How To:
- Setup active office hours in the Outlook Application
Applies To:
- Staff and Employees
- Faculty
Steps:
The relationship between Teams and Outlook:
Teams and Outlook are Microsoft products that work with each other to display your status as a user. When creating events in Outlook those same events can be viewed in your Teams application on any device signed into your account. This also applies for any events or meetings you create in Teams. To take full benefit of this feature you may also want to consider setting up your "Office Hours" to allow your user status to show you are offline or inactive. The instructions below will guide you through how to customize your status at anytime and set your "Office Hours" from the Outlook app on different devices.
Ways to set your Office Hours:
Your Teams Status
Teams office hours, can only be changed from Outlook. This can be changed from the Legacy(old), New/Web versions of Outlook.
Using the Old Outlook Application on Windows:
1. First, open Outlook and click "File".
2. Next, click "Options".
3. Then, click on "Calendar" on the left side.
4. Lastly click on "Work hours and Location".
5. Once this window opens you can select the days of the week and times of those days to set as your work schedule.
Using the new Outlook or using Outlook on the web
1.Upon signing into Outlook on the web click the Gear icon located next to your profile near the top right corner of the screen.
2. Then, we will click on the "Calendar" tab then the "Work hours and location" tab.
3. From here you can modify your existing schedule or set new work hours. Once you are done you can click the "x" and it will save your changes.
Using Outlook on MacOS
1.Upon opening the Outlook application Click "Outlook" in the menu bar and click the "Settings" button.
2. Then, a new window will open. Select "Calendar".
3. Under the "Work Schedule" sub section you can modify your existing hours or set new hours from this page. When you are done with your changes close out of this page and it will save your changes for you.
Understanding your Teams Status
-As stated at the top of this article Teams and Outlook work together to display a status for your user. Depending on calendar events and other criteria one of the following statuses may be set. You can see all available statuses listed below:
Available:
-This status will set if you are not occupied by a meeting, phone call or other interruptions. This status is automatically set but can also be manually selected at anytime.
Available, Out of Office.
-This status is set automatically set when you have an automatic reply set in your outlook for a period of time.
Busy:
-Your status will appear "Busy" if you are on the phone using Teams or it can be manually selected. This status will also be used for the following actions:
In a Meeting
In a call
In a call, out of office
Do not disturb:
-This status can be manually set or will set automatically when sharing your screen or presenting something in Teams and is reflected by the status icons below:
Presenting
Focusing
-Focus happens when the users schedule focus time in MyAnalytics/Insights in their calendars.
Away:
-This status is set after away or inactive from Teams after 5 minutes.
Be right back
Away Last Seen time (last time an active status was set)
Appear Offline:
Offline
-When you aren't logged in on any of your devices for a few minutes, you appear offline.
Status unknown
-This status is used if Teams cannot determine your status.
Out of Office
-Out of Office is used when an automatic reply is set or your calendar has an event that's set to show as "Out of Office."
Duration:
-Here you can select how long a status is set for.
Reset Status:
-This button will allow the default status to set. If you are scheduled for a meeting but would like to set yourself as available resetting the status will set your presence to "In a meeting" instead of "Available".