10 Minute Guide to Outlook 97 - 12 - Using the Calendar In this lesson, you learn to navigate the Calendar, create appointments, and save appointments. Navigating the Calendar You can use Outlook's Calendar to schedule appointments and create a to-do list, if necessary, to remind you of daily or weekly tasks. You can schedule appointments months in advance, move appointments, cancel appointments, and so on. And the Calendar makes it easy to identify days on which you have appointments. To open the Outlook Calendar, click the Calendar icon in the Outlook Bar or select the Calendar folder from the Folder List. Figure 12.1 shows the Calendar in Outlook. Outlook provides multiple ways for you to move around in the Calendar and view specific dates: Scroll through the schedule pane to view the time of the appointment. In the monthly calendar pane, click the left and right arrows next to the names of the months to go backward and forward one month at a time. In the monthly calendar pane, click a date to display that date in the schedule pane. To view a full month in the schedule pane, select the name of the month in the monthly calendar pane. To view a week or selected days in the schedule pane, select the days in the monthly calendar pane. To add a task to the Task list, click where you see Click here to add a new Task. Use the scroll bars for the Task list pane to view appointments, if necessary. Timesaver Tip: Change the Date Quickly To quickly go to today's date or to a specific date without searching through the monthly calendar pane, right-click in the schedule pane and choose either Go To Today or Go To Date. Figure 12.1 You can view all appointments and tasks. Creating an Appointment You can create an appointment on any day well past the year 2000 using the Outlook Calendar. When you create an appointment, you can add the subject, location, starting time, category, and even an alarm to remind you ahead of time. Follow these steps to create an appointment: 1. In the monthly calendar pane, select the month and the date for which you want to create an appointment. 2. In the schedule pane, double-click next to the time at which the appointment is scheduled to begin. The Untitled - Appointment dialog box appears, with the Appointment tab displayed (see Figure 12.2). Figure 12.2 Enter all the details you need when scheduling an appointment. 3. Enter the subject of the appointment in the Subject text box (you can use a person's name, a topic, or other information). 4. In the Location text box, enter the meeting place or other text that will help you identify the meeting when you see it in your calendar. 5. Enter dates and times in the Start Time and End Time text boxes (or click the drop-down arrows and select the dates and times). Timesaver Tip: Autodate It! You can use Outlook's Autodate feature: enter a text phrase such as "next Friday" or "noon" in the date and time text boxes, and Outlook figures out the date for you. 6. Select the Reminder check box and enter the amount of time before the appointment that you want to be notified. If you want to set an audio alarm, click the alarm bell button and select a specific sound for Outlook to play as your reminder. 7. From the Show Time As drop-down list, choose how you want to display the scheduled time on your calendar. 8. In the large text box near the bottom of the Appointment tab, enter any text that you want to include, such as text to identify the appointment, reminders for materials to take, and so on. 9. Click the Categories button and assign a category to the appointment. 10. Click the Save and Close button to return to the calendar. The Meeting Planner tab enables you to schedule a meeting with coworkers and enter the meeting on your Calendar. See Lesson 13 for more information. Scheduling a Recurring Appointment Suppose you have an appointment that comes around every week or month, or that otherwise occurs on a regular basis. Instead of scheduling every individual occurrence of the appointment, you can schedule that appointment in your calendar as a recurring appointment. To schedule a recurring appointment, follow these steps: 1. In the Calendar folder, choose Calendar, New Recurring Appointment. The Appointment dialog box appears, and then the Appointment Recurrence dialog box appears (as shown in Figure 12.3). Figure 12.3 Schedule a recurring appointment once, and Outlook fills in the appointment for you throughout the Calendar. 2. In the Appointment Time area, enter the Start, End, and Duration times for the appointment. 3. In the Recurrence Pattern area, indicate the frequency of the appointment: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. After you select one of these options, the rest of the Recurrence Pattern area changes. 4. Enter the day and month, as well as any other options in the Recurrence Pattern area that are specific to your selection in step 3. 5. In the Range of Recurrence area, enter appropriate time limits according to these guidelines: Start Choose the date on which the recurring appointments will begin. No End Date Choose this option if the recurring appointments are not on a limited schedule. End After Choose this option and enter the number of appointments if there is a specific limit to the recurring appointments. End By Choose this option and enter an ending date to limit the number of recurring appointments. 6. Click OK to close the Appointment Recurrence dialog box. The Appointment dialog box appears. 7. Fill in the Appointment dialog box as described previously in this lesson. When you finish, click the Save and Close button to return to the Calendar. The recurring appointment appears in your calendar on the specified date and time. A recurring appointment contains a double arrow icon to indicate that it is recurring. Planning Events In the Outlook Calendar, an event is any activity that lasts at least 24 hours, such as a trade show or a conference. You can plan an event in the Calendar program to block off larger time slots than you would for normal appointments. In addition, you can schedule recurring events. To schedule an event, choose Calendar, New Event. The Event dialog box appears; it looks very much like the New Appointment dialog box. Fill in the Subject, Location, Start Time, and End Time text boxes. Make sure the All Day Event check box is checked (that's the only difference between an Event and an Appoint-ment). Click the Save and Close button to return to the Outlook Calendar. The appointment appears in gray at the beginning of the day for which you scheduled the event. To schedule a recurring event, choose Calendar, New Recurring Event. Fill in the Appointment Recurrence dialog box as you learned to in the previous section. When you close the Appointment Recurrence dialog box, the Recurring Event dialog box appears. Fill it in as you would the Event dialog box. Then click the Save and Close button. To edit an event or a recurring event, double-click the event in your calendar. As with a mail message or appointment, Outlook opens the event window so you can change times, dates, or other details of the event. In this lesson, you learned to navigate the Calendar, create appointments, and save appointments. In the next lesson, you will learn to plan a meeting.

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