Appointment "Catagory " is lost when accepting an appointment invi

[Ralph Malph]

I have a calendar in which many custom views have been created.

The custom views sorts and displays the appointments/events based on filters
which use the "Catagory" fields. This had been working fine until recently.
(We just upgraded to exchange 2007 from 2003, problem may be related)

Now we are noticing that appointments added to the calendar via an invite do
not show up in the custom views. After doing a lot of tests and expieriments
to find the problem, it has been identified. It seems that the "Catagory"
setting is removed from the accepted invite in the calendar that accepts it.

The catagory remains in the original calendar that sent the invite.

In other words, Ralph sends an invitation for Lunch to Sally. In the
appointment category, he selects "Luncheon", then sends the invite. Sally
accepts the invitation. The appointment is saved in her calendar. Now she
goes to view the calendar using a "Custom View" that shows "only appointments
that have a category of "Luncheon". Knowing that Ralph just sent a "Luncheon"
invite she expects it to be shown in the "Luncheon" custom view, but it is
not. If Sally looks at "All" the appointments in her calendar, the "Luncheon"
appointment is there, however, when she opens it, she notices that the
"Category" is blank, not "luncheon" which is how it was sent. This is why it
did not show up in her custom "Luncheon" view.

What I need to know is what is causing the "Category" to be deleted from the
appointment when it is accepted and how do I stop it from doing that.

Is this a "Bug", or is there a setting that must have been inadvertently
changed some where that will cause this to happen?

Has anyone else seen this kind of problem?

Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Ralph Malph

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

Version 2007 comes pre-set with a Rule to remove Categories from all
incoming emails. That's what is causing your meeting requests to be
stripped of their Category. Try turning the Rule off.

Inbox | Tools | Rules... uncheck the Category rule.

--

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant www.pragmatix.com.au
Outlook 2003 user? Read "7 settings all Outlook 2003 users should change"
on my website.

..

 

[Ralph Malph]

Judy,

Thank you for the quick reply. It seems you have identified the source of
our problem...Typical Microsoft Stupidity...LOL what is wrong with those
guys. Why on earth would one EVER come up with such a stupid idea as to
remove that item. In fact why even have a "Category" field if you are just
going to strip the info right out of the e-mail. Don't you sometimes just
want to slap these people upside the head and see if there is anything up
there?

Thanks again for the info, I logged into the receiving account and sure
enough the rule was there and checked. Unfortunately, even though I was
logged on as the mail box, and had admin rights on the local machine I could
not remove the rule. I will have to get with our exchange admin and see if
they can. What a major pain, all thanks to the ever intelligent and wonderful
Microsoft......

Thanks again for all the help, at least someone knows what is going on out
there,

Ralph Malph

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thank you for the quick reply. It seems you have identified the
source of our problem...Typical Microsoft Stupidity...LOL what is
wrong with those guys. Why on earth would one EVER come up with such
a stupid idea as to remove that item. In fact why even have a
"Category" field if you are just going to strip the info right out of
the e-mail. Don't you sometimes just want to slap these people upside
the head and see if there is anything up there?

I believe the decision to be a good one. I do not care what categories you
have chosen for yourself and I certainly don't want them on appointments
that I receive. If I want a category on them, I'll put one of my own
choosing on them. Kudos for Microsoft for providing this functionality.

 

[Ralph Malph]

Brian,

Thanks for your comment, I too, do not use categories, but the fact that
they are there has never been a problem. In fact I had never even looked at
that feature/property until one of the people I support started having
issues, caused by a marginally, at best, advertised change by MS for no good
reason. So here is the way I see it, unless you actually use the "category"
feature for sorting, viewing ect, it is invisible so leaving it alone would
NOT impact ANYONE ever, nor prevent you from changing it to a category of
your choice, but making this change DOES affect everyone who uses this
feature in the manor my user was, (Look around, you'll find a LOT of people
use it for similar reasons and in similar ways to my user.)

Bottom line is, use them or not as to your liking, but since they ARE, in
effect, invisible to the NON USER, why make such a change which will SCREW up
those who do. It just does not make good since, instead if it is such a
problem, why not just provide the rule and leave it unchecked, with EASY, (I
know not a word in MS vocabulary) to find info on their knowledge base,
newsgroups etc that it is there.

If it had been the rule from day one then everyone, by now, who uses the
feature would know to adjust that rule as needed, but to make such a major
change for such a minor thing without good compelling reason, is just plain
not good engineering. It certainly would not have gone over well with any of
my professors when I was going to college getting my engineering degree.

Ralph Malph