Office X for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

chapter 9: entourage calendar and tasks 375

chapter

9

I

f it weren’t for its Calendar and Tasks features, Entourage would be little more

than Outlook Express, Microsoft’s free email program. But thanks to these func-

tions, Entourage makes a very good time manager indeed.

The best part about all of this is that these data bits are smoothly integrated with

Entourage’s email and address-book features, so that you can pull off software stunts

like inviting people (via email) to meetings that you schedule (on the calendar), all

without leaving the program.

The Calendar

You can open the Entourage calendar either by clicking the Calendar icon in the

upper left of the Entourage main window, choosing View→Go To→Calendar, or

pressing c-3. No matter how you open it, your calendar shows up with all sched-

uled events listed on the appropriate days at the appropriate times (see Figure 9-1).

In fact, it can display anything from a single day to six weeks on a single screen.

Actually, you get two different calendars. In addition to the main one, there’s a min-

iature overview calendar in the lower-left corner. (Drag the divider bar above the

overview calendar to dictate the number of months it shows.)

Working with Views

Entourage offers two kinds of views: a month view, which looks like every wall cal-

endar you’ve ever seen, and a column view, in which you see up to seven days’ worth

of events displayed as vertical time lines (see Figure 9-3).

Entourage Calendar

and Tasks

376 office x for macintosh: the missing manual

Displaying days, weeks, and months

To control what the main calendar window shows, use the following buttons on the

Entourage toolbar or commands on the Calendar menu:

•Day shows the appointments for a single day in the main calendar area, broken

down by time slot.

• Work Week shows five columns, representing the workdays of the current week.

•Week fills the main display area with seven columns, reflecting the current week

(including Saturday and Sunday).

Tip: If you enjoy an eccentric work schedule, you can redefine which days constitute your work “week” by

choosing Entourage→General Preferences, selecting the Calendar tab, then changing the days-of-the-

week checkboxes. When you choose “Work week” using the toolbar or the Calendar menu, Entourage will

be happy to display columns for only Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (or whichever days you work).

• Month shows the current month in its entirety.

• List, unlike the other views, doesn’t offer a vertical grid of time slots. Instead, it

offers a simple list of events scheduled for the current day (or days), as shown at

The Calendar

Figure 9-1:

Entourage’s Calendar

function provides an

overview of adjacent months

and a big view of the current

month. You can also display

the current week, work

week, or day, in which case

Entourage also displays a

Task list for that time frame.

Holidays and other special

days (which you have to

import from a separate file)

appear in the large detail

calendar. At the top of the

window, Entourage offers a

calendar-specific toolbar for

easy access to common

commands.

Overview calendar “All day” banner Detail calendar

Views Toolbar