Tip of the week # 648
1 April 2021


Make it easier to schedule a meeting with someone outside your organisation (Microsoft Outlook) *

Yep, I know ... It's the second week in a row that I send my tip on a Thursday. And not just because a lot of you will have a day off tomorrow ... judging from the amount of out of office messages I normally get, a lot of you don't work on Fridays. (Lucky so and so's.) Hence, in future I will send my tips on a Thursday in order for it not to end up in a pile of emails you have to plough through when you get back to work on Monday. So without further ado, here's Thursday's tip of the week.

Back in November 2018 I wrote a tip about a feature that can make it a bit easier to schedule a meeting with someone outside your organisation. As they don't have access to your calendar it can be a bit of a pain, with lots of messages being sent backwards and forwards. Instead, why not send your calendar to someone in another company as an email attachment - or ask them to forward their calendar to you.

Well, for some reason, the button has been removed as an option from the Home tab in the current version of Microsoft 365, so if you want to use it you might want to stick it on your Quick Access Toolbar and use it from there.

Here's how:

  1. Click on the drop-down arrow at the far end of the Quick Access Toolbar.
  2. Click on More Commands.
  3. In the Choose commands from drop-down list, select All Commands.
  4. Scroll down the alphabetical list and double-click on Email Calendar.
  5. Click OK or press ENTER.

You only have to do this once!

Next time you want send a copy of your calendar as an email attachment follow these four simple steps:

  1. Open your Calendar. (CTRL + 2, anyone?)
  2. Click on the E-mail Calendar button on the Quick Access Toolbar.
  3. Change the calendar information you want to include using the various options.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Complete and send the message as normal.

The recipient will see the time as "Free", "Busy", "Tentative", or "Out of Office", unless you changed the level of detail in step 3. The calendar attachment will open side-by-side to their own, which means they can easily compare the content. Oh, and the recipient does not have to use Outlook in order to see the information.

That's it. Enjoy your Easter break!

Related tips:

  1. Send a copy of your calendar as an email attachment - tip_557.php
  2. Find the best time to schedule a meeting - tip_512.php
  3. View multiple calendars at the same time - tip_428.php
  4. Top ten Microsoft Outlook shortcuts - tip_538.php


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 and Windows 10 users, but can also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.