Outlook Calendar Date Shortcuts

Did you know...

Have you ever had to look up a date a certain number of days in the past or future?  Outlook makes it easy to do this.  Simply use the following Date Shortcuts in any date field such as

• The Start Time field of an Outlook appointment

• The Date field of the Go To Date box (Crtl - G)

• The Start Date and Due Date fields of a Task

• The Start Time of a Journal Entry

Date Shortcuts

Outlook Date shortcuts provide an easy way to go to any particular date, especially when you need to go to a certain number of days after a particular date.  The following shortcut commands can be used in any Outlook date field:

• For year use "y"

• For month use "mo"

• For week use "w"

• For day use "d"

These shortcuts can be entered into the date field with or without a date.  The following examples illustrate how this works.  Type Crtl - G to open the "Go To Date" dialog box.  The "Go To Date" dialog box can also be opened by right clicking on the calendar, or by using the "Go" menu at the top of the screen.  In our example, the starting date is Mon 8/11/2008. 

The "Go To Date" dialog box

Although our examples use this "Go To Date" box, remember that these shortcuts will work in any Outlook date field.

Example 1: To find a date 45 days in the future, replace Mon 8/11/2008 with 45d and hit Tab.
	becomes
The new date is automatically calculated 45 days in the future as Thu 9/25/2008.

Example 2: To find a date 180 days after August 30, type "8/30 + 180d" and hit Tab.
	becomes
The new date is automatically calculated 180 days after August 30, which is Thu 2/26/2009.

Natural Language Shortcuts

Natural language shortcuts allow even more power when searching for a past or future date.  Some of the basic keywords that Outlook understands are

Outlook also understands the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) and many holidays that are fixed on specific days such as

• New Year's Day

• Valentine's Day

• Washington's Birthday

• Saint Patrick's Day

• Independence Day

• Halloween

• Christmas Eve

• Christmas

• New Year's Eve

Example 3: If we start with Mon 8/11/2008 as shown above, we can go back six weeks by typing "6 weeks ago" and then hit Tab.
	becomes
The new date is automatically calculated six weeks before the starting date, which in our example is Mon 6/30/2008.

Example 4: Again starting with Mon 8/11/2008, we can determine 90 days after tomorrow by typing "90 days after tomorrow" and hitting Tab.
	becomes
The new date is automatically calculated 90 days after August 12, which is Mon 11/10/2008.

Example 5: Need to schedule an event two weeks before Valentine's Day?  Simply type in "2 weeks before Valentine's Day" and hit Tab.
	becomes
Outlook automatically calculates the date as January 31.

Time Shortcuts

Outlook also allows you to quickly enter time into a time field.  You can omit the colon, spaces, and even the AM or PM and Outlook will know what time you mean.

For example, type "830a" into a time field, and Outlook knows you mean 8:30 AM.  Type "235p" and Outlook knows you want 2:35 PM.