Frequently Asked Questions

Outlook 2010:

1. In Outlook go to File | Options
2. Click on Calendar 
3. Click on Add Holidays
4.  De-select then re-select United Kingdom
5. Click OK

Outlook 2007:

1. In Outlook go to Tools | Options
2. Click on Calendar Options
3. Click on Add Holidays
4. De-select then re-select United Kingdom
5. Click OK

You can add additional country holidays by selecting the approriate country from those listed.

You can change access rights in your Calendar using the following methods.

Outlook 2010:

Method 1:

1. Open your Calendar via Outlook
2. Click the Share Calendar icon
3. Add the users you wish to grant access rights to
4. Request to view recipient's Calendar
5. Click Send

Method 2:

1. Open folder view by clicking the folder icon in the bottom left section of the Outlook window
2. Right-click your Calendar and select  Permissions then click th Permissions tab
3. Add the users who need access to your Calendar (click the Add button and select the users from the Global Address List)
4. Select the appropriate permissions level
5. Click OK to apply

Method 3

1. From the Outlook Menu Toolbar select File | Info then click Account Settings then Delegates Access
2. Click the Add button and select the required users from the Global Address List
3. Set the appropriate permissions to your calendar
4. Uncheck the option Delegate receives copies... unless you specifically require this option applying to your account
5. Opt to send a message to delegates summerizing the permissions
6. Click OK to apply

Outlook 2003:

Method 1:

1. Open your Calendar via Outlook
2. Click the Share My Calendar option
3. Add the users you wish to grant access rights to
4. Request to view recipient's Calendar
5. Click Send

Method 2:

1. Open folder view by clicking the folder icon in the bottom left section of the Outlook window
2. Right-click your Calendar and select Change Sharing Permissions
3. Add the users who need access to your Calendar (click the Add button and select the users from the Global Address List)
4. Select the appropriate permissions level
5. Click OK to apply

Method 3

1. From the Outlook Menu Toolbar select Tools | Options | Delegates
2. Click the Add button and select the required users from the Global Address List
3. Set the appropriate permissions to your calendar
4. Uncheck the option Delegate receives copies... unless you specifically require this option applying to your account
5. Opt to send a message to delegates summerizing the permissions
6. Click OK to apply

You can add additional calendars in Outlook and Outlook Web Access.

Outlook 2010

1. Go to Folder View
2. Click File | New | Folder
3. Type a name for your calendar
4. From the Folder Contents drop down list choose Calendar Items
5. Chose to place the calendar in the highest level folder (Mailbox - your name
6. Click OK

Outlook 2007

1. Go to Folder View
2. Click File | New | Folder
3. Type a name for your calendar
4. From the Folder Contents drop down list choose Calendar Items
5. Chose to place the calendar in the highest level folder (Mailbox - your name
6. Click OK

Outlook Web Access 2010

1. From OWA Calendar, right-click on My Calendars and select Create New Folder
2. Type a name for your calendar and press the Enter key

Outlook Web Access 2003

1. Right-click the top level folder (your name) and select New Folder
2. Type a name for your calendar
3. From the Folder Contents drop down list choose Calendar Items
4. Chose to place the calendar in the highest level folder (Mailbox - your name
5. Click OK

Term dates are held in the University Dates calendar in Public Folders | Durham University | University Dates.

To access the dates in Outlook you need to be in Folder View (click the Folder List icon in the bottom left of the Outlook window).

To copy the term dates, you need to change the display view. In order to do this you must add an additional toolbar to Outlook. Left click anywhere in the grey area by the existing toolbar and select Advanced.

From the dropdown menu on the Advanced toolbar (this displays the text Day/Week/month by default) select By Category.

Right-click the text Categories - University - Academic and drag this to your Calendar. Let go of the mouse button and select Move.

To access the dates in Outlook Web Access, click on the Go To Public Folders icon in the bottom left of the browser window). In OWA it is not possible to view entries by category and as such you would need to copy entries individually.

You should check the URL below for University holidays and add these dates separately.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/dates/

Please note that these dates are subject to change and that you are responsible for checking that the entries in your calendar are correct.

