Windows 10. Absolute Beginner’s Guide (2016)
Part III: Being Productive
18. Managing Your Calendar
In This Chapter
• Getting to Know the Calendar App
• Reviewing Your Schedule
• Synchronizing with Online Calendars
• Scheduling Events on Your Calendar
In today’s digital society, people rely on calendars for much more than simply confirming what day it is. We rely on our calendars to make sure we keep appointments, track activity or work, get reminders, lock down scheduling and appointments, and much, much more. All calendars tend to have the same basic functions, and we expect them to be extremely easy to use. The Calendar app included with Windows 10 is no exception, and in this chapter you will learn how to leverage the features built in to it. For example, you can synchronize your calendar with calendars you maintain online. You can create events and respond to invitations in the Calendar app, see those events appear in your online calendar, and invite your contacts listed in the People app.
The Outlook Calendar app in Windows 10 is a modern universal app that is actually linked with the Outlook Mail app. This app can be upgraded at any time to introduce new features. So do not be alarmed if the interface is slightly different from what appears in this chapter due to updates. To be sure you can easily follow the instructions in this chapter, consider reviewing some of the content in Chapter 5, “Working with Windows Apps.”
Starting the Calendar App
To start the Calendar app, select the Calendar tile on the Start screen, as shown in Figure 18.1. When the Calendar app opens, the view you last used—daily, weekly, or monthly—appears automatically, as shown in Figure 18.2.
FIGURE 18.1 You start the Calendar app by selecting the Calendar tile on the Start screen.
FIGURE 18.2 The monthly view appears automatically because it was the view last used.
Controlling the Calendar View
You can review your calendar in different views: Day and Multi-Day, Work Week, Week, and Month. You can easily change from one view to another. To do so, select the view you prefer, as shown in Figure 18.3.
FIGURE 18.3 You change views by making a choice from the options available.
The Day view includes a drop-down menu to choose from multiday combinations, as shown in Figure 18.4. Select from 2-day up to 6-day views that start with the currently selected day.
FIGURE 18.4 The Day view includes multiday variations.
The Work Week view displays a traditional Monday through Friday work week with details for each day similar to the Week view. All-day events show at the top, while scheduled events appear below in an area that can be scrolled through. Subtle shading indicates work hours. The Week view shows up to 24 hours in a day and seven days of the week. The default setting uses Sunday as the first day of the week. In the section “Customizing the Calendar View,” you learn how to change the day the week starts on, as well as a number of other settings. The Work Week view is shown in Figure 18.5, whereas the Week view is shown in Figure 18.6.
FIGURE 18.5 The Work Week view provides detail for each work day of the week.
FIGURE 18.6 The Week view shows the current week, plus a portion of the first day of the next week.
You can scroll to a different date from any day, week, or month view by swiping, clicking your mouse, or scrolling with the mouse wheel. When using a mouse, each of these views includes arrow buttons located above the calendar and to the right that will hide until you move your mouse cursor (refer to Figure 18.2). Select these arrows to jump to the next or previous day, week, or month. You can quickly switch to a different date by expanding the hamburger menu to display a monthly calendar. Use this calendar to navigate to a different month and select the date to which you want to switch, as shown in Figure 18.7. At any time you can select the Today button above the calendar view to jump to the present day (refer to Figure 18.3).
FIGURE 18.7 Use the calendar to quickly jump to a different date or to today.
Setting Calendar Colors
The Calendar app uses one color for events related to your account and additional colors for birthdays and holidays related to the account. A different set of colors is used for events from each additional account you set up in the Calendar app.
To change the colors used for each calendar, as well as to hide or show certain calendars, follow these steps:
1. From the Calendar app, make sure the hamburger menu is open. A list of all accounts currently used with the Calendar app will be visible.
2. Select an account that is displayed to expand the calendars for the account.
3. Colored checkboxes indicate the color used to display each calendar. Select a checkbox to disable the color and calendar. Right-click a calendar to choose from a palette of colors to update the color choice, as shown in Figure 18.8.
FIGURE 18.8 You can specify a different color for each calendar you’ve added to the app.
Tip
The color palette is determined by another setting. Select Settings and then select Calendar Settings. Scroll down to Calendar Color Options to switch between Bright Colors and Light Colors.
Synchronizing with Other Calendars
If you maintain a calendar online, you can synchronize that calendar to the Calendar app. You can synchronize the Calendar app with Microsoft Outlook, Google, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, and others. Events you create in the Calendar app will be synced to online calendars and subsequently to other devices that use those calendars.
When you synchronize multiple calendars, you will see a list of accounts in the hamburger menu of the Calendar app, while the calendars are all merged into the main calendar view. You can see all your appointments booked on all your calendars in one place, including appointments on family members’ calendars or work or corporate appointments.
The Calendar and Mail apps are linked, and they share the same tools to add accounts. To add an online calendar to the Calendar app, follow these steps:
1. Select Settings from the hamburger menu to open the Settings pane shown in Figure 18.9.
FIGURE 18.9 Add online calendars using Accounts from the Settings pane.
2. Select Accounts. A list of connected accounts is shown.
3. Select Add Account. A pop-up window, Choose an Account, appears, as shown in Figure 18.10.
FIGURE 18.10 Many types of online email and calendar accounts are supported.
