Outlook - 7 Calendar Tips Every User Should Know
Posted on: 09/07/2021
We spend a lot of time in our Outlook calendar. With these calendar tips and tricks, you'll learn how to use your calendar efficiently. I'll demonstrate to you how I use my Outlook desktop calendar to be more productive.
YouTube Video
Tip 1 - Ctrl keys to quickly access navigation icons
Keyboard shortcut |
Action |
CTRL + 1 |
Email |
CTRL + 2 |
Calendar |
CTRL + 3 |
People / Contacts |
CTRL + 4 |
Task |
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Outlook Sweep Feature - Awesome built-in tool to keep your inbox clean
The Sweep feature in Outlook gives you options to automatically delete all incoming emails from a particular sender, to keep only the latest email, or to delete emails older than 10 days (which I use all the time). Sweep is a great way of keeping your inbox clean.
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Word and Outlook - Dictate with Auto Punctuation and Voice Commands
The Dictate feature in Word and Outlook has been greatly improved. Dictate will now allow Auto Punctuation, Voice Commands, and a Profanity Filter. The Dictate command works in the Desktop apps - Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Interestingly, the new improvements only work in Word and Outlook.
Tip 2 - See multiple months
You can resize the folder pane to view multiple months. You can move if left and right and up and down.
Tip 3 - Calendar Views
1:03 in the video
The following views allow you to see times zones:
To get back to Today, click wither Today or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + T.
Tip 4 - Add Time Zones
In Day, Work Week, and Week view you can show 1 to 3 times zones.
Steps to show time zones:
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Go to File, and click Options.
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Click Calendar.
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In the Time Zones section, add the time zones you want to view
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Click OK.
Tip 5 - End Meetings Early
Back-to-back meetings are tough. It is impossible to go from one meeting to the next, yet we keep scheduling back-to-back meetings. Outlook has a great feature so that you can end meetings early.
Options for meetings less than one hour, you can end early:
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5 minutes
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8 minutes
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10 minutes
Options for meetings one hour or longer, you can end early:
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5 minutes
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10 minutes
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15 minutes
Other Outlook articles
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Create a Poll in an Outlook email
Outlook now allows you to quickly create a poll in an email. This works with in conjunction with Microsoft Forms, but you do NOT have to go to Forms to use this feature. You create your poll directly in the email.
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Teams vs. Outlook - Schedule a Teams meeting
Scheduling a Teams meeting can be done in Outlook or Teams. We examine the pros and cons of using each app to schedule meetings.
Tip 6 - Ctrl to select individual dates
You can select individual dates to show in your calendar by using the Ctrl key.
Tip 7 - Send calendar in an email message
If you need to meet with co-workers, use the Scheduling Assistant in Outlook. If you need to meet with many people internally and externally, you may want to use the Find Time poll feature, but if you want to meet with one person outside your company, send them your calendar in an Outlook email.
Steps to send calendar availability
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Go to Mail and start a new email.
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Click the Insert tab.
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Click Calendar in the Include group.
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Select the date range and the detail or availability to show.
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Click OK.
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Send the email.
Microsoft Teams Training - Online Course
Just some of the topics covered
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Navigation Teams
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Using private Chat
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Using group Chat
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Teams Meetings
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Scheduling Meetings
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Meeting controls
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Roles in a meeting
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Sharing resources
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PowerPoint in a meeting
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Scheduling Team meetings from Outlook
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Working with Teams and Channels
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Conversations
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Files
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Wiki and OneNote
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Using Outlook and Teams
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Using apps in Teams
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Chris Menard
Chris Menard is a certified Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. He runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers.
Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events every year, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the Support Staff Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at https://chrismenardtraining.com/linkedin or watch his videos on YouTube at https://chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.
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