This is the second article in the Simply Put, by Ryn: Microsoft Outlook Tips series. Previous entries:
- Part I: Checking Availability and Calendar Color Labels
- Part 3: Moving Outlook Files to a New/Different Computer
- Part 4: Junk Mail; Composing in HTML, Rich Text, and Plain Text; and Spell Checking
Today I am going to write more about Outlook calendar. If you recall, last time I discussed how to check availability of your co-workers and how to use the Label function for you appointments. Today we are going to learn three more tips, and I promise you, it is just as exciting (seriously, you’ve got to knock it off with the eye-rolling):
- How to change colors in the calendar (this is different than the Labeling)
- How to add holidays to the calendar
- How to add multiple time zones to the calendar
This is Part II (of how many, I still don’t know) in a series of articles about using some of the features in Outlook.
Coloring Your Calendar
If you read Part I then you know that I am a color freak. I’ll repeat that I like color EVERY WHERE (maybe if you’re good, I’ll post some picture of my house – bring your sunglasses). So, you might already have guessed that when I first discovered you could color your calendar, I about flipped!
This is how you do it:
- Open Tools>Options
- From the Preferences tab, click Calendar Options.
(I got a little over-zealous with the arrows.)
And guess what happens next? Are you sitting down? The Calendar Options window opens! (Look, mister, if you don’t get excited about the small stuff, what’s the point of living?.) From the Calendar Options window, select a color from the Background Color drop down menu.
And finally, click OK. Now look at your calendar. Isn’t it be-a-u-tiful? (I tell ya, I’m jumping up and down for you even if you are not.) Here are some examples of colors to choose from:
Adding Holidays
Are you the kind of person who is constantly forgetting Columbus Day? Or, [insert higher power here] forbid, Valentines Day (now, that’s bad, isn’t)? Well, if you are, Outlook Calendar can save you.
(Ok. Wait. Hold on - this is an aside. In trying to write this, I added holidays for Turkey to my calendar. And then I tried to get them out. And NOW, I’m stuck with Turkish holidays, in a screen I can’t get out of and I, I, I HATE MICROSOFT!!!!!!!)
(Five minutes later: I figured it out. I’m ok. I think. I’m recomposing my “I love Microsoft” face. Ready?)
From the Calendar Option screen, click Add Holidays.
(I tried turquoise-patterned arrows this time.)
From the Add Holidays to Calendar dialog, you can add holidays from countries ranging from Algeria to Yemen. You can see that I have United States holidays added. To add holidays, select the country (or countries) of which holidays you want on your calendar, and click OK. They are added to your calendar.
Now for the sad part – removing holidays you don’t want. It’s not just sad for us; it’s sad that Microsoft is so stupid they make you remove holidays in a painful way. (Did I just type that?? I’m supposed to have my happy face on.)
Let’s say you wanted to add the holidays from Turkey (what did I say about eye-rolling? GEEZ!!). And then, three seconds later you decide you don’t want holidays from Turkey. You’d think you could go back the Add Holiday to Calendar dialog and uncheck Turkey and click OK, right? Nope. Wrong.
To remove holidays, open View>Arrange By>Events.
Then, using the CTRL button, select all the Turkish holidays. Click Delete when done. And oh, by the way, you don’t just remove a holiday once; you have to remove multiple years. (Yeah. I know. Even *I’m* rolling my eyes now.)
(It doesn’t make as good of a story, but it is possible to click the Location column and then use SHIFT button to delete all the Turkey holidays in one fell swoop. Actually, fooling around with sorting your events/holidays in various configurations is sort of fun if you had nothing to do.)
One good thing about this feature is that if you do want to remove one or two specific holidays, like Flag Day, you can go in and edit your holidays.
Using Multiple Time Zones
Do you ever have meetings with anyone that lives in another time zone? Do you sometimes forget the time difference and schedule a meeting that for you is at 9am, but for your friend is 6am? Do they every call you and say “What the #$%@ are you thinking?!” Once again, Outlook calendar comes to the rescue. You can add time zones to your calendar and see your friend’s time zone before you send an invite.
I live in California, but I have regular meeting with a co-worker in New York. In order to make sure I don’t schedule something for her after 5:00pm, I want to add the time zone on the east coast. From the Calendar Option screen, click Time Zone.
From the Time Zone dialog, you see that my current time zone is already entered, but in order to add a time zone I checked the Show an additional time zone box and filled out the information. Then I clicked OK.
And then my calendar looked like this:
I can see that if I want to schedule a meeting with my east coat friend before 5:00pm, I’d better schedule it before 2:00pm my time. Ok, that is a little exciting, right? I’m sort of jumping up and down again – still not quite recovered from the Turkish Holiday thing. Next time: I’ll write about something in Outlook other than the calendar (aren’t you ready?).
This is the second article in the Simply Put, by Ryn: Microsoft Outlook Tips series. Previous entries:
- Part I: Checking Availability and Calendar Color Labels
- Part 3: Moving Outlook Files to a New/Different Computer
- Part 4: Junk Mail; Composing in HTML, Rich Text, and Plain Text; and Spell Checking
Karyn Goldstein was given the nickname Ryn when she was 16-years old. (We won’t say how old she is now.) She is the lone technical writer at Network Physics. She likes dogs, a lot. More than most. She’s been in the technical writing industry as either a writer or manager for 10 years. She’s trying to write a novel. She will be contributing articles like this one regularly to the site.
