By default, Outlook displays either your Inbox or the Outlook Today page when you open it. What if you’d like it to display your calendar instead? Or, perhaps you’d find it handy to open two Outlook windows, one showing your Inbox and the other your calendar.
By default, Outlook displays either your Inbox or the Outlook Today page when you open it. What if you’d like it to display your calendar instead? Or, perhaps you’d find it handy to open two Outlook windows, one showing your Inbox and the other your calendar.
This is easy to do by using a command-line switch to run Outlook.
Outlook comes with a collection of command-line switches which determine how the program starts. The default command-line looks something like this:
“C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE12OUTLOOK.EXE” /recycle
The /recycle at the end of that line is a switch. The recycle switch tells Outlook to start up in an existing Outlook window if one is available. That is, if you already have a copy of Outlook open, the switch tells Outlook not to bother opening another one; to use the open one instead. If you’re running Outlook 2003, the OFFICE12 in the command-line above will be replaced with OFFICE11.
To discover which command line is used to run your copy of Outlook right-click the Outlook shortcut on your desktop or in your Quick Launch bar (if you have one) and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. You’ll see the command line displayed in the Target box on the Shortcut tab.
If you’d like to be able to open the Outlook calendar in one window and the Inbox in another, create a separate Outlook shortcut using the /select outlook:calendar switch.
If you’re using Office 2007 installed in the default folders, here’s how to create such a shortcut from scratch:
1. Right-click in an empty spot on the desktop and choose New -> Shortcut.
2. In the Type The Location Of The Item box, type:
“C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE12OUTLOOK.EXE” /select outlook:calendar
Note the quotation marks and the spaces around /select.
3. Click Next and name your shortcut something like Outlook Calendar, then click Finish.
A GENERIC CALENDAR SHORTCUT
Here’s a simple way to create a customised shortcut regardless of which version of Outlook you use:
1. Make a copy of the Outlook shortcut in the Quick Launch bar by holding down the Ctrl key while you drag the shortcut icon onto an empty spot on your desktop. (Note: If you can’t see the Quick Launch bar, right-click the taskbar, select Toolbars from the pop-up menu and click Quick Launch.)
2. Right-click the Outlook shortcut you’ve just created on the desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. On the Shortcut tab of the Properties dialog box, in the Target box delete /recycle at the end of the command line and replace it with /select outlook:calendar. Make sure you leave a space between the first part of the command and /select.
4. Click the Change Icon button. You’ll see a bunch of icons stored within the Outlook program file. Click the Calendar icon and click OK.
5. Click the General tab and change the text in the first box to read Launch the Outlook Calendar, then click OK.
6. Drag the shortcut icon back onto the Quick Launch bar, if you like.
To complete the job, you should delete the /recycle switch from your existing Outlook (Inbox) shortcut:
1. Right-click the main Outlook shortcut in the Quick Launch bar and select properties from the pop-up menu.
2. Delete /recycle from the Target box and click OK.
Now, if you want to have the Calendar open alongside your email folders, simply click the normal Outlook icon in the Quick Launch bar then click the Calendar icon.
