Working with Calendars

By default, Outlook will include your personal calendar that will store your calendar entries, and meetings that you’ve accepted from a invitation. To access the Calendar, click on the Calendar icon at the bottom of the application to view your calendar entries.

You are not limited to just this Calendar, it is possible to subscribe to other calendars to allow you to co-ordinate your availability across different Calendar sources, making it easy for you to quickly check when you are available. Calendar sources can come from a number of different places, here’s how to add Calendars:

Adding a Calendar

If you go to the Calendars section of Outlook and click on “Add a Calendar”, you will be able to choose from one of the following options:

From Address Book…	If another user has shared their calendar, you can add their Calendar from your Address List using this option.
From Room List…	If you have Rooms set up in order to manage your assets and resources (such as Meeting Rooms or AV Equipment) then you can add the Calendar of this resource to your Calendar list with this option.
From Internet	This option is used when you want to subscribe to a Calendar that is available through a website or online Calendar provider (such as a Gmail Calendar, for example). Select this option and enter the URL of the Calendar in order for it to appear in your list of Calendars.
Create New Blank Calendar…	This is create a completely blank Calendar, which can be used in exactly the same way as your default Calendar. This option can be used if you wish to keep certain types of entries separate, but you still have the option of viewing these Calendars at the same time so that you can compare them.
Open Shared Calendar…	This option allows you to open a Calendar that has been shared with you by another user. This is usually a Calendar that has been shared by another user in your organisation and permissions to be able to modify entries in this calendar are set by the original owner of the Calendar, so you may not be able to perform all of the functions of other Calendars.

Notes

• Your ability to add a Calendar is dependent on the Share options of that Calendar, which are set by the Calendar Author (the owner of the Calendar). If you have trouble accessing a Calendar that you believe you should be able to access, then you should first contact the Owner/Author of the Calendar and ask them to check the Calendars Share Options.
• A Shared Calendar will also have permissions attached to it, which dictate what level of access you have tot he Calendar. If you have added the Calendar, but you are unable to perform an action that you believe you should have access to perform, you should first check with the Owner/Author of the Calendar and ask them to check your individual permissions for that Calendar.

Adding an entry

Either using your own Calendar, or a Shared Calendar that you have permission to edit, the following steps will tell you how to add an entry into the Calendar.

1. From within Outlook, open the Calendar section in the bottom left corner
2. Each Calendar you have will be listed in the list on the left, and visible on the right. If the Calendar is not visible on the right, make sure the tick box in the list on the left next to the Calendar you wish to access is ticked.
3. On the right pane, you can see the Calendar and can navigate through the months until you get to the date you are looking for.
4. Click on the date that your entry will be for, which will open the Day view for the date you have selected
5. Scroll until you find the time that your entry should be for, and right-click on the start time line that your entry will start
6. Select the relevent option for whichever type of entry you wish to make. For a generic entry, select “New Appointment”
7. This will open the Appointment form, where you can specify the details of your entry, including Title, Start and End Date and Time, Location, and the option to write a message to give more details of your entry.
8. Once all of the details have been entered, click “Save & Close” in the top left of the form.

NOTE: An entry will automatically be added into your default Calendar when you Accept a Meeting invitation too, no extra steps are necessary.

Sharing your Calendar

1. Select the Calendar section in the bottom left hand corner.
2. In the top ribbon, click on “Share Calendar”
3. From the list, select the Calendar that you’d like to share
4. The Calendar Properties will open on the “Permissions” tab, click on “Add” to add a user to give them permission.
5. When you have added a User, you can then select the type of access they have underneath the User list.
6. When you are happy with the settings, click on “OK”