Am I missing settings in Outlook 2013 that would allow me to color months different/alternating colors and brightly highlight "Today", specifically in the Month view for the calendar?  I see I can change the color of the overall calendar, but that does nothing to address my problems.  

Background: The month view for the calendar in Outlook 2010 was wonderfully glance-able. The current month had one color background, and the bordering months had a different color, allowing you to easily see the months.  Also, "Today" was brightly highlighted in light yellow, making it easy to discern which day on the calendar was the current day.  As far as I can see in Outlook 2013, these are both now missing.  Months are all the same color, making it hard to scroll through and keep any sense of what's being presented visually.  Today is denoted by a tiny blue bar that blends into all the blue bars of uncategorized appointments, again making it much harder to find than it should be.  If there is no option to change the highlighting, Outlook has taken a huge step back in usability in my eyes.

Thank you for your feedback. As an end-user, I do understand the situation that you meet. Yes, we have no options to change the view as your request in Outlook 2013 at present, the color of the calender is very similar. "Today" is not obviously. Somebody like it but other doen't. Hope we would get a optional which allows user to customize interface in next service pack.

Again. Thank you for your attention.

Tony Chen
TechNet Community Support

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, February 26, 2013 9:46 AM

Thank you for your feedback. As an end-user, I do understand the situation that you meet. Yes, we have no options to change the view as your request in Outlook 2013 at present, the color of the calender is very similar. "Today" is not obviously. Somebody like it but other doen't. Hope we would get a optional which allows user to customize interface in next service pack.

Again. Thank you for your attention.

Tony Chen
TechNet Community Support

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, February 26, 2013 9:46 AM

I found a good way of highlighting today's appointments in weekly and monthly view using conditional formatting:

. go to Edit - Automatic Formatting
. click Add
. in the Name field enter "Today"
. in the Label field choose a color
. click on Condition...
. on Appointments and Meetings tab where it says Time:
. choose "starts"
. choose "today"
. click OK
. click OK

I found a good way of highlighting today's appointments in weekly and monthly view using conditional formatting:

. go to Edit - Automatic Formatting
. click Add
. in the Name field enter "Today"
. in the Label field choose a color
. click on Condition...
. on Appointments and Meetings tab where it says Time:
. choose "starts"
. choose "today"
. click OK
. click OK

• Proposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 28 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 27 minutes ago
• Proposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 27 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 27 minutes ago

I found a good way of highlighting today's appointments in weekly and monthly view using conditional formatting:

. go to Edit - Automatic Formatting
. click Add
. in the Name field enter "Today"
. in the Label field choose a color
. click on Condition...
. on Appointments and Meetings tab where it says Time:
. choose "starts"
. choose "today"
. click OK
. click OK

• Proposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:02 AM
• Unproposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:04 AM
• Proposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:04 AM
• Unproposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:04 AM

I found a good way of highlighting today's appointments in weekly and monthly view using conditional formatting:

. go to Edit - Automatic Formatting
. click Add
. in the Name field enter "Today"
. in the Label field choose a color
. click on Condition...
. on Appointments and Meetings tab where it says Time:
. choose "starts"
. choose "today"
. click OK
. click OK

While not ideal, that sounds like a decent hack to highlight today, provided I have an appointment.

However, in trying to put into practice, it's picking up all of my reoccurring appointments that are set to reoccur with no end by date, and it's not picking up the reoccurring appointments that have a defined end by date that it should be getting highlighted (as they occur today).  

Even using the advanced filter to require the "Start" be "today" and the "End" be "today" it still highlights the same wrong appointments.  And unless I'm misunderstanding the logic, the "Recurrence Range End" field flag appears to be broken, as I _still_ get  the same behavior by setting the condition to "exists" (apparently a setting of "No End Date" puts some sort of data into the field).

It would be nice to get those settings in the next service pack, here it is November 2013 and still we cannot change it.  I use the month view exclusively and it is most confusing compared to 2010.  Another vote to add this. 

I fully agree - it is unexplainable why the developers of Outlook can not focus on the elementary things!

The look and feel is not good - neither for Tablet nor for Desktop.

At least on Desktop you need clear bordered elements (by contrast/colours) between the different elements (inbox/mails/preview....).

At calendar (month view) there are 2 really annoying things:

1. the mentied lack of Highlight the "today" day

2. the small arrow at each day when you have more appointments thatn available lines (10). Why not shrinking the font size at this days? I always forget later appointments because I miss to click on this arrow!

