Scheduling Appointments, Meetings and Events

Making appointments (Back to Top)

Activities you schedule are either appointments, meetings or events.

  • Appointments. An appointment is an activity without other people. When you schedule an appointment, no email is sent to confirm the appointment. You can set recurring appointments. QuickAdd can be used to quickly create an appointment.
  • Meetings. Meetings are appointments that include other people. When you create a meeting, you select attendees and send an email invitation to them. You can reschedule meetings and set up recurring meetings.
  • Events. An event is an activity that lasts all day. Events do not display as time on the calendar, they appear as banner at the top of the calendar schedule.

All three types of activities can be entered in several ways. You can schedule an appointment from any view except Preferences. To create an appointment you can do one of the following:

  • On the toolbar, click the arrow on and select Appointment. This is available in any view, except the Preferences view.
  • Enter appointments directly on the calendar. In any view, except Month, select the date and a start time, double-click or drag through the time and the QuickAdd Appointment dialog opens.
  • Right-click on either the mini-calendar or the start time in one of the calendar views. You can select to create a New appointment or a New all day appointment.
  • Within an email message, certain text is interpreted as a date and triggers the ability to right-click to create an appointment. Text such as today, tomorrow, and a day of the week or an exact date are highlighted in messages. Hover the mouse over this type of text to see if you have an appointment scheduled. Click on the highlighted text to open your calendar.

Planning an appointment (Back to Top)

You can create single or recurring appointments, meetings or events, and write a message from within the Appointment view. When you click Save, an email is sent inviting the attendees.

The Appointment view consists of three tabs so you can quickly find attendees and see their free/busy schedule before finalizing the appointment.

On the Appointment page, you enter information about the appointment as follows:

  • Subject of the meeting. The text added here becomes the description in the calendar.
  • Location of the meeting.
  • Show As is used to determine your Free/Busy options for the time. You can select, Busy, Free, Tentative, and Out-of-Office. This information displays on the Schedule Attendees page.
  • Calendar drop-down list shows all calendars in your Calendar List. The first calendar displayed is your original Calendar. When you have multiple-calendars, you can create an appointment and select the calendar. The appointment is added to whichever calendar is selected.
  • Mark as lets you mark an appointment as private or public. Details about events that are marked private do not display in a grantee's shared calendar. Only the start and end time, duration, reoccurrence information, and the organizer's identity are shown in the shared calendar.
  • Time is to define when the appointment will occur, day, hours, all day events and recurring appointment parameters.
  • Attendees. Add attendees either by typing a name in the Attendees field, going to the Find Attendees tab to search or the Schedule tab to see attendees' free/busy schedule.
  • In the Text area compose a message that will be sent with the email invitation to the attendees.

Creating an appointment (Back to Top)

You can schedule meetings and appointments from any view except Preferences. You can schedule an appointment for yourself, or you can schedule a meeting and invite attendees.

Scheduling a single meeting from the Appointment page

  1. In any view except Preferences, from the toolbar click the arrow on and select Appointment.
  2. In the Details sections, enter the subject location, free/busy status, where it is a private meeting or not.

    The subject becomes the description in the calendar and is required.

    If you know the name of the location enter it in the Location field.

    The Show as selection determines if this appointment displays as free or busy on the Schedule Attendees page.

    Mark as lets you mark the message as private, public, or confidential.

    If you have multiple calendars, select which calendar is setting up the event from the Calendar menu

  3. In the Time section, set the meeting date and time. Enter the Start date or click the down arrow to display a calendar and pick a date. Select the End date.
    • Note: If the time zone is displayed (Preferences>Calendar), it reflects the time zone that you are in. You usually do not need to change this. When you schedule meetings with attendees in different time zones, the invitation is sent reflecting the meeting time in their time zone. For example, if you create a meeting with attendees in California and New York, the invitation displays Pacific time for attendees in California and Eastern time (three hours later) for attendees in New York.

  4. Enter the names of the attendees. You can enter attendee names in any of the following ways:

    • Go to the Find Attendees tab. Type a name and press Add. When complete, click OK.

    • In the Attendees text field, type the email addresses, separating addresses by a semicolon (;). Names in your Contact list matching what you type are displayed as you type.

    • To see the free/busy schedules for attendees, click the Schedule Attendees tab. As you enter attendees' names and email addresses, if attendees' schedules are known, availability appears in horizontal bars next to the names. Return to the Appointment tab when the attendee's list is complete.

