Using the Calendar

To show the Calendar, click the Calendar button in the Navigation pane. The view window shows the Calendar itself, and we’ll get to that in a moment. The top section of the Navigation pane shows a small calendar of the current month, called the Date Navigator, which has several useful features, as shown in Figure 30-1 and described in the following list:

• Today’s date is enclosed in a box—the 22nd in Figure 30-1.

• The days that are displayed in the larger Calendar view are highlighted in the small calendar. In Figure 30-1, these encompass the 21st through the 25th.

• Days on which there is at least one appointment are in bold.

• The arrows to the left and right of the month and year can be clicked to move to the previous or next month, updating the Calendar view as well.

• You can click any day number to change the Calendar view accordingly.

No Date Navigator? If the Date Navigator is not displayed in the Navigation pane, it is probably because it is displayed in the To-Do bar. The Date Navigator is displayed in one place or the other, not both. You learn about the To-Do bar later in this chapter.

Working with Calendar views

When the Calendar is displayed, you can choose between viewing a single day, a week, or an entire month. In Week view, you can also choose to view the entire week or just the work week (Monday–Friday), and in Month view you can set the level of detail display to low, medium, or high. You select your view using the buttons at the top of the Calendar. In this area, Outlook also displays the date or date range displayed as well as buttons that move the calendar forward or back by one of whatever unit (day, week, or month) is displayed (see Figure 30-2).

Finding Today No matter what day, week, or month you are viewing in the Calendar, you can always go directly to the current day by clicking the Today button on the toolbar.

Using the Calendar Day view

When the Calendar is displaying a single day, it looks as shown in Figure 30-3. Times of the day are listed at the left edge of the window, and each appointment is displayed in its assigned time slot. Use the scroll bar to bring different times into view. Any all-day events for the day are displayed at the top of the window.

Click an appointment to select it; it displays with a black border and small handles (boxes) on the top and bottom border. You can:

• Point at the appointment and drag to move it to a different time slot.

• Point at one of the handles and drag it to change either the start or stop time.

If you double-click an appointment, it opens for editing, as explained later in this chapter.

Displaying the Reading Pane If the Reading pane is not displayed, you can turn it on by selecting Reading Pane from the View menu and then selecting the desired position—bottom or right. You can also toggle the Reading pane display with the Reading Pane button on the toolbar.

Using the Calendar Week view

The Calendar Week view is shown in Figure 30-4. This example shows only the work week; you can display the full seven-day week by selecting the Show Full Week option at the top of the window.

In essence, the Week view consists of five or seven single-day views side-by-side, and you can perform the same actions as described for the Day view. You can also drag an appointment to a different day.

Using the Calendar Month view

The Month view shows an entire month of appointments, as shown in Figure 30-5. Appointments for each day are displayed in order but without time details. If an all-day event exists for the day, it is displayed at the top with a line around it—for example, the “Meeting with Sales Staff” appointment on the 13th and 14th, shown in the Figure 30-5. If a day has more appointments than can be shown, a small down arrow is displayed. Click the arrow to open the single day display where you can view all appointments for that date.

Figure 30-5 shows the month display with the High option selected for details. You can also select Low or Medium details, as follows:

• Low: Shows only all-day events. Appointments with specific start and stop times are not displayed.

• Medium: All-day events are displayed as usual. Appointments with specific start and stop times are displayed as shaded lines or rectangles with the position and thickness of the line or rectangle indicating the approximate time and duration of the appointment.

Customizing the Calendar View If you open the Current View list on the toolbar, you see an item called Define Views. This command lets you define a custom view for the Calendar.

Using the To-Do bar with appointments

Outlook’s To-Do bar can be useful for working with Calendar items. To display the To-Do bar, choose To-Do Bar from the View menu and then choose Normal. The To-Do Bar is shown in Figure 30-6.

The To-Do bar can display three items:

• The Date Navigator, a small monthly calendar whose features are explained earlier in this chapter. If the Date Navigator is displayed in the To-Do bar, it will not be displayed in the Navigation pane.

• A list of appointments for the current week.

• A list of tasks. Tasks are not directly related to the Calendar and will be explained later in the chapter.

To-Do Bar Appointment Display You can specify how many appointments are displayed in the To-Do bar; the default is three. However many you choose to display, the To-Do bar always displays the appointments that are coming up the soonest.

You can control what is displayed on the To-Do bar. You can display all, two, or one of the items in the preceding list. To change the To-Do bar display, choose To-Do Bar from the View menu and then select or deselect the individual items—Date Navigator, Appointments, and Task List—on the next menu. You can also select Options from this menu to display the To-Do Bar Options dialog box, shown in Figure 30-7. Here you can turn the display of individual items on or off as well as specify how many months are displayed in the Date Navigator and how many appointments are displayed.