Setting a Default Appointment Length in Outlook

Back in January of this year I responded to a question on Quora. Tom, the author of the question, asked

Can the default meeting duration be customized in Microsoft Outlook?
For example, can we default to 25 minute meetings instead of 30, and 55 minutes instead of 60 – enterprise wide?

As Tom had already discovered, Outlook does allow you to set a default meeting length, but with a limited set of choices. You’re only options are 5, 6, 10, 15. 30, or 60 minutes. There’s another hitch to this too. The meeting length option is controlled by changing the time scale on the calendar. Changing the time scale not only changes the default appointment length, it also changes the appearance of the calendar in both the Day and Week views. Changing the setting will only change the duration of appointments created in the Day and Week views. Appointments created outside of those views default to 30 minutes.

I explained this to Tom, adding that a scripted solution could solve this for him. Tom declined and that was the end of the question until yesterday when a new participant, Phillip, posted to the question. Phillip wants a scripted solution and asked where he could find one. Here’s Phillip’s answer.

This solution is almost identical to the one I used in my last post “Changing the Behavior of Appointments“. It works by watching for new Outlook windows opening on screen. When it sees one the code checks to see if the item in the window is an appointment. If it is, the code then tests to see if the item is a new appointment. This is an important test because we don’t want to change the length of appointments already on the calendar. Having determined that the item is new the last step in the process is to set the length of the meeting to the default duration.

Hopefully this solution is just what Phillip is looking for. He didn’t indicate the version of Outlook he’s using, so I’m taking the liberty of assuming it’s 2010. The instructions are geared toward that version.

The solution comes in two parts.

Part 1.

Follow these instructions to add this code to Outlook.

1. Start Outlook
2. Press ALT+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
3. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects
4. Right-click on Class Modules, select Insert > Class Module
5. In the Properties panel click on Name and enter clsMeeting
6. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook’s VB Editor window
7. Edit the code as needed. I included a comment line where changes can/need to be made
8. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes

'On the next line edit the default meeting length (in minutes) 
Const DEFAULT_LENGTH = 45

Private WithEvents olkIns As Outlook.Inspectors

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    Set olkIns = Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
    Set olkIns = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub olkIns_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
    Dim olkApt As Outlook.AppointmentItem
    If Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olAppointment Then
        Set olkApt = Inspector.CurrentItem
        With olkApt
            If .CreationTime = #1/1/4501# Then
                .Duration = DEFAULT_LENGTH
            End If
        End With
    End If
    Set olkApt = Nothing
End Sub

Part 2.

Follow these instructions to add this code to Outlook.

1. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects and click on ThisOutlookSession
2. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook’s VB Editor window
3. Edit the code as needed. I included comment lines wherever something needs to or can change
4. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes
5. Close the VB Editor
6. Click File and select Options
7. When the Outlook Options dialog appears click Trust Center then click the Trust Center Settings button
8. Click Macro Settings
9. Select either of the two bottom settings (i.e. “Notifications for all macros” or “Enable all macros (not recommended; potentially dangerous code can run)”. The choice of which to chose is up to you. If you select “Notifications”, then you’ll be prompted at times to enable macros. If you pick “Enable all” then there’s a chance that a malicious macro could run. It’s a question of how much risk you want to assume.
10. Click Ok until the dialog-boxes have all closed
11. Close Outlook
12. Start Outlook. Outlook will display a dialog-box warning that ThisOutlookSession contains macros and asking if you want to allow them to run. Say yes.

Private objMeeting As clsMeeting

Private Sub Application_Quit()
    Set objMeeting = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set objMeeting = New clsMeeting
End Sub

Revisions.

• Revision 1

In a comment to this post Brad Baber notes that when he changes a new appointment from “All day event” to a regular appointment the duration defined in the script by DEFAULT_LENGTH doesn’t get applied. For example, Brad creates a new appointment by double-clicking on his calendar in monthly view. The appointment created by this action defaults to an all day event. What Brad has discovered is that unchecking the “All day event” box results in the appointment length changing from all day to the default length set in Outlook as opposed to the default length set in this script. Brad wants to know if there’s a way to have the default length defined by the script applied in this circumstance.

The good news for Brad is that the answer is “yes”. With a modification the script can monitor a newly created appointment watching to see if the “All day event” box is checked/unchecked and take action accordingly. There’s a caveat though. If Brad opens any other item between the time he creates and saves the new appointment (e.g. he creates a new appointment, then opens and reads a message before switching back to and completing the appointment), then this solution will fail. Without going into a lot of detail, this is a result of tracking open items. This solution only tracks one open item. A proper, more complete solution would have to track all open items and that would require a lot more code.

I explained this limitation to Brad who is okay with it. If you decide to use this solution, then keep this limitation in mind. Do not open any other Outlook items between the time you create and save a new appointment. In other words, create the appointment, fill it out, and save it without opening any other Outlook items. By “items” I mean emails, contacts, tasks, notes, or other appointments.

To use this revision replace the code in part 1 of the original post with the version below. The code in part 2 of the original is unchanged.

'On the next line edit the default meeting length (in minutes)
Const DEFAULT_LENGTH = 45

Private WithEvents olkIns As Outlook.Inspectors, _
        WithEvents olkApt As Outlook.AppointmentItem

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    Set olkIns = Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
    Set olkIns = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub olkApt_PropertyChange(ByVal Name As String)
    If Name = "AllDayEvent" Then
        If olkApt.AllDayEvent = False Then
            olkApt.Duration = DEFAULT_LENGTH
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub olkApt_Unload()
    Set olkApt = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub olkIns_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
    If Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olAppointment Then
        Set olkApt = Inspector.CurrentItem
        With olkApt
            If .CreationTime = #1/1/4501# Then
                .Duration = DEFAULT_LENGTH
            End If
        End With
    End If
End Sub