Exporting and importing Calendar Items

[Joe McGuire]

I have no trouble exporting and importing (from my home office) Contacts in
Office/Outlook 2003 to my Philadelphia office (Office/Outlook 2002) network
which I access remotely via the internet. However, for some reason it seems
impossible to do this with Appointments. I can export an Apointment as a
*.ics file from OL 2003 via e-mail, but when I same the attached apointment
it saves as a *.msg file. OL 2002 will not even recognize such a file when
I try to import it--it will not even sho up in the folder where the imports
are located (I usually have a folder for vCards and stick all such things in
there). Sounds goofy but I tried to force OL to change the file name from
*.msg to *.ics. I could now see the file in the folder when I tried to
import it but OL reports that the file could not be imkported due to some
sort of corruption--probably my hacking around with the file. Is there any
way to send appointments back and forth between OL 2002 and 2003?

Joe McGuire

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Open the .msg file and then choose File | Copy to Folder to save it to your Calendar file.

 

[Joe McGuire]

Thanks, Sue. Your suggestion--if I followed it correctly--works partly.

Here's what I did: I e-mailed an appointment to my network/olffice e-mail
address, oened the e-mail in OL2002 and saved the attachment (what had
started the journey as an Carmen.ics file but which is now Carmen.msg--some
singers I know will be singing this opera at the Met on 12/14/05) to a
folder for vCards and such OL stuff. In Win Explorer I opened the *.msg
file and clicked File, Copy to Folder and selected Calendar.

Here's what happened: I opened OL2002 and went to the date (12/14/05) but
nothing is there. However an appointment shows up now in today's calendar.
Oddly, it shows up in the usual view as blank. I opene it and it is still
blank, except for a date and time--the date and time I copied the message.
In the "Comments" window (that big window where you can enter text and
stuff--I am not sure of its technical name) there is an icon. CLicking on
the icon opens it. It is a message relating the date and time for the event
on 12/14/05. Further saving or Copying this to the same folder produces the
same result.

Did I miss something along the way?

Joe McGuire



Open the .msg file and then choose File | Copy to Folder to save it to your
Calendar file.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

That's pretty weird. Did the dates look right when you opened the .msg file? And how did it get to be an .msg instead of an .ics in the first place?

Sorry I can't be there at the Met on that date. Carmen was the first opera I ever heard all the way through on a recording (3rd year French class in high school). I last saw it in Moscow on a hot summer's day in a theatre with minimal air conditioning -- the perfect atmosphere, at least for the audience.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Joe McGuire]

The dates were actually right, but the only way they show up is as a
"message" in a calendar item rather than as an appointment. I have no way
to explain the *.ics --> *.msg format metamorphosis. OK, alchemy. Or black
magic. But simply trying to rename the file back to *.ics at the receiving
end does not work. I am guessing it may be something with MS Terminal
Server, Win2000, Exchange Server, or OL 2002. The problem seems to occur
only in one direction: From OL2003 on my laptop going through e-mail to our
network and then to OL2002 on my desktop (or Exchange folders) at our
office. I seem to be able to export individual appointments from the office
to the laptop without incident.

[Schedule change at the Met! Have to change the appointment anyway! Our
friends will be singing (together) on different dates, probably 2 matinees
in November and December. FUn to see young friends take on the Met. One
made his debut as Leporello near the end of the 2003-2004 season. I thought
getting TO the Met was the hard part; little did I know how hard it is to
get THROUGH the Met once they give you the job! Several other friends might
get there in the next few years.]

Joe McGuire

That's pretty weird. Did the dates look right when you opened the .msg file?
And how did it get to be an .msg instead of an .ics in the first place?

Sorry I can't be there at the Met on that date. Carmen was the first opera I
ever heard all the way through on a recording (3rd year French class in high
school). I last saw it in Moscow on a hot summer's day in a theatre with
minimal air conditioning -- the perfect atmosphere, at least for the
audience.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Joe McGuire]

Answer: After an e-mail exchange with a tech, including a few suggestions,
the conclusion seems to be that OL2003 is not fully backwards compatible, at
least with respect to exporting and importing appointments. There seems to
be no solution for the inability of OL2002 to import appointments from
OL2003. The tech promised to refer the issue to the Office Team.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not sure you got the right answer. It sounds to me like you used the File | Save As command on the appointment without choosing iCalendar as the file format.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers