Outlook 2010: Managing Multiple Calendars

Outlook 2010 Calendar enhancements are focused around managing multiple calendars and sharing information. The new schedule view is designed to make it easier to view multiple calendars at the same time in an easy to read horizontal timeline format. Another improvement is the ability to create calendar groups allowing you to manage your team’s schedules.

Calendar Groups

It can be challenging to add a last minute meeting to your own schedule, but trying to schedule around an entire department/team schedule can be beyond frustrating. In the average work environment, we typically are a member of a department, a sub department, and several teams. Creating Calendar groups can help you to visually manage your time more effectively.

To Create a Calendar Group:

1. Select all the calendars in the Navigation Pane that you would like to group together.
2. On the Home Tab, click on the Calendar Groups button.
3. Select Save as New Calendar Group.
4. Type a descriptive name for the group and click OK.

Schedule View

Schedule view is designed to help you view your team’s or department’s schedule. This view is an easy to read horizontal layout that displays multiple calendars at the same time in a one day timeline. At the top, there is a timeline that shows the availability of the members in your team or group.

To switch to schedule view, on the home tab, click on Schedule View.

 To Schedule a Meeting in Schedule View:

1. Select the members of the group that you want to schedule a meeting with in the Navigation Pane.
2. Select a time that is open for everyone. You can tell this from the timeline view at the top.
3. Click on New Meeting, and then New Meeting with All.
4. A new meeting request email window will open for you with the people you selected as recipients. Finish filling out the request and hit send.

Using the schedule view to manage the schedules of several individuals is just another great feature of Outlook 2010!