One of the most commonly used features in Outlook, after email, is the calendar. As you might expect with something getting this much use, there are a lot of complaints about how it works (or doesn't work). The following problems were the subject of discussion in the Microsoft newsgroups recently. You can visit the newsgroups using a newsreader, such as Outlook Express (news://msnews.microsoft.com) or with a Web browser at http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/msnewsgroups.aspx.

A frequent complaint concerns the small thumbnail calendars in a printed calendar. As we all know, most calendars include thumbnails of the last month and the next month on each page. Outlook, for it's own unique reasons, uses thumbnails for this month and next month. For Microsoft's explanation for this behavior, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q180674.

If you want to use last month and next month, looks at the calendar utilities at Slipstick, listed at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar.htm#print. The print utilities do a better job printing calendars and offer more options. The Word template can be saved as a web page, allowing you to easily publish a calendar to a website.

Another often requested feature is the ability to display both calendar and task items together in a Day/Week/Month calendar view. If you only need tasks viewed in a calendar, you can create a view for the Task folder that uses a calendar layout. From the View menu | Current View, select Define Views and create a new view. Pick the Day/Week/Month type and customize it, then apply the view to your folder. If you need both calendar items and tasks in one folder, you'll need to create appointments from the tasks. You can also view calendar and tasks side-by-side in a folder home page or a Web browser. You'll need to create an HTML page that uses the Outlook View Control. An example is available at http://www.poremsky.com/calendar.htm. This example explains how to add a taskpad to a public folder calendar, however it can easily be changed to show a calendar and task folder from a .PST file or mailbox.

It's not unusual to receive a meeting request or appointment from someone, only to discover the time changes automatically. This is because the appointment was created on a computer using a different time zone and/or daylight time settings. Outlook will always correct appointment times, adjusting it to your time zone. This can wreck havoc with your appointments if you are on a business trip and change the computer's clock. Outlook allows you to show two time zones, which helps alleviate the problem somewhat. To manage this, you'll want to go to Tools | Options | Calendar Options button, Time Zone button. I recommend not changing the computer's time zone when traveling. I use a clock utility to display the time in multiple time zones instead. I like 1st Clock at http://www.greenparrots.com, and you can find many others at your favorite shareware site.