Angus Logan

MCMS/SPS/.NET/SQL/Microsoft Australia

I can't win - Scheduling Appointments in Other time zones is not cool!

OK - Before anyone says "thats fixed in Outlook 12" I am going to say - I am only writing this for 2003 and didn't specifically check out the Outlook 12 appointment scheduling feature @ PDC.

I had to do nasty US timezone scheduling when I was in Australia and now I need to do nasty Australia scheduling now I'm in the US.

So I am preparing to go back to Australia in a few days and need to hook up my flights for once I'm back.

Because I fly into BNE at about 8am Sunday and then on Monday night I'm catching the reddest eye I can find (9.30pm Monday night to Melbourne 2.5 hours)... its not that red but this is in Australia (sidenote: Looks like the Red Eyes are on hold in the US because of Fuel dramas - so you can't say travel is better over here!).

Anyway so I am scheduling my appointments in another timezone - have you ever had to do that? If it wasn't for the Timezone converter that came with the Windows XP Partner Pack I'd be in a world of pain.

I've mocked up a screen which I think should 100% be included in Office 12 and possibly retro-fitted in the form of a mandatory critical hotfix for Office 11 :)

It basically consists of a few things:
1) Add a TimeZone drop down - so when you are scheduling appointments you can select the timezone
2) Make the Private Button more obvious because right now things like "Get the Car Washed" in my calendar are public because I never stray down to the bottom right corner.

ps. I did the fanastic drawing on the new Wacome tablet Korby (Product Manager of GotDotNet, or as I typo'd the other day GodDotNet) gave me at CodeSlam (BAM!).

BTW before anyone heckles me for flying Virgin Blue, Qantas was full! - and you are more than welcome to stalk me at either airport.

Posted: Oct 06 2005, 01:45 PM by anguslogan | with 4 comment(s)

Comments

anguslogan said:

I'm not sure if we've met, but I'm the Microsoft Student Ambassador from Griffith University. Anyway, you'll be happy to know that other people share your anguish, to the point where one such man brought this up as a main point of contention in our third year project. We are (were... client handover is on Monday) building him a personal scheduling system, because outlook isn't set out right, and project is too complicated, etc etc. Plus he wants Gantt charts. Plus he wants multiple-region support throughout, with the ability to add new 'regions' and so on. So, on Monday, we will deliver version one of Personal Management System (his name, not ours, and yes I'm aware of the abbreviation, as is he), complete with full multi-region support. If you're curious and would like a screenshot, let me know (smartparty@optusnet.com.au).

Personally, I like Outlook, and we may end up turning this program into a plugin for outlook instead at some point in the future.
# October 7, 2005 1:44 AM

anguslogan said:

Dude, isn't the Calender screen just a form like all the others in Outlook? Could you maybe customize the form, and move things around?
# October 7, 2005 8:06 AM

TrackBack said:

Late last month, the gotdotnet team hosted the first ever "Gotdotnet CodeSlam" for 54 attendees (26 zealous...
# October 11, 2005 5:47 PM

Mike Green said:

You are not the only one with this need for entering time-zones in Outlook appointments. See:

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.307000
# February 13, 2006 6:43 AM