Exam 77-604 Using Microsoft Offi ce Outlook 2007 453
2.5 Share your calendar with other people
2.6 View other calendars.
Outlook 2007 provides full calendar and scheduling functionality to help you manage a schedule of business and personal appointments, meetings, and events.
This chapter guides you in studying ways of creating and customizing Outlook Calendar items, inviting people to meetings by using the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007–specific functionality of Outlook 2007, customizing your Calendar settings to fit the way you work, and displaying different views of multiple calendars.
Important Before you can use the practice files in this chapter, you need to install them from the book’s companion CD to their default location. See “Using the Companion CD”
at the beginning of this book for more information.
Tip Graphics and operating system–related instructions in this book reflect the Windows Vista user interface. If your computer is running Windows XP and you experience trouble following the instructions as written, refer to the sidebar “If You Are Running Windows XP”
in “Working in the Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface” at the beginning of this book.
2.1 Create appointments, meetings, and events
Appointments
Appointments are blocks of time you enter on only your calendar. You can enter an appointment directly in the Calendar pane, in which case the time is shown on your calendar as Busy and the appointment reminder is set to 15 minutes. If you want to change those default settings, or if you want to schedule an appointment for some- thing other than the default half-hour increments shown in the Calendar pane, you can enter the appointment in an appointment window.
Specify the location.
Add notes.
Specify start and end times.
Specify the time type or reminder.
Time scheduled for an appointment can be shown as Free, Tentative, Busy, or Out Of Office. You can change the reminder time or turn it off completely. You can also include information such as driving directions or Web site links in the content pane, and attach related files so that they are easily available to you at the time of the appointment.
Tip If you synchronize your Outlook installation with a mobile device such as a BlackBerry or a mobile phone running Microsoft Windows Mobile, you can also receive reminders on your device.
You can also create an appointment based on an e-mail message or task simply by dragging it to the Calendar button in the Navigation Pane. When you release the mouse button, an appointment window opens with the message or task subject as the appointment subject and the message or task details in the appointment window’s content pane. The start and end times are set to the next half-hour increment following the current time. You can then make any necessary adjustments before saving the appointment.
See Also You can convert an appointment to a meeting by opening its window and clicking the Scheduling button in the Show group on the Appointment tab. For more information, see section 2.2, “Send meeting requests.”
➤To create an appointment with default settings
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the appointment.
2. In the Calendar pane, click the desired time slot, or drag through consecutive time slots.
3. Type the appointment subject, and then press Enter.
➤To create an appointment with custom settings
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the appointment, and then click the New Appointment button.
2. In the appointment window, type the appointment subject and location.
3. Click the desired start time in the right Start time list and the desired end time in the right End time list.
4. On the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click the type of time you want displayed in your calendar in the Show As list.
5. In the Options group, click the reminder period in the Reminder list.
Tip You can also specify the sound to play for reminders by clicking Sound at the bottom of the list.
6. Add notes about the appointment in the content pane.
7. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click the Save & Close button.
Tip To attach a file to the appointment, click Attach File in the Include group on the Insert tab, and locate and double-click the file.
➤To change the appointment time
➜ Drag the appointment to a new time slot.
➜ Drag the bottom border of the time slot up or down to change the end time.
➜ Double-click the appointment to open its appointment window, adjust the Start time and End time settings, and then on the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click the Save & Close button.
➤To create an appointment from an e-mail message or task
1. In the message list or task list, drag the message to the Calendar button at the bottom of the Navigation Pane.
2. When the appointment window opens, make any necessary adjustments.
3. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click the Save & Close button.
Events
Events are day-long blocks of time that you schedule on your calendar. In all other respects, events are identical to appointments. You can enter an event directly in the Calendar pane, in which case the time is shown on your calendar as Free and the event reminder is set to 15 minutes. You can change those settings by opening the event window.
Attach helpful information.
You can create an event from an e-mail message or task by first creating an appointment and then converting it.
➤To create an event with default settings
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the event.
2. At the top of the Calendar pane, click the bottom of the blank space between the header and the first time slot.
Tip Click to add event appears in the space when you point to the right spot.
3. Type the event subject, and then press Enter.
➤To create an event with custom settings
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the appointment.
2. Click the space between the header and the first time slot, and then click the New Appointment button.
Tip You can also click New All Day Event on the Actions menu without first clicking the space above the time slots.
3. In the appointment window, with the All day event check box selected, fill in the other event details and adjust the Show As and Reminder settings in the usual way.
4. On the Event tab, in the Actions group, click the Save & Close button.
➤To convert an appointment into an event
1. In the Calendar, double-click the appointment.
2. In the appointment window, select the All Day Event check box.
3. Save and close the event.
Recurring Appointments and Events
If an appointment or event happens more than once at specific intervals, such as every Tuesday or every month, you can set it up as a recurring appointment or event. Outlook then creates multiple instances of the appointment in your calendar at the time interval you specify.
Recurring appointments are linked, and if you need to make changes, you can choose to update a specific occurrence or all occurrences.
