Delete reoccuring apointments, future only without changing past

[johncat]

How can I delete or change future reoccuring appointments only, without
altering past occurances of the appointment??? If I try to change or delete
in any way a reoccuring appointment, I get a message that "Any exceptions to
this recurring appointment will be lost". I even get this if I try to change
the end date of a recurring apt. So if I change a reoccuring apt from having
no end date, to ending on a specific day, ALL past changes to that
appointment are reset back to the default reoccurnace pattern. I only want
future changes to be changed.
There are several ways that this is a problem for me, but I will only
give one example here. I have a re-occuring apt for my work week showing the
days I work (basically Mon-Fri). I have this as a never ending re-occuring
apt and may stay this way for a year. However, frequently, I may work a Sat
or Sunday so I will Move or copy those specific occurances. OR, I may go in
late on a day, so I will update that days apt with the changed start time. I
use the reoccuring apt as a baseline and make manual changes and that works
good. But, if my schedule changes and I now work Sat-Wed, I would want to
stop that reoccuring apt to end a a specific date, and recreate a new one.
But when I change the series to end on a date, it then deletes all the manual
changes i made over the last year or two, and defaults everything back. I
ONLY want to change future occurances and not delete all the manual changes
in the past. I need the manual changes for my records. But, creating 2, 4,
or 10 years of single appointments, would take forever. As I said, there are
other examples too where this is a problem. I am running Vista and Office
2007. Thanks. John

 

[Bob I]

How can I delete or change future reoccuring appointments only, without
altering past occurances of the appointment???

You can't.


<snipped embellishment>

But, creating 2, 4,

or 10 years of single appointments, would take forever. As I said, there are
other examples too where this is a problem. I am running Vista and Office
2007. Thanks. John

Not if you use Excel to generate them.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How can I delete or change future reoccuring appointments only,
without altering past occurances of the appointment???

Recurring events are only single items in the calendar, with Outlook keeping
a table of the exceptions to the recurrence. Changing the end date on the
recurrence (as well as some of ther changes you can make) regenerates the
event, erasing any exceptions. You must capture the exceptions without
regenerating the event.

Create a temporary calendar folder (File>New>Folder). Open the calendar
holding the recurring appointment and copy that appointment to the temporary
calendar. Export that calendar with File>Import and Export>Export to a
file. Specify the "Comma Separated Values file (Windows)" file type. When
you export the event, Outlook will say that it must export a date range
because recurring events can't be exported. Specify the starting date as
the beginning of the event and the end date as the last day you want the
event to appear. This will generate a file containing each recurrence or
exception as a separate event.

After the export is complete, delete the original event from the original
calendar and then import the CSV with File>Import and Export>Import from
another program or file. This will import the event as a series of
stand-alone events which will include all of your exceptions and end on the
last date you want to appear. It does add to the size of the calendar
folder, but most recurrences don't span huge date ranges, so the additional
space shouldn't be all that much.

 

[Michael Lazar]

I don't understand why Microsoft can't/won't fix this issue. I used to sync my Outlook with a Palm OS Treo, which WILL allow you to change just future events, and when it syncs back up with Outlook all past events are right where they should be. But now that I switched to a Treo running Windows Mobile, it's just like real Outlook, not being able to change future events only. If Palm can do it, why can't Microsoft?

 

[Kim Brown]

Google calendar allows you to change future ones only as well. I agree - Microsoft really needs to figure this one out. I've considered scrapping Outlook for this reason alone - it causes SO many problems. I appreciate the suggestion in the reply - but, I'm sorry - that's just too much work for any time I need to change an appointment series (pretty frequently). I use Outlook 2003, and was looking around to see if 2007 came with a fix for this issue. I've not found that to be the case yet. If anyone knows specifically, let me know. Thanks!!

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Since you left out any reference posts, we have no idea what you are talking
about.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, Kim Brown asked:

| Google calendar allows you to change future ones only as well. I
| agree - Microsoft really needs to figure this one out. I've
| considered scrapping Outlook for this reason alone - it causes SO
| many problems. I appreciate the suggestion in the reply - but, I'm
| sorry - that's just too much work for any time I need to change an
| appointment series (pretty frequently). I use Outlook 2003, and was
| looking around to see if 2007 came with a fix for this issue. I've
| not found that to be the case yet. If anyone knows specifically, let
| me know. Thanks!!