Fun with Outlook Date Fields
Here’s a cool trick for Outlook: you can type in date fields!
Suppose I want to set up a meeting for next Friday. In the meeting inspector, instead of clicking on the calendar picker to navigate to the right day, I can simply type “next Fri” into the date field, then press Tab or Enter.
Presto! Outlook automatically calculates the date for “next Fri” and fills out the date field correctly.
There are many different possible inputs that you can use. Try these:
- “tomorrow”, “next week”, “next month”
- “in 2 days”, “in 3 weeks”
- Shorthand date forms such as “Jun 14” and “Jan 16”
You can even type in certain holidays such as “Christmas”, “Christmas Eve”, “New Year’s Day” and “Independence Day”. (Note: Not all holidays work, and not in all locales. Play with it and see!) And you can even combine inputs to create a date like “3 days before Christmas” and Outlook will figure out the right day.
This is not just limited to the date field – Outlook will also accept “midnight” and “noon” in the time field as valid inputs.
Give this a try the next time you find yourself scheduling a meeting!
Thanks!
Kristel Leow
Outlook Software Design Engineer in Test
