• Outlook User
  • New Outlook app
  • Outlook.com
  • Outlook Mac
  • Outlook & iCloud
  • Developer
  • Microsoft 365 Admin
    • Common Problems
    • Microsoft 365
    • Outlook BCM
    • Utilities & Addins

Outlook Calendar: Frequently Asked Questions

Slipstick Systems

› Outlook › Calendar › Outlook Calendar: Frequently Asked Questions

Last reviewed on October 4, 2018     56 Comments

Show the Start Time

Q: How do I show (or hide) the start time in the monthly calendar?

A: The times are visible or hidden based on the size of the calendar window. You can make the calendar window wider (or narrower) by moving the separator bar between the navigation pane and/or the To-do bar. In earlier versions move the bar separating the calendar window from the folder list or Taskpad.

 

Hide the Meeting Organizer

Q: How do I hide the Organizers name in a view?

A: Unfortunately, Outlook doesn't offer a way to hide the organizer's name in the Day/Week/Month view. You can add or remove the Organizer field from the table view. Because older versions of Outlook don't show the organizer's name in the day, week, or month calendar grid users aren't used to seeing the organizers name and as we all know, users hate change.

Update: Administrators can remove the organizers name from calendars in resource mailboxes. See Meeting Organizer's Name Appears in the Subject line for more information.

 

Change or Disable Schedule View

When I select a 5th calendar, the view changes to something different. Is there any way to view more than 4 calendars overlapped keeping them as when I overlap 2 or 3.

That "something different" is the Schedule View. It's supposed to make it easier to view a large number of calendars. By default, when you select 5 or more calendars, Outlook switches to the Schedule view. You can switch back to Month or a Day view on the View menu by choosing Month or disable Schedule view in File, Options, Calendar. If you like Schedule view, you can change how many calendars are selected before switching to or from Schedule view.

View Free appointments in Schedule View

A client preferred using Schedule view but thought it was “broken” because very few of his appointments were showing on it. A little investigation showed that most of his appointments were set to Free. By default, Schedule view only displays appointments that are marked Busy, Out of Office, Working elsewhere or Tentative.

If you use Schedule view and want to see Free appointments, you’ll need to enable the option for When in Schedule View, show free appointments if File, Options, Calendar. Or set your appointments to one of the Busy states.

 

See More Navigation Calendars

Q: How do I show more than one calendar in the navigation pane?

You can show more calendars side-by-side by pulling the separator bar inward. You'll need to move it a full calendar width for it to "stick". If you prefer to see the calendars stacked vertically, you'll need to reduce the items in the navigation pane, by removing calendars from the list or collapsing calendar groups, removing the Views selector, or increasing the height of the calendar window.

You can remove the views selector from the View menu. In Outlook 2007, its at Views, Navigation Pane, Current View Pane. In Outlook 2003, look for it at Views, Arrange By, Show views in Navigation pane.

You can increase the height of the calendar by maximizing the window, arranging toolbars on one row or closing them, and turning off the status bar (View, Status bar). Using a higher screen resolution helps also.

If you use the Taskpad or To-do bar, you can display more calendars on the right side of the screen by pulling the separator bar inward one or more calendar widths. Slide the separator bar in the taskpad up or down to show or hide calendars or change the number of calendars in the To-do bar by changing the options. Right click on the To-do bar title, choose Options and type in the number of months you want to display.

Whether the navigation calendars display in the navigation pane or taskpad/to-do bar is controlled by the Taskpad or To-do bar. If the calendars are visible on the right side they will now be visible in the navigation pane on the left.

If you can't see the taskpad (Outlook 2003 and previous versions), turn it on using the View, Taskpad menu.

How many navigation calendars can you display? It all depends on your screen resolution. I was able to display 48 navigation calendars on a high resolution screen in Outlook 2003's Taskpad, but only 35 in Outlook 2007's To-do Bar. Either way, it was at least 32 more than I really need to see.
 

See More Days in Outlook Today

How do I show more days in Outlook Today? When I select the "Customize Outlook Today" there is a selection for the number of days to be viewed but it only goes to 7 days.

You can edit the registry to show more appointment days in Outlook Today.

The number of days is stored in the following registry key and change the value of the CalDays string to a higher number.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\xx.0\Outlook\Today
Don't forget to change the xx to the Outlook version number you are using.

If the registry entry does not exist, you'll either need to create it or customize Outlook Today and refresh the view in regedit. To see the changes in Outlook today, switch to another folder then back to Outlook today.

