Schedule an appointment

Applies To: Outlook 2016 , Outlook 2013

Appointments are activities that you schedule in your calendar that do not involve inviting other people or reserving resources.

By designating each appointment as busy, free, tentative, or out of office, other Outlook users know your availability.

Create an appointment

1. In Calendar, click the Home tab.
2. In the New group, click New Appointment. Alternately, you can right-click a time block in your calendar grid and click New Appointment.
   

Keyboard shortcut    To create an appointment, press Ctrl+Shift+A.

1. In the Subject box, type a description.
2. In the Location box, type the location.
3. Enter the start and end times.
   TIP:  You can type specific words and phrases in the Start time and End time boxes instead of dates. For example, you can type Today, Tomorrow, New Year’s Day, Two Weeks from Tomorrow, Three days before New Year's Day, and most holiday names.
4. To show others your availability during this time, on the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click theShow As box and then click Free, Working Elsewhere, Tentative, Busy or Out of Office.
5. To make the appointment recurring, on the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click Recurrence  . Click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) with which the appointment recurs, and then select options for the frequency. Click OK.
   NOTE:  Adding a recurrence to an appointment changes the Appointment tab to say Appointment Series.
6. By default, a reminder appears 15 minutes before the appointment start time. To change when the reminder appears, on the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click the Reminder box arrow and then click the new reminder time. To turn the reminder off, click None.
7. On the Appointment tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.

TIP:  Double-click any blank area on the calendar grid to create a new appointment.

Change an appointment

1. Open the appointment that you want to change.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Change options for an appointment that is not part of a series    
     • Change the options, such as subject, location, and time, that you want to change.
   • Change options for all appointments in a series    
     1. Click The entire series, and then change any options that you want to change.
     2. To change recurrence options, on the Appointment Series tab, in the Options group, click Recurrence, change the options and then click OK.
   • Change options for one appointment that is part of a series    
     1. Click Just this one.
     2. On the Appointment Series tab, change the options that you want.
3. On the Appointment or Appointment Series tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.

TIP:  In Calendar, you can drag the appointment to a different date. You also can edit the subject by clicking the description text, pressing F2, and then typing your changes.

Make an existing appointment recurring

1. Open the appointment that you want to set to recur.
2. On the Appointment tab, in the Options group, click Recurrence  .
3. Click the frequency — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly — with which you want the appointment to recur, and then select the options for the frequency.
4. On the Appointment Series tab, in the Actions group, click Save & Close.