As mentioned in my last blog post A New Role with Microsoft Graph Team, I mentioned I am joining the Microsoft Graph team. One of the nice aspects of our team is that we are diverse and globally dispersed. With the different time zones that our team all reside in I thought it would be helpful to review a few of my calendar settings in Outlook desktop and Outlook on the Web to help with scheduling meetings or calls.
<Update 2020-11-05>Update screenshots for meeting duration to include new option for end early or start late. Thanks to my teammate Glenn Block for the suggestion.</Update>
Working / Meeting Hours
Set your working / meeting days and hours so that teammates will know when you are generally available for scheduled meetings or calls. Personally, I wake up early most days and hence my start of the day is likely earlier than some others.
Outlook desktop: File -> Options -> Calendar -> Work time
Outlook on the Web: Settings -> Calendar -> View -> Meeting hours
Time Zones
Since my team is all over the world, it is important to be aware of time zones for scheduling meetings. In Outlook desktop it is possible to set your primary time zone and display 2 additional time zones. In the following screenshot I have set Eastern Time (US & Canada) as my primary time zone with additional time zones for Pacific Time (US & Canada) and East Africa Time (Nairobi). I have purposely kept the labels short so that they fit easily in the display on calendar views.
Outlook desktop: File -> Options -> Calendar -> Time zones
I have only been able to add a single time zone in Outlook on the Web. If someone knows a way to add multiple please let me know in the comments or contact me.
Outlook on the Web: Settings -> Calendar -> Language and time
End Meetings Early / Start Meetings Late
Whether you are hosting a meeting in-person or online there are many reasons you may want to end your meeting early or start your meeting late including:
- Allow attendees time to walk to their next meeting room
- Encourage attendees to wrap up their meeting without overlapping the following time block
- Give attendees time for a mental break / chance to use the restroom in between meetings
- …and more
Outlook desktop: File -> Options -> Calendar -> Calendar options
Outlook on the Web: Settings -> Calendar -> Events and invitations -> Shorten duration for all events
Share Free / Busy Times
In addition to setting your working / meeting hours, you can also come to show your free / busy times (and more) with other people.
Outlook desktop: File -> Options -> Calendar -> Calendar options -> Free/Busy Options
By default you may see that all users in your organization are able to see your free / busy times. You can adjust permission levels to show more details or add / remove additional people to have access to view your calendar.
Outlook on the Web: Settings -> Calendar -> Shared calendars
Publish Calendar
Aside from showing your free / busy times to people internal to your organization, sometimes you may want to publish your calendar to people external to your organization. Currently I have found this easiest to do through Outlook on the Web.
Outlook on the Web: Settings -> Calendar Shared calendars -> Publish a calendar
After you publish your desired calendar you can provide people with either an HTML (render in browser) or ICS (universal calendar file format) link.
Conclusion
In this post I walked through a number of calendar settings and preferences on my Outlook desktop and Outlook on the Web client. I hope this helps you to think of the diverse and global audience that you may be working with currently or in the future. If you have any additional tips you recommend please share them in the comments.
-Frog Out
The Frog Pond of Technology 
This is awesome… just implemented it as I join the same team. This will certainly help mate. Thanks for sharing. Fabs Out.
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This is a great! Got here in looking for a solution to start meetings “late”! I see you’ve shown both the desktop and the web versions of this, though I don’t seem to show it in my desktop client (exchange M365 ver 2002 build 12527.21416). Any ideas if this is version specific or if there’s a way to enable it? It works fantastic on the web but I muck prefer to work in desktop. Thanks so much!
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This is a newer feature, but I honestly don’t know which version of the desktop client added this functionality. When I first published this post there was only an option to end early. A later build offered the option to start late.
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Sorry for (very) late reply, yes I believe it is tied to a specific build of Outlook desktop. Unsure on when this feature was introduced, but note that I run an internal early release build as a Microsoft employee and sometimes we see features before they are released externally.
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This would be awsome to have!! I only have the option of ending early in my outlook calander. How do I get the possibility of starting late as your picture shows?
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This is likely due to the build of Outlook that you are using. When I first published this article my build of Outlook only offered the ending early option. After an update I saw the start late option. Also note that I run an internal early release build of Outlook as a Microsoft employee 🙂
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