Outlook 2007 - Go to a Date - Keyboard

Navigating Dates in the Outlook 2007 Diary

BANG...! That's it, I'm back in the blog zone after a bit of time off to recharge the batteries. And what better way to kick things off than with some little titbits in how to make working with the Go to a Date dialog box in Outlook 2007 a bit funkier. Let's go through it.

Move to the Outlook 2007 Calendar

First, let's move to the Calendar in Outlook 2007, you can do this in any of the following ways from your Inbox:

• Press CONTROL 2 to move there directly.
• Press CONTROL Y then DOWN ARROW to Calendar and press the ENTER key.
• Press ALT G to open the Go menu. DOWN ARROW to Calendar and press ENTER.

Switch between Calendar Views

Now that you have focus in your Calendar, you need to check what view you are in. In Outlook 2007, this is how:

1. Press ALT V to open the View menu.
2. DOWN ARROW to the Current View menu item and access the submenu by pressing RIGHT ARROW or the ENTER key.
3. In the Current View submenu, highlight the DAY/WEEK/MONTH option and press ENTER to confirm this choice.
4. Now return to the Current View menu and DOWN ARROW to the Day View option. Press the ENTER key to activate this. Alternatively, you can use several standard keystrokes to switch immediately between Day, Week, Working Week and Month View. The keys are:
• ALT CONTROL 1: Day view
• ALT CONTROL 2: Work Week view
• ALT CONTROL 3: Week view
• ALT CONTROL 4: Month view

General Navigation in the Day View Calendar

Before I concentrate on the Go to a Date dialog box specifically, let's run through a few of the general keys to get you moving around the Day View screen:

• DOWN ARROW: Moves to the next time slot for the current day. By default, this will be a 30 minute segment, but is customisable.
• UP ARROW: Moves to the previous time slot for the current day. As previous, this is a 30 minute segment by default.
• RIGHT ARROW: Moves to the next day.
• LEFT ARROW: Moves to the previous day.
• CONTROL HOME: Focuses the highlight on the first 30 minute time segment for the current day.
• CONTROL END: Focuses the highlight on the last 30 minute time segment for the current day.
• TAB: Moves the PC cursor around all the focusable objects - such as your appointments - for the current day.

Launch and Apply the Go to a Date Feature

The great beauty of the Day View interface is that, via the Go to a Date function, you can go to any day, month, year and so on directly. You can also work with it in some funky ways - very helpful when you are using a screenreader for example. Let's go through some of the possibilities:

1. In your Calendar press CONTROL G to launch the Go to a Date dialog box.

2. Now you have the option of typing in a specific date, this can be in a shortened form or something more formal, followed by a press of the ENTER key to confirm the action and move to the date specified. Here are some basic examples of this standard approach...
• 25 April 2015: Outlook goes to the specific date.
• 25: Outlook assumes you want to go to the 25th of the current month in the current year.
• 25/7: Outlook assumes you want to go to the 25th of July in the current year.
3. What is not commonly known is that this feature will also accept some text instructions, let's run through some of these now:
• Today: Logically, enough this points the calendar at today!
• Tomorrow: No prizes for guessing what happens here.
• Yesterday: No prizes for getting this one right either!
• Next Week: Moves the calendar to a week today.
• Last Week: Moves the calendar to a week before today.
• Next Month: Moves the calendar a month ahead.
• Last month: Moves the calendar a month back.
• Next Year: Moves the calendar a year ahead.
• Last Year: Moves the calendar a year back.
• Next : Moves the calendar to the next specific day.
• Last : Moves the calendar to the last specific day.
4. Alongside the text instruction you can also go for a more number driven approach, try inputting the following:
• 22 days: Move 22 days ahead.
• 22 days ago: Move back 22 days.
• 3 weeks: Move forward 3 weeks.
• 3 weeks ago: Move back 3 weeks.
5. You can even mix the two up, try these examples out:
• today + 36 days: Go to 36 days from today.
• tomorrow + 2 days: Go to 2 days from tomorrow.
• next month + 2 weeks: Go to next month and two weeks time.
• Christmas + 3 weeks + 3 days: Ah, now you're just showing off - pretty good though!

So there you go - I hope these little tips will make moving around in the Outlook 2007 Day View diary feel like a lot less of a hassle. Have fun!