Delete without sending a cancellation? Why?

[Guest]

I am often asked by our Outook users why does Outlook give us this option
when canceling meetings. I haven't found a way to turn it off and force users
always to send a cancellation and updates...so why do we give them the option
in Outlook?

At our Helpdesk we recommend our users to always send a cancellation notice,
because if you do not, the meeting attendees will not know the meeting has
been cancelled and it will still appear on their calendars and leave an
orphaned meeting. This also happens to the resource calendar as well.

There must be a reason Microsoft includes this option but what would be a
case that you would not send cancellations or updates when scheduling
meetings.

Can anyone think of a situation you wouldn't want to send a cancelation ?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no such option in Outlook 2007. Apparently, Microsoft got feedback from your users or people like them.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

Can anyone think of a situation you wouldn't want to send a cancelation ?

Yes!

I work for the CEO of our organisation and there are frequent recurring
management meetings - where I obviously send invitations to other attendees.
Even if the CEO cannot go, these meetings still go ahead with the other
attendees. So I might need to delete them from the CEO's calendar (if he has
other commitments in the calendar then it's just a mess if I leave the
meeting in there) - but the other people still NEED them in their calendars -
it's much easier and quicker to say "No, don't send a cancellation" than to
rebook the meeting and ensure people send responses.

I am disappointed that this option has gone from Outlook 2007. We have not
yet upgraded (we're still on 2003). In my opinion, it would be useful to give
us the choice (possibly as a global option on the server) whether to
force/automatically send cancellations or leave it as it works now (preferred
option for hardworking PAs everywhere).

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Would this scenario work for you in Outlook 2007: Have the PAs create the meetings on their own calendars, rather than on the CEO's calendar. They would certainly still invite the CEO, but would maintain the meeting details on their own calendars, presumably using color coding or a separate view to distinguish those meetings from the PA's own activities.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

Me personally: no.

It's annoying enough as it is that meetings randomly appear in my calendar
that I am not expected to attend, but have created as a delegate from the
CEO's calendar (some appear in my calendar, some don't, no rhyme or reason to
it). The meetings are in his calendar, I don't need or want them in mine
unless I am part of the meeting - in which case I invite myself from his
calendar.

If PAs are working for a team of people, then it might be easier to see
everyone in a single window, rather than having multiple calendars open - in
which case, my preferred option would be to colour code by user and be able
to do this as an individual user rule - i.e. user can choose whether to show
all meetings that they are attending in red, with other meetings by
user/colour as they choose. However anyone else invited to that meeting would
see the meeting in their calendar as per their individual setups.

Having to do any extra messing around with meetings on a meeting-by-meeting
basis is a time-consuming pain in the neck.

 

[elbyc]

This is well put. I agree with you about both the frustration of
working with multiple calendars and your disappointment about this lost
feature.
One suggestion you might try - you can create a new calendar folder in
the main view of Outlook (I use 2003) and choose to have it contain
calendar items.
Then send invitations from there instead of from your CEO's or your
calendar. It says it won't track the incoming messages, but it looks
like it actually does. I also schedule meetings through my boss's
calendar and when there are multiple recipients she gets pinged with a
bunch of responses which she then has to delete. Having a separate
calendar may eliminate this issue.