Top 10 Outlook 365 Calendar Tips & Tricks

A Calendar is one of the most important tools required in your day-to-day work life. An organized calendar will help you readily schedule appointments and meetings, communicate with your colleagues, and plan your time efficiently.

Key Takeaways:

• Share a Microsoft Outlook Calendar – Easily share your calendar with colleagues by adjusting permissions in Outlook 365, allowing them to view or edit your schedule as needed.
• FindTime Add-In for Scheduling – Use the FindTime add-in to simplify meeting scheduling by finding the best available time slots for all participants.
• Set Up a Teams Meeting Directly from Outlook – Quickly create a Microsoft Teams meeting within Outlook by clicking the “New Teams Meeting” button when scheduling an event.
• Merge and Color Code Calendars – Organize multiple calendars by merging them or applying color coding to easily differentiate personal, work, and shared events.
• Create an Event from an Outlook Email – Convert an email into a calendar event by dragging and dropping it onto the calendar, automatically filling in details from the message.

1. Share a Microsoft Outlook Calendar

The most common issue while scheduling meetings is that you don’t know what time will be suitable for the other person. To eradicate this problem, you can share your calendar in outlook with others.

To share your calendar –

1. Right-click on Calendar in the left panel
   
2. Select Sharing Permissions
   
   
3. Click Add
   
   
4. Select a contact and click Add
   
   
5. Click OK
   
   
6. Click OK
   

This will share your personal calendar with your contact and they will be able to view your calendar. You can also provide them with editing access – select can edit while sharing permissions.

 

2. FindTime Add-In

FindTime Add-In can be used to find the perfect day and time for all attendees while scheduling a meeting. It sends multiple time options to the attendees and allows everyone to vote and reach a consensus. It can also send meeting invites on your behalf.

Follow the steps below to learn how to use this extremely helpful Add-In in Microsoft Outlook Calendar –

1. Go to Outlook Mail
   
   
2. Click on Get Addins icon
   
3. Search FindTime
   
   
4. Click Add
   
   
5. Go to New Appointment
   
   
6. You will find the New Meeting Poll
   
   

You can use this New Meeting Poll to find the best time that suits everyone who will be attending the meeting.

 

3. Set Up a Teams Meeting

Teams Meeting not only allows you to set a date and time for the meeting but also provides a link that can be used by attendees to join the meeting.

1. Click on New Teams Meeting
   
   
2. Provide a Title
   
   
3. Add Attendee’s email address
   
4. Select Meeting’s date and time
   
   

You can see that the link is already present here that can be used to quickly join the meeting.

 

4. Online Outlook Calendar for Sports, Shows, and More

You can keep track of your favorite sports team, or get reminders for the upcoming episode of your favorite TV show using the online version of Outlook Calendar. Follow the steps below to access these features –

1. Open Outlook in your web browser
   
   
2. Click on the Calendar icon
   
3. Click on Add Calendar
   
   
4. Select Sports
   
5. Choose a local team or sports league that you want to add to your calendar

Similarly, you can select a TV show and then use filter to select time zone > channel and then show.

You can also add major international holidays and dates to your calendar

 

5. Merging and Color Coding

You can assign colors to different calendars on your Outlook account so that you can easily identify them. To color code, the calendars follow the steps below –

1. Click on Calendar
   
2. Go to View
   
3. Click on three dots > Select Color – Blue
   This will assign a blue color to your personal calendar.
4. You can do the same with the calendar – United States Holidays and assign it a color – yellow.
   
5. Check both calendars
   This will display both calendars side by side.
   
6. Right click and select Overlay
   
7. A merged calendar will appear
   The different colors will help you identify the two calendars effortlessly.
   

 

6. Email Your Outlook Calendar

This is an email tip where you can send a specific date range of your calendar to anyone. This will give them an idea of the time slots when you are available and they can schedule appointments accordingly.

Follow the steps below to share your calendar via email –

1. Click on the Mail icon
   
2. Select New Email
   
   
3. Go to the body of the email and select Insert
   
   
4. Click on three dots > Calendar
   
   
5. In the dialog box, select a date range – today or next 7 days
   
6. Click OK
   
   

Your calendar has been inserted in the body of the email and you can easily share it with your colleagues.

 

7. Shorter Outlook Meetings

This tip can be used to add a few minutes between two meetings as a buffer time. This will prevent you from scheduling back-to-back meetings in a day. Follow the steps below to achieve this –

• Click on New Appointment
  
  
• Here, you will see that a meeting duration is 30 minutes by default.
  
• Now, go to File > Options
  
  
•  In the Outlook Options window, click on Calendar
  
  
• You will see that the duration is set to 30 minutes
  
  
• Check Shorten appointments and meetings and select Start Late or End Early
  
  
• Go to New Appointment
  
  

This time you will see that the duration is only 25 minutes. This will give you 5 minutes of downtime between two meetings.

 

8. Showing the To-Do Bar

You can get a quick overview of your calendar while you are using email in your Outlook account. You will be able to view your to-do list for a range of dates. To view the To-Do bar for the calendar –

• Go to View > Layout > To-Do Bar > Calendar
  

This will display the calendar on the right side of the screen and you can. select different dates to view the events scheduled on those dates.

 

9. Add Another Calendar

You can add calendars from various sources and display them in your Outlook account.

• Right-click on the calendar and select Add Calendar
  
  
• You can select one of the following options:
  • From Address Book
  • From Room List – It can be used to view which rooms are available for your meeting
  • From Internet
  • Open Shared Calendar – Add a calendar shared with  you by someone else
    

 

10. Create an Event From an Outlook Email

You might have emails in your inbox and does not require immediate action. We can turn them into an event in order to save them from being unattended.

• Open the email
• Selecting the 3 dots on the email and clicking on Meeting
• We can assign the date and time to this event and hit the “send” button in order to save this event in our calendar.
  
• The event will then show up on your calendar.

This way you can simply convert an email into an event that requires work in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I share my Microsoft Outlook Calendar with others?
To share your Outlook calendar, go to the Calendar view, click on Share Calendar, select the calendar you want to share, and enter the recipient’s email. You can set permissions to allow them to view or edit events.

 What is the FindTime add-in, and how does it help with scheduling?
FindTime is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that helps schedule meetings by suggesting the best available time slots for attendees. It integrates with Outlook’s calendar and allows participants to vote on preferred meeting times.

How can I quickly set up a Teams meeting in Outlook?
To create a Teams meeting, open your calendar in Outlook, click New Teams Meeting, and add participants. A Teams link will be automatically included in the meeting invite.

Can I merge multiple Outlook calendars and apply color coding?
Yes, you can overlay multiple calendars by selecting them in the Calendar view. To apply color coding, right-click an event, choose Categorize, and assign a color for better organization.

How do I create a calendar event from an email in Outlook?
Drag and drop an email into the Calendar icon in Outlook. This will automatically create an event, using the email subject as the event title and the email body as the event details.

Hopefully, this article has helped you become more efficient at using Microsoft Outlook Calendar. We will cover tips from sharing calendars to seeing others’ availability when scheduling a meeting to setting up a Teams meeting, as well as color coding, merging, setting shorter meetings, the To-Do bar, and MORE!