VCS support?

[Ignat Solzhenitsyn]

Do I understand correctly that VCS is a cross-platform standard for calendar
events, analogous to VCF for contacts? Does Entourage 2004 not yet support
this standard? Here¹s one example of what I am trying to do: I have an
itinerary on Expedia.com. There is an option to ³save as appointment²
(prevents having to type all that tedious stuff into Entourage). But
Entourage cannot seem to open the resulting VCS file, while iCal does this
with no problem. Any simple workaround or trick I am missing here?

Isn¹t ICS a more advanced (but backward-compatible?) version of VCS? If so,
why can E generate ICS¹s but not be able to read VCS¹s?

By the way, what actually happens: when I drag the VCS event onto E in the
dock, it opens E and then... does nothing.

Thanks in advance for any illumination.

 

[Ignat Solzhenitsyn]

Still just wondering if anyone at all knows anything about how Entourage
handles (or not) ICS and VCS... this is an important issue for me, but I
have found no mention of this on the help pages of mvps. Perhaps it¹s too
obscure an issue?

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

As far as I know, Ignat, .vcs is a "less universal" standard than .ics.
Maybe older. I've only come upon .vcs files as sent by Outlook Windows. When
I get them, I just change the extension to .ics and they open in Entourage.

Generally speaking, the first time you do that, the file will have an
(Apple) iCal icon and will want to open in iCal, since iCal uses these files
too and has something of a default assumption for .ics if it doesn't also
have a traditional Mac creator code too. .ics files produced by dragging
Entourage calendar events, tasks or notes to your hard disk do have the
Entourage creator code "OPIM". so that's why they have an Entourage icon.
..ics and .vcs files coming from Windows, Unix and Apple's own OS X apps
don't have creator codes, so they are assumed by iCal to belong to it. All
you need to do is select one of these, Get Info (cmd-I or right-click). In
the Info panel select Open With and choose Entourage 2004, they click Change
All. Now they'll have Entourage icons and will - hopefully* - open in
Entourage.

The reason I say "hopefully" is that the .ics and .vcs files follow, or
should, the "iCal" and "vCal" RFCs, which are long and many. They can have
many and various formats. Entourage, for example, can only export and import
single-item .ics files. You do that by dragging an individual event, task or
note (or several of them at a time, all selected) to your desktop of Finder
folder, where they will make separate .ics files, one per event. iCal can
import these, one at a time, via File/Import. However iCal doesn't export
single-item events or todos. It only exports (File/Export) entire calendars
containing all events and todos - as a single .ics file. But this type of
..ics file has a different format, which Entourage cannot read or import.

..vcs files appear (but I'm not an expert here) to be an older format for
invitations. Invitations can now also be of .ics format - and that's what
Entourage uses. As I say, when an invitation came from Outlook Windows to my
Entourage X, I would get it in the form of a .vcs attachment, which I'd drag
to my desktop, change the extension to .ics (Entourage association) and drag
it in, or double-click it to open and the save. I haven't yet received one
since being in Entourage 2004. I have a vague sense that the
"communicability" was certainly improved at least for Exchange users - they
just receive them as invitations. I don't know if that has somehow worked
its way down to non-Exchange users too. I've tried to send myself an
invitation from iCal, but it gets confusing since I have the same email
accounts in both - when the email arrives in Entourage I'm seen as inviter,
not invitee.

Anyway, see what happens when you change .vcs extension to .ics, apply
Entourage association with Change All, then double-click.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.



From: Ignat Solzhenitsyn <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 01:56:04 GMT
Subject: Re: VCS support?

Still just wondering if anyone at all knows anything about how Entourage
handles (or not) ICS and VCS... this is an important issue for me, but I
have found no mention of this on the help pages of mvps. Perhaps it¹s too
obscure an issue?

 

[Ignat Solzhenitsyn]

Hi Paul

Thanks so much for your thoughts. Unfortunately, despite following your
advice precisely (all .ics now have E icons, etc.), the files do nothing in
Entourage ­ Entourage opens, but ³nothing happens². Opens correctly in iCal
(by dragging onto it), but not in E. Stumper, huh?

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Thanks so much for your thoughts. Unfortunately, despite following your
advice precisely (all .ics now have E icons, etc.), the files do nothing in
Entourage ­ Entourage opens, but ³nothing happens². Opens correctly in iCal
(by dragging onto it), but not in E. Stumper, huh?

Well, until we get an expert here who knows a better way (and - honestly - I
don't think Entourage will be able to do anything directly with them) you'd
have to us my Sync Entourage-iCal script to get them over from iCal to
Entourage. Once you've done the first run, this would only take a few
seconds each time.

If you don't need them as invitations but just want to see what content they
have, you can just look at them in iCal or even just drag them onto
TextEdit.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.