Outlook should allow changes to default calendar options

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MikeT - 17 Jan 2005 14:35 GMT

When scheduling 'all-day' events, the default is to show the time as 'free'
which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of office' or 'busy'.

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Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook] - 17 Jan 2005 19:07 GMT

Why? Holidays are all day events and are certainly free for me.

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Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

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After furious head scratching, MikeT asked:

| When scheduling 'all-day' events, the default is to show the time as
| 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
| office' or 'busy'.

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MikeT - 18 Jan 2005 07:05 GMT

Hi Milly,

If it's a holiday then isn't that 'Out of Office'? If it's an all-day
meeting isn't it 'Busy"?

> Why? Holidays are all day events and are certainly free for me.
>
> | When scheduling 'all-day' events, the default is to show the time as
> | 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
> | office' or 'busy'.

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Jon in a hurry - 08 Jul 2005 03:14 GMT

I believe there is a setting to change the default from Free to Busy, etc. If
you look in Google and dont expect the MVP persons in this group to help,
then you might find something good. MVP status used to mean yeah you can ask
and they will actually give you a real reply, not some junk about its their
holiday so who cares, if you become a MVP with that kind of reply, then this
discussion board is useless.

> Hi Milly,
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> > | 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
> > | office' or 'busy'.

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 08 Jul 2005 13:44 GMT

No, there's no such setting to change the default for an all-day event from Free to something else, although a lot of people have asked for it over the years. (Maybe someone should post it as a suggestion in the web newsgroup, so other people can chime in and vote.)

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Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

>I believe there is a setting to change the default from Free to Busy, etc. If
> you look in Google and dont expect the MVP persons in this group to help,
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>> > | 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
>> > | office' or 'busy'.

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Judy Gleeson MVP Outlook - 11 Jul 2005 09:58 GMT

A good idea Sue - it comes up constantly in courses. The current default
doesn't seem logical to your average user in Australia.

Judy Gleeson [MVP Outlook]
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

No, there's no such setting to change the default for an all-day event from
Free to something else, although a lot of people have asked for it over the
years. (Maybe someone should post it as a suggestion in the web newsgroup,
so other people can chime in and vote.)

Signature

Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

>I believe there is a setting to change the default from Free to Busy, etc.
>If
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>> > | 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
>> > | office' or 'busy'.

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Jim Hathaway - 18 Oct 2006 16:44 GMT

Events are really useful to show Birthdays, staff member's holidays etc.
During these times you are still free for meetings. It is easy to change the
"Show time as" setting to Busy if you want to use an Event for time when you
are not available. However, Events only show as a banner at the top of the
working day/s. This can also lead people to think you are Free. Use Events as
they were intended

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Jim Hathaway

> A good idea Sue - it comes up constantly in courses. The current default
> doesn't seem logical to your average user in Australia.
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> >> > | 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either be 'out of
> >> > | office' or 'busy'.

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Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook] - 19 Oct 2006 16:22 GMT

But, Events in my experience are always used as intended, just not as others intended. Intentions are always subjective.

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Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

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unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jim Hathaway asked:

| Events are really useful to show Birthdays, staff member's holidays
| etc. During these times you are still free for meetings. It is easy
[quoted text clipped - 62 lines]
|||||| time as 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either
|||||| be 'out of office' or 'busy'.

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byrneosu - 04 Jul 2007 17:22 GMT

It's frustrating to read through this chain & have experts explain that we
are using this improperly, etc. The fact is millions of people don't use
this for birthdays, etc. All day events, to the people for which this
product is intended, are things like training, travel, seminars, etc, and we
put these all day events on our calendar so other people don't schedule us in
meetings. Someone mentioned we can just change from Free to Busy, but I've
seen that missed many times at my company and people and/or conference rooms
get double booked. Besides, isn't that what a default is for? To have it
come up in the most common setting for the USER, not the person who wrote the
software, who must be someone who loves tracking birthdays.

> But, Events in my experience are always used as intended, just not as others intended. Intentions are always subjective.
>
[quoted text clipped - 64 lines]
> |||||| time as 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either
> |||||| be 'out of office' or 'busy'.

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Lady Dungeness - 04 Jul 2007 22:28 GMT

Yabbut -- do you have a degree in computer programming?

Users are like peasants, peons, proles -- the ignorant steaming masses,
sweltering to enter the promised land ...

Seriously, though, if the default for ALL DAY is FREE and you want the
default to be BUSY, just pass a memo around saying that from now on, "free"
means "busy" and vice-versa. There. All fixed!

<joke off>
Lady Dungeness,
Skittering off to find a dead fish

| It's frustrating to read through this chain & have experts explain that we
| are using this improperly, etc. The fact is millions of people don't use
[quoted text clipped - 75 lines]
| > |||||| time as 'free' which makes no sense. The default should either
| > |||||| be 'out of office' or 'busy'.

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