Tag Archive for: Outlook

A guide to sharing calendars in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 offers a convenient way to share calendars. In this guide, we will walk you through how you can quickly and easily do so to let others — even those without a Microsoft 365 account — view your calendar.

What is Outlook?

Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available as part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Aside from managing multiple email accounts, Outlook also allows users to quickly access calendar and task features. Users can also customize their view of Outlook through several ways, including the use of add-ons and plugins that improve productivity. Overall, Outlook is a powerful tool that can help individuals and organizations stay on top of their communications.

Use Outlook on the web

Outlook on the web is a free, web-based version of Microsoft Outlook that includes many of the same features as the desktop version. You can use Outlook on the web to access your email, calendar, contacts, and tasks from any computer with an internet connection.

Additionally, you can connect your Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online to Outlook. Through this integration, you can then easily share your calendar by following these steps:

  1. To access the Calendar, click on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Go to the Calendar page and find the toolbar at the top of your screen. Click on Share and then select which calendar you want to share with others. Remember that you can only share calendars that you own.
  3. Enter the email address or name of who you’d like to share your calendar with.
  4. To secure your calendar, determine the permission levels of your recipients. These options include:
    • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– allows users to view only certain details of your calendar when you’re busy
    • Can view titles and locations ⁠– shows users when you’re not available, including additional details such as the event’s title or location
    • Can view all details ⁠– lets users see all details about an event in your calendar
    • Can edit ⁠– enables permitted users to modify details in your calendar
    • Delegate ⁠– authorizes users to edit your calendar and share it with others
  5. The final step is to click on Share. You can cancel sharing your calendar by clicking on the Trash icon.

Another method of sharing your calendar is by publishing it and sending the URL to others. Here’s how you can do this:

  1. Go to Settings, then View all Outlook settings in Calendar.
  2. Click on Shared calendars.
  3. After you select Publish a calendar, choose which calendar to make public and how much information recipients will be able to see.
  4. Once you’ve set the permission levels, you can click Publish.
  5. Next, choose between an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link allows recipients to view your calendar through a browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Meanwhile, users can use an ICS link to import your shared calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Share via Outlook.com

Just like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The methods for sharing on these two platforms are similar, with the exception that you have just two choices for how recipients may utilize your calendar: Can view all details and Can edit.

Here’s how you can publish your calendar on Outlook.com:

  1. Open the Calendar view by clicking on the calendar icon.
  2. Go to the Settings menu and choose View all Outlook settings.
  3. Go to Calendar and choose Shared calendars.
  4. In “Publish a calendar,” choose the Calendar you want to publish and how much information it will show.
  5. Once you’re done, click on Publish and share your calendar either through an HTML or ICS link.

Easy access through Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re on the go or don’t have access to your desktop, you can still share your calendar via Outlook’s mobile app by following these steps:

  1. On your Outlook app, select Calendar from the hamburger menu at the top-left corner of the screen.
  2. Go to Share then, under Add People, select the recipients you’d like to invite by inputting their names or email addresses.
  3. Next, go to the top-right corner of the app and tap on the Check button.
  4. To edit the permission level of a certain user, you can tap their name on the list of recipients. Like with Outlook on the web, you can choose the permission options such as “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” “All Details,” “Can View,” “Can Edit,” and “Delegate.”
  5. If you want to remove a user from your recipients, go to the bottom of the page and tap on Remove.
  6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page to share your calendar with your selected users.

There’s no doubt that Microsoft 365 offers a variety of tools that help you stay organized. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of Microsoft 365, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our IT experts will be glad to help.

If you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment

Published with consideration from TechAdvisory.org SOURCE

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5 Tips to work smarter in Outlook

Microsoft Outlook comes with a raft of features that make managing your busy schedule and boosting your productivity easier. If you find Outlook’s myriad capabilities a little overwhelming, don’t worry — these tips and tricks will have you using Outlook like a pro in no time.

Organize your inbox

Is your Outlook inbox getting a little too cluttered for your liking? Use the Clean Up feature to tidy up your inbox.

From your inbox, click the Home tab and choose from one of three Clean Up options:

  • Clean Up Conversation – reviews an email thread or a conversation and deletes redundant messages
  • Clean Up Folder – reviews conversations in a selected folder and deletes redundant messages
  • Clean Up Folder & Subfolders – reviews all messages in a selected folder and any subfolders, and deletes redundant messages in all of them

Ignore conversations

Besides redundant messages, group conversations that aren’t relevant to you can clutter up your inbox. The Ignore button helps you organize your inbox and focus on relevant emails.

To activate this feature, select a message, then click Home > Ignore > Ignore Conversation. Alternatively, you can open a message in a new window and click Ignore under the Delete function. You can easily revert this action by going to the Deleted Items folder and clicking Ignore > Stop Ignoring Conversation.

Send links to files

This function is especially useful when you need to send large files to your coworkers or clients. You can send a link to the file instead of the file itself as well as set permissions to allow recipients to edit and collaborate on linked files in real time.

To do this, upload the file you wish to send to OneDrive. Then from the message box, click Attach File > Browse web locations > OneDrive.

