Can you lock the past-dated calendar from changes being made to it

[Guest]

I am frustrated with the reccurrence function in that when you change
anything about an existing occurrence, it changes even past-dated
recurrences...is there any way around this, such as maybe locking past-dated
material on the calendar?
thank you for your help...

 

[Nikki]

The RECURRENCE function is to make appointments that are
the same. When a change occurs you need to END the
recurring appointment and then start a new recurring appointment
with the new information.

If it is only a 1 time change, but all future meetings will continue
at the same time as originally planned, then you would open
only "This Occurence" not the series and make the change on
that one only.

Nikki Peterson

 

[Guest]

hi nikki-
thank you for your response. i think i wasn't quite clear enough with my
question, so i'll try again:
1)i set up a recurrence
2)as time goes on, sometimes i have to shift one or a few of the occurances,
so i do that, no problem
3)then later on in time, i want to change the end the recurrance
4)problem is that if i make a change of any kind, even changing the end date
of an existing recurrance, it resets all occurances in the past, even the few
i had shifted
5)i need an accurate record of the actual date of each occurance in the past
of that recurrance, but now, the program has moved those few appointments i
had shifted manually within the recurrance back into the original recurrance
schedule.
i hope i got my question clearer this time....thank you for any help you can
be,
sfpe

 

[Guest]

hi nikki-
thank you for your response. i think i wasn't quite clear enough with my
question, so i'll try again:
1)i set up a recurrence
2)as time goes on, sometimes i have to shift one or a few of the occurances,
so i do that, no problem
3)then later on in time, i want to change the end the recurrance
4)problem is that if i make a change of any kind, even changing the end date
of an existing recurrance, it resets all occurances in the past, even the few
i had shifted
5)i need an accurate record of the actual date of each occurance in the past
of that recurrance, but now, the program has moved those few appointments i
had shifted manually within the recurrance back into the original recurrance
schedule.
i hope i got my question clearer this time....thank you for any help you can
be,
sfpe

 

[Guest]

hi nikki-
thank you for your response. i think i wasn't quite clear enough with my
question, so i'll try again:
1)i set up a recurrence
2)as time goes on, sometimes i have to shift one or a few of the occurances,
so i do that, no problem
3)then later on in time, i want to change the end the recurrance
4)problem is that if i make a change of any kind, even changing the end date
of an existing recurrance, it resets all occurances in the past, even the few
i had shifted
5)i need an accurate record of the actual date of each occurance in the past
of that recurrance, but now, the program has moved those few appointments i
had shifted manually within the recurrance back into the original recurrance
schedule.
i hope i got my question clearer this time....thank you for any help you can
be,
sfpe

 

[Nikki]

I did understand from the first message. That is why I suggest that
you need to end the recurrance and start a new one with the new
information.

To end the recurrence, just edit the ending date to the date of the
last meeting that was as it was originally setup. This will keep all
the history and start a fresh recurrence to continue with.

Nikki

 

[Guest]

dear nikki-
i think we aren't on the same wave length...i'll try once more, if i may, to
explain my problem. if you're tired of dealing with this, i'll understand,
just say so.
-so i create a new recurrance.
-a few weeks into it, i change the date of ONE occurrance within the
recurrance.
- a few more weeks go by and i decide to change the end date of the entire
recurrance
-now, when i look back at the past history of the recurrance, the ONE date i
changed now has been shifted back to it's original position, negating the
date of this exception.
-i need an accurate record of the ACTUAL date of the exception, but now i've
lost it due to changing the original end date of the recurrance.
-are you saying that everytime i need to change one occurance within a
recurrance, i need to end the original recurrance and start over?
sorry for the confusion. what is intuitive to me is not always what is
intuitive to billy gates...
thanks for your help

 

[Nikki]

Ok, I get it. That is not normal behavior. Have your tried using the
HELP menu DETECT AND REPAIR... option?

