Viewing Public Calendar by Person

[Guest]

This is a question someone posted on "Experts Exchange" and it's exactly what I'd like to do, so I'm just basically pasting the question.

I am researching different options for having a shared calendar that my department can access via the web and add scheduled events to (i.e. vacation and location information). We have an Exchange server and all our users have Outlook 2003 so I was wondering if that would work... My senior manager wants to be able to tell where someone is at a given time since all of the users are consultants assigned to clients. Right now everyone uses Outlook to manage their schedules but it doesnt let the senior manager know where they are w/o calling to ask. We've setup a public calendar so we can put assignments on there, but it just shows like a regular calendar where I'd have to open each event to see who's an attendee. We'd like to set it up so that we can view one calendar that we could update and then it would update the personal calendar of the invitees. My question is can I set up a shared folder in outlook and have a calendar that everyone can add to that will give an overlapping view? Has anyone tried this with Outlook 2003? Basically, I'd like to have a list down the left of the members of the dept, and a timeline across the top and the assignment listing as the product of the person and date/time.

I've done something similar through "Group Schedules" in Outlook, but since we don't have permissions to see everyone's personal calendars, we can only see the time blocked out, not the actual event. Basically we'd like a view like that, but being able to view the entries that are entered on a public calendar.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

A public folder is one approach, but you'll need some automation if you want
to get everyone's information into it in an intelligible fashion. See
http://www.slipstick.com/calendar/scheduleall.htm for solutions.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

This is a question someone posted on "Experts Exchange" and it's exactly

what I'd like to do, so I'm just basically pasting the question.

I am researching different options for having a shared calendar that my

department can access via the web and add scheduled events to (i.e. vacation
and location information). We have an Exchange server and all our users
have Outlook 2003 so I was wondering if that would work... My senior
manager wants to be able to tell where someone is at a given time since all
of the users are consultants assigned to clients. Right now everyone uses
Outlook to manage their schedules but it doesnt let the senior manager know
where they are w/o calling to ask. We've setup a public calendar so we can
put assignments on there, but it just shows like a regular calendar where
I'd have to open each event to see who's an attendee. We'd like to set it
up so that we can view one calendar that we could update and then it would
update the personal calendar of the invitees. My question is can I set up a
shared folder in outlook and have a calendar that everyone can add to that
will give an overlapping view? Has anyone tried this with Outlook 2003?
Basically, I'd like to have a list down the left of the members of the dept,
and a timeline across the top and the assignment listing as the product of
the person and date/time.

I've done something similar through "Group Schedules" in Outlook, but

since we don't have permissions to see everyone's personal calendars, we can
only see the time blocked out, not the actual event. Basically we'd like a
view like that, but being able to view the entries that are entered on a
public calendar.

 

[Guest]

Here's a pic of what I can do in Outlook now:
http://www.bluelegends.com/images/Calendar.JPG

But since those are the personal calendars, we cant see what other people are doing. Our company wont make those available to us. So we've setup a Public Calendar so far, but I'd like to get it to look kind of like that pic so once we invite people to appointments, we can later see where they are or where they're going to be. Anyway to do this with just Outlook 2003 / Exchange, since I doubt our firm will install a 3rd party application for us.

Thanks again.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Your choices are to install a 3rd-party tool or write your own. Aside from
the Group Schedule feature, there is no built-in functionality to do exactly
what you want.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Here's a pic of what I can do in Outlook now:
http://www.bluelegends.com/images/Calendar.JPG

But since those are the personal calendars, we cant see what other people

are doing. Our company wont make those available to us. So we've setup a
Public Calendar so far, but I'd like to get it to look kind of like that pic
so once we invite people to appointments, we can later see where they are or
where they're going to be. Anyway to do this with just Outlook 2003 /
Exchange, since I doubt our firm will install a 3rd party application for
us.

 

[Guest]

I see. Thanks a lot for the answers.

Is there a particular 3rd party application you recommend? I'd prefer something that would automatically update from the public calendar, however doesnt need to be installed on the Exchange server machine since my IT dept isnt going to give me access to do that or do it for me.

Basically is there one that could read the public calendar off my machine/Outlook and then update itself so that we can see the information the way we want? The thing is that we dont want non-dept people to be able to see it. So right now, they cant see the public calendar. Since only people in my dept can see the calendar is there a client app we can install that would read the public calendar and present the info the way we want it? Thanks again.

~ Ketan

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

All have different features and prices. It's not possible to predict which
will be the best fit for you, without doing a lot of research, especially
since I'm not currently following that product space.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

I see. Thanks a lot for the answers.

Is there a particular 3rd party application you recommend? I'd prefer

something that would automatically update from the public calendar, however
doesnt need to be installed on the Exchange server machine since my IT dept
isnt going to give me access to do that or do it for me.

Basically is there one that could read the public calendar off my

machine/Outlook and then update itself so that we can see the information
the way we want? The thing is that we dont want non-dept people to be able
to see it. So right now, they cant see the public calendar. Since only
people in my dept can see the calendar is there a client app we can install
that would read the public calendar and present the info the way we want it?
Thanks again.