You should also think about to implemnt a zoom-in (from the month view) to a single week by clicking on the top of a day...

best

jh

Absolutely, but this note is way too polite.  Doesn't anyone at Microsoft understand how real people do real work?

I came here looking for the same answer about the shaded prior and following months. I sat there, scrolling through the calendar trying to figure out why it was awful compared to Outlook 2010 but I couldn't put my finger on it. I had the same problem noticing that I couldn't pinpoint a day when scrolling through. For example, I want to scroll down and find July 4th, but I can't just "LOOK" at the calendar and see that day anymore because there is no distinction whatsoever between the prior and following months - there is no demarcation. 

I couldn't figure out why it was bad until I went to a lucky co-worker's desk that still had Outlook 2010. As soon as he went to the month view, I saw it immediately. 

Microsoft - PLEASE (pretty please) give us this back.

Yes this is crazy to me..I am getting clients requesting me to downgrade them to Office 2010 quite frequently. Why can't 2013 have something similar to "Classic mode" ?

I would also like the option to turn off Sunday/Saturday in my month view because i do not typically need these during my everyday usage.  its just extra white space on my screen.

Tony,

You say some people like that the entire calendar blends together due to nothing distinguishing different months and the current day. I am calling you out on that. I say you are repeating what you are told to because it is a known problem. Nobody likes it this way (you know that) and it was a major blunder on Microsoft to put it out that way.

We need a way to overcome the deficiency. Can you tell us when a service pack or patch will be available?

You noted "Marked as Answered." You should have noted Marked as blown off.

Has anyone seen any update on whether a Service Pack will fix the issues with the color in the calendar? The big problem is scrolling through the calendar to find a specific day. When you scroll down, the heading at the top might say "August 2014", but the last few days of July are indeed listed there in Week 1. I'm confused all get out with this new calendar format.

 You should have noted Marked as blown off.

ROTFLMAO!! So true...

same issue here. Very annoying and it's actually my major complaint about 2013 so far.

I always end up thinking today is in the first week of the month, because the column header of the day of the week is marked more clearly than the actual day that is the current date.

You can click the name of the calendar on top and it will highlight today.
This highlighting should be on by default and this annoyance wouldbe over.

I have spent too a great amount of time trying to figure out how to make the month view usable.

I miss:

• The color difference between consecutive months.
• The color difference for saturday and sunday
• The highlight of Today

To avoid all recurring events being highlighted as well, you can append one rule to the above: 

.on Frequently-used Fields

.choose Recurring

.choose Equals No

.Click OK

• Edited by kristoh Tuesday, August 26, 2014 6:11 PM

To avoid all recurring events being highlighted as well, you can append one rule to the above: 

.on Frequently-used Fields

.choose Recurring

.choose Equals No

.Click OK

• Edited by kristoh Tuesday, August 26, 2014 6:11 PM

This is to also voice my frustration with the removal of basic features like the display of month with different / alternating colors. MS developers do not understand how people work.

I would respectfully suggest that when simple bits of functionalities are removed, please at least keep them available as an OPTION in settings. Removing outright good features is plain stupid.

The pitty here is that new versions are bringing very little improvements while - incredibly enough - removing excellent interface features.

Having just upgraded, I am frustrated with the lack of alternating colors for months on the Outlook calendar.  It takes me much longer to visually find the beginning of the next month.  PLEASE FIX THIS.  It's got to be simple.

At least I can choose between white/light gray/dark gray theme and put lines, flowers, or squiggles up in the title bar! Tony, I guess that is what people mostly want so I'm happy... or... wait... No!

Sadly, the 2013 interface is, as has been stated, a serious step back in usability. Why am I reading/commenting this post? Top of the google results when searching how to do something that should be obvious! I seem to be one of many who are seriously wondering why this simple, extremely useful, GUI feature was disposed of, to make my daily life just a a little bit more frustrating.

I can only assume the office 2013 look was designed by the Windows 8 team...

Please put this back!

Over two years now from the original post, and still no option in a service pack. Tony, did you forget to forward this issue to the devs?

Oh, did I forget to mention the "Minimize folde pane" arrow that overlaps the month "forward" arrow in the mini calendar so I can't use it anymore? That worked well in 2010 as well.

