2 Methods to Change the Default Status of New Appointments in Outlook

By default, new appointments are shown as “Busy”. But, some users dislike this. Now, this post will share you 2 means to change the default status of new appointments in Outlook.

Many users dislike the default “Show As” status of new Outlook appointments – “Busy”. However, Outlook doesn’t permit users to change this status straightly. So, if you would like to change it, you have to seek other means. Here we will teach 2 methods to you.

Method 1: Apply a Custom Form to Calendar Folders

1. First off, start your Outlook application.
2. Then access to “Calendar” area.
3. Next, click the “New Appointment” button in the ribbon.
4. Subsequently, in the Appointment window, shift to “Developer” tab and click the “Design This Form” button.
5. After that, in the new screen, switch to “(All Fields)” tab.
6. Then, choose “All Appointment fields” in the “Select from” field.
7. Later, you should scroll down until finding a “Show Time As” field, which you need to change “Busy” to “Free”.
8. Afterwards, you could click “Publish” button and choose “Publish Form As”.
9. In the popup dialog box, enter a name for this form, like “Free Appointment” and hit “Publish”.
10. Then, you can close this appointment without saving.
11. Next, right click on a calendar in the navigation pane and select ‘Properties” in the context menu.
12. Then, in the new box, change “IPM.Appointment” to “Free Appointment” like the following screenshot.
13. Ultimately, click “OK” to save changes.
14. Since then, all the new appointments added to this calendar will be shown as “Free” by default.

Method 2: Auto Apply Other Status to New Appointments via VBA

1. In the first place, press “Alt + F11” key buttons.
2. Then, in the “Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications” window, find and open the “ThisOutlookSession” project.
3. Next, copy and paste the following VBA code into this project.

Private WithEvents objInspectors As Inspectors
Private WithEvents objAppointment As AppointmentItem

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set objInspectors = Outlook.Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
    If Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olAppointment Then
       Set objAppointment = Inspector.CurrentItem
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub objAppointment_Open(Cancel As Boolean)
    'Get the brand new appointment
    If Len(objAppointment.Subject) = 0 And Len(objAppointment.Location) = 0 Then
       'change busy status to free
       objAppointment.BusyStatus = olFree
    End If
End Sub

4. After that, sign this code.
5. Finally you should restart Outlook to activate this macro.
6. From now on, new appointment will surely be shown as “Free” automatically.

What to Do If You Suffer Outlook Crashes

Outlook can crash without any warnings. Therefore, it is quite difficult to predict and prevent such terrible cases. However, you still should make effective relief measures, including updated backups for Outlook data as well as a powerful fix tool, such as DataNumen Outlook Repair. It’ll come to your rescue if Scanpst, the inbuilt repair tool cannot make effects.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql corruption and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com