Nikki

 

[Brian Tillman]

1)i set up a recurrence
2)as time goes on, sometimes i have to shift one or a few of the
occurances, so i do that, no problem
3)then later on in time, i want to change the end the recurrance
4)problem is that if i make a change of any kind, even changing the
end date of an existing recurrance, it resets all occurances in the
past, even the few i had shifted
5)i need an accurate record of the actual date of each occurance in
the past of that recurrance, but now, the program has moved those few
appointments i had shifted manually within the recurrance back into
the original recurrance schedule.

Then you'll have to make the exceptions separate entries rather than
exceptions to the recurring item. An entry with recurrences is only a
single item in your calendar no matter how many times you may see it on the
calendar. The recurrences are calculated by Outook on the fly. When you
modify the series, you regenerate the entire series, losing all of the
exceptions.

 

[Brian Tillman]

To end the recurrence, just edit the ending date to the date of the
last meeting that was as it was originally setup. This will keep all
the history and start a fresh recurrence to continue with.

You are wrong. Ending the recurrence will regenerate the entire series and
wipe out any exceptions that had been made to the series prior to that
point.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Ok, I get it. That is not normal behavior.

It IS normal behavior.

 

[Guest]

thank you...finally the answer to the question!!!! i appreciate it!
so, do you think that an adjustable recurrence series is possible for
microsoft to code? or are we stuck with the way it is now where a recurrence
is really one appt.? maybe no one else has a problem with the way it is...
again, thanks!

 

[Brian Tillman]

thank you...finally the answer to the question!!!! i appreciate it!
so, do you think that an adjustable recurrence series is possible for
microsoft to code?

Beats me. I suppose anything is possible to code. However, I personally
don't know anyone who works for Microsoft.

or are we stuck with the way it is now where a
recurrence is really one appt.? maybe no one else has a problem with
the way it is...

I certainly think it would be a good idea for exceptions to remain even when
the series is modified. You can post this as a suggestion using the web
interface or you can write to outwish at microsoft.com (I think that's the
address for Outlook suggestions).

 

[Guest]

This thread has been dead for a while but I just got to it. I see Nikki's
point. But what do you do if you set up a recurrence with "no end date" in
the first place, and then change individual occurrences within that
recurrence? If you ever want that recurrence to stop recurring in your
calendar, you can only do that at the price of losing any record of these
previous exceptions. That seems almost bug-like, or at least something that
should be documented with a warning somewhere.

 

[Brian Tillman]

This thread has been dead for a while but I just got to it. I see
Nikki's point. But what do you do if you set up a recurrence with "no
end date" in the first place, and then change individual occurrences
within that recurrence? If you ever want that recurrence to stop
recurring in your calendar, you can only do that at the price of
losing any record of these previous exceptions.

This is a correct observance.

That seems almost bug-like, or at least something that should be
documented with a
warning somewhere.

Outlook itself warns you that you will lose exceptions when you make a
change that will regenerate the event item (at least it does for me). Is
that not good enough?

 

[Guest]

I can't find the warning Brian mentions in Outlook 2003.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I can't find the warning Brian mentions in Outlook 2003.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing to "find". I just created a recurring
appointment. then added some exceptions. I I then changed the series in a
way that caused Outlook to have to generate the event over, by changing the
end date of the recurrence. Outlook 2003 pops up the message "Any
exceptions associated with this recurring appointment will be lost. If any
of the exceptions are meetings, the attendees will not be notified. Is this
OK?" Seems fairly clear to me.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

It should pop up when you make the change.

If you need to end the occurrences, export then import it splits it into
individual items.

 

[Guest]

Is there a way to quickly locate all such exceptions?

 

[John]

If you have never used another calendar programme apart from Outlook I guess
this laborious solution seems OK. Compared to the Palm Calendar Outlook is
very basic and frustrating if you have to deal with the realities of
cancelled meetings and wish to keep a meaningful past history of
appointments. Does anyone know how to encourage Microsoft to listen to
requests to improve the functionality?