I'm always frustrated when, after selecting Calendar from the Outlook Shortcut Bar, the Calendar opens in the right pane of the current Outlook window instead of opening in a separate window. This view of the Calendar is too small to be useful to me, especially if I have the Folder list visible. Of course, I could instead right-click Calendar and select Open in New Window, but then the operation involves two steps—three if you include using the mouse to select the menu item.
Try replacing the Calendar shortcut with a new shortcut that uses the following string as a target:
"C:\program files\microsoft office\officeoutlook.exe" /folder /select "outlook: calendar"
You might need to edit the target string to reflect the correct Microsoft Office path on your PC. Also, because Outlook doesn't let you manually create or edit shortcuts, I recommend that you create the shortcut on the desktop, then drag it onto the Outlook Shortcut Bar as follows:
- Right-click in the desktop and select New, Shortcut. The resulting Create Shortcut dialog box will prompt you for the Command line.
- Enter the above string, including quotation marks. (Be sure to use the correct path to outlook.exe on your PC.) Click Next.
- Name your shortcut. (I use Calendar or My Calendar.) Click Finish.
- Right-click your new shortcut and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, click Change Icon. In some Windows versions, doing so will display Outlook's available icons; on others, it will default to shell32.dll, and you'll need to browse to outlook.exe or enter the path manually. Select the calendar icon and click OK twice.
- With the Outlook window open and sized so that you can access your new shortcut on the desktop, drag the shortcut onto the Outlook Shortcut Bar and place it between two of the existing icons.
This new shortcut opens the Calendar in a new window at a more usable size. You might also consider placing a copy of the shortcut in your Startup folder. Keep in mind that you can also use this technique for other folders, such as Tasks and Contacts.
