Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Quick Background: I have an Compaq IPAQ 3870 running PocketPC 2002
Premium w/ Outlook 2002. Tomorrow I think I am going to upgrade, and go
out and get the new T-Mobile HP iPAQ h6315. My wife has an Compaq IPAQ
3850.

I have started to rely on my PocketPC, mostly for keeping track of my
appointments with the calendar. But, it’s a real headache sometimes.

First issue, one of my problems is time zones. I travel a lot, US and
Europe mostly, and I like being able to switch to a new time when I
travel. But it screws me up completely. Say I’m in California, and I
book a flight from LAX to Munich. Depart at 1PM Monday, arrive 3PM
Tuesday (given connections). When I get there, I switch my clock, and
my 4PM meeting in Munich suddenly becomes 8PM! Uh… Ok, I get it…

So, I do understand that if I set up a 1PM call in California, then had
to make the call from Munich, it would have adjusted it for me. Fair
enough. But, that actually happens a lot less often than planning
events for the time they will be, in the time zone they will be in.

The only solution I can see would be to sit down and calculate
EVERYTHING onto California time before I enter it. And then, if I get a
call, and the person says “we still on for Lunch in London?” I look at
my calendar and it says I have a 4AM meeting, not lunch!

What would be ideal is the ability to enter the time, date, AND time
zone of each individual event. Is there any third party software that
has this option?

My second problem is synchronizing. I have a work laptop, and a
personal laptop at home. I usually enter personal scheduling at home,
work scheduling at the office. But I need them both on the PDA, and I
want them both to show up in Outlook on both PCs. I mean, this thing is
suppose to help me keep track of my schedule right? Sometimes things
disappear in the transfer, and sometimes deleted appointments will show
back up. Is there some third party scheduling software, a better sync
method, or anything that is smart enough to stop this from happening?

My third and final question is this, what about trying to figure out
when BOTH me and my wife have time free? She has the same dang problems
(work and personal computers, and traveling). And, I really would like
to see BOTH schedules somehow (hers in pink, mine in blue, whatever, I
don’t care). Is there anyway we can do this?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

You have a lot of requests there. None of them unusual. It is not hard to
find a third party app that will let you specify a TZ with an appointment.
CityTime does that reasonably well I think. When you tap and hold on the
calendar, one of the options is City Appt (IIRC) and it allows a city to be
selected that the appt will take place in and adjusts accordingly. It's not
the only one that does that sort of thing. I have no clue how to get around
the Lunch date in NY showing on your calendar at 9AM when you are in LA.
That's my biggest beef with the adjusted appt thing.

I don't know what to say about your problem with appt irregularities on your
work and home laptops. I am assuming you want all appointments on all
machines. Many are looking to have both work and personal on the PPC and
only the associated ones on the desktop/laptops. That's theoretically
possible by adjusting sync categories and being meticulous about assigning
categories when you create appointments. If you want them all everywhere
that should work just fine, it does for me. Possibly there are some errors
in your Outlook pst. There is a detect and repair option in Outlook that you
might try to see if it clears anything up. Last resort may be to hard reset
your PPC and start fresh, but that's kind of what you are going to do with
the new 6315.

As far as keeping your and your wife's schedules, you can get your display
desires, by using categories and possibly some third party PIM software like
Pocket Informant, or Agenda Fusion, or even Pocket Breeze (which I really
like). The latter, and I assume the other two, have the ability to adjust
text color based on category. This does mean you have to be consistent about
assigning Mine, Wife, category attributes to appointments. How you get your
wife's appointments on you PPC is a different issue. Unfortunately you can't
sync with all four machines. Off-hand the only thing I could think of is to
export her appointments to a pst from her machine and import them into
yours. I expect it is going to have to be dealt with from the desktop side
though.

