Can I duplicate an event? What are the alternatives?

[Jim Robertson]

I'm a physician trying to create a calendar that I'll share with other users
on our SBS2008/Exchange 2007 LAN.

After reading that I shouldn't try to do it using Public Folders (MS Office
Outlook 2007 Inside Out), MS MVP Leonid S. Knyshov corrected that noting
that Public Folders will be supported until 2020 (by which time we won't
HAVE medical care in the US unless Congress gets busy and stops just
supporting the giant insurance companies who hand them checks under the
table).

Anyway, I now have a calendar; not pretty, but functional.

For years, my personal information manager client has been MS Office Mac
Entourage. In the Entourage Calendar it's a piece of cake to duplicate
events. Why would I want to do this rather than just creating recurring
events? Best example is our weekend call schedule; there are 4 of us, and of
course we rotate according to a pattern, but because of
vacations/meetings/etc. We rarely keep to that schedule. So, what I've done
in Entourage was to make four two-day all day events: "doc1 on call", "doc2
on call", etc. When I populate my own private Entourage calendar for the
upcoming year, I make duplicates of the events month by month. That way, I'm
not challenged to increasingly byzantine edits of a recurring events series.

I can't figure out how to duplicate events in Outlook to accomplish the same
thing. Is the best alternative to add template events named "doc1 on call"
etc. then just paste the template events in for the appropriate weekends?

Thanks so much,
Jim Robertson

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

I'm a physician trying to create a calendar that I'll share with other users
on our SBS2008/Exchange 2007 LAN.

After reading that I shouldn't try to do it using Public Folders (MS Office
Outlook 2007 Inside Out), MS MVP Leonid S. Knyshov corrected that noting
that Public Folders will be supported until 2020 (by which time we won't
HAVE medical care in the US unless Congress gets busy and stops just
supporting the giant insurance companies who hand them checks under the
table).

Anyway, I now have a calendar; not pretty, but functional.

For years, my personal information manager client has been MS Office Mac
Entourage. In the Entourage Calendar it's a piece of cake to duplicate
events. Why would I want to do this rather than just creating recurring
events? Best example is our weekend call schedule; there are 4 of us, and of
course we rotate according to a pattern, but because of
vacations/meetings/etc. We rarely keep to that schedule. So, what I've done
in Entourage was to make four two-day all day events: "doc1 on call", "doc2
on call", etc. When I populate my own private Entourage calendar for the
upcoming year, I make duplicates of the events month by month. That way, I'm
not challenged to increasingly byzantine edits of a recurring events series.

I can't figure out how to duplicate events in Outlook to accomplish the same
thing. Is the best alternative to add template events named "doc1 on call"
etc. then just paste the template events in for the appropriate weekends?

Thanks so much,
Jim Robertson

I am not an MVP, though I do monitor a several forums and am flattered
to be considered as such.

Select any appointment. Hit ctrl-c. Hit ctrl-v as many times as you
want. For the record, I definitely recommend recurring series.

There is free training available from Microsoft on all this at
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC101000901033&pid=CR100654581033
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Try Exchange Online http://bit.ly/free-exchange-trial
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[Jim Robertson]

For the record, I definitely recommend recurring series.

Thanks for reading my ingénue level posts.

Problem with the recurring series is that although it starts as four people
alternating weekends, by the end of the year it would take a Sudoku pro to
figure out what the pattern was initially, so copy/paste works better for
me.

Since you're listening, what about making simple template events. If that's
covered in your suggested training link, I'll find out -)

Thanks again,
Jim Robertson

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

I do not recommend recurring events, especially if you need to make
exceptions some weeks. The only way I would do this is if you made the
recurrences for just a few weeks at a time - say monthly or quarterly.
Longer recurrences can be problematic.

Use Ctrl+C, V to copy and paste. If you enter Edit mode, press ESC to get
out of edit mode and then Ctrl+C to copy.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

I concur with Diane on the recurring approach - too prone to problems.

I find many people don't know that dragging with your right mouse button
will enable you to copy an event. Nothing wrong with Ctrl V, just I prefer
dragging - you can drag and drop to the destination date easilly that way.
Release, select Copy.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

in Canberra, Australia

..

I do not recommend recurring events, especially if you need to make
exceptions some weeks. The only way I would do this is if you made the
recurrences for just a few weeks at a time - say monthly or quarterly.
Longer recurrences can be problematic.

Use Ctrl+C, V to copy and paste. If you enter Edit mode, press ESC to get
out of edit mode and then Ctrl+C to copy.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Do you sync your mailbox with a smartphone or pda?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=39473

Thanks for reading my ingénue level posts.

Problem with the recurring series is that although it starts as four
people
alternating weekends, by the end of the year it would take a Sudoku pro
to
figure out what the pattern was initially, so copy/paste works better for
me.

Since you're listening, what about making simple template events. If
that's
covered in your suggested training link, I'll find out -)

Thanks again,
Jim Robertson