How do I prevent changing time zones from changing appointments?

[Reidar]

I travel frequently across time zones -- and whenever I change the time zone on my Pocket PC, the system changes all my appointment times. Is there a way to disable this? When I have entered a departure time for a flight I have to take next week, I don't want it to suddenly show up as six hours before or after the time the plane leaves!

[pocketpcdude1024]

Do you change the "Home" time or the "Visiting" time? I would think that your appointments would stay the same if you juct changed the "Visiting" time. :?

[Reidar]

This seems to happen whether I am in "home" and change to "visiting" time, or vice versa. A warning comes up either way, that says "Save changes to the clock settings? Warning: Appointment times will shift to match the new time zone". And I don't want that to happen!

I recently moved to Pocket PC from years of using Psion - Epoc - Symbian. Those handhelds easily changed time zones without ruining my appointment calendar!

[pocketpcdude1024]

I don't think that the Pocket PC actually shifts the times for appointments, but rather recalculates them to display at your current time relative to your old time. Your appointments won't be truly changed - they'll just look that way because you're in a new timezone. Just remember to set up your appointments relative to your Home timezone and you should be all set. :D

[Reidar]

Thanks for the tip ... unfortunately I doesn't seem to work. :cry:

When I set an appointment in home time and then shift to visiting time, it does get recalculated to show it relative to the time zone I am visiting, as you suggest. But that is precisely the problem. Example: I will shortly be traveling from the US via Europe to Asia. I have entered the departure times for the flights. Now, when I land in Europe and change to visiting time, the departure time for my next flight changes with the same number of hours offset. Not good; I'll miss the flight. The alternatives seem to be two:

(i) either stay in one time zone all the time(which will make the Pocket PC show the wrong local time frequently), or

(ii) change time zones as I travel, but change back to home zone whenever I want to look up an appointment or enter a new one. This would work, since the listed time for the appointments gets recalculated, as you suggest. But this is clearly not a very elegant solution.

Any other suggestions?

[pocketpcdude1024]

The only other thing I can suggest is a 3rd party application. I know of one called CityTime (http://www.codecity.net/prodctppc.html) which supposedly supports the function of switching between timezones, but since I don't have the software installed, I can't vouch for its accuracy. I'm sorry I haven't been much help. :|

[Mark Kenepp]

There was previously a discussion on this issue in a previous thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6890&highlight=zone).

I think the consensus is that it works the way it should which unfortunately causes problems for users who travel to different time zones.

Maybe the old thread will give you so better information.

Cheers,

Mark Kenepp
San Francisco, CA

[pocketpcdude1024]

Just tested it and CityTime does the trick! :wink:

[Reidar]

Thanks for the help, and the pointer to the old discussion thread.

I have tried Citytime -- and yes, it works in the sense that I can enter an appointment for the relevant city and time, and it will show correctly once I have changed time zones after traveling to the new place. But I can't say I like it much. I can't tell at a glance when my flight is or my meeting is before I have actually reset the time zone on the computer, and once I have done so, all my old calendar appointments show that I had meetings in the middle of the night -- until I reset again. Seems to me it would be more logical to simply have an option on the system asking if I want appointments to change as I change time zones. I would say no, as would all other old Psion / EPOC / Symbian users, and I suspect most people who use paper calendars, too. But if some prefer to have their appointment times move around, they should have that option, too!

Thanks again for the help -- I guess I'll have to learn to live with this.
:?

[Sven Johannsen]

If it isn't clear in the other discussion thread, the only solution to acheiving the behavior that you want is to never switch between home and some Visiting Time Zone. When you get to the new location just change the time in Home, not the zone. The clock will be right and all your calendar entries will stay at the time you entered them.

There are other ramafications. If you send an e-mail or post, the time will be wrong because it is based on time and zone. There are likely issues with scheduling appointments, such as conference calls because the calendar apps will adjust times based on individuals local time and zone and yours is wrong. These are some of the reasons the seemingly odd behavior exists in the first place. Some people believe the way it works is exactly as it should (Ed). Others of us agree with you that it is madenning (Me).

Best we could ever hope for is a selectable option I think.