  5. Use the Text field to add additional information to include in the email. To add attachments, click Add Attachments on the tool bar.
  6. Click Save. An email invitation is sent to all attendees and the appointment is displayed in their calendars.

If you are adding an appointment to a shared calendar, you may need to refresh the screen to see the appointment.

Seeing free/busy times (Back to Top)

To see the free/busy schedules, open an Appointment and click the Schedule tab.

In the first column, select the type of object to schedule - attendee, location, or resource. In the next column enter names and email addresses. Availability appears in horizontal bars next to the names, if the schedule is known.

The free/busy information shows whether the attendee is busy, out of office, tentatively busy, or free.

Turning messages and contacts into a meeting request (Back to Top)

You can quickly create a meeting request by simply dragging and dropping a message, conversation, or contact to a date on the mini-calendar. When you drag and drop a message or conversation, the information in the message is used to populate many of the fields on the Appointment page.

  • The Subject of the appointment is the subject of the message.
  • The attendees are the email addresses in the To: and Cc: fields of the message or for conversations, the most recent message in a conversation. When you drag a contact from your Contacts list to the mini-calendar, the contact's first email address is added to the attendee field.
  • The text of a message or the text of all messages in a conversation thread becomes the text of the invitation. Message attachments are not attached to the appointment request.

Turning messages and conversations into meeting requests

  1. Click on a specific message or conversation and drag it to a date on the mini-calendar. The appointment page opens.
  2. Review the meeting request details and make any necessary changes.
  3. Set the time for the meeting, and, if this meeting recurs, set any recurrence.
  4. Click OK to send the invitation.

Turning contacts into meeting requests

  1. Click on a name from your Contact list and drag the name to a date on the mini-calendar. The appointment page opens with the contact name in the Attendees field.
  2. Complete the Appointment information and click OK to send the invitation.

Using QuickAdd to create an appointment (Back to Top)

The QuickAdd dialog makes it easy to quickly create an appointment. On your calendar, you select a start time, double-click or drag through the time and the QuickAdd Appointment dialog opens.

QuickAdd is an option. If you would prefer to always open the Appointment page when you double-click or drag on the calendar, disable this feature from your Options page.

To create a quick appointment
  1. On the Calendar for the appointment, click the time for the appointment or click and drag from the start time to the end time for the appointment. The QuickAdd Appointment dialog appears.
  2. To create an all-day appointment, from the Day or Week view, at the top of the calendar, click and drag over one or more days.

  3. Enter the subject, location, and if this is a repeat appointment, select a repeat mode.
  4. Set the reminder notice for when to be reminded of the meeting start time.
  5. Click OK. The appointment displays on the calendar.

If you need to invite attendees or change repeat options, click More Details to open the Appointment page.

Scheduling all-day events (Back to Top)

You can create an all day or multi-day event such as a conference. The event displays at the top of the calendar for the day of the event.

Scheduling an all day appointment

  1. In any of the views except from Preferences, click the arrow on and select Appointment.
  2. Enter the Subject. The subject becomes the description in the calendar and is required.
  3. Enter a Location. You can enter any location. If you know the name of the location enter it in the Location field.
  4. Select the Start and End date. Check All day event, on the right of the time.
  5. If you have multiple calendars, from the Calendar drop down, select which calendar is setting up the event.
  6. Enter the names of the attendees. You can enter attendee names in any of the following ways:
    • Go to the Find Attendees tab. Type a name and press Add. When complete, click OK.

    • In the Attendees text field, type the email addresses, separating addresses by a semicolon (;). As you type, names in your Contact list that match are displayed.

    • To see the free/busy schedules for attendees, click the Schedule tab. As you enter attendees' names and email addresses, if attendees' schedules are known, availability appears in horizontal bars next to the names. Return to the Appointment Details tab when the attendee's list is complete.

  7. Enter any additional information about the meeting in the text area. To add attachments, click Add Attachments on the toolbar above the Calendar tabs. The attachment is included in the email that is sent.
  8. Click Save. An email invitation is sent to all attendees. The event displays as a banner at the top of the Calendar.
  9. Skip step 6 to schedule an appointment for yourself on your calendar, without attendees.