➤To create a recurring appointment or event
1. Open the appointment window, and then on the Appointment or Event tab, in the Options group, click the Recurrence button.
2. In the Recurrence pattern area of the Appointment Recurrence dialog box, click a frequency option.
3. In the adjacent area, which changes according to the frequency option you select, adjust the settings to reflect the desired recurrence.
4. In the Range of recurrence area, select the appropriate end date for the series of appointments or events.
5. Click OK, and then click Save & Close.
Private Appointments and Events
You can mark any item in your calendar as Private. Then when other people look at your calendar, they can see that you are busy but not see why.
Private appointment
➤To mark a Calendar item as private
1. Open the appointment window, and on the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click Private.
2. Click Save & Close.
Practice Tasks
You need to be online and have a working Outlook account to complete these tasks. The practice fi le for the last task is located in the Documents\Microsoft Press\
MCAS\Outlook2007\Objective02 folder.
l Display tomorrow’s date in the Calendar pane. Create a half-hour appoint- ment from 11:30 to 12:00, with the subject MCAS Lunch with Jane. Accept all other default settings.
l Continuing with the previous task, without opening the appointment window, start the MCAS Lunch with Jane appointment one hour earlier, and make it a one-hour appointment.
l Continuing with the previous task, indicate that the MCAS Lunch with Jane appointment is at Fourth Coffee, and set a one-hour reminder. Show the time on your calendar as Out of Offi ce, and mark the appointment as private.
l Create a recurring one-hour appointment with the subject MCAS Book Club on the fi rst Monday of the month at 6:00 PM. Set the series to end after six occurrences.
l Create a two-day event on Tuesday and Wednesday two weeks from now in Portland, Oregon, with the subject MCAS Annual General Meeting. Attach the Agenda document to the event.
Practice Tasks
You need to be online and have a working Outlook account to complete these You need to be online and have a working Outlook account to complete these tasks. The practice fi le for the last task is located in the
tasks. The practice fi le for the last task is located in the Documents\Microsoft Press\Documents\Microsoft Press\
MCAS\Outlook2007\Objective02 MCAS\Outlook2007\Objective02 folder. folder.
l Display tomorrow’s date in the Calendar pane. Create a half-hour appoint- Display tomorrow’s date in the Calendar pane. Create a half-hour appoint- ment from 11:30 to 12:00, with the subject
ment from 11:30 to 12:00, with the subject MCAS Lunch with JaneMCAS Lunch with Jane. Accept all . Accept all other default settings.
other default settings.
l Continuing with the previous task, without opening the appointment window, Continuing with the previous task, without opening the appointment window, start the
start the MCAS Lunch with Jane MCAS Lunch with Jane appointment one hour earlier, and make it a appointment one hour earlier, and make it a one-hour appointment.
one-hour appointment.
l Continuing with the previous task, indicate that the Continuing with the previous task, indicate that the MCAS Lunch with Jane MCAS Lunch with Jane appointment is at
appointment is at Fourth CoffeeFourth Coffee, and set a one-hour reminder. Show the time , and set a one-hour reminder. Show the time on your calendar as Out of Offi ce, and mark the appointment as private.
on your calendar as Out of Offi ce, and mark the appointment as private.
l Create a recurring one-hour appointment with the subject Create a recurring one-hour appointment with the subject MCAS Book ClubMCAS Book Club on the fi rst Monday of the month at 6:00 PM. Set the series to end after six on the fi rst Monday of the month at 6:00 PM. Set the series to end after six occurrences.
occurrences.
l Create a two-day event on Tuesday and Wednesday two weeks from now in Create a two-day event on Tuesday and Wednesday two weeks from now in Portland, Oregon, with the subject
Portland, Oregon, with the subject MCAS Annual General MeetingMCAS Annual General Meeting. Attach the . Attach the Agenda
Agenda document to the event. document to the event.
2.2 Send meeting requests
Meeting Requests
You can send a meeting invitation (referred to as a meeting request) to any person who has an e-mail account (even to people who don’t use Outlook). You can let people who don’t have to attend the meeting know that it is taking place by marking their attendance as optional. You can invite entire groups of people by using a distribution list. The meeting request can include text and Web links, as well as file attachments to ensure that attendees have specific information available to them.
Just as you can create recurring appointments and events, you can create recurring meetings by adjusting the settings in the Appointment Recurrence dialog box.
➤To invite required attendees to a meeting
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the meeting.
2. On the Standard toolbar, in the New list, click Meeting Request.
Or
On the Actions menu, click New Meeting Request.
3. In the meeting window, type the e-mail addresses of the attendees in the To box.
4. In the Subject box, type the name of the meeting; and in the Location box, indicate where the meeting will take place.
5. Adjust the Start time and End time settings, and then click Send.
➤To invite an optional attendee to a meeting
1. After entering the attendee’s e-mail address in step 3 of the previous procedure, click the Scheduling button in the Show group on the Meeting tab.
2. Click the icon immediately to the left of the attendee’s name, and in the list, click Optional Attendee.
3. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click the Appointment button, and then proceed with step 4 of the previous procedure.