[Reidar]

Thanks -- this is good to know. I appreciate that some people seem to prefer what to me is an irritating feature.

As for my use -- I will have to decide on whether I want to keep my appointments at a fixed time (which I do) or whether I want my Pocket PC to display the correct time zone for where I am, so that I can also tell what time it is at home, or some other part of the world (which I also want to be able to do).

I guess I can't do both. I think the lesser evil for me is to shift to visiting time when I want to check time zones and what time it is elsewhere in the world, then back to a fixed time.

I can only hope that at some point, Microsoft will provide us with the option to turn this on or off!

[Pony99CA]

As for my use -- I will have to decide on whether I want to keep my appointments at a fixed time (which I do) or whether I want my Pocket PC to display the correct time zone for where I am, so that I can also tell what time it is at home, or some other part of the world (which I also want to be able to do).

I guess I can't do both. I think the lesser evil for me is to shift to visiting time when I want to check time zones and what time it is elsewhere in the world, then back to a fixed time.

I can only hope that at some point, Microsoft will provide us with the option to turn this on or off!
There is nothing to "turn off". The Calendar is just displaying the appointments relative to the time zone you're in. Nothing is "moving".

If you read that previous thread, you'll have seen my arguments for why this behavior is correct. Yes, it is surprising at first, but, once you know about it, it's not a big deal. When you're setting up an appointment in another time zone, you just have to mentally calculate the time in your time zone and enter the appointment then, or you can switch to the time zone where the appointment will take place and enter the time as given.

When you arrive at your destination, changing the Visiting City and using their time zone will display your appointments at the "correct" time. When discussing flight arrival or departure times, just switch to the Visiting City again, even if you're not in that time zone.

It would be nice if Microsoft allowed you to set the time zone an appointment was in when entering the appointment, though.

Steve

[dacs29]

I travel between Europe and the United States a couple times a year and I've dealt with the same problem.

At first I tried to shift all my appointments six hours back after I switched to EST from CET, but I couldn't get that to work. So instead I just left my laptop and PPC's time zone on CET and changed the clock to EST.

The problems with this solution that I've found so far is that when I receive e-mail in Outlook, the time is always six hours ahead (when I'm in the US) and I can't have my laptop synchronize itself with a Internet Time Server when the time zone is set different than the time zone I am in. Finally, a couple weeks ago when I turned on my computer, my clock sprung ahead one hour one week before Day Light Saving time started in the US. It's all a pain, but this seems to be the only solution.

David

[nclwireless]

I get this problem all the time.

For example, the daily British Airways flight from London to Bahrain in Summer leaves London at 10am (GMT+1). It lands in Bahrain at 7pm local (GMT+3), or 5pm London time.

So, in order to get the right appointment time in PocketPC, you must enter 10 and 5 as the start and end time, rather than 10 and 7 (which is accurate). This contravenes all conventions regarding cross time-zone that have been displayed in airline timetables since about 1903......

What would be clever on Microsoft's part would be to make the 'Location' property something more than just a text label. I.e. you could actively declare in which country, and therefore which timezone, your appointment was in - perhaps relating all appointments back to GMT. So, when fixing an appointment, the time would be measured in GMT. Then Outlook would automatically add or subtract 'hours' according to the value in the location field and the clock control panel applet.

[Reidar]

[/quote]If you read that previous thread, you'll have seen my arguments for why this behavior is correct.

Yes, I read the previous thread; I understand what is happening; and I am glad this works for you. It is not correct or incorrect, though; just appropriate for some users, and inappropriate for others. For my needs, this is a pain.

The Pocket PC has great features, and I am happy with the choice. But on this particular issue, check out a Psion Netbook, Revo, or similar. You will see that another company has chosen a different approach. Does that make them wrong, and Microsoft right? From the debate I have seen, my guess is that most users prefer the Psion approach.

There doesn't seem to be much more to say. Two camps, strong opinions, and we are unlikely to convince each other here! Enjoy your travels!

[davidspalding]

Gee whiz, you'd think that the "location" field in appointments could account for this, but noo-o-o, so far's I can see it's just text to put in "2nd floor conference room," or "Ben & Jerry's on Ninth St."