Sharing Calendar

[Guest]

I have a small company; several people must share the same calendar. My
scenario is thus (and we are running Outllook 2003 AND Exchange 2003):

Jane: Shares Bob's AND Jim's Calendars
Kim: Shares Bob's and Jim's Calendars
Karen: Shares Bob's AND Ted's Calendars
Walter: Shares Bob's, Jim's, AND Ted's Calendars
Michelle: Shares Jim's Calendar

Naomi needs to see everyone's calendar -- Jane, Kim, Karen and Walter need
read/write privildges.

I went to Jim and Bob and Ted's machines and shared their calendar, and gave
read/write permissions as appropriate, not only to the individual USERS, but
to Default as well (cause I never know when someone is gonna NEED to use
these calendars, too, we change a lot around here!).

This is what happened.

Jane, when accessing Jim's calendar, cannot write anything, she gets a
"Cannot Access Free/Busy Time" error message; with Ted's calendar, the
appointments she puts in show up in HER side of Ted's calendar, but NOT on
Ted's side.

Michelle: Has no problem at all with Ted's calendar.

Naomi can see everything just dandy. The problem is getting her to DO it.
Sigh. You can't help there, never mind.

Walter gets the same message on both Jim and Ted's calendar as Jane gets
with Jim: "Cannot access Free/Busy Time."

Getting these people to even USE Outlook has been a struggle; now I have
them threatening to quit using it, and thereby making our new server a VERY
expensive doorstop.

Can anyone help?

 

[Francine Otterson]

Please clarify for me, are you trying to share one calendar or trying to
share everyone individual calendars with others?

If several people must share the same calendar - then I would create Public
Calendar- central calendar that allows you to setup rights on the server.

As for some of the issue below
Ted's FreeBusy issue - make sure to check the calendar Free/Busy information
on Jim calendar under Tools - Options - Free/Busy. The default is 2 months I
would change it 12 months. Also make sure that he is using the Exchange
Server - mailbox and not a personal folder. Do this for anyone calendar
there are problems access there computers

Also, as stated above if you are in need of a central calendar for a common
purpose then look into a Public Calendar and also show them how to setup and
use View Group Schedules under Actions - View Group Schedules. Allows you
to create a group schedule as see everyone's free/busy information in grid
type format.

Regards,

 

[Guest]

Share everyone's individual calendars -- these are paralegals and lawyers.
Actually, the Free/Busy is ALMOST dead on . . . I had already checked that.
What REALLY helped was the run Outlook.exe with the /cleanfreebusy switch --
that cleared up the trouble.

I have the shared calendar for OTHER purposes . . . but this question was
directed to share these paralegals keeping litigation lawyers straight with
court dates, etc., and a public calendar wasn't quite the ticket. Thanks,
though.

I loved that clean switch!!!

 

[Francine Otterson]

Great glad it is resolved and now knowing that all was setup correctly for
the Free/Busy but still not working running the switch would have been my
next step as well. There are many available (switches) and they do come in
handy.

 

[Guest]

Share everyone's individual calendars -- these are paralegals and lawyers.
Actually, the Free/Busy is ALMOST dead on . . . I had already checked that.
What REALLY helped was the run Outlook.exe with the /cleanfreebusy switch --
that cleared up the trouble.

I have the shared calendar for OTHER purposes . . . but this question was
directed to share these paralegals keeping litigation lawyers straight with
court dates, etc., and a public calendar wasn't quite the ticket. Thanks,
though.

I loved that clean switch!!!

 

[Guest]

I cannot find the option to change this from 2 months to 12 months. I am
using Outlook 2002. When I have my group's calendar open, and I click on
Options, I only see "Refresh Free/Busy" - please provide additional
information. Thanks.