No Information - Attendies Scheduling

[jmanuel]

An employee presented this question to me that I do not have the slightest
idea what to present so I am asking for help on this topic....

We use Outlook 2003 on an XP machine; An employee is trying to set up a
meeting with several people in a few months and is trying to find a time
convenient with all to schedule. In doing so..the employee scrolls across the
timeline and notices that instead of seeing the solid blue occupied
spots--the employee sees a sort of white diagonally striped symbol indicated
"No Information". But notices one attendee does not have that white
diagonally striped indicator (that one attendee has a solid blue
indicator--being busy) as the rest. What does that white diagonally striped
symbol define?

Does that mean the Attendees basically haven't entered information that far
in their calendar? Is there something in terms of public and private setting
set up by the attendee that doesn't want others to view? Or does the admin
have to set permission (Reviewer rights) for the employee to see?

 

[Brian Tillman]

What does that white diagonally striped symbol define?

Just what it says: no information. I means that the people are no
publishing their free/busy data that far in advanced. The default is two
months, I believe.

IIs there something in terms of public and
private setting set up by the attendee that doesn't want others to
view?

Sure. The person can set the "private" feature if they don't want others to
see information about the meeting (other than that the person is busy).

 

[jmanuel]

That makes sense.
I just found it odd that out of all the people invited...only one provides
information that far in the timeline. Plus majority of the people listed in
that appointment invite usually have lots of things entered in their calendar
for at least 3 months. I will check the permission settings and see...

 

[dwgillies]

According to my team lead, Fatih Ulupinar, there is a bug in Outlook.
Sometimes when you type in someone's email name, it accepts it, and
even expands it properly to the fully qualified name. However, it
actually has no idea who you are talking about. And as a result, it
cannot retrieve calendar information for that person!

Delete the invitee, and then re-select the invitee's name from the
"Add Others" address book. This will most likely fix the problem. Do
NOT type in the name and use auto-completion, that will perpetuate the
problem you are having.

-----

There is a much smaller chance that your invitee has changed their
calendar settings to not reveal calendar information very far in the
future. If the above doesn't work, then ask them about their settings
( Tools > Options > Calendar Options > Free/Busy Options, and make
sure "Publish" is several months of free/busy information, and un-
check "Publish my location".)

But in my experience, the first bug, listed above, is always the
source of the problem.

Good luck,

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA