Making Time - Easy Appointments

As we get busier and busier, it seems to be geting more difficult to make appointments - the diary conflicts become more commonplace, and we spend more time trying to arrange 'common' times that suit each party.

One feature I recently found in Outlook 2007 makes this much easier.  'Insert Calendar' (on the main 'message' menu) will insert a copy of your diary showing free and busy times. 

You can specify it to hide the details of your appointments, so the recipient can't see the details, but they will be able to see how busy you are!  If you chose to edit the message, remember that Outlook also sends the diary as an attached ICS file - suitable for your recipient to read.  You can specify which days are included, and how to present the diary information. 

Note : the 'insert calendar' feature is only enabled when your cursor is in the main message section of Outlook.

This new feature is great, and should help you be more efficient and productive.

If you want to quickly measure your Outlook skills, try this online quiz : http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/outlook/QZ010515251033.aspx

Noted: In researching for this article, I noticed that there are references to a similar feature in earlier versions of Outlook, although I was unable to find them.  The nearest I could find was a clumsy system to share calendars in a webpage.