I have been using Entourage for both calendar and address functions for
4 years now (currently running Office 2004 on Tiger) and there is now
way too much data in the calendar, especially when I am synching to my
Blackberry. I would like to create a "current calendar" say with a
year of history and then a "full calendar" for everything back to the
beginning. I import to iCal as a cheap backup (and run a script to
synch to Apple Address from the Entourage Address book as well) in
addition to keeping full home folder/MUD file on backup hard drive. I
have also been forced to rebuild Entourage every 4-6 months which seems
excessive. Any thoughts?
I don't know that that's excessive. In any case you can archive the older
calendar items to another identity.
First make a new Category called "Archive", or something like that.
You probably want to except birthdays, anniversaries and maybe some other
annual events that started in the past but are still going on. So make a
custom view, in the calendar area, of Calendar event items (only) where the
Recurrence is not Yearly. You can't specify "older than 1 year" for an
Advanced Find or custom view, but it's easy to find these. In that Advanced
Find or custom view, sorted by date, shift-click on the oldest event and
then (still holding shift key) on the most recent event you don't want to
keep in the "current" calendar, e.g. a year ago, or Dec 31 2004, or
whenever. Now all those events are selected. Look carefully through the list
and command-click individual recurring events that are still ongoing and
that you want to keep here, to de-select them. (NOTE: in these lists, only
the FIRST occurrence of a recurring event appears. but you'll see the arrow
icon for "recurrings" to know which to look at.)
Now you have a choice. You could just drag these selected events to a folder
on your desktop. Then when you make a new identity, you can drag them all in
there, and delete them from your current identity. But you will lose all the
categories when you do this. Also, I think you need to drag no more than 200
at a time, and you may lose your carefully weeded selection and de-selected
exceptions when you select only 200 at a time.
Or you could get my "Export-Import Entourage" scripts at
MacScripter.net <
http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
and use the Calendar Export script to export the selection. (Or do it by
category:
When only the events you want to archive are selected, go to
Edit/Categories/Assign Categories... . In the big Categories window that
comes up, check "Archive" category, but do NOT click "Set Primary" button at
the bottom left, but Do click the "OK" button. Now all the older selected
events will have the Archive category, but if they also have some other
category the regular category will still be primary displaying the color.
Then you can use the Calendar Export script to export "Archive" category
events.)
Either way, using the scripts, import them into your Archive identity
(Entourage menu/Switch identities/New) using the Calendar Import script
there, and you will get them complete with categories. (You can always
delete Archive category in the new identity afterwards, which will remove it
from all the events.) Delete them from your current identity.
After deletions, rebuild your current identity.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <
http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
