Working with Appointments

An Outlook appointment can be very simple, or you can use Outlook’s tools to add various features and options to an appointment. The following sections start with the basics of creating a simple appointment and then look at the various options.

Creating a simple appointment

To create a simple appointment, make sure that Outlook is displaying the Calendar. Then do either of the following:

• Click the New button on the toolbar. Outlook opens a new appointment form for whatever day is selected in the Calendar.

• Double-click a day on the Calendar. Outlook opens a new appointment form for that day.

The appointment form is shown in Figure 30-8 before any information has been entered. Then, follow these steps:

1.	At a minimum, you must enter a subject for the appointment. The subject is the title of the appointment and is displayed in the Calendar—or at least part of it will be, depending on the length.
2.	Optionally, enter a location for the appointment. If you click the arrow adjacent to the Location fields, Outlook displays a list of previously used locations from which you can select. Otherwise, just type the location into the field. If space allows, the location displays along with the appointment subject in the Calendar.
3.	If necessary, adjust the start or stop date (or both) by clicking the arrow next to the displayed date and selecting from the calendar that Outlook displays. An appointment can span two or more days, if needed.
4.	If the appointment is an all-day event, make sure that the All Day Event option is selected. An all-day event marks one or more entire days as busy, with no specific start and stop times.
5.	If the appointment is not an all-day event, make sure that the All Day Event option is not selected. Outlook displays fields for the start and stop times.
6.	To select a start or stop time, click the adjacent arrow and select from the list that is displayed (Figure 30-9). Figure 30-9. Selecting the stop time for an appointment. [View full size image]
7.	Optionally, enter any desired notes in the field provided.
8.	Click the Save & Close button on the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon.

Dealing with Conflicts Outlook does not specifically warn you of potential conflicts; you are free to schedule overlapping appointments if you want. When an overlap exists, Outlook displays a striped bar between the appointments in Week view and Day view.

Editing and deleting appointments

To edit an appointment, double-click it in Calendar view to open the Appointment form. Make any needed changes and click the Save & Close button on the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon.

To delete an appointment, click it in Calendar view to select it; then, press Del.

If you simply want to change the duration of an appointment, you can do so without opening the appointment form. When you select the appointment in the Calendar by clicking it, it displays small, square handles on its border, as shown in Figure 30-10. For a regular appointment, the handles will be at the top and bottom, as shown in the figure. Drag the top or bottom handle to change the appointment’s start or stop time, respectively. For an all-day event, the handles are on the left and right edges and can be dragged to change the start or stop time.

You can also change an appointment’s time, date, or both without changing its duration; do so by pointing at the appointment and dragging it to the new position on the Calendar.

Appointment options

When you create an appointment, there are several optional features you may want to use. They are described in the following sections.

Scheduling recurring events

Some events occur on a regular basis. Perhaps you have a chiropractor appointment at 10:00 a.m. every Monday, or a company strategy meeting on the first Tuesday of each month. You can enter such appointments only once and have Outlook create all the recurrences automatically. Here’s how:

1.	Use the techniques described earlier in this chapter to create an appointment for the first instance, but do not save and close it.
2.	In the Appointment form, click the Recurrence button in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon. Outlook displays the Appointment Recurrence dialog box, as shown in Figure 30-11. Figure 30-11. Defining a recurring appointment.
3.	In the Appointment Time section of the dialog box, make sure that the start time and stop time are correct.
4.	In the Recurrence Pattern section, select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
5.	Depending on the option selected in the previous step, enter other recurrence details: Daily: Specify how often the appointment recurs (for example, every two days) or that it occurs every weekday. Weekly: Specify how often the appointment recurs (for example, every week) and then on which day or days. Monthly: Specify how often the appointment recurs (for example, every three months) and on which day. You can select a day by number, such as the 15th of every month. You can also select a day by day of week, such as the second Tuesday of the month.
6.	Under Range of Recurrence, enter the starting date and then specify when the recurrences end. Your choices are the following: No end date End after a certain number of occurrences End by a specified date
7.	Click OK to return to the Appointment form.
8.	Complete any additional appointment details as needed.
9.	Click Save & Close.

When you open an existing recurring appointment for editing, you can click the Recurrence button to open the Appointment Recurrence dialog box to modify the recurrence pattern. You can also remove the recurrence by clicking the Remove Recurrent button in this dialog box. Outlook removes all instances of the appointment from the Calendar except the next one.

If you try to delete a recurring appointment, Outlook gives you the option of deleting all occurrences of the appointment or just the current one.

Using appointment reminders

Outlook can remind you of an appointment by displaying a dialog box and playing a sound. You can specify how much advance notice you get and change the sound that is played. You can also turn reminders off. To set a reminder, follow these steps:

1.	Create the appointment, or open an existing one for editing.
2.	Click the Reminder list in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon (Figure 30-12). Figure 30-12. Specifying the reminder interval for an appointment. [View full size image]
3.	Select the desired duration of the advance warning, from 0 minutes to 2 weeks. The default is 15 minutes before the start time, although you can change this in Calendar Options (covered later in this chapter). Select None for no reminder.
4.	Select Sound to specify the sound that is played when a reminder is displayed. Deselect the Play This Sound option if you do not want a sound played (a dialog box is displayed).
5.	Click OK to return to the appointment form.

