Add Outlook Feature: Set recurring appointments relative to sunri.

[Guest]

In my life, some appointments are relative to sunrise, midday (exactly
halfway between sunrise and sunset), sunset, and midnight (exactly halfway
between sunset and sunrise). Extending this idea would be setting
appointments relative to phases of the moon. I would find setting relative
appointment times very useful. A relative time would be "30 minutes before
sunset", "18 minutes before sunset on Fridays", "72 minutes after sunset on
Saturday nights", "2 hours after sunset on the 3rd night after the new moon."
Relative appointment times would be useful for religious observance, for
astronomers, for astrologers, and probably for other types of people. Please
let me know if there is an add-in, or consider this feature for the next
version of Windows and Outlook.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

I doubt very much that the Outlook program team will be looking at this
feature that would appeal to a very narrow set of users. I would rather
they spend their time working on persistent bugs and useful features like
being able to print a list of attendees from a meeting item.

Use a chronograph for this - Outlook is not a timekeeper.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Indinfer asked:

| In my life, some appointments are relative to sunrise, midday (exactly
| halfway between sunrise and sunset), sunset, and midnight (exactly
| halfway between sunset and sunrise). Extending this idea would be
| setting appointments relative to phases of the moon. I would find
| setting relative appointment times very useful. A relative time would
| be "30 minutes before sunset", "18 minutes before sunset on Fridays",
| "72 minutes after sunset on Saturday nights", "2 hours after sunset
| on the 3rd night after the new moon." Relative appointment times
| would be useful for religious observance, for astronomers, for
| astrologers, and probably for other types of people. Please let me
| know if there is an add-in, or consider this feature for the next
| version of Windows and Outlook.

 

[Guest]

Great idea. I would like my schedule adjusted to the traffic situation. Like
leave the office 20 minutes before it crops up, but I don't think we will see
your and my ideas earlier than in outlook version 2045

 

[Guest]

I don't think this should be a feature. If it were it would clutter the
screens/menus of most users.

However, if it's not already possible, it should be possible to use VBA to
add this feature. Those who want it should be able to use an add-in. They
could distribute it within their religious/astronomer/astrologer communities.
Sounds like an ideal project for a hobbyist.

 

[Guest]

I appreciate the responses to the idea. Clutter is an important issue. I
would suppose that the relative recurring appointments feature could be
turned on and off as one of the options, or could be provided as an add-in. I
also suppose that the recurring appointments feature could be expanded upon.

I liked the idea of having Outlook adjust the "Leave to go to the office"
depending upon a traffic report, probably through the Internet. I would
suppose that the traffic could be scored on some scale like 1 to 10 and
Outlook could be programmed to adjust the time earlier depending upon the
score it gets from the Internet.

Many of us are walking around with PDAs that have Outlook on them. The PDAs
can serve as an alarm clock. Outlook on the PDA can be synchronized with the
Outlook on the main computer (a PC Desktop or Laptop).

Perhaps the idea of relative appointments can be generalized so that it
applies not just to sunrise and sunset and the moon. It could be applied to
anything for which one could obtain a score from the Internet. Outlook could
be set to adjust the time and date based on anything that looks like a score
from 1 to 10 or 0 to 100 or 1 to 24, and so forth.

Perhaps businesses could signal adjustments to their employee's copies of
Outlook by making scores available. Outlook could be set to poll the scores
at appropriate frequencies such as once a week or once an hour, and so forth.