All day events and time zone

[CSMR]

The all-day-event calender item type that is used for
birthdays/anniversaries/public holidays refers to an actual 24-hour period of
time and changes with time-zone, leading to these events overlapping two
days. There may be some all day events that should respond like this but not
birthdays/anniversaries. Public holidays are currently added in the time zone
of the user, not the country that has the holidays.

If you enter a birthday/anniversary in a contact item, it will give make it
a 24 hour period in the time zone you are in. That is wrong on many counts.
Firstly a birthday is not a particular 24 hour period of time independent of
place, it is a date. Secondly if it were a 24 hour period it would not be
your country but the user's country that determines the time zone, or to be
very pedantic, his place of birth. Similarly for anniversaries.

If you are in one country A and want to know the national holidays from a
country B in another time zone, then they are added as 24 hour events in your
time zone. If then you move to country B then national holidays in that
country are listed as spanning 2 days.

There should be a type of event that is attached to a date, not a time-span.
Birthdays and anniversaries should create this type of event by default.
National holidays should either create this type of event by default or a
24-hour event in the time zone of the nation with the holidays, not the
user's.

In importance national holidays are not very significant but birthdays and
anniversaries are useful things to be reminded about and with many contacts
having birthdays span two days is not only incorrect but results in a
confusing display of information.

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[DanZee]

This is not just holidays or birthdays. The default behaviour doesn't make
much sense, the assumption that an "All Day Event" is a 24 hour meeting that
starts and ends at midnight in one particular time zone (and runs from 11PM
from 11PM one time zone away) is unintuitive.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

This is not just holidays or birthdays. The default behaviour doesn't make
much sense, the assumption that an "All Day Event" is a 24 hour meeting that
starts and ends at midnight in one particular time zone (and runs from 11PM
from 11PM one time zone away) is unintuitive.

Outlook 2007 helps with that. You can specify the intended time zone for the
event so that it will look OK in that time zone.

That said, I think it's VERY intuitive. Think of the REAL WORLD. It's
December 26 in Canberra when it's Christmas in Honolulu.

 

[leggwork]

you don't get it - they are reminders and/or ways to block out time on your
calendar, not really all-day-events.
My calendar gets screwed up everytime I travel somewhere and forget to put
my blackberry and outlook on the same timezone before syncing. Then I have
to manually reset everything
bruce

 

[CSMR]

It's not a question of what is default behavior; it's having the ability to
attach events to dates, not just to time periods. Then you have the choice
and can choose appropriately for each event.
There are certainly events that are 24-hour periods with reference to a
particular time zone. "Christmas in Honolulu" can be thought of as one of
them. ("Christmas" is not. "Christmas in country x" where x has more than one
time zone is not.)

And a birthday or wedding anniversary is not. Outlook understands that when
birthdays and anniversaries are stored in contact records as dates, not time
periods. If it were otherwise, not only would it wrongly describe what these
events are, but you would need to know the time zone in which the contact was
born/was married/is in at this precise moment to correctly enter these
details, so is infeasible.

So Outlook gets this right in some places (Contacts) but wrong in others
(Calendar), behaving inconsistently. One result is a contact's birthday is
assumed to be a 24 event in the time zone you added the information in, which
is nothing to do with the the contact.

 

[Daniel Day]

I absolutely agree about the dates-24 hour appointment problem. I have moved
from the East to the West coast, and all the birthdays and anniversaries in
my contacts not only show up a day early in my calendar, but the actual date
in the contact is changed (i.e. my brother's birthday is now 26th August
instead of 27th). Not as much a problem as it would be for someone going the
other direction, who would be a day late on everything! Still, its awkward to
explain to people you got the date wrong because your Outlook screwed up. And
Microsoft's solution is to change your timezone back (!!) or change your
contacts and appointments one-by-one? Ridiculous.
DD

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

There is a time zone changer tool available -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...33-b9c8-4652-9dd8-ae0f1af62568&displaylang=en


--
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[Cridgit]

Diane, thank you for posting this link. Unfortunately it came 9 months too
late, when I switched from Outlook to Gmail :-(

Anyway its good to know there are going to be some happy people out there now.

There is a time zone changer tool available -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...33-b9c8-4652-9dd8-ae0f1af62568&displaylang=en


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
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I absolutely agree about the dates-24 hour appointment problem. I have
moved
from the East to the West coast, and all the birthdays and anniversaries
in
my contacts not only show up a day early in my calendar, but the actual
date
in the contact is changed (i.e. my brother's birthday is now 26th August
instead of 27th). Not as much a problem as it would be for someone going
the
other direction, who would be a day late on everything! Still, its awkward
to
explain to people you got the date wrong because your Outlook screwed up.
And
Microsoft's solution is to change your timezone back (!!) or change your
contacts and appointments one-by-one? Ridiculous.
DD

.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

If gmail meets your needs, by all means use it. The fact that it’s a
web-based calendar works well for many home users. Others need the features
outlook offers.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
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Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=27072

Diane, thank you for posting this link. Unfortunately it came 9 months too
late, when I switched from Outlook to Gmail :-(

Anyway its good to know there are going to be some happy people out there
now.

There is a time zone changer tool available -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...33-b9c8-4652-9dd8-ae0f1af62568&displaylang=en


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=27072

I absolutely agree about the dates-24 hour appointment problem. I have
moved
from the East to the West coast, and all the birthdays and
anniversaries
in
my contacts not only show up a day early in my calendar, but the actual
date
in the contact is changed (i.e. my brother's birthday is now 26th
August
instead of 27th). Not as much a problem as it would be for someone
going
the
other direction, who would be a day late on everything! Still, its
awkward
to
explain to people you got the date wrong because your Outlook screwed
up.
And
Microsoft's solution is to change your timezone back (!!) or change
your
contacts and appointments one-by-one? Ridiculous.
DD

.

 

[Ed]

Right now the check box is pointless. If I want to create a 24 hour
meeting, or a 23 hour meeting, or a 25 hour meeting, I can, without the need
to check the box. "All-day Event" should absolutely pin it to that day.
Every single Outlook user I know is annoyed by all-day events splitting
across dates. Or just add another checkbox already. Sheesh.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook 2010 addresses this problem - all day events pin to the day.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

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