Recurring Events vs. Exceptions

[zakropotch]

I have appointments which are set in stone with various people at their
predesignated times and places each week. If I have a client that I normally
meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 a.m., I set it up as a recurring
appointment with time marked "busy". This goes the same for all my clients.
However often times, there may be an exception where a client can't make the
appointment so I open up the appointment as an occurence to mark the time as
"free". The problem is when I change the time of the whole series. If I
change a client's designated appointment time, using example above, from Tues
& Thurs from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., I simply open up "Appointment Recurrence"
and bullet, "End By". Then I restart a new Recurring appointment at 11:00.
However when I bullet, "End by" and press "Ok", any occurence within the
event series that I changed from "Busy" to "Free" or if I made any additions
to that occurance such as adding free text explaining why appt was cancelled
disappears completely! A warmning message pops up before hand saying that all
exceptions will be lost. I need to keep track of all cancellations and
schedule changes that are just done as a single occurence. Is there any way
around this? Is there a better way? I'm not sure if I want to use "Meetings"
as I have to request it and these are times that are already set so my
clients don't want to be bothered with having to accept meeting requests.
What can I do? Thanks

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

You can't change the free/busy status for one event in a series. I would
probably copy and paste the appt on the date in question - this makes a
single appointment and you can take notes about the missed meeting. (you'll
have two on the date - one for the recurrence and the single event)

FWIW, especially if you are making notes in each occurrence, I would copy
and paste them each week and make notes in the copy. It's way too easy to
lose notes when you use recurring appointments. Alternately, export to
excel and import as individual appointments. This will preserve previous
meetings and notes.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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