➤To create a recurring meeting
1. On the Meeting tab of the meeting window, in the Options group, click the Recurrence button.
2. In the Recurrence pattern area of the Appointment Recurrence dialog box, click a frequency option, and adjust settings to reflect the desired recurrence.
3. In the Range of recurrence area, select the appropriate end date for the series of meetings. Then click OK.
Scheduling
A primary difficulty when scheduling a meeting is finding a time that works for every- one. The Scheduling Assistant page of a meeting request window displays the schedules of people within your own organization and of people outside of your organization who have published their availability to the Internet. If free/busy information is available for meeting invitees, their time is shown as white (Available), blue (Busy), or purple (Out of Office). Tentative bookings are indicated by light-blue diagonal stripes. If no information is available (either because Outlook can’t connect to a person’s calendar or because the proposed meeting is further out than the scheduling information stored on the server), Outlook indicates this by gray diagonal stripes. The gray row at the top of the schedule indicates the collective schedule of all the invitees. Outlook indicates the selected meet- ing time with green (start time) and red (end time) vertical bars.
If your organization is running Exchange Server 2007, Outlook simplifies even further the process of selecting a suitable meeting time by displaying a list of suggested meet- ing times on the right side of the Scheduling Assistant page. The Suggested Times list displays meeting times of any duration you specify in the Duration list and indicates for each time the number of required and optional attendees who are available.
Strategy This section covers functionality that is specific to an Exchange Server 2007 environ- ment. In the exam environment, Outlook 2007 runs against a simulated Exchange Server 2007 back end. If you have access only to Exchange Server 2003 or a non-Exchange Server account, study this section carefully.
Select attendees from your address book.
Use Smart Scheduling features.
Select a time range in the chart or enter it here.
The calendar in the upper-right corner of the Scheduling Assistant page indicates the collective availability of the group by color, as follows:
l Days when all attendees are available are white (Good).
l Days when most attendees are available are light blue (Fair).
l Days when most attendees are not available are medium blue (Poor).
l Days that occur in the past and non-working days are gray; scheduling suggestions are not provided for those days.
Selecting a date in the calendar displays suggested meeting times for that day. The availability of required attendees is shown separately from that of optional attendees and resources.
See Also For information about publishing calendars, see section 2.5, “Share your calendar with other people.”
If your organization is running Microsoft Exchange Server and the Exchange Server directory includes shared resources such as conference rooms or presentation equip- ment, you can include these resources when scheduling a meeting.
If you meet frequently with the same people, instead of adding them individually when you schedule a meeting, you can create a group schedule. Then any time you need to schedule a meeting with that group, you can view the group schedule and then send a meeting request for the time when everyone is available.
➤To schedule a meeting
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the meeting.
2. On the Standard toolbar, in the New list, click Meeting Request.
Or
On the Actions menu, click New Meeting Request.
Tip If you prefer, you can organize a meeting directly from a Scheduling page-like interface by clicking Plan A Meeting on the Actions menu.
3. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click Scheduling Assistant.
4. Click Add Attendees. Then in the Select Attendees and Resources dialog box, double-click each required attendee name. Click each optional attendee name, and then click Optional and select any resources and click Resources. When the list is complete, click OK.
Tip To add an attendee from outside your organization, enter the attendee’s e-mail address directly in the All Attendees list on the Scheduling Assistant page, or in the To box on the Appointment page.
5. Select a time when all the required attendees are available from the Suggested Times list on the right.
6. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click Appointment.
7. Complete the details of the meeting, and then click Send.
➤To create a group schedule
1. Display your calendar, and then on the Actions menu, click View Group Schedules.
2. In the Group Schedules dialog box, click New.
3. In the Create New Group Schedule dialog box, type a name for the schedule, and then click OK.
4. In the group’s window, add members by clicking in the Group Members list and then typing a name or an e-mail address, or by clicking Add Others and then selecting group members from your address book.
5. Select a time for the meeting, click Make Meeting, and then send the meeting request.
Tip You can view an up-to-date group schedule at any time by clicking View Group Schedules on the Actions menu and double-clicking the schedule name.
➤To use Smart Scheduling to schedule a meeting
1. In the Calendar, display the date on which you want to schedule the meeting.
2. On the Standard toolbar, in the New list, click Meeting Request.
Or
On the Actions menu, click New Meeting Request.
3. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click Scheduling Assistant.
4. Specify the required and optional attendees, as well as any necessary resources.
5. In the Duration list on the right, specify the duration of the meeting.
6. In the Suggested Times list, click a meeting time when all or most of the required attendees are available.
7. On the Meeting tab, in the Show group, click Appointment.
8. Complete the details of the meeting, and then click Send.
Response Tracking
When someone responds to a meeting request, you receive an e-mail message. You can open the message to see who has accepted, tentatively accepted, or declined your invitation. In addition, you can open the meeting window, where Outlook automatically tracks responses from attendees in a banner below the Ribbon. Either way, you always have an up-to-date report of how many people will be attending your meeting.
Response details Response
summary