Yes you can.

When you create the meeting, add the attendees email address in the To: field and send the invite as normal.

In OWA 2010, If you have the appropriate privileges to someone's calendar, you can access it via the Calendar feature by right-clicking My Calendars, searching for the Name of the user whose Calendar you wish to open, double-clicking their name and clicking OK then OK

In OWA 2003, if you have the appropriate privileges to someone's calendar, you can access it from within OWA by simply adding username/calendar to the end of the URL in the address bar of your web browser, where "username" is the account of person's shared calendar you wish to access.

Example: https://exchange.dur.ac.uk/exchange/dxx0abc/calendar/

At the left of the calendar is a vertical bar with hours marked in 24hr clock. Click on that bar with the right mouse button and from the resultant menu check 15 Minutes. You can also check 60, 30, 15, 10, 6 & 5 Minutes to get the layout that's right for you.

1. Start Microsoft Outlook and from the Menu Toolbar go to Tools | Options
2. Click the Calendar Options button
3. In Calendar Options box, click the Resource Scheduling button
4. Click the top two of the processing options
5. Click OK (3 times) to apply the changes

Your resource is now configured to automatically respond to meeting requests and decline any conflicting meeting requests.

1. From the Outlook Menu Toolbar select Tools | Options | Delegates
2. Select a delegate you have listed and click the Permissions button
3. Uncheck the option Delegate receives copies...
4. Click OK
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for each delegate

If you are receiving another persons calendar invites, they would need to carry out the above steps.

Accept, accept as tentative or decline meeting requests that you receive and also send a response to the meeting organiser. By doing so you keep the meeting organiser updated with your intentions regarding the meeting. If you wish to attend a meeting but can't due to other commitments, you could suggest an alternative time. Meeting requests should be processed from your Inbox only (either manually or by rules).

Always send a response to a meeting request. This ensures that the meeting organiser is aware of your intentions to attend the meeting or not (by checking the meeting tracking information).

If you modify an meeting you created you must send all invitees an update.

If you wish to add an additional person to a meeting request, you can do so by opening the meeting and adding their details to the To... field and sending an update to everyone. If you only send an update to the recently added person, no-one else attending the meeting will know that they have been invited.

If you cancel a meeting you must send an update to all invitees. This is especially important if you have booked resourses in addition to people.

If you receive a meeting cancellation, you should click the 'Remove from Calendar' button.

If you wish to cancel recurring meetings. Open the meeting, change the end date and send an update. This ensures that previous meetings remain in invitees calendars but future meetings from the amended date are removed.

Preferably you should process meeting requests on a single computer. If you use more than one computer at a time and meetings request you have already processed still appear in Inbox on the other computer, you must process the requests again.

Do not add your own notes to a meeting you have been invited to. If the owner of the messages amends the meeting, your notes will be lost.

If you need to send a meeting to a distribution list, click the + sign in the To.. field prior to sending the invitation.

Do not configure your calendar to auto accept meeting requests. This feature should be used for resources only.

In addition to the best practice advice above, in order for a University Calendar to function effectively the following points should be followed:

• Holidays must be entered in your Calendar and the Show time as: option marked as Out of Office.
• All day events (e.g. conferences) must be entered in your Calendar and marked as Out of Office.
• Time away from your department must be entered in your Calendar and marked as Out of Office.
• Private events (e.g. dentist/doctors appointments must be added in your Calendar and marked as Out of Office.

If your free/busy data in Outlook is incorrect you can refresh the the data by running Outlook with the /CleanFreeBusy command-line switch.

In order to do this, you must find the location of the Outlook.exe

1. Click Start | Search | For Files or Folders
2. In the file name box, type Outlook.exe then click the Search button
3. Note the path to the Outlook.exe file (the default path for Outlook 2007 is displayed below) then close Windows Search

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2007\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE

You know need to run Outlook with the /CleanFreeBusy command-line switch:
1. Click Start | Run
2. In the Open box, type the complete path (including the file name) noted in step 3, leave a space then type /CleanFreeBusy

The full command is displayed below and must include the quotation marks.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2007\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /CleanFreeBusy