Outlook meeting times

[jogold]

In Outlook calendar when you set a meeting for 4pm est and then fly to California Outlook in all it's glory helps you changes the time to reflect the time zone change. So it will set your meeting three hours back.
The problem is that I want the meeting to be set at 4pm and stay at 4pm and not be updated by moving time zones.
The problem is on the computer, smartphone and online Outlook.
I've seen a lot of explanations as to why this is so but imho it sucks as do the explanations. I know and don't care why, I want to override their override.
thanks

 

[Sky-Knight]

The change is made based on the timezone on the computer in question, so just set the timezone on the laptop to what you want it to be so it stays.

Your phone has a similar setting.

 

[jogold]

The change is made based on the timezone on the computer in question, so just set the timezone on the laptop to what you want it to be so it stays.

Your phone has a similar setting.

 

[jogold]

In short - is there a way to freeze certain meetings.

The issue is that I have some meetings that I need to have the times updated to the new timezone but there are others that I don't want updated.
Video meetings need to be updated but when I put flight information about my return from another time zone I don't want that updated.

 

[Sky-Knight]

In short - is there a way to freeze certain meetings.

The issue is that I have some meetings that I need to have the times updated to the new timezone but there are others that I don't want updated.
Video meetings need to be updated but when I put flight information about my return from another time zone I don't want that updated.

No, because time is time. You're seeing each thing as separate when the system doesn't. There's a time stamp on the meeting stored in the calendar, and there's a time stamp on the device that's accessing the calendar.

The system recognizes that both have potentially different time zones, and automatically adjusts them so the item in question is at the same "time" regardless of the viewers location. Adjustments follow the movement of the machine through the time zones. This is done to eliminate human error in setting scheduling, and is generally a good thing. Honestly I'm having a hard time understanding why you'd even want to override this. If you have a meeting or event at 4pm Eastern time, you just specify eastern when you're setting up the meeting and it adjusts for you.

If it makes you feel better, I have a related problem. Being in Arizona we don't do that whole daylight savings insanity most of the world does. Yet, I work with people all over the world. So to make my life easier I have Rain Meter, a widget app projecting a clock on my second monitor that includes local time, UTC time, Hawaii Time, Eastern Time, and Pacific Time. The problem? Eastern and Pacific change times twice a year, and because my system clock is AZ time, which never observes DST changes, there is no DST change event to adjust those two clocks for me.

So here I sit... twice a year like a chump changing two specific clocks on my desktop manually.

 

[jogold]

So every time I travel I need to check and reset my appointments.
I wish they would add a freeze option.
Thanks

 

[britechguy]

I'll admit that it's been ages since I've used Outlook, but I do know that all Outlook versions since 2016 are based on the 2016 code. Here is a screen shot for setting up an appointment after the Time Zone option has been activated:



I would have sworn, based on what I recall from my years of using Outlook on a daily basis, that if you put a "fixed time zone" on the entries that they did not automatically adjust based on where you were, but would display with that fixed time zone, or those fixed time zones if you mixed, showing in the calendar. I thought that this was the point of the option, but in experimenting with it right now, if I set an appointment for 10-11 AM London, UK, time as soon as I close it it shows as 5 AM Eastern time.

It looks like there are workarounds. See: https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/calendar/appointments-and-time-zones/

I understand precisely why you're frustrated. I'd rather have my appointment for 10 AM London time show up as 10 AM and with the time zone noted. You don't appear to be alone in your frustration about not being able to use a "fixed time zone" display for certain appointments and meetings while allowing a "relative to where I am right now" display for others.

The way things work now, using the multi-time-zone option is probably easiest. See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...me-zones-5ab3e10e-5a6c-46af-ab48-156fedf70c04

 

[jogold]

You would think that Microsoft would be able to add an "ignore time zone" option.
seems like there used to be tools for this but they have been discontinued.
Thanks.

 

[britechguy]

You would think that Microsoft would be able to add an "ignore time zone" option.

I'd think there would be a checkbox, right next to the timezones when you're using them, that would say something like, "Always display in assigned time zone."

God knows that even after all these years away from coding I know just how simple this would be to do. They're doing "timezone computation" each and every time, anyway. So allowing an "exception zone of computation" for specific items, rather than where I am now, is a trivial change.

 

[jogold]

In all honesty I love Microsoft. I mean had it worked I would be out of business. I support Microsoft systems. Cleaning up after Apple and (do you remember) Novel don't make you money. So I'll put up with their stupidity. Pays the bils.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I don’t understand the problem. When an airline gives you tickets the departure time is for the local time zone. So is the arrival time. If you note the screenshot above you get to choose the time zone for the beginning and ending of the event. Figure out what time zone your gonna be and set it up correctly. It’s really not that hard.

Most of the time your laptop will get the current time zone when it connects to the internet. Your phone certainly will.

 

[britechguy]

I don’t understand the problem.

But I do, and it's a matter of perspective.

I know what time zone I am in (or will be in) when I set up appointments, and I want to see them ALWAYS presented in figures for that time zone. Outlook currently doesn't support this if you're on the move. It will adjust the time to be for the current time zone you happen to be sitting in.

I don't want my 10 - 11:30 AM appointment in the Eastern Time Zone appointment to display as 9 - 10:30 PM when I'm sitting in Bangkok looking at what's coming up next week. That means that I have to do manual time math to know what time that appointment really is, when I'm where I'll be when that appointment occurs. I don't want to have to do that, dammit!

I just want whatever I enter to respect and retain the time zone either that I am currently in or specifically specify when I set up an appointment rather than doing time math for me depending on where I happen to be when I look at it. That option should exist, but it doesn't

 

[nlinecomputers]

You can display more than one time zone in Outlook Calendars on the desktop.

I am in Central Time and I created a test calendar called LA Trip and set and second Time zone for PDT.

As you can see I have a Meeting at 9 am PDT. So long as I enter the correct time zone when I make the meetings it will show up correctly. And I can turn on the multiple columns and they will stay locked in the time zones I set for them.



To set it up you have to goto file, options, calendar, time zone.

 

[britechguy]

I'm of the workarounds, but they're all PITAs compared to being able to say, "Don't do time math for me," and leave it at that.

I had posted about the multiple time zone display option somewhere back in this topic, but even that's a pain.

All I'd like is to be able to say, for a given calendar or calendars, just don't do any timezone changing math when displaying that calendar/those calendars. I knew a lot of people who were constantly traveling and wanted all of their appointments to display at the correct time for the time zone they were going to be taking place in, no matter where they happened to be when viewing them. It shouldn't require the gyrations it does to get something to approximate that. Even if I had to hit a checkbox on an appointment by appointment basis that would be acceptable for those appointments where "absolute time" for a given time zone always appears when viewing them.

 

[jogold]

Now we just have to hope that Microsoft hears us.

 

[britechguy]

Now we just have to hope that Microsoft hears us.

They're not going to. This has been a request/complaint for years now. I know when certain ships have sailed.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Not going to happen Because you are trying to use a collaboration tool when you just want a day planner. Get a stand alone app.

 

[britechguy]

Because you are trying to use a collaboration tool when you just want a day planner.

When I first started using Outlook Calendar, that's precisely what it was. There is no reason that new bells and whistles should not be able to be toggled off to retain historical functionality.

That being said, I'm 100% in agreement that this is not going to happen and that the use of a different electronic calendar is needed.