The latest ‘Insiders Fast Track’ Outlook for Windows has an interesting but somewhat incomplete new feature for managing appointments called ‘End appointments early’.
It’s an overall setting at File | Options | Calendar | End appointments and meetings early.
There are ‘end early’ choices for meetings:
- Less than one hour
- One hour or longer
We tried the current build with 8 minutes for the short appointments and 15 minutes for the longer ones. In a new appointment, the End Time option list changes to look like this:
The End Time is changed (eg the half-hour appointment ends 8 minutes earlier).
You can override the ‘End meeting early’ by typing in the exact end time.
It’s an interesting idea, but is it appropriate as a global setting? Sure, there are some meetings you’d like to end early but others that you need to stay the whole time. Would a Microsoftie walk out early from a meeting with Satya Nadella or Bill Gates?
Perhaps this feature should be available for each appointment rather than as a default for all future appointments?
Polite Feedback is welcome
It’ll be interesting to see how this feature develops. Users on the Insiders Fast Track can and should send feedback with the smiley/frown icons.
Please be polite, real people at Microsoft really do read the Insiders feedback. They don’t deserve the abusive messages they sometimes get.
Outlook ‘End appointments early’ is available in Office for Windows Insiders build version 1812, build 11100.20000. Like anything in Insiders, it’s subject to change or even removal. Much depends on the feedback.
