06-29-2004, 07:30 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Hey Outlook - My Birthday Didn't Move... But Do I Get More Presents?
While traveling, I usually change the time zone on my PDA and laptop. The way Outlook normally works is to shift all of your appointments on your machine so that they still occur at the same time they did before in the time zone in which you created them. Follow me? One example of the way it works is if you have a meeting at work at 3pm, then you travel to a time zone two steps west and you teleconference for the meeting. It will look like the meeting has shifted to 1pm instead of 3pm, because that is the correct time given your current time zone. On the other hand, while you're traveling, you find out that your cousin has a soccer game at 10am the day after you return. You enter the appointment, but then after you get back it looks like it's at noon and you miss it.
There have been many arguments over whether this is the "right" way to handle time zone changes, but I've come to expect it. What I didn't expect is what I noticed today: "full day" appointments ALSO get shifted. While they look like they don't have specific start/end times, internally it seems they are stored as midnight to midnight. So when I changed my time zone two hours earlier on this trip, and looked in my calendar, I was wondering why all the birthdays and anniversaries were now spanning two days. Just for fun I also created an appointment at one time zone extreme and switched to the other time zone extreme. Sure enough, it moved days.
I'm not sure I agree with this one. On "all day" events, the specific time matters a lot less (or else I would have entered a time range!). I'm no more likely to call someone to wish them a happy birthday at 10pm or 2am than at midnight - I'm going to wait until we're both normally awake. It would be nice if there were a setting to make the day-long events immutable. Do you hear me, Microsoft? 
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06-29-2004, 07:34 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 489
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Oh, that is sooooooooooo annoying me as well. Thanks for finally pointing it out! I hope someone will listen to you!!
K.
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06-29-2004, 08:28 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 31
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I'd have to do some test to see how mNotes coverts appointments, but Lotus Notes allows you to create a meeting and specify the timezone that it occurs in. Therefore, I can send a meeting invite to someone in Germany (for a conference call, for instance) and it shows up as my timezone, but inserts it into their calendar with their local timezone information.
Let me get mNotes working again and I'll try to see what it does when it replicates that appointment / meeting to the PPC...
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06-29-2004, 08:28 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 41
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by karinatwork
Oh, that is sooooooooooo annoying me as well. Thanks for finally pointing it out! I hope someone will listen to you!!
K.
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I totaly agree! I think this issue exists because it was not designed well form the beginning!
Thanks, and let's bring this to Microsoft's attention!
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06-29-2004, 08:45 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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I too really hope Microsoft changes this in Outlook 12 (or sooner!). The visual changes/improvements in Outlook have been nice, but there's still some major problems that need fixed.
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06-29-2004, 08:47 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 215
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I dont have this problem myself because I dont travel through time zones except on holiday however, WebIs, the makers of PocketInformant have a free programme which might help "PI Correct Time" - more information here http://www.pocketinformant.com/p_correcttime.php
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06-29-2004, 08:48 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 112
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I resolve this by entering my Birthdays as recurring To-Do's, rather than appts. Works well and I never have to worry about time-shifting. That way, I can also check off to make sure I called the person, sent a present, whatever I wanted.
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06-29-2004, 08:56 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 533
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You found a problem with how Outlook handles timezones? Shocking....simply shocking :wink:
In all fairness, Outlook is a pretty killer app.....they just need to have a focus group regarding time-zones. And I really don't travel that much.
On an interesting footnote, I noticed the behavior of the all day appointments spanning two days after I combined items between my PPC and Outlook after a partnership was being re-established. I don't know how your findings and my findings are related, but the symptom is the same.
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06-29-2004, 09:32 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 1
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I have been having this problem not with changing time zones, but with daylight savings time. twice a year I have to go in and manually change my shift rotation. I am on a 8 day rotation of days and nights, always the same times so I use 8 repeating apts. eveytime we change the clocks my device changes all my start and stop times by that 1 hour. :bad-words:
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06-29-2004, 10:05 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 548
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Re: Hey Outlook - My Birthday Didn't Move... But Do I Get More Presents?
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Originally Posted by Kati Compton
While traveling, I usually change the time zone on my PDA and laptop. The way Outlook normally works is to shift all of your appointments on your machine so that they still occur at the same time they did before in the time zone in which you created them. Follow me? One example of the way it works is if you have a meeting at work at 3pm, then you travel to a time zone two steps west and you teleconference for the meeting. It will look like the meeting has shifted to 1pm instead of 3pm, because that is the correct time given your current time zone. On the other hand, while you're traveling, you find out that your cousin has a soccer game at 10am the day after you return. You enter the appointment, but then after you get back it looks like it's at noon and you miss it.
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That is why you are supposed to set your Pocket PC at the timezone of the target appointment. In this case, if you are going home and the appointment is in the home timezone, you're supposed to set your Pocket PC to your home timezone first befor you enter the time of the soccer game. Afterwhich, you will shift back to your current timezone which is the visiting timezone and go about the day normally.
Quote:
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There have been many arguments over whether this is the "right" way to handle time zone changes, but I've come to expect it. What I didn't expect is what I noticed today: "full day" appointments ALSO get shifted. While they look like they don't have specific start/end times, internally it seems they are stored as midnight to midnight. So when I changed my time zone two hours earlier on this trip, and looked in my calendar, I was wondering why all the birthdays and anniversaries were now spanning two days. Just for fun I also created an appointment at one time zone extreme and switched to the other time zone extreme. Sure enough, it moved days.
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Birthdays remain on the same date... they DO NOT shift... they do not span 2 days.
Your birthdays may seem so because you might have entered them manually rather than let Outlook do it automatically when you enter the birthdate in the Contacts details.
So if my Birthday is on September 9, no matter where I am in the world, it will appear as September 9 on my Pocket PC. which is the date relative to me...
Quote:
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I'm not sure I agree with this one. On "all day" events, the specific time matters a lot less (or else I would have entered a time range!). I'm no more likely to call someone to wish them a happy birthday at 10pm or 2am than at midnight - I'm going to wait until we're both normally awake. It would be nice if there were a setting to make the day-long events immutable. Do you hear me, Microsoft?
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The effect of the change will vary as the difference in timezones become longer. If I were to make an appointment to greet a friend in Canada... and me in the Philppines, I would change timezones temporarily, go to his birthday... enter the appointment "Call Mike and greet him a Happy Birthday" on April 28 at about 8AM his time... I would have to call him up on April 28 my date at 8PM my time.
The calendar is such a good tool to use. The Pocket PC and Outlook handles them pretty well. Its performance just depends on how it the user makes use of its features.
Mabuhay! ~ Carlo
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Carlo GuerreroFot�grafo ProfesionalMicrosoft MVP, Mobile Devices
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