Changing Times Zones Screws Up My Calendar.

[jadesse]

This has been bothering me for a while. I have to travel between times zones for work quite often. I will typically enter my appointments a couple of weeks in advanced. All my appointments are off when I travel between times zones which does me no good. Is there a fix, patch, or program available that will leave my calendar appointments alone when the clock changes to a different time zone? I would have thought that this is something that would have been integrated into WM. Most business user do travel to different time zones. I think MS really dropped the ball on this one.

[schmenge]

This has been bothering me for a while. I have to travel between times zones for work quite often. I will typically enter my appointments a couple of weeks in advanced. All my appointments are off when I travel between times zones which does me no good. Is there a fix, patch, or program available that will leave my calendar appointments alone when the clock changes to a different time zone? I would have thought that this is something that would have been integrated into WM. Most business user do travel to different time zones. I think MS really dropped the ball on this one.

I believe this is a "feature." :) I never change my time zone I just change the clock itself. If your device automatically picks up the new timezone I *think* there is a registry key that you can disable to prevent this.

[Sven Johannsen]

I think MS really dropped the ball on this one.
Oh, no, this is usefull if you travel. That is what the MS KB article has said since Outlook was first conceived and provided this 'feature'. Yes, it does it on the desktop/laptop too. Your appointments are shifted by the new time zone, showing you what time they would be happening if you weren't where you are. If you want to enter an appointment that occurs where you aren't, you need to figure out what time it will be where you are when the appointment happens where you will be. Got it?

What is happening is that appointments are stored based on universal time and displayed based on your TZ setting. This is great for cross-TZ communications. If I e-mail you an appointment for a conference call, it will show up at the correct time for you, accounting for any time zone difference. If you have conference calls, they will shift as you change TZs so you will always show the call at the right time for where you are.

Of course, if you enter a lunch date in NY and fly to California to have it, the calendar will say you will be having lunch shortly after breakfast.

You have a couple of options. One is to just change the clock, not the TZ (if you can). The other is to enter the appointment times with the offset built in. That CA lunch date would be entered at 3PM in NY. It''ll show up at Noon when you change to Pacific TZ. There are programs/addons that make that easier on a PPC, such as CityTime. In Outlook 2007, you can actually specify where the appointment takes place, by TZ, and it adjusts for you.

We have been fighting this thing for years, but part of the problem is that some people understand and like what it does. We have lobbied for an option button, do or don't move the appointments. We got, at least in newer versions of Windows Mobile, a warning about it moving appointments when you change TZs.

I personally think there should be the option of having two types of appointments, fixed and relative. The fixed ones happen at a time, like lunch. I know lunch is at 12PM, and that's how I enter it, whether it happens in Frankfurt, KY or Frankfurt, GE. Don't move that one. The relative ones happen at a point in time, and when it happens for me depends on where I am, like a worldwide conference call. Let that one slide based on where I say I am. Let me select, fixed or relative Per appointment.

[Brad Adrian]

One way to work WITH this "feature" instead of battling against it is to use the scheduling capabilities of travel-related programs like CityTime. Once installed, they add an option to the Pocket PC Calendar application that lets you select the city/time zone when creating an appointment (If you DON'T use that option, it uses the time zone to which your Pocket PC is currently set.).

I travel, too, so using simple applications like CityTime sure do make life a little easier then on the road. But, I've also experienced some crazy voo doo when traveling, too. I THINK I messed things up by synching a Pocket PC set to a new time zone with a PC that was still set to my "home" zone. Frankly, Outlook and my Pocket PC should both be smart enough to recognize these kinds of things and take them into account.

[Phillip Dyson]

One way to work WITH this "feature" instead of battling against it is to use the scheduling capabilities of travel-related programs like CityTime. Once installed, they add an option to the Pocket PC Calendar application that lets you select the city/time zone when creating an appointment (If you DON'T use that option, it uses the time zone to which your Pocket PC is currently set.).

I travel, too, so using simple applications like CityTime sure do make life a little easier then on the road. But, I've also experienced some crazy voo doo when traveling, too. I THINK I messed things up by synching a Pocket PC set to a new time zone with a PC that was still set to my "home" zone. Frankly, Outlook and my Pocket PC should both be smart enough to recognize these kinds of things and take them into account.

The guys @ WebIS graciously added an option to select a timezone in PocketInformant. if you use that application then you have it.