Create Repeating Appointments and Meetings (recurrence) in Outlook - desktop

If an appointment or meeting is repeated on a regular schedule, you can add a recurrence instead of creating an event for each instance. Two examples are described below:

  • Example 1 describes how to add a Bi-weekly recurrence

  • Example 2 describes how to add a Twice per month recurrence.


  1. Open Outlook

  2. In the Home ribbon, click New Appointment or New Meeting (as you would to create a new meeting).

  3. In the Meeting/Appointment window, click Recurrence in the Options pane.

  4. Configure the Appointment/Meeting recurrence settings and click OK. Examples are shown below for bi-weekly or twice per month recurrence settings

Example 1: Bi-weekly meetings

Example 2: Twice per month meetings

Example 1: Bi-weekly meetings

Example 2: Twice per month meetings

To schedule a meeting that occurs every other Tuesday during the spring term (May-August):

  1. In Recurrence pattern section:

    1. Select Weekly. Note: Each option will present different fields.

    2. In the Recur every… field, enter 2.

    3. Select the Tuesday checkbox.

  2. In the Range of recurrence section:

    1. In the Start: field, select the start date for the recurring meetings: first Tuesday in May. (Note: the default is the date from the Start time field of the appointments/meetings) 

    2. Select the End by: radio button.

    3. In the End by: field, select the end date for the recurring appointments/meetings: last Tuesday in August. 

  3. Click OK.

To schedule an appointment or meeting that occurs every second and fourth Tuesday of the month indefinitely, you need to create two events that recur monthly, one for the second Tuesday and one for the fourth Tuesday.

  1. In Recurrence pattern section:

    1. Select Monthly. Note: Each option will present different fields.

    2. Select the second radio button in the right panel and complete the fields with the drop down boxes.

    3. In the first dropdown box, select second.

    4. In the second dropdown box, select Tuesday.

    5. In the of every… field, enter 1.

  2. In the Range of recurrence section:

    1. In the Start: field, select the date of the first meeting on the second Tuesday of the month. (Note: the default is the date from the Start time field of the appointments/meetings) 

    2. Select the No end date radio button.

  3. Click OK.

(Remember to repeat these steps for the fourth Tuesday to complete your twice-monthly settings)

5. Continue to your New Meeting or Appointment and complete the details for subject, location, time, and date fields.

6. Click Save & Close (for an Appointment) or Send (for a Meeting).

Updating a recurrence

If you have a recurring appointment or meeting that you need to update or change, please refer to the article Modifying Meetings in Microsoft Outlook - Windows

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