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Time zone issues:
Microsoft seems to have put all its effort into managing time zones in cases where people located in different time zones need to have video or teleconferences. The time zone features are designed for people who remain permanently fixed in their own home location and who need to communicate with people who are permanently fixed in other time zones.
Microsoft has completely ignored the needs of those who frequently travel across time zones, and who need to schedule appointments in multiple time zones, to which they will actually physically travel.
Here is the problem:
I am currently located at “home” in time zone UTC +0400.Note: each time you swap zones from a time zone that does NOT have dst to one that does have dst, the box to adjust for dst becomes unchecked and throws off all times in that dst zone by one hour.
2. Microsoft should have all times based on the windows clock, and then offer calendar “view” options as follows:
a. View all appointments on home time (times are converted to the time zone my windows clock is set on). In this view an appointment set as 10:00am in time zone -5.00 shows as 6pm in time zone +400 no dst.
b. View all appointments in local time (times are shown as local time in the time zone used when setting the appointment. (An appointment set as 10:00am in time zone -5:00 shows as 10:00am even though my computer is set to UTC +0400.)
7. c. Offer an option to set appointments in absolute time (an appointment set for 2:00pm absolute ALWAYS shows as 2:00pm regardless of which time zone the computer is set on.) This option should also apply to all-day appointments.
8. 3. Offer an easy, upfront way for people to send in time zone corrections. (I moved to Tbilisi, Georgia UTC +0400 2 years ago. It took me more than 9 months, many phone calls, emails, writing in forums and more to finally get Microsoft to issue an update with corrected date for my time zone. They continued to show UTC +0300 for more than 5 years after Tbilisi changed its time zone. If Microsoft would put a link where you set your clock to report faulty time zone data, it should greatly improve the ability of Microsoft to issue time zone updates in a timely fashion.
Unfortunately, there is not a good way to create 'local' appointments and accept meetings. The ability to set the time and a time zone when you create an appointment is supposed to address most of the problems though. (http://slipstick.me/jing/tz_002.png)
The outlook team is aware of the time zone bug (your #1) affecting Outlook 2010 and are working on a fix. No ETA for the fix. This is a bug in Outlook 2010 (the use DST box gets unchecked in windows when you swap zones and you don't notice because outlook 2010 doesn't have the DST checkbox); its not the result of faulty windows time zone data. Older versions are not affected.
Once this is fixed, most of the other issues are addressed by the time zone field in appointments and dual zones. (Absolute appointments are currently only available for all day events.)
Viewing all appointments in local time makes it difficult for people who receive meeting requests from other time zones - but there is nothing stopping you from always using 'local time' for appointments you create - just don't change the time zone on your laptop when you travel (remove the tray clock and get an app like 1st clock that can display the time in any time zone - change its zone, not the computer). As long as the computer clock is correct for the zone its set for, you should not have issues. (Do not change the computer's time to match local time while keeping your old time zone - that will screw things up.)
Hi Diane,
Thanks! The fix you mentioned will definitely help with the worst problem. But the problem with not changing my computer clock when I travel, is that then when someone uses the meeting request feature, it will come as an email to me telling me a meeting is set for 3pm, when the meeting is actually at 7am. (This happened on my last trip, when I kept my computer set to Tbilisi time, because changing it would screw up all my appointments.)
So there has to be a way to accomodate the needs for meeting requests, teleconferences, video conference, etc, while also accommodating the needs of people scheduling physical travel. I don't know how it would work (I'm not a techie), but it seems there should be a "view" feature which would allow you to simply "view" your calendar in a time zone of your choosing, without actually changing the computer's clock.
Anyway, somewhere down the road, there has to be a better solution to all these time zone problems in our global society.
Regards, Carolyn
Unfortunately, there is not a good way to create 'local' appointments and accept meetings. The ability to set the time and a time zone when you create an appointment is supposed to address most of the problems though. (http://slipstick.me/jing/tz_002.png)
Hi diane,
The timeZone problem is hard to fix it for VSTO developer.
Any idea to fix it.
Thanks,
RealTn
I was told by Microsoft that the UTC time issue was going to a fix in SP1,,,i see that is not the case now...so when will it be fixed ???...my users are getting read reciepts time stamped 5 hours ahead of the proper time !!!
Update...it is a fix in SP1 !!!!!
Thx
Steve
win 7 sp1 or Outlook 2010 sp1?
I too had the same issue with second timezone which was set to EST. I use Outlook 2010 and it was showing incorrect time for EST.
Then, I found the time zone update tool for outlook. Ran the tool and the time zone issue is fixed.
You can download the tool using the following link.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=%20E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568&displaylang=en
This is a very disappointing thread. Microsoft has assumed everyone worked in a closed network and in a single time zone since Outlook 2003. I too travel heavily across time zones and found my calendar a mess as multi day appts and even birthdays would not properly return to their given days when I reset the system time to my home time zone. While the ability to assign a time zone to a meeting was some help, the ability to view my calendar in the time zone in which will be working would have been much more useful. Trying to do the math on the fly has resulted in way to many missed meetings. All this is why I jumped to a MAC 2 years ago. While I miss some other tools, the ability to simply view my calendar in the time zone in which I will be and set meetings with confidence has bee huge.
I was hoping that MSFT would come through on this release with time zone tools for those of us who travel extensively. Clearly their research tells them otherwise as the new version of Outlook for MAC 2011 has only the same rudimentary time zone tools and does not have the same ability to view calendar in another zone that is in iCal.
I was hoping to return to Windows and get some of my other tools back, but it seems that it is not yet time.
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