Using classic Outlook for Windows in educational settings
Hi Jasmine,
From what I can find, Outlook stores accepted meeting invitations in the mailbox's primary/default calendar and does not provide a built-in feature to automatically place meetings into different calendars based on the organizer, sender, building, or department. Likewise, Outlook does not offer an option to select a different target calendar when accepting a meeting invitation. Therefore, the exact workflow described in your post is not currently available in either Outlook on the web or Classic Outlook.
Although this does not provide the calendar-level separation you're looking for, one available approach is to use "Categories together with Outlook Rules".
For example, you could create categories such as "Building A", "Building B", and "Building C", then configure rules to automatically categorize meeting invitations from specific senders, departments, or shared mailboxes when they arrive in your mailbox.
In Outlook on the web:
- Select "Settings" > "Mail" > "Rules".
- Select "Add new rule".
- Configure a condition such as From and specify the sender or mailbox associated with a particular building.
- Under "Add an action", choose "Categorize" and select the appropriate category.
- Save the rule.
For example:
- ____@school.edu -> Category: Building A
- ____@school.edu -> Category: Building B
- ____@school.edu -> Category: Building C
In addition, once categories have been applied, you can use Outlook's filtering or grouping options to display only meetings from a specific building or department. While this does not create separate calendars, it can make it easier to focus on a particular set of meetings when reviewing your schedule.
Note:
If you're using Classic Outlook for Windows, the setup is slightly different from Outlook on the web (New Outlook). Categories can be created using the guidance in the articles above, while the automatic assignment is typically configured through "Home" -> "Rules" -> "Manage Rules & Alerts*"***. In Outlook on the web, similar rules are managed through "Settings" -> "Mail" -> "Rules".
For your reference:
Create and assign color categories in Outlook | Microsoft Support
Use rules to automatically forward messages | Microsoft Support
I understand this is different from maintaining separate calendars that can be toggled on and off individually. However, based on the current Outlook capabilities, it may help provide some additional organization while preserving the normal meeting experience, including meeting updates, agenda changes, response tracking, and meeting links from the organizer.
Please let me know if I can do anything more for you.
If you find my reply above helpful, please consider voting it up or marking it as the "Yes" so others can easily refer to these steps if they encounter a similar issue.
Have a nice day!