Tag contacts

To get the attention of a specific person in a group email or meeting invite, use the @Mention function. This works particularly well for emails sent to multiple recipients or if you want to convey the urgency of your message.

In the body of your email or invite message, type the @ symbol followed by the name of the person you want to tag (e.g., @johndoe). Doing so will highlight the name in the message and automatically add it to the To line of your message.

You can also search for messages you’re tagged in by selecting Filter Email from the Home tab, and then clicking Mentioned.

Add notes to emails

With Outlook, you can add sticky notes to specific parts of an email. To add a sticky note, simply drag your cursor to highlight your chosen text in the email, and then release the mouse button to trigger a pop-up object menu. On that object menu, select Add Note. This will open a OneNote feed within Outlook, where you can add text or images to your sticky note.

Schedule a Teams meeting

Teams is Microsoft’s unified communication and collaboration platform, and it includes the Outlook add-in. This feature allows you to set up Teams meetings directly from Outlook. It also lets you view, accept, or join meetings while in either app.

To schedule a Teams meeting on Outlook, follow these steps:

  1. Switch to the calendar view on Outlook. Click the New Teams Meeting tab.
  2. Add individual participants or entire contact groups to the Required or Optional fields.
  3. Type in the topic, start time, and end time of the meeting. There’s no need to add the dial-in phone numbers and conferencing IDs to the invite, as Outlook does this automatically for you.
  4. Create a message inviting the recipients to the meeting, then click Send.

Share emails to Teams

With Outlook, you can easily share an email from your inbox directly to a specific Teams channel. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Select the email you want to share.
  2. Click the Share to Teams button.
  3. On the Share to Microsoft Teams pop-up menu, type the name of the person or channel you want to share to. Check the “Include attachments” tickbox if you want to include the email’s attachments.

These are just some of the things you can do to improve your Outlook experience. For more on how to get the most out of Outlook and other Microsoft products, drop us a line today.

If you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment

Published with consideration from TechAdvisory.org SOURCE

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Sharing calendars with Microsoft 365 is easy

If you want to keep everyone updated on each other’s assignments or improve your team’s productivity, sharing your calendar on Microsoft 365 is a must. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can sync your schedules on different versions of Outlook.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

  1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
  3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
  4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
    • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
    • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
    • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
    • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
    • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
  5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

  1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
  2. Select Shared calendars.
  3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
  4. Click Publish.
  5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

  1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
  2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
  3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
  4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
  5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

  1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
  2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
  3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
  4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
  5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
  6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

To learn more about how to safeguard your business, or if you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment.

Published with consideration from TechAdvisory.org SOURCE

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Microsoft Teams
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How to get the most out of Microsoft Teams

If you’re like most people, you only use your office chat applications for simple, everyday use — to ask someone a question or to touch base with colleagues. But wouldn’t it be great if you could do more things at once in these apps, such as completing tasks and chatting with colleagues all in a single window? Perhaps you’ve already heard of Microsoft Teams’ robust features to accomplish this, but how do you get the most out of the program?

The convenience of chat apps has enabled workers to cut time spent chatting with colleagues and spend more time doing their tasks. What’s more, work-related software is increasingly becoming more mobile- and user-friendly, with apps like Microsoft Teams bringing together several different platforms. Here’s how you can use that to your advantage:

Use SharePoint to store and share files

You might already be using SharePoint to store files and collaborate with your teammates. But did you know that in every Teams channel, you can click the Files tab to share files from SharePoint with team members? You can also access SharePoint files already shared in the channel and use Office Online or Office Desktop to collaborate on those files.

Forward emails into a channel

You get countless emails every day, many of which might be buried in your inboxes. Fortunately, Microsoft makes it easy to forward any email message from Outlook to a Teams channel so they show up in both platforms.

To do this, click the ellipsis (…) next to any channel name and select Get email address. This generates an email address for the channel, which you can copy and use to forward files, documents, and messages.

Stick with a few groups

While you can create as many groups within your organization as you like, going overboard can result in a cluttered messaging interface that overwhelms team members. Instead, you can create groups based on the number of projects and team members involved ー you can always add more if necessary.

Set up audio conferencing

Teams lets you host voice meetings with groups or with just one team member. This is particularly useful when communicating with remote workers or clients, in which case you can give them guest access to your Teams channel. Guest access ensures they’re able to communicate with someone but unable to view private information.

Test communication strategies

Just because some of the features in Teams overlap with other Microsoft platforms, such as Yammer and Skype for Business, doesn’t mean they’re all redundant. Think of it as a chance to test different communication strategies to find out what works best for you. For instance, if most of your clients have a Skype ID, you can use Skype for client calls.

Share conversations with new team members

Teams makes onboarding new hires easy. Rather than forwarding numerous emails and documents to new employees, use Teams to share past conversations and projects with them. This enables everyone to catch up without having to deal with cumbersome documents.

Microsoft Teams and other Office solutions are equipped with plenty of useful features that can take some time to master. But by taking advantage of these tools, you’ll be able to save time and maximize efficiency without having to spend a dime. If you have any questions about Microsoft Office and how it can benefit your business, don’t hesitate to give us a call.

If you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment

Published with consideration from TechAdvisory.org SOURCE

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