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Customize the To-Do Bar (Outlook 2007)

The To-Do Bar is meant to be the main way to keep track of things you need to get done. To make it as useful as possible, Microsoft has made it highly customizable. You can control:

  • which views the bar appears in


  • whether it is minimized or not in each view


  • which things appear in each view


  • options that appear in all views

Customizing the To-Do Bar for a View

To customize the To-Do Bar for a specific view, you must be in that view. For example, if you want the bar to be minimized in Contacts view, then you need to set that up in Contacts view.

Follow these steps to customize the bar for a particular view:

  1. Switch to the view where you want to customize the bar.


  2. Click View to open the View menu.


  3. Click To-Do Bar to see a menu of customizations.




  4. Make your changes using this menu. Don't pay attention to the Options selection right now. That's where you make global changes. You need to return to this menu after each change if you want to make more than one change.
Any changes you make in this way go into effect immediately, and remain in effect until you change them again. But remember that the changes apply just to the current view. Only the global changes that we talk about in the next section apply across all views.

Options that Appear in All Views

The To-Do Bar has some options that are global. That is, they affect the way the bar works in ALL views. You can set these options from any view and the changes will appear in all views.

For example, you can be in Contacts view and set the bar to show two rows of months in the Date Navigator. If you then go to the Mail view and look at the bar, you will see two rows in the Date Navigator section as well.

Follow these steps to set options that apply regardless of the view you are in:

  1. Switch to the view where you want to customize the bar.


  2. Click View to open the View menu.


  3. Click To-Do Bar to see a menu of customizations.


  4. Click Options to open the To-Do Bar Options dialog box.




  5. Make your changes in this dialog box, or click the question mark button at the top of the box for more information.


  6. Click OK when done making changes.


The changes you made here take effect immediately across all views and remain in effect until you change them again.



Close this window to return.

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