Introduction

Scheduling meetings with colleagues can be a real pain when you and they all have packed calendars. You open up the Scheduling Assistant in Outlook and all you get are “busy” time bars as far as the eye can see…

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But you may know full well some of the meetings on the calendar aren’t nearly as important as the meeting you’re trying to schedule – so you could invite them, but you don’t know which of the busy bars are “important” and which can be rescheduled (or even canceled).

If you could just see the titles of the events, that would allow you to target timeframes that are the best balance of open time slots and occupied – but less important – events.

How can you see the titles? Well, each person has to make their event titles visible. They have to update some permissions on their calendar. And here’s how…

Sharing your calendar

To allow others within our email system – specifically inside the County – to see your calendar entry titles (and locations), follow these steps:

1. Open your Outlook app (on Windows)

2. Switch to the Calendar view
   
   

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3. Right-click on the title of your own calendar (under the My Calendars list)

4. Click the Properties… button in the pop-up menu
   
   

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5. In the Calendar Properties window click the Permissions tab

6. Click to highlight the Default permissions item

7. Click the Free/Busy time, subject, location option button

8. Click OK
   
   

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Congratulations! You did it!

Now whenever a colleague (within our email system) needs to setup a meeting with you, they will be able to see if you’re busy, but they can also see what you’re busy with, which can help when working with folks that have tightly-packed calendars.

How to protect private appointment details

Want to protect details events like doctor visits or other private appointments? Just title your event “Appointment” or something else non-descript, and don’t include any details. Then track your personal events on a separate personal calendar (like Google Calendar, iCloud, etc.), not on the County’s platform.

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Related Links

Share and access a view-only calendar in Outlook - Microsoft Support