For more information about the registry values used by Outlook Today, see Editing Outlook Today

Outlook Calendar: Frequently Asked Questions was last modified: October 4th, 2018 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • Earlier versions of Outlook had a group calendar window that was separ
    Outlook 2010 Group Scheduler
  • How to View a Yearly Calendar
  • Outlook Displays the Wrong Calendar Names in the Title and Task Bars
  • Earlier versions of Outlook had a group calendar window that was separ
    Outlook 2010's Group Schedules

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

Subscribe
Notify of
56 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Jaime
January 11, 2024 7:17 am

Hello Diane, I work mostly with Outlook Calendar, and in it I include phone numbers of my clients for easy access, rather than going back and forth to contacts to get that information. Is there a way to add a line where phone numbers could be placed uniformly?, in addition to Subject and Location?.
Thank you.

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Jaime
January 11, 2024 9:47 am

You can create a custome form and add a custom field to it. But it won't be included in the outgoing invitation. If it's always the same number, a custom form or template with the number (or other information) in the body would work.

0
0
Reply
lisa
August 16, 2023 10:22 am

how can a put a title in each month on my calendar ie. Breast Cancer Awareness Month at the top

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  lisa
January 11, 2024 10:09 am

sorry, that is not possible to do.

0
0
Reply
Maria
November 3, 2022 9:32 am

Hello, a recent update changed the order of which I view the calendars I manage. I check and organized the list in the order I prefer but then the calendars themselves shuffle to different orders. Please help.

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Maria
November 3, 2022 10:02 am

You may need to reset the nav pane to fix it, but that resets everything on the navigation pane to default.

Are you caching shared folders? The usual reason Outlook rearranges folders is because the folders are not loaded in outlook when the nav pane is updated - the ones not available drop to the bottom. This happens most often with mail folders IMAP accounts, not delegated calendars.

0
0
Reply
kim schmittou
May 20, 2022 11:29 am

Can I change the color of my calendars background for 2 days of the week? ie: It is pink M-F but I want it to show Green on Wednesday and Thursday only since those are days i`m in the office

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  kim schmittou
May 20, 2022 11:46 pm

No, not really. But if you create all day events marked busy and assign a category, the day will be colored.

If you want dark and bright, you can mark days as work days in File > Options > Calendar and the non-working days will be shaded darker.

0
0
Reply
Lamarr
August 31, 2021 9:56 am

Why does the calendar list 12 AM and 12 PM? The correct names for those times are midnight and noon.

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Lamarr
August 31, 2021 10:46 pm

I don't recall anyone asking about it but assume because it's easier to do numbers in the scale and in appointments.

1
0
Reply
Debbi
August 26, 2021 8:29 pm

We have a similar situation to the last comment. The owner of our work calendar has left the company. We cannot share the calendar with others. How do we get around this problem. Do we have to create a new calendar? If so is there a way to transfer what is already on one calendar to another? Appreciate the help!

0
0
Reply
Madisyn
December 27, 2019 3:14 pm

The owner of one of our calendars is leaving the company. This calendar is extremely important as it is a shared calendar between all employees that highlights all of our events and meetings coming up. It is even shared with our owners. She has given me ownership of this calendar, but it still is listed under "People's Calendars", so when she leaves and her email is deactivated, will I still have full access to this calendar?

0
0
Reply
Charles Shaw
October 2, 2019 9:53 am

When reviewing who will be attending a meeting, one my attendees comes up with a note indicating "no free/busy information could be retrieved" but I know he accepted the invitation.

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  Charles Shaw
October 2, 2019 9:42 pm

That could mean his free/busy is not published, you don't have permission to access it, or there is problem with the free/busy server.

it could also mean he has 'working elsewhere' set on some appointments- that bug was supposedly fix about a year or so ago though.

0
0
Reply
Charles Shaw
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
October 4, 2019 12:02 pm

Thank you. I will check my free/busy option

0
0
Reply

Visit Slipstick Forums.
What's New at Slipstick.com

Latest EMO: Vol. 30 Issue 32

Subscribe to Exchange Messaging Outlook






Support Services

Do you need help setting up Outlook, moving your email to a new computer, migrating or configuring Office 365, or just need some one-on-one assistance?

