Time zone affecting scheduled events

R

Rob

I travel between time zones and change the clock on my computer
accordingly, but that, then, changes my scheduled events in Entourage.
Does anybody know how to prevent my appointments from adjusting along
with the clock?
 
K

Kevin Mess

I can't suggest a solution to stopping Entourage from doing what it has been
programmed to do. However, you can fix this problem, and perhaps make it
work in your favor.

When scheduling a new appointment, before saving it, select Options/Time
Zone, and select the Time Zone for the appointment. When you subsequently
change the system time, Exchange will indeed change the times as you expect,
but it will change them to the correct time for the time zone you're in.

I travel from Japan to the US to South America to Europe with wild changes
in time zone. I store everything in GMT, and the times are subsequently
displayed properly when change the system clock to the local time zone.

Hope it helps. Now if Microsoft would just give us dual time zone displays
:)

Kevin
 
O

Owen Linzmayer

Kevin's suggestion of using the Time Zone option for an event works, but it
only works for an event where the stop and start time is in the same zone
(like a business meeting in another state).

But it doesn't work if you are trying to create a calendar event such as a
flight that crosses time zones (or the international date line). The
airlines give departure and arrival info in local times, but Entourage
applies only a single time zone to any given event. So flights need to be
broken into separate departure and arrival events, unless I've missed
something (always possible given the crazy quilt of menus, toolbars,
contextual menus, etc.).
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

As long as you don't change the time zone on your computer until you arrive,
or have got on the plane, what difference does it make? Enter the end time
as part of the event with time zone set to the time zone of the departure
location, and everything will be fine until you get there and switch time
zones - when it doesn't matter any more. Cop the actual departure and
arrival times into the notes of the event just in case you change time zones
while on the plane and then forget when you're due to arrive, if you think
that might perturb you. Worst come to worst you might have the flight
"overlap" your first real appointments after you switch time zones, but
that's not really going to confuse you, is it? You'll still see the real
appointments in the calendar.

--
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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ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
O

Owen Linzmayer

I want to enter the information as quickly and easily as possible, and that
means entering it as the airline gives it to me. So when I book a flight, I
enter both my outbound and return flights, and if I forget to diddle with
the local time zone, the worst case could be that I end up being on the
East Coast and seeing that my return flight leaves at 6PM, but in reality it
left at 3PM. And it makes it possible that I'll tell my spouse to pick me up
at the wrong time, because I have to remember whether or not the return
flight arrival time is local or not.

Sure, I could paste the airlines info into the note section of the event,
but that doesn't show up in the calendar that I glance at, and as a result
confusion is still possible.

If we could enter a single event with different time zones applying to the
start and end, this wouldn't be a problem.

BTW, have you ever tried entering an Australia to California flight into
Entourage? Can't do it because you arrive "before" you leave, and Entourage
won't let you do that.
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

If we could enter a single event with different time zones applying to the
start and end, this wouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...

I agree. We're largely based on the .ics standard, and so the underlying
Calendar code can support it, but the UI doesn't have the mechanism. (Yet.)
BTW, have you ever tried entering an Australia to California flight into
Entourage? Can't do it because you arrive "before" you leave, and Entourage
won't let you do that.
Click to expand...

It should. You have to enter all of your times in using the time zone of the
event itself. If you chose it to be Australia, you'd have to convert the
California arrival time into Australian date/time and enter it. It should
still look right on the calendar based on what time zone you're in now.

-nh
 
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