You can use your favorite social network to register or link an existing account:
Or use your email address to register without a social network:
Sign in with these social networks:
Or enter your username and password
Forgot your password?
Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.
No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.
All Posts
Outlook 2013
Outlook 2010
Outlook 2007
Outlook.com
Tips
How-to
News
Videos
Stories
Here’s a cool trick for Outlook: you can type in date fields!
Suppose I want to set up a meeting for next Friday. In the meeting inspector, instead of clicking on the calendar picker to navigate to the right day, I can simply type “next Fri” into the date field, then press Tab or Enter.
Presto! Outlook automatically calculates the date for “next Fri” and fills out the date field correctly.
There are many different possible inputs that you can use. Try these:
You can even type in certain holidays such as “Christmas”, “Christmas Eve”, “New Year’s Day” and “Independence Day”. (Note: Not all holidays work, and not in all locales. Play with it and see!) And you can even combine inputs to create a date like “3 days before Christmas” and Outlook will figure out the right day.
This is not just limited to the date field – Outlook will also accept “midnight” and “noon” in the time field as valid inputs.
Give this a try the next time you find yourself scheduling a meeting!
Thanks!
Kristel Leow Outlook Software Design Engineer in Test
Comments: (7) Collapse
My favorite is "now +"... as in "now + 2 days" or "now + 1 month".
That's cool - I'll definitely make use of that. Thanks for the tip.
It would be very usefull if you could put in "Easter Sunday", "Good Friday" as these move each year.
The date field is also very useful for calculating duration - for example, if you have a project due in 45 days, simply type 45d into the date field, tab out and you have your target date. This also proves useful for billing purposes.
This bores me. How about selecting two weeks worth of calendar days in the calendar, clicking on mail, then coming back to the calendar and seeing two weeks worth of calendar instead of a whole month? Try it. No workie workie. If I select consecutive days they should stay selected. Who really cares about typing in next friday or Easter? Does that really matter? It's MS Office not MS holiday. I have more if you want to hear them.
To Seriously, just use the one day view, select your consecutive days using the Data Navigator, go to your in-box, then return to your calendar. I guarantee you will be surprised.
How can I make the Calendar appear more like 2003 so I can actually see my appointments in a monthly view (I have never used or liked the weekly/daily views...I work several weeks out usually...the old monthly was perfect)? It looks like the calendar is trying to spend more time being pretty (which it is) than helping me be productive. I shrank the font down to 7 pt and at least I can see 4 appts now, which is reasonable for a 17" notebook screen, but it's far from what's possible. All the wasted real estate makes me want to cry. Never mind you waste an entire row in each day for an tiny, easy-to-miss arrow telling me there's a fifth appointment instead of just telling me what the fifth appt is. What's worse is the prioritized appts carry no weight in whether they are displayed or not! I almost missed a doctors appt with my oncologist (who schedules a year out) and a few important meetings, because crap like the "Administrative Professionals Day" gets equal weight. I must be missing something obvious because this is insane. Combined with the other unnecessary cosmetic enhancements and the let's-move-everything-so-loyal-Office-power-users-can't-find-anything menus, I've already dug out my 2003 discs and am waiting for the opportunity. Please, please help.
Comments: (loading) Collapse