Jason McClure said:
Isn't there some way to end recurring calendar appointments in
Outlook 2003 without losing all exceptions??
No. Recurring appointments are single calendar entries, with the
recurrences being calculated from the base appointment. When you add an
exception, Outlook keeps a list for the one item of where the calculation is
to be modified. When you perform certain actions in a recurring appointment
(like set an end date), it causes Outlook to regenerate the series, which
resets the exceptions list.
I see clients on a
regular basis and set them for recurring, and sometimes i need to
move them to a different time slot according to time demands. after i
stop seeing the client, i still need to be able to go back to my
calendar and have a record of when i did see them, including the
"exceptions" when i moved them around to a different time. whenever i
go into the recurrences tab to end the recurrences at a certain date,
it makes me lose all exceptions. isn't there some way around this??
Here's how I'd do it. I've tested this, so I know it works. Create a new
calendar folder. Display your original calendar in a table view like Active
Appointments. Find your recurring appointment in the list, click it, and
drag it to the new calendar folder. The entire appointment will move to
that calendar, exceptions and all. Then click File>Import and Export>Export
to a file. Choose some format like "Comma Separated Values (Windows)" -
that's what I used. Select the new calendar folder with its single entry.
Since recurring items can't be exported (there's no way to represent the
recurrence in the exported data), Outlook will prompt you to select the time
frame over which it should export. Select the start date to match the
beginning of the recuurring appointment and an end date matching the date at
which you want it to end. Exporting your calendar from the start of the
original recurring item to its planned end date will give you a file
containing the original appointment and its exceptions as individual
entries.
Delete the original appointment from your main calendar to clear it out, and
import the file you just created, which will import the appointment back and
include all the exceptions. Since you chose an end date on the export, your
original appointment will stop there, but all your exceptions will be
intact. You can then create a new recurring appointment from the new time
onward. You can also delete the extra calendar folder you created, since
you now have the information you wanted in your main calendar again.
You don't really need to create a second calenar folder if you don't want
to, but then you'd have to edit the export file to remove everything but the
one appointment series, and I would find using a temporary second calendar
folder easier because I don't have to sort through all the items I don't
want.