Sorry I haven't been more help, but at the present, it doesn't seem that the
native capability built in to Pocket Outlook supports what you want to do
easily. Time Zones are often discussed here and the current behavior made
sense to somebody when they built desktop Outlook and just followed along
into Pocket Outlook. It actually still makes sense to many. Not sure there
is a good solution that would make sense to all. The key is understanding
what it does and developing your method of dealing with it. Keeping two
people, two PPCs and four desktops in sync, is just outside the envisioned
use patterns. You should definitely not have a problem doing yourself
though. Hopefully a fresh start with a new PPC will see those issues go
away.

--
Sven, MS-MVP Mobile Devices
"What Oil?" <leaksoil@neverdot.net> wrote in message
news:U4I9d.2333$kz3.1208@fed1read02...
> Quick Background: I have an Compaq IPAQ 3870 running PocketPC 2002
> Premium w/ Outlook 2002. Tomorrow I think I am going to upgrade, and go
> out and get the new T-Mobile HP iPAQ h6315. My wife has an Compaq IPAQ
> 3850.
>
> I have started to rely on my PocketPC, mostly for keeping track of my
> appointments with the calendar. But, it’s a real headache sometimes.
>
> First issue, one of my problems is time zones. I travel a lot, US and
> Europe mostly, and I like being able to switch to a new time when I
> travel. But it screws me up completely. Say I’m in California, and I
> book a flight from LAX to Munich. Depart at 1PM Monday, arrive 3PM
> Tuesday (given connections). When I get there, I switch my clock, and
> my 4PM meeting in Munich suddenly becomes 8PM! Uh… Ok, I get it…
>
> So, I do understand that if I set up a 1PM call in California, then had
> to make the call from Munich, it would have adjusted it for me. Fair
> enough. But, that actually happens a lot less often than planning
> events for the time they will be, in the time zone they will be in.
>
> The only solution I can see would be to sit down and calculate
> EVERYTHING onto California time before I enter it. And then, if I get a
> call, and the person says “we still on for Lunch in London?” I look at
> my calendar and it says I have a 4AM meeting, not lunch!
>
> What would be ideal is the ability to enter the time, date, AND time
> zone of each individual event. Is there any third party software that
> has this option?
>
> My second problem is synchronizing. I have a work laptop, and a
> personal laptop at home. I usually enter personal scheduling at home,
> work scheduling at the office. But I need them both on the PDA, and I
> want them both to show up in Outlook on both PCs. I mean, this thing is
> suppose to help me keep track of my schedule right? Sometimes things
> disappear in the transfer, and sometimes deleted appointments will show
> back up. Is there some third party scheduling software, a better sync
> method, or anything that is smart enough to stop this from happening?
>
> My third and final question is this, what about trying to figure out
> when BOTH me and my wife have time free? She has the same dang problems
> (work and personal computers, and traveling). And, I really would like
> to see BOTH schedules somehow (hers in pink, mine in blue, whatever, I
> don’t care). Is there anyway we can do this?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

Sven, MVP-Mobile Devices wrote:
> How you get your
> wife's appointments on you PPC is a different issue. Unfortunately you can't
> sync with all four machines.

Why? Does it get fussy and realize there are two many PC's? Or is it
just impractical?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

No, a single PPC will only establish partnerships with two PCs. When you
try to partner with the third it will ask which of the other two you wish to
remove. A PC will partner with as many PPCs as you wish though.

--
Sven, MS-MVP Mobile Devices
"What Oil?" <leaksoil@neverdot.net> wrote in message
newsUZ9d.4499$kz3.2674@fed1read02...
> Sven, MVP-Mobile Devices wrote:
> > How you get your
> > wife's appointments on you PPC is a different issue. Unfortunately you
can't
> > sync with all four machines.
>
> Why? Does it get fussy and realize there are two many PC's? Or is it
> just impractical?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

If you understand microsoft's original logic, it might help to use the
default setup

All appointments are actually stored in GMT and displayed based on the
currently selected timezone.

My guess is that the theory is that if you have electronic events such
as phone conferences or email deadlines, they will not change as you travel.

If you switch to the event timezone before you make the appointment, it
will remain accurate as you travel, but it is a pain to switch before
each entry and back, plus to review travel schedules.

tip... tapping the date on the today screen brings up the time/timezone
selector.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]