Creating Appointments and Recurring Appointments in Outlook
One of the most powerful tools in Outlook Exchange is the Calendar tool. It allows users to not only keep an up-to-date calendar for their own use, but it will also show that user's free/busy (with no details) schedule to users who are setting up meetings, using Outlook.
Today's tip, shows users how enter appointments on their calendar, and how to save steps in entering recurring events. A good example of a recurring event is a faculty member's class schedule or a meeting that is held weekly at the same time.. Next week's tip will cover using Outlook Web Access from the internet.
Creating Calendar Items
Begin in the Calendar view in Outlook. Access the Calendar by clicking on the Calendar button on the Navigation Pane near the bottom of the screen on the left:
Once in the Calendar view, click on the new calendar item icon:
In the Calendar view, it will open a new appointment dialog box.
There are five areas in the dialogue box that can be completed by users, although only the Subject, location, start and end time are critical.
Once the subject, location, start and end time are set, users can utilize the Reminder and also type a note about the appointment in the text box. Items that are personal which should hold a place on the calendar, but not disclose the nature of the appointment to those who have access to the calendar should be marked as private, using the checkbox in the lower right corner. If the checkbox is not visible grab the lower right corner of the dialogue box with the mouse and make the box a little larger. This will allow that checkbox to be displayed.
There are several other options that users have in this dialog box. One is the Show time as: dropdown menu. Here are the options:
Users have four options, and the fill on these items carry through to the free/busy schedule users will see when they try to schedule a meeting with a user.
The other option is to set up a color coding system for your calendar. The label dropdown menu allows users to color code appointments and meetings. This will be covered in another CTOW in coming weeks.
The last step is to save the appointment by clicking on the Save and Close button.
Creating Recurring Appointments
If it is a recurring appointment, the user can change the appointment either during the set up of the appointment or after saving the appointment. If the appointment dialog box is not open, double-click on the appointment on the calendar to open the appointment. on the Recurrence button which is located on the toolbar in the Appointment dialogue box. 
This will open a new dialog box. This is where you enter the settings to make the appointment/meeting appear on your calendar for multiple weeks/months.
Notice the Appointment time and duration will already be filled in. This can be adjusted in this dialogue box if necessary.
Next, fill in the recurrence pattern and the range of the occurrence. This example show how to set up a recurring appointment for a work session that occurs for me every Tuesday from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. until the end of the summer. The options for ending an occurrence include "No end date", "End after: x occurrences" and "End by: a specific date". Choose the one that works best for the specific recurring appointment.
Once the Appointment Recurrence dialog box is completed, click on OK. Then click on OK in the Appointment dialog box. This will put the appointment on the calendar on all the dates set in the Appointment Recurrence dialog box.
In some cases a recurring appointment will fall on a date that will not work for the users. That specific appointment on that date can be deleted. Go to the appointment you want to delete and right click on the edge of the appointment. Click on Delete. A Confirm Delete dialog box will appear.
Click on Delete this occurrence and then on OK. That will delete only the one appointment. Repeat this for other unnecessary appointments created using the recurrence option. To delete a whole series of appointments, click on Delete the series and all occurrences of that recurring appointment will be deleted.
Scheduling committee meetings, teleconferences, and campus events is so much easier when everyone keeps their Outlook Calendar up to date and this is a good place to begin keeping an up-to-date online calendar.
Here is a short video showing the steps included in creating an appointment and a recurring appointment in Outlook.