How to change the all-day event default to busy in Outlook?

Author: Siluvia Last Modified: 2025-04-15

By default, Outlook sets the status of appointments and meetings to "Busy", but all-day events to "Free" (see screenshot below). You need to manually change the Show As status to Busy each time you create an all-day event. To change the default show as status of all-day events to Busy, the article provides you with two methods.

changing the all-day event default to busy in Outlook

Change the all-day event default to busy by creating a custom form

Change the all-day event default to busy by using VBA

Change the all-day event default to busy by creating a custom form

A custom form can help you create an all-day event with the default "Show As" status of "Busy." Please do as follows.

1. Shift to the Calendar view. Click "Home" > "New Appointment".

2. In the new Appointment window, click "Developer" > "Design This Form".

Tips: If the "Developer" tab does not show on the ribbon, please follow the methods in this article to display it.

steps on changing the all-day event default to busy by creating a custom form

3. Then the appointment window turns to design mode. You need to click the "(P.2)" tab.

4. Drag the "All Day Event" field and the "Show Time As" field from the "Field Chooser" pane separately to the board under the "(P.2)" tab

5. Right click the dragged-out "All Day Event" field and select "Properties" from the context menu.

6. In the "Properties" dialog box, you need to configure as follows.

6.1) Go to the "Value" tab;

6.2) In the "Initial Value" section, check the "Set the initial value of this field to" box;

6.3) Enter a value "True" into the text box;

6.4) Click the "OK" button. See screenshot:

7. Right click the combo box of the "Show Time As" field and click "Properties" from the context menu.

8. In the "Properties" dialog box, you need to configure as follows.

8.1) Go to the "Value" tab;

8.2) In the "Initial Value" section, check the "Set the initial value of this field to" box;

8.3) Enter a number "2" into the text box;

8.4) Click the "OK" button. See screenshot:

9. Click "Publish" > "Publish Form As" on the ribbon.

10. In the "Publish Form As" dialog box, you need to:

10.1) Select a destination folder for the custom form in the "Look In" drop-down list. Here I choose the "Personal Forms Library" item;

10.2) Name the custom form in the "Display name" text box;

10.3) Click the "Publish" button. See screenshot:

11. Close the Appointment window without saving.

12. From now on, when you need to create an all-day event with the Show as status default to Busy, please shift to the "Calendar" view and click "Home" > "New Items" > "Custom Forms" > "The name of the custom form".

Note: To create an all-day event with the Show as status default to “Free”, just do as usual: click "Home" > "New Appointment", and then check the "All day event" box in the "Appointment" window.

Change the all-day event default to busy by using VBA

The above method has too many steps. If you always need to create an all-day event with the Show As status default to "Busy", the following VBA code can help you easily get it done.

1. Launch your Outlook, press the "Alt" + "F11" keys simultaneously to open the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window.

2. In the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window, double click on "Project1" > "Microsoft Outlook Objects" > "ThisOutlookSession" to open the "ThisOutlookSession (Code)" window, and then copy the following code into this code window.

steps on changing the all-day event default to busy by using VBA

VBA code: Set All day event status default to "Busy"

Public WithEvents GInspectors As Inspectors
Public WithEvents GAppointmentItem As AppointmentItem

Private Sub Application_Startup()
'Updated by Extendoffice 20220413
  Set GInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub GInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
  Select Case Inspector.CurrentItem.Class
    Case olAppointment
      Set GAppointmentItem = Inspector.CurrentItem
  End Select
End Sub

Private Sub GAppointmentItem_Open(Cancel As Boolean)
  Select Case GAppointmentItem.AllDayEvent
    Case True
      GAppointmentItem.BusyStatus = olBusy
  End Select
End Sub

Private Sub GAppointmentItem_PropertyChange(ByVal Name As String)
  If Name = "AllDayEvent" Then
    Select Case GAppointmentItem.AllDayEvent
      Case True
        GAppointmentItem.BusyStatus = olBusy
    End Select
  End If
End Sub

3. Save the VBA code and restart Outlook.

From now on, after converting an appointment or a meeting to an all-day event, the "Show As" status will show as "Busy" by default.

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