When a reminder comes due, Outlook plays the sound (if one was specified for the appointment) and displays the dialog box shown in Figure 30-13. If more than one reminder is due, they will all be listed. The actions you can take are the following:

• Click Dismiss to dismiss the selected reminder.

• If more than one reminder is listed, click Dismiss All to dismiss all listed reminders.

• Click Open Item to open the corresponding appointment.

• Click Snooze to be reminded again in the specified time, selected from the adjacent list. You can, for example, choose to be reminded 5 minutes before the appointment start time, or 10 minutes from the current time.

Using other time zones

By default, Outlook appointments use the time zone that your system is set up to use. At times, you may want to use another time zone—for example, if you are in New York and your client says, “Call me at 8:00 a.m. my time.” You may not know the number of hours difference, but as long as you know his time zone you are all set.

When you have the Appointment form open, click the Time Zones button in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon to display time zone selectors next to the start and stop time fields (Figure 30-14). Change either the start or stop time zone to the desired setting; the other will change to the same thing. Now the start and stop times you enter will be interpreted as being in the selected time zone, and the appointment will be displayed in the correct local time slot. For example, if you are in the Eastern time zone and enter an appointment from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Pacific time zone, the appointment will display between 11:00 and 12:00 a.m. on your Calendar because the Pacific zone is three hours behind the Eastern zone.

Forwarding an appointment

Outlook lets you forward an appointment to an e-mail recipient. Forwarding is different from inviting an attendee to a meeting (covered elsewhere in the next chapter). You have two ways to forward an Outlook appointment:

• Open the appointment and click the Forward button in the Actions group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon.

• Right-click the appointment in the Calendar and select Forward from the shortcut menu.

In either case, Outlook creates a new e-mail message with the appointment attached as an Outlook item and the title of the appointment inserted in the Subject field. You then address and complete the e-mail message as usual. If you are using Outlook with an Exchange Server account, the appointment itself is forwarded without being attached to an e-mail message.

When the recipients receive a forwarded appointment, they can double-click the attachment to open it. It opens in an appointment window, and users can save it to their calendar or discard it as desired. Of course, recipients must be using Outlook or another program that supports the Outlook appointment format.

Another forwarding option for appointments is the iCalendar format. This is a widely supported format for calendar information and is supported by Outlook as well as many other scheduling programs. If you are not sure that all your recipients are using Outlook, using this format may be a good idea when forwarding an appointment. To do so, follow these steps:

1.	In an open appointment, click the arrow next to the Forward button in the Actions group of the Event or Appointment tab.
2.	Choose Forward as iCalendar from the menu. Outlook creates a new e-mail message with the iCalendar attached.
3.	Complete and send the message as usual.

Assigning appointments to categories

As with most Outlook items, an appointment can be assigned to a category. Outlook comes with six predefined and color-coded categories. Initially they are named according to their color, but you can change this to more meaningful names such as “Work” and “Personal,” as in the example shown in Figure 30-15. The first time you apply a category color, you are prompted to enter a name for the category.

You have two ways to assign an appointment to a category:

• With the appointment open, click the Categorize button in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon and select the desired category from the list that is displayed. Select Clear All Categories to remove any assigned categories from the appointment.

• In the Calendar, right-click the appointment and select Categorize from the shortcut menu. Then, select the desired category.

An appointment, as is true of other Outlook items, can be assigned to more than one category. In the Calendar, a categorized appointment is displayed in the color of the assigned category.

Setting appointment importance

By default, all appointments that you create are assigned normal importance. You can assign either low or high importance to an open appointment by clicking the corresponding button in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon. Then you can use this importance level as a criterion when using the Search feature in your Calendar, as discussed elsewhere in this chapter.

Marking an appointment as private

Outlook gives you the ability to publish your calendar so that other people can view your schedule. This topic is covered elsewhere in this chapter. You may at times want to mark an appointment as private so that other people viewing your calendar cannot see the details. They can still see that you are busy during the period of the appointment but will not have access to details about the appointment.

To mark an open appointment as private, click the Private (padlock) button in the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab of the Ribbon.

Determining how an appointment displays on the Scheduling page

Outlook’s Scheduling page provides a view of your schedule and the schedules of other people whose calendars you have imported. It is a very useful tool for finding time that is free for all the people you want to attend a meeting.

An appointment in your calendar can display in one of several ways on the Scheduling page: Busy, Tentative, Out of Office, or Free. This display affects your own Scheduling page as well as that of other people with whom you are sharing your calendar. When you create an appointment, you can specify how it will display. (The default is Busy except for all-day events, as mentioned earlier in this chapter.) To do so, click the Show As list on the Options group of the Event or Appointment tab on the Ribbon and select from the list (Figure 30-16).

Why Display an Appointment as “Free”? It may seem strange that Outlook gives you the option of displaying an appointment as Free on the Scheduling page. It makes sense, however, when you realize that some appointments are not critical and can easily be changed. For example, you can just as well get that haircut tomorrow as today. By displaying such appointments as free, you do not prevent other people from scheduling a meeting at that time when they view your schedule.