Shared Calendar Timezone issue.

[Chad J.]

I've seen this posted several times but could not figure out a specific
answer. We have users in 2 different timezones. When an all day event is
created in say the east coast. It spans 2 days on the west coast. This
happens because an all day event on the east coast spans 12-12. Which in
turn on the west coast spans 9-9 which makes it span 2 days. This part we
understand. What we don't understand is why an all day event would change
times at all, no matter what timezone your in. Shouldn't it just stay to all
day on that date. Does MS have a fix for this? Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

There is no fix, because it's not broken. It changes because outlook pins to
UTC time, offset by the time zone, not a specific time. I'm not holding my
breath for an option to lock appointments to times in the outlook 12.... but
if there is any change, it will be in new versions of outlook, not old ones.
You might have them try using dual zones... I don't think it will work for
their problem - but it works well for travelers.

from http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2005/up050623.htm#tz
Many people mistakenly believe Outlook uses "absolute time" for appointments
(and tasks or reminders), which means an appointment you enter for 2 PM will
always stay on 2 PM, no matter how many times you change the time zone. This
isn't how it works though.

Outlook stores times as UTC time and reads the computer's time zone offset
to display the appointment in the calendar. While this makes it easy to send
meeting requests to people worldwide and makes using shared calendars much
less confusing, it moves the appointment to a new time if you change the
time zone on your computer. Keep in mind that this is the correct way to
handle times and all email clients use the same method to display the sent
and received times on email, so it's not "an Outlook bug".


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



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[Bucky767]

For what it's worth, I posted this suggestion today. After I did, I read
your post. I agree with you, but I haven't seen MS answer.
"I think All Day Events are not handled correctly in Outlook. I have
birthday, anniversary, and other All Day Events in my calendar. When I
travel and change the time zone on my computer, all appointments, including
All day Events, are adjusted to the new time zone. This means that these All
Day Events overlap over two days--not very appropriate for birthdays,
anniversaries, and the like. My recomendation is to not adjust All Day
Events for the new time zone."

 

[Sam]

Raising my hand, too! I have a calendar full of two day birthdays and
anniversaries...