Office 2011 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Chapter 11. Calendar: Meetings, Tasks, and Notes

Life gets complicated. You probably have a ridiculous number of responsibilities each with their own appointments, meetings, and assignments. As you work through your daily to-do list, does that list get smaller? Not necessarily, because in all likelihood, you’re adding new appointments, meetings, and tasks at the same time you’re striking old ones off the list. Outlook understands and helps you in one very important way. If you put all those responsibilities in one place, at the very least you’ll know where to find them. At best, it’ll help you prioritize and organize those responsibilities in a way that helps you avoid conflicts.

This chapter begins with the calendar, showing you how to add appointments and coordinate meetings. Master some quick and easy techniques, and you’ll go a long way towards efficient time management and meeting planning. Two other Outlook tools—Tasks and Notes—help you keep tabs on the details of a busy life. By spending a few moments listing tasks as they come up, you can make sure nothing slips through the cracks and that high priority jobs get done first. Outlook notes are perfect for capturing those great ideas that you’d otherwise forget and lose.

Creating Appointments and Meetings

To see your Outlook calendar, press ⌘-2 or choose View→Go to→Calendar. In Calendar view, the navigation pane on the right shows a mini-calendar that you use to select dates. Use the buttons on either side of the current month ...