Our Sponsors

CompanionLink
ReliefJet
  • Popular
  • Latest
  • Week Month All
  • Jetpack plugin with Stats module needs to be enabled.
  • Move Deleted Items to Another Folder Automatically
  • Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell
  • Count and List Folders in Classic Outlook
  • Google Workspace and Outlook with POP Mail
  • Import EML Files into New Outlook
  • Opening PST files in New Outlook
  • New Outlook: Show To, CC, BCC in Replies
  • Insert Word Document into Email using VBA
  • Delete Empty Folders using PowerShell
  • Warn Before Deleting a Contact
Ajax spinner

Recent Bugs List

Microsoft keeps a running list of issues affecting recently released updates at Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in classic Outlook (Windows).

For new Outlook for Windows: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in new Outlook for Windows .

Outlook for Mac Recent issues: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Outlook for Mac

Outlook.com Recent issues: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com

Office Update History

Update history for supported Office versions is at Update history for Office

Outlook Suggestions and Feedback

Outlook Feedback covers Outlook as an email client, including Outlook Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows clients, as well as the browser extension (PWA) and Outlook on the web.

Outlook (new) Feedback. Use this for feedback and suggestions for Outlook (new).

Use Outlook.com Feedback for suggestions or feedback about Outlook.com accounts.

Other Microsoft 365 applications and services




New Outlook Articles

Move Deleted Items to Another Folder Automatically

Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell

Count and List Folders in Classic Outlook

Google Workspace and Outlook with POP Mail

Import EML Files into New Outlook

Opening PST files in New Outlook

New Outlook: Show To, CC, BCC in Replies

Insert Word Document into Email using VBA

Delete Empty Folders using PowerShell

Warn Before Deleting a Contact

Newest Code Samples

Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell

Count and List Folders in Classic Outlook

Insert Word Document into Email using VBA

Warn Before Deleting a Contact

Use PowerShell to Delete Attachments

Remove RE:, FWD:, and Other Prefixes from Subject Line

Change the Mailing Address Using PowerShell

Categorize @Mentioned Messages

Send an Email When You Open Outlook

Delete Old Calendar Events using VBA

Repair PST

Convert an OST to PST

Repair damaged PST file

Repair large PST File

Remove password from PST

Merge Two Data Files

Sync & Share Outlook Data

  • Share Calendar & Contacts
  • Synchronize two computers
  • Sync Calendar and Contacts Using Outlook.com
  • Sync Outlook & Android Devices
  • Sync Google Calendar with Outlook
  • Access Folders in Other Users Mailboxes

Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]

Make a donation

Mail Tools

Sending and Retrieval Tools

Mass Mail Tools

Compose Tools

Duplicate Remover Tools

Mail Tools for Outlook

Online Services

Calendar Tools

Schedule Management

Calendar Printing Tools

Calendar Reminder Tools

Calendar Dates & Data

Time and Billing Tools

Meeting Productivity Tools

Duplicate Remover Tools

Productivity

Productivity Tools

Automatic Message Processing Tools

Special Function Automatic Processing Tools

Housekeeping and Message Management

Task Tools

Project and Business Management Tools

Choosing the Folder to Save a Sent Message In

Run Rules on messages after reading

Help & Suggestions

Submit Outlook Feature Requests

Slipstick Support Services

Buy Microsoft 365 Office Software and Services

Visit Slipstick Forums.

What's New at Slipstick.com

Home | Outlook User | Exchange Administrator | Office 365 | Outlook.com | Outlook Developer
Outlook for Mac | Common Problems | Utilities & Addins | Tutorials
Outlook & iCloud Issues | Outlook Apps
EMO Archives | About Slipstick | Slipstick Forums
Submit New or Updated Outlook and Exchange Server Utilities

Send comments using our Feedback page
Copyright © 2025 Slipstick Systems. All rights reserved.
Slipstick Systems is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

:wpds_smile::wpds_grin::wpds_wink::wpds_mrgreen::wpds_neutral::wpds_twisted::wpds_arrow::wpds_shock::wpds_unamused::wpds_cool::wpds_evil::wpds_oops::wpds_razz::wpds_roll::wpds_cry::wpds_eek::wpds_lol::wpds_mad::wpds_sad::wpds_exclamation::wpds_question::wpds_idea::wpds_hmm::wpds_beg::wpds_whew::wpds_chuckle::wpds_silly::wpds_envy::wpds_shutmouth:
wpDiscuz

Sign up for Exchange Messaging Outlook

Our weekly Outlook & Exchange newsletter (bi-weekly during the summer)






Please note: If you subscribed to Exchange Messaging Outlook before August 2019, please re-subscribe.

Never see this message again.

You are going to send email to

Move Comment