Creating recurring appointments (Back to Top)

Recurring appointments are appointments that repeat on some sort of schedule. You can schedule recurring meetings to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. In addition, you can customize recurring appointment schedules.

  1. In any view except the Preferences view, click the arrow on and select Appointment.
  2. Enter the subject of the meeting. The Subject field is required. The subject becomes the description in the calendar.
  3. Enter a location. You can enter any location.
  4. Select the date and time. Enter the date or click the down arrow to display a calendar and pick a date. Select the End date.
  • Note: If the time zone is displayed, it reflects the time zone that you are in. You usually do not need to change this. When you schedule meetings with attendees in different time zones, the invitation is sent reflecting the meeting time in their time zone. For example, if you create a meeting with attendees in California and New York, the invitation displays Pacific time for attendees in California and Eastern time (three hours later) for attendees in New York.

  1. Click Repeat to view the recurrence patterns: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom. The meeting will be scheduled in the recurring pattern from the specified start date and time. Custom repeat lets you schedule more specific patterns.
  2. If your recurring meeting has an end date, click the link next to the Repeat field.
  3. Select a recurrence pattern and, if necessary, to customize the pattern further, click the link that appears next to it.
    • Every Day. Customize daily repeats to choose whether it is every day or some other sequence such as every two days or four days.

    • Every Week. Customize weekly repeats to select whether it is a weekly recurring appointment or some other weekly pattern such as every two weeks. You can select which day of the week you want the meeting.

    • Every Month. Customize monthly repeats to select whether it is a monthly recurring appointment or some other monthly pattern such as every two months. A calendar displays and you can select which day or days you want the meeting scheduled.

    • Every Year. Customize yearly repeats to select the month and date.

  4. In Reminder, you can select how many minutes before the meeting to be notified about the meeting.
  5. Enter the names of the attendees. You can enter attendee names in any of the following ways:
    • Go to the Find Attendees tab. Type a name and press Add. When complete, click OK.

    • In the Attendees text field next, type the email addresses, separating addresses by a semicolon (;). As you type, names in your Contact list that match are displayed.

    • To see the free/busy schedules for attendees, click the Schedule Attendees tab. As you enter attendees' names and email addresses, if attendees' schedules are known, availability appears in horizontal bars next to the names. Return to the Appointment tab when the attendee's list is complete.

  6. Use the Text field to add additional information to include in the email. To add attachments, click Add Attachments on the tool bar.
  7. Click Save. An email invitation is sent to all attendees and the appointment is displayed in their calendars.

Responding to a meeting invitation (Back to Top)

When you receive an email notification for a meeting, the meeting is added to your calendar and marked New. You can quickly respond to the invitation either from the email Inbox or from the Calendar List pane.

  1. Open the message that contains the meeting request, in either the Inbox or right-click the appointment in the Calendar List.
  2. To respond to the meeting invitation, click the appropriate action. If the meeting is a recurring meeting, you have the option to select Instance or Series to respond to.
  3. Click Accept, Tentative, or Decline. A reply is automatically sent. You can add comments before you send your response.

To add comments when in Calendar View, right-click and select Edit Reply.

After you make your choice, the email message is moved to the Trash, and New is removed from the calendar notice. Declined appointments display on your calendar in a faded view, as a reminder of the meeting you declined. You can delete declined message any time.

To read the message or to see any attachments that may have been sent, click the meeting notice.

Deleting an appointment (Back to Top)

Only the originator of an appointment can cancel the appointment.

  1. Click on the appointment to delete.
  2. Right-click and select Delete. If the appointment is a recurring series, you can delete an instance of the series or the complete series.
  3. An email is sent to the attendees and the appointment is deleted from their calendars.

Changing recurring appointments (Back to Top)

If you created the recurring meetings, you can change and delete one occurrence or the series of meetings. An email is sent to attendees.

To change a meeting

  1. Double-click on the meeting to change, or right-click and select Delete.
  2. Select whether to open only the selected date or to open the series. The Appointment page opens.
  3. Make your changes. You can change the schedule, the attendees, add an explanation in the Text field and add an attachment.
  4. Click OK. An email is sent to the attendees.

To delete a recurring meeting

  1. Click on the appointment.
  2. Right-click and select Delete, or drag the item to.
  3. Select whether to delete the instance or to delete the series.
  4. An email is sent to the attendees and the appointment is deleted from their calendars.