• Edited by LocalEnquirer 18 hours 43 minutes ago

At least I can choose between white/light gray/dark gray theme and put lines, flowers, or squiggles up in the title bar! Tony, I guess that is what people mostly want so I'm happy... or... wait... No!

Sadly, the 2013 interface is, as has been stated, a serious step back in usability. Why am I reading/commenting this post? Top of the google results when searching how to do something that should be obvious! I seem to be one of many who are seriously wondering why this simple, extremely useful, GUI feature was disposed of, to make my daily life just a a little bit more frustrating.

I can only assume the office 2013 look was designed by the Windows 8 team...

Please put this back!

Over two years now from the original post, and still no option in a service pack. Tony, did you forget to forward this issue to the devs?

Oh, did I forget to mention the "Minimize folde pane" arrow that overlaps the month "forward" arrow in the mini calendar so I can't use it anymore? That worked well in 2010 as well.

• Edited by LocalEnquirer Sunday, April 19, 2015 12:47 PM
• Proposed as answer by Crystal Marks - Exchange Admin Tuesday, May 19, 2015 3:59 PM

At least I can choose between white/light gray/dark gray theme and put lines, flowers, or squiggles up in the title bar! Tony, I guess that is what people mostly want so I'm happy... or... wait... No!

Sadly, the 2013 interface is, as has been stated, a serious step back in usability. Why am I reading/commenting this post? Top of the google results when searching how to do something that should be obvious! I seem to be one of many who are seriously wondering why this simple, extremely useful, GUI feature was disposed of, to make my daily life just a a little bit more frustrating.

I can only assume the office 2013 look was designed by the Windows 8 team...

Please put this back!

Over two years now from the original post, and still no option in a service pack. Tony, did you forget to forward this issue to the devs?

Oh, did I forget to mention the "Minimize folde pane" arrow that overlaps the month "forward" arrow in the mini calendar so I can't use it anymore? That worked well in 2010 as well.

• Edited by LocalEnquirer Sunday, April 19, 2015 12:47 PM
• Proposed as answer by Crystal Marks - Exchange Admin Tuesday, May 19, 2015 3:59 PM

Coming up on two years and still no progress on listening to people's suggestions, seriously microsoft.

Coming up on two years and still no progress on listening to people's suggestions, seriously microsoft.

This is pathetic - after reading through this entire thread there is still no answer from MS. How are users suppose to tell where they are in the monthly calendar view unless you find the 1st of the month with the little abbreviated month name. You can easily wind up in the incorrect month... July, June or August. Seriously we are supposed to hunt around every time we want to place an appointment?

I know this is an older thread, but I believe I figured it out.

Go to VIEW SETTINGS, Conditional Formatting, Add, Name the rule, Choose a color (Green works good with a grey default background), Condition, Advanced, then Field - but choose

RECURRENCE RANGE START:  Today

RECURRENCE RANGE END:  Today

This is highlighting what I have in TODAY'S calendar.  It's important to note though - that you have to have data in today.  It works great for me though! It is highlighting everything - all of my appointments for today only.

Hope this helps!

I am also frustrated by the lack color-delineation from contiguous months!

Here is my solution until Microsoft works their way through user complaints: Create a recurring and all-day "Free" appointment, with no reminders, on the first of each month, and use a bold category color that doesn't match any other colors in the calendar.  For my rainbow calendar I used black, which stands out like a sore thumb. 

The all-day appointment appears at the top of each month alphabetically, so if you have multiple all-day appointments, the subject "A New Month" would appear above "Conference at Marriott."  Leaving the subject blank makes it appear at the very top, but if you don't like an empty appointment floating around, just type the subject with a leading <space> and it will sort above any other appointments that start with a letter (for me, I have " New Month" (with a leading spacebar hit)).  This enables me to quickly find the first day of the month when I'm scrolling through months, while concurrently not blocking any other appointment requests that occur on the first of the month. 

Cheers!

I am also frustrated by the lack color-delineation from contiguous months!

Here is my solution until Microsoft works their way through user complaints: Create a recurring and all-day "Free" appointment, with no reminders, on the first of each month, and use a bold category color that doesn't match any other colors in the calendar.  For my rainbow calendar I used black, which stands out like a sore thumb. 

