In Outlook, the Calendar folder stores all of the information that you would expect to find in a conventional paper-based calendar. The calendar allows for three basic types of entries: “Appointments,” which are events that you have allocated time for, but do not involve other people- for example, going to the doctor’s office; “Events,” which are activities that run for at least one day- for example, a birthday; and “Meetings,” which are appointments that require the presence of other people.
You can view the Calendar by clicking the “Calendar” button in the Navigation Bar. If you click the “Folders” button in the Navigation Bar, then you can click the “Calendar” folder within the list of Outlook folders displayed in the Folder Pane to open it, as well.
Switching the Calendar View
When viewing the Calendar, you can easily switch the view displayed. In Outlook 2013:2010, you can click the buttons that appear within the “Arrange” group on the “Home” tab in the Ribbon to switch between the available views of your Calendar folder. They are “Day,” “Work Week,” “Week,” “Month,” and “Schedule View.” In Outlook 2007, there are three buttons above the calendar that you can use to quickly and easily change the view of your calendar. They are the “Day,” “Week,” and “Month” buttons. You can click these buttons to switch the view of the Calendar. “Day” view, or “Day/Week/Month” view, is the most useful for seeing the details of the calendar activities for a particular day. It provides a detailed list of appointments and meetings for the selected day.
Navigating the Calendar
To open the calendar and display a specific date using the Date Navigator, open the Calendar folder. Then use the “Previous Month” and “Next Month” arrows in the “Date Navigator” to move through the months until the date that you want to select appears. You could also click on the month heading itself that appears in the Date Navigator to select from either the three previous months or three next months which appear in a pop-up menu.
After selecting the month, just click on the specific day within the Date Navigator that you want to display in the Calendar window. You can also select a specific date using the “Go To Date” dialog box. If using Outlook 2013:2010, click the “Go To Date” dialog box launcher in the lower right corner of the “Go To” group on the “Home” tab in the Ribbon. If using Outlook 2007, select “Go| Go to Date…” from the Menu Bar to display this dialog box. This will launch the “Go To Date” dialog box from which you can select a date from the drop-down date navigator at the right end of the “Date:” text box. You can also select a display view for that date from the drop-down arrow list at the right end of the “Show in:” text box. Then just click “OK” to jump to that date with the display that you selected.
After having moved to a different day, if you want to return to the current day in the Calendar folder, you can click the “Today” button in the “Go To” group on the “Home” tab in the Ribbon in Outlook 2013:2010, or in the Standard toolbar in Outlook 2007 when the Calendar folder is displayed.
