Your copy of Outlook probably opens to your Inbox, or to Outlook Today. It’s a setting under Tools / Options / Other / Advanced Options.

A client inspired me to discover how to leave that unchanged, but also create an icon that opens a new Outlook window directly to a particular folder – i.e., one click to your calendar or your to-do list.

If you’re using Microsoft Office XP and Outlook 2002, you can right-click on your desktop and click on New / Shortcut. The command line will look like this (all on one line):

“C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice10Outlook.exe” /select outlook:\folder_name

For example, to have a single-click to your calendar, create a shortcut for “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice10Outlook.exe” /select outlook:\calendar and name it “Outlook Calendar.”

That works with Outlook 2002, and only if Office is installed to its default location on your hard drive. Do a search in Outlook’s Help system for “command line” to get more comprehensive instructions.

Share This