4. Select the account type you wish to add and follow prompts to add the credentials for each account. Refer to Chapter 16, “Setting Up the Mail App,” for details for adding specific account types to the Mail and Calendar apps.
After an account is added, you can return to the accounts pane to update any settings and change what is synced. For example, Figure 18.11 shows the Sync options for a Gmail account. The Calendar and Contacts are both set to sync. The advanced account settings are also expanded, showing the calendar server in this case. Knowing how to find these settings can be helpful if troubleshooting sync issues for an online calendar.
FIGURE 18.11 Manage what gets synced or update settings for online calendars from the Sync Options for an account.
Adding Events to Your Calendar
You can easily enter a new event into your calendar and even generate invites to others for the event. You create your new event by selecting the date of your new event. Then you enter the details about it. You can quickly enter most of the details of your event by choosing from ready-made lists, such as the day, hour, frequency, duration of the event, and if the event recurs. This makes it easy to create new events.
To enter a new event directly into your calendar using the day, week, or month views, follow these steps:
1. Open the Calendar app.
2. From any calendar view, select a blank space on the date of your event in the calendar. A small pane will appear for a new calendar entry on that date. If the event will be multiday or recurring, select the first date. Enter a name for your event. Select the beginning time of your event.Figure 18.12 shows that Subject has been replaced by the event “Drop Kia off.”
FIGURE 18.12 You can quickly add an event to your calendar with a few basic details.
3. Check the End time for your event and update it if needed. If the event is a general reminder for that day or it is related to an entire day, select the All Day checkbox.
4. Select the down arrow to the right of the account to change which calendar this is associated with (see Figure 18.13).
FIGURE 18.13 You can add many more details to a calendar event from the Details view.
5. For most entries this may be all that is needed, and you can select Done. The entry appears on your calendar, and you will receive reminders based on your Notification settings in Windows 10. To add more details, continue to step 6.
6. To add additional options, select More Details. The calendar view will switch to the Details view for your calendar event, as shown in Figure 18.13.
7. From the Details view you can
• Change start dates and times and add end dates.
• Use the Show As field to choose between Free, Tentative, Busy, or Out of Office.
• Update the Reminder field using increments that range from None to 1 Week.
• Enable Repeat. You will see additional options appear, as shown in Figure 18.14. Select the Start date and then choose a repeat cycle. Weekly is shown, but you can select from many other cycles. Select an End date or leave as Never.
FIGURE 18.14 You can select Repeat details for recurring calendar events.
• Set the event as Private by selecting the padlock.
• Add an Event Description.
8. Select Save & Close to save changes to your calendar event. If this is an event that involves others, continue to step 9.
9. To invite additional contacts, select the text field under People that is labeled Invite Someone. As you start entering letters, contacts will appear from your list of contacts in the People app. Select contacts to add them to the event. If you are inviting an email address that is not a contact, type in the full address and select Use This Address:email address. When finished select Send, as shown in Figure 18.15.
FIGURE 18.15 When creating events that involve others, you can invite your contacts.
10. Invitees will receive an email with the details as shown in Figure 18.16. Invitees can respond by accepting, declining, or indicating tentative or even alternate time responses. Track responses by checking the Details view of the calendar entry.
FIGURE 18.16 Invitees will receive a calendar invitation, which enables them to easily update their calendar and indicate their availability.
Note
Don’t forget this important point: the event you create will also appear in the calendar on the site of the service whose calendar you choose. So if you select, for example, your Outlook account, the event appears on all devices syncing to your Outlook calendar as well as the calendar at Outlook.com.
To view or modify an existing calendar entry, select the entry to open directly to the Details view (refer to Figure 18.13). At any time you can also create a new entry by selecting New Event from the hamburger menu in the Calendar app to go straight to a blank Details view.
Customizing the Calendar View
The Calendar app gives you control over how your calendar is displayed. Not everyone has the same work week schedule, and many people work different hours than others. Your calendar should take your schedule into account.
To modify the calendar view, follow these steps:
1. Select Settings from the hamburger menu.
2. Select Calendar Settings from the Settings pane (refer to Figure 18.9).
3. In the Calendar Settings pane, shown in Figure 18.17, update your First Day of Week to change how the Week view will appear.
FIGURE 18.17 When using Outlook and Exchange-based calendars, you can invite contacts to an event.
4. Use the checkboxes under Days in Work Week to select which days you work. This affects the Work Week view.
5. Under Working Hours, select your start and end times. This will affect the shading used on both Week and Work Week views.
6. You can enable Week Numbers.
7. Select outside of the Calendar Settings pane to close it. Your new settings are immediately applied to the calendar views.
The Absolute Minimum
• You can synchronize your Windows 10 calendar with many online calendars including Outlook, Live, Google, iCloud, Office 365, and Microsoft Exchange. This gives you the ability to maintain your online calendars as you always do but bring all your calendars together in one place in Windows 10.
• You select people to invite to events you schedule from the list of persons consolidated in your People app in Windows 10.
• You can schedule events in the Calendar app on the online calendars you synchronize with. This means the event appears on both the calendar in Windows 10 and the online calendar.