicators of the current date, the time period that is displayed in the content pane, days that you are free, and days that you are busy.

The Date Navigator is a convenient and useful tool

The current date is indicated by a blue square. The date or dates currently displayed in the calendar are indicated by light blue highlighting. Bold dates indicate days with scheduled appointments, meetings, or events. Days of the preceding and following months appear on the two default calendars in gray.

You can display more or fewer months by changing the width or height of the area allocated to the Date Navigator. To change the size of the Date Navigator area, do either of the following:

• Drag the right edge of the Folder Pane to the right to increase the width, or to the left to decrease the width.
• Drag the horizontal border below the Date Navigator calendars down to increase the height, or up to decrease the height.

The Date Navigator displays each month in seven-day weeks. The first day of the week shown in the Date Navigator is controlled by the First Day Of Week setting on the Calendar page of the Outlook Options dialog box. When the Date Navigator displays more than one month, each month shows either five or six weeks at a time—whichever is necessary to show all the days of the currently selected month.

You can display a specific day, week, month or range of days in the calendar by selecting it in the Date Navigator. When you’re displaying the Calendar in the Week arrangement, selecting a day displays the week that contains it. Otherwise, the Calendar arrangement changes to show the time period that you select.

Use these techniques to work with the Date Navigator:

• To display a day, click that date.
• To display a week, point to the left edge of the week; when the pointer direction changes from left to right, click to select the week. (You can configure the Calendar Options to display week numbers in the Date Navigator and Calendar. If you do, clicking the week number displays the week.)
• To display a range of days (from two days to a maximum of six weeks), point to the first date you want to display and then drag across the Date Navigator to the last date.
• To change the period of time displayed in the calendar one month at a time, click the Previous or Next arrow on either side of the month name, at the top of the Date Navigator.
• To move multiple months back or forward, press the month name, and then drag up or down on the list that appears.

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

1. Do either of the following:

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

1. On the View tab, in the Arrangement group, click the Day button to display only the selected day’s schedule.

To display today’s schedule

1. On the Home tab, in the Go To group, click the Today button. 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

1. On the View tab, in the Layout group, click the Daily Task List button and then do any of the following:

   • Click Normal to display the task list area below the calendar.
   • Click 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.
   • Click Off to hide the task list.

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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, click Calendar to return the calendar to its default settings.
2. Then in the Current View group, click Reset View to return to the default calendar state.