The all-day appointment appears at the top of each month alphabetically, so if you have multiple all-day appointments, the subject "A New Month" would appear above "Conference at Marriott."  Leaving the subject blank makes it appear at the very top, but if you don't like an empty appointment floating around, just type the subject with a leading <space> and it will sort above any other appointments that start with a letter (for me, I have " New Month" (with a leading spacebar hit)).  This enables me to quickly find the first day of the month when I'm scrolling through months, while concurrently not blocking any other appointment requests that occur on the first of the month. 

Cheers!

• Proposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 28 minutes ago

I am also frustrated by the lack color-delineation from contiguous months!

Here is my solution until Microsoft works their way through user complaints: Create a recurring and all-day "Free" appointment, with no reminders, on the first of each month, and use a bold category color that doesn't match any other colors in the calendar.  For my rainbow calendar I used black, which stands out like a sore thumb. 

The all-day appointment appears at the top of each month alphabetically, so if you have multiple all-day appointments, the subject "A New Month" would appear above "Conference at Marriott."  Leaving the subject blank makes it appear at the very top, but if you don't like an empty appointment floating around, just type the subject with a leading <space> and it will sort above any other appointments that start with a letter (for me, I have " New Month" (with a leading spacebar hit)).  This enables me to quickly find the first day of the month when I'm scrolling through months, while concurrently not blocking any other appointment requests that occur on the first of the month. 

Cheers!

• Proposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:03 AM

Hi,

I had the same problem and I got it sorted in this way:(Follow the instructions and you will see the results)

step 1

-With outlook on calendar view, click on the view tab.

-Click on "View Setting" icon.

-A window pops up, click on "conditional formatting"

- A new window pops up, click "add". you will add a new rule and it tells you to give a "name"(name it as you want) and a "color". Here you select the color that will show for ALL THE APPOINTMENTS (Outlook by default is light). click OK, click YES, click OK.

------until here all the appointments have the color selected-------

Step 2

-If you want to change the color for a specific appointment, you can do it by

-clicking on the appointment and, on the tools bar will show "meeting" tab and the CATEGORIZE icon, where you can choose other  colors.

-ANOTHER WAY IR RIGHT CLICK on the appointment and you will see the CATEGORIZE icon

------here you are giving COLOR CODE to a CATEGORY to a specific appointment----------

------You can create CATEGORIES and COLOR CODE for each category-------

step 3

- Click on any day in the calendar, or in calendar view. click the "view" tab and click on the COLOR icon.

-Select the color that you want (must be different to the color selected in step 1 and step 2)

- this color will apply to the days of the week heading and the date for today. the day of the week that belong to "today" will be on a darker color.

-------on a week view of the calendar, the days of the week for today will be darker

-------on a month view of the calendar, the days of the week for today will be darker  and the date for today will have the line and date number in the same dark color 

NOTE - the color for the activity or appointment for TODAY  will be the color of a CATEGORY given or by default with the color selected in STEP 1

• Proposed as answer by JacidN 20 hours 27 minutes ago

Hi,

I had the same problem and I got it sorted in this way:(Follow the instructions and you will see the results)

step 1

-With outlook on calendar view, click on the view tab.

-Click on "View Setting" icon.

-A window pops up, click on "conditional formatting"

- A new window pops up, click "add". you will add a new rule and it tells you to give a "name"(name it as you want) and a "color". Here you select the color that will show for ALL THE APPOINTMENTS (Outlook by default is light). click OK, click YES, click OK.

------until here all the appointments have the color selected-------

Step 2

-If you want to change the color for a specific appointment, you can do it by

-clicking on the appointment and, on the tools bar will show "meeting" tab and the CATEGORIZE icon, where you can choose other  colors.

-ANOTHER WAY IR RIGHT CLICK on the appointment and you will see the CATEGORIZE icon

------here you are giving COLOR CODE to a CATEGORY to a specific appointment----------

------You can create CATEGORIES and COLOR CODE for each category-------

step 3

- Click on any day in the calendar, or in calendar view. click the "view" tab and click on the COLOR icon.

-Select the color that you want (must be different to the color selected in step 1 and step 2)

- this color will apply to the days of the week heading and the date for today. the day of the week that belong to "today" will be on a darker color.

-------on a week view of the calendar, the days of the week for today will be darker

-------on a month view of the calendar, the days of the week for today will be darker  and the date for today will have the line and date number in the same dark color 

NOTE - the color for the activity or appointment for TODAY  will be the color of a CATEGORY given or by default with the color selected in STEP 1

• Proposed as answer by JacidN Friday, August 21, 2015 11:04 AM