Please tell me I can undo this

[Steve Ball]

I work several days a week and have an event in my calendar, repeating
weekly on the appropriate days. Occasionally, work will be moved from one
day to what's usually a free day. When this happens, I just delete the
appropriate event, and create a new non-repeating event for the new day. On
top of this, I (all too) occasionally get holidays, and I just delete the
particular occurrences of the event on he days I won't be working.

So far so good: the only thing is, whenever I try to delete a single
occurrence of an event, Entourage 2004 asks if I want to delete just the one
or all occurrences of the event, and *the default is 'All'*! I was just
attempting to enter my Christmas break into Entourage in a roomful of
talking people and, while deleting the second week, I missed changing from
'All' to 'This one' and now *I've deleted all occurrences of the event*.
Entirely. My total work history, and all upcoming variations to/breaks from
my usual work routine were in there, and it's all gone. *And there's no
undo*.

This is insane. No programme I've ever used on any platform has made it this
easy to make such a serious blunder *without undo*. I'd be hard pressed to
think of a programme that doesn't allow me to undo *anything*, let alone
deleting all occurrences of a calendar event.

Please tell me I'm missing something and I can get this data back.

 

[Guest]

Do you have a recent backup of your MUD folder? You could replace the latest one with an older one. Maybe first export any emails that have come in since the backup was made. The folder you want is at this path, where ~ is your home folder:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/<your Identity name>

 

[Steve Ball]

Do you have a recent backup of your MUD folder? You could replace the latest

one with an older one. Maybe first export any emails that have come in since
the backup was made. The folder you want is at this path, where ~ is your home
folder:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/<your Identity name>

I might have a day old backup in Retrospect, but it will be a drama to lose
everything I've changed in Entourage today (I do a lot of email and
newsgroups). So there really is no undo? Incredible.

Is this still the same in E 2008? If so, IŒm bailing out: it¹s far too
dangerous a way to run a calendar.

 

[Guest]

Use a custom view to find all messages dated just after the date of the backup. Drag the view icon to the desktop to create a MBOX file. This can be dragged back in once you're using the backup database.

Alternatively, you could move your current MUD folder to a safe place, put your backup MUD folder in the appropriate location, start Entourage, give the event you lost a unique category, choose Export from the file menu and choose to export only calendar events of that particular category. You'll get a .rge file. Then quit Entourage, move your backup MUD folder out, put your current MUD folder back in the appropriate location, start Entourage again, and choose Import from the file menu, find the .rge file, and see if that gets the event back in your current Entourage db. Please note I'm thinking this off the top of my head, I've never actually had to import a recurring event; but I thought it might be worth a shot.

Yeah, I know these "cures" are cumbersome -- only you can say whether they are better than the "disease". Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Oh, and don't forget. If any emails come in while you're using the backup db, you won't have them after you put your current db back. So try to work offline, or disconnect before launching, or export new emails if necessary.

 

[Steve Ball]

Oh, and don't forget. If any emails come in while you're using the backup db,

you won't have them after you put your current db back. So try to work
offline, or disconnect before launching, or export new emails if necessary.

Thanks for all this. I¹ll give it a try later today or tomorrow.

I'm trying to think of a reason why Undo isn't implemented. So far I've
drawn a blank. Am I missing something?

 

[Guest]

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I'm trying to think of a reason why Undo isn't implemented. So far I've
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;drawn a blank. Am I missing something?






It's not like Entourage doesn't provide a way to prevent accidental deletions: In Preferences &gt; General Preferences &gt; Notifications there is a checkbox for "Require confirmation when deleting". I suspect it is on by default. If you turned it off, well...

 

[Steve Ball]

I'm trying to think of a reason why Undo isn't implemented. So far I've
drawn a blank. Am I missing something?

It's not like Entourage doesn't provide a way to prevent accidental deletions:
In Preferences > General Preferences > Notifications there is a checkbox for
"Require confirmation when deleting". I suspect it is on by default. If you
turned it off, well...

It's enabled. If you try to delete a non-repeating event Entourage asks "Are
you sure..." However, if you try to delete a repeating event, the dialogue
changes to ask "All?" or "Just this one?" and, once you make your choice,
*there's no "Are you sure?". i.e. choosing to delete all occurrences of an
event, actually deletes all occurrences of that event, *without asking "Are
you sure?"* and with *no undo*. I still say it's insane.

Steve = : ^ )

 

[Steve Ball]

Alternatively, you could move your current MUD folder to a safe place, put
your backup MUD folder in the appropriate location, start Entourage, give the
event you lost a unique category, choose Export from the file menu and choose
to export only calendar events of that particular category. You'll get a .rge
file. Then quit Entourage, move your backup MUD folder out, put your current
MUD folder back in the appropriate location, start Entourage again, and choose
Import from the file menu, find the .rge file, and see if that gets the event
back in your current Entourage db.

This actually worked, except for one thing: when you delete an occurrence of
a repeating event, if you open an instance of the event, recurrence just
shows e.g. "Daily on on day", i.e. it doesn't add "Except for Monday 16th
March" even if you have deleted that instance in the calendar. When you
export and then reimport and event, it imports with the recurrence shown in
the event, i.e. any deleted instances are no longer deleted.

However, the event does go back to its first instance, and on indefinitely
so it's possibly a little easier (if a lot slower) than recreating the
event.

Thanks,
Steve = : ^ )

 

[Ed Kimball]

Thanks for all this. I¹ll give it a try later today or tomorrow.

I'm trying to think of a reason why Undo isn't implemented. So far I've
drawn a blank. Am I missing something?

I suggest you request MS change the default when deleting a repeating event.
You can suggest changes through Send Feedback on Entourage on the Help menu.

 

[Steve Ball]

Ed Kimball:

I suggest you request MS change the default when deleting a repeating event.
You can suggest changes through Send Feedback on Entourage on the Help menu.

Done.

Steve = : ^ )