Being able to see colleague’s calendars in Outlook can be very useful for co-ordinating meetings, arranging appointments or just being a sticky beak.  In Outlook Calendar, in the Navigation Pane, there are several links to help you get started quickly with calendar sharing.

Open a Shared Calendar

You can open another person’s default Exchange Calendar if the person has granted you permission to do so. If the other person whose Calendar you want to open has not granted you permission to view it, Outlook prompts you to ask the person for the permission you need. If you click Yes, a sharing request e-mail message opens automatically. The message requests the person to share his or her Calendar with you and also provides the option to share your default Calendar with him or her. After you access a shared Calendar for the first time, the Calendar is added to the Navigation Pane. The next time you want to view the shared Calendar, you can click it in the Navigation Pane.

One of the benefits of having a laptop is being able to log on anywhere and have access to your stuff. This is especially true of things like emails, but there are a few settings that need tweaking before you can open your mailbox from anywhere in the world.

To Set Up Outlook Anywhere in Office 2007:

1. Open the Control Panel and select Mail if you are in Classic View, or User Accounts and then Mail if you are viewing Categories. In the popup window, select Show Profiles.

Select Add and enter a profile name when asked. This is just a label, so name it whatever you like.

2. This will bring up the Add New Email Account dialog. Select Manually Configure server settings or additional server types and then click Next.

3. Select Microsoft Exchange and then click Next.

4. You will probably need to check in with us for your server name. Your user name is the name that you use to log on to your work network, and will often be the same as the first part of your email address. Enter these details and then select More Settings. 

5. Choose the Connection tab and select the Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP box, then select Exchange Proxy Settings.

Exchange Proxy Settings:

1. Your Connection Settings URL will usually be mail.domain or remote.domain, where your domain is usually the part of your email address after the @ symbol.

Select both the Connect using SSL only and Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate boxes.

2. This will be either msstd:mail.domain or msstd:remote.domain. The bit here after msstd: will be the same as you entered in step 1. above.

3. If you often use your laptop in the office, leave On fast networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP unchecked. If you work mostly remotely check this box. In either case, make sure that you tick On slow networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP.

4. Your Proxy Authentication Settings will depend on the type of server you are connecting to. If you are running a 2003 server the Authentication type will be Basic. If you are running a 2007 server the Authentication type will be NTLM. If you aren’t sure, try basic first- if it doesn’t work you can come back and change this setting.

When you click OK you will be notified that you need to restart Outlook for these changes to take effect. When you restart Outlook you will be prompted to log in:

Your credentials will need to be entered as internal domain\username, which should be the same username that you use to log on to your workstation. Confusingly enough, your internal domain is not necessarily the same as the domain name used in your email address- you might need to check with us if you aren’t sure what it should be. Once you log in you will be able to access your email wherever you go.

If you let us know that you want to set up Outlook Anywhere we can give you all the details of your domain and server that you will need. If your email still isn’t connecting properly after all this there are a few geeky behind-the-scenes tweaks that we can try to get it up and running (we can’t give away all our tricks!). If you get stuck or if you have any questions please let us know!

Finding it tricky keeping track of a colleague’s appointments? When you use an Exchange account (as a lucky Small Business Server user will do), you can open another person’s default Outlook Calendar – all you need to do to get started is get them to grant you permission to view the calendar.

If the other person whose Calendar you want to open has not granted you permission to view it, Outlook prompts you to ask the person for the permission you need. If you click Yes, a sharing request e-mail message opens automatically. The message requests the person to share his or her Calendar with you and also provides the option to share your default Calendar with him or her. After you access a shared Calendar for the first time, the Calendar is added to the Navigation Pane (side bar) in Outlook. The next time you want to view the shared Calendar, you can just click it in the Navigation Pane.

To begin the process of sharing calendars in Outlook 2007, open your Calendar in Outlook and click on the Open a Shared Calendar link in your Navigation Pane. Type a name in the Name box, or click Name to select a name from the Address Book. Then click OK.

In Outlook 2003, you’ll need to ask the person whose calendar you would like to share to open his/her Calendar in Outlook, and in the Navigation Pane, click on Share My Calendar. They will have the option to allow anyone access to the calendar or just grant access to specific users.