how do I set up an irregularly repeating meeting in outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doug_Warwick
  • Start date Start date
D

Doug_Warwick

Is there a way to easily set up irregularly repeating meetings (e.g.,
December 12, December 18, January 13, January 29) in Outlook, rather than
having to re-create each one separately?

Thanks and regards, Doug
 
Apologies - I'm a new user and I've posted the below response to another thread when I think it is meant for this one...

You say below that Outlook can not accommodate irregular occurrences. I completely disagree with this advice. It is entirely WRONG!

I know as I looked for an answer to this specific question and was disappointed to note this response (one that I've seen repeated on other forums too - but mainly by software companies selling a solution!). However, whilst trying to do this I came across a method which seems to meet all of the criteria perfectly.

The question is asking for a way to set up one series of meetings, but occurring on different dates, times etc. He wants these meetings to be linked so that he can edit the series just as if they followed the normal weekly pattern. I didn't think this was an unreasonable request either! As it turns out it isn't - but it can be a bit laborious if you need to set up a LOT of meetings...

Quite simply, you need to create a series of meetings that ALMOST meets your requirements, say for instance, weekly. Whatever's closest.

I had a weekly meeting, but the day and time changed every week. One week Wednesday, another Thursday. Some weeks 10am, others 2pm.

I created a weekly meeting, occurring every Thursday at 10am. Then, I set my calendar view to 5 day.

I was then able to select each meeting individually and drag and drop it to the correct day and time for that week. Outlook asks "Do you want to change just this meeting or the entire series?". Obviously, I selected just this meeting.

The changed meeting is now shown with the Recurring Appointment symbol, but now with a line through it. However, it is still linked to the series, but if you open the recurring appointment it will still show 'Every Thursday 10am'.

Once you've finished changing the various appointments, you can open the series and add invitees. This will automatically send one recurring weekly meeting and an update mail for each changed appointment.

If you open the series and delete the appointment, it will delete them all - including the dates you changed.

I have tested this thoroughly and it seems to work for me. I hope it works for you too.



------------------------------------------------------------ -----

tillman1952 wrote on Tue, 06 January 2009 14:2
 
While you can create exceptions to recurring appointments, you will lose the
exceptions if you edit the meeting later. This is not the same as the
irregular recurrences most people want - they don't want the extra work of
moving appointments around, they want to select the dates or multiple
patterns as they make the appointment.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
 
Hi Diane,

Thanks for the reply. I'm interested - in what way will you lose the exceptions if you edit the meeting later?

I have tried to edit the entire meeting series - including the exceptions that I had moved around - and found this to be entirely possible. All of the meetings are still linked together as if they were set regularly.

I agree that it would easier - and arguably should be possible - to choose the dates you want when setting up the meeting. But, surely the outcome is the same through the method I suggest?


------------------------------------------------------------ ------
outlookmvp wrote on Mon, 12 January 2009 23:4
While you can create exceptions to recurring appointments, you will lose the
exceptions if you edit the meeting later. This is not the same as the
irregular recurrences most people want - they don't want the extra work of
moving appointments around, they want to select the dates or multiple
patterns as they make the appointment.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Rufus said:
Apologies - I'm a new user and I've posted the below response to another
thread when I think it is meant for this one...

You say below that Outlook can not accommodate irregular occurrences. I
completely disagree with this advice. It is entirely WRONG!

I know as I looked for an answer to this specific question and was
disappointed to note this response (one that I've seen repeated on other
forums too - but mainly by software companies selling a solution!).
However, whilst trying to do this I came across a method which seems to
meet all of the criteria perfectly.

The question is asking for a way to set up one series of meetings, but
occurring on different dates, times etc. He wants these meetings to be
linked so that he can edit the series just as if they followed the normal
weekly pattern. I didn't think this was an unreasonable request either! As
it turns out it isn't - but it can be a bit laborious if you need to set
up a LOT of meetings...

Quite simply, you need to create a series of meetings that ALMOST meets
your requirements, say for instance, weekly. Whatever's closest.

I had a weekly meeting, but the day and time changed every week. One week
Wednesday, another Thursday. Some weeks 10am, others 2pm.

I created a weekly meeting, occurring every Thursday at 10am. Then, I set
my calendar view to 5 day.

I was then able to select each meeting individually and drag and drop it
to the correct day and time for that week. Outlook asks "Do you want to
change just this meeting or the entire series?". Obviously, I selected
just this meeting.
The changed meeting is now shown with the Recurring Appointment symbol,
but now with a line through it. However, it is still linked to the series,
but if you open the recurring appointment it will still show 'Every
Thursday 10am'.

Once you've finished changing the various appointments, you can open the
series and add invitees. This will automatically send one recurring weekly
meeting and an update mail for each changed appointment.
If you open the series and delete the appointment, it will delete them
all - including the dates you changed.
I have tested this thoroughly and it seems to work for me. I hope it works
for you too.



------------------------------------------------------------ -----

tillman1952 wrote on Tue, 06 January 2009 14:23
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You say below that Outlook can not accommodate irregular occurrences. I
completely disagree
with this advice. It is entirely WRONG!
Click to expand...

It's not wrong. All you're doing ig creating a bunch of exceptions to a
regular recurrence, not creating an irregular recurrence. Make a change to
the series and you'll lose all the exceptions in one go. You can't even end
the series without losing all the exceptions, unless you make them
individual events first with export/import.

I'm glad that you find what you describe a close enough approximation to
irregular series, but unless you have a very limited number of exceptions,
it's quite impractical.
 
Exceptions were meant to be an exception to a regular recurring meeting,
you're turning a recurring meeting into all exceptions - it's a lot more
data for outlook to track. You lose the benefits of a recurrence and might
as well make individual appointments - you can do this fairly easily in
Excel.

Change the recurrence pattern or change the end date is the biggie. Bye-bye
exceptions and all your meeting notes. ) Adding and removing invitees (as
people come and go at the company) or otherwise editing the series may cause
the exceptions to disappear.

This method is fine if you don't need to keep a history of the appointments
but many people here want/need to keep their history for future reference
and can't risk losing notes or exceptions when they change the end date (or
set end date on a meeting with no end date set).


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Rufus said:
Hi Diane,

Thanks for the reply. I'm interested - in what way will you lose the
exceptions if you edit the meeting later?

I have tried to edit the entire meeting series - including the exceptions
that I had moved around - and found this to be entirely possible. All of
the meetings are still linked together as if they were set regularly.

I agree that it would easier - and arguably should be possible - to choose
the dates you want when setting up the meeting. But, surely the outcome is
the same through the method I suggest?


------------------------------------------------------------ ------
outlookmvp wrote on Mon, 12 January 2009 23:48
While you can create exceptions to recurring appointments, you will lose
the exceptions if you edit the meeting later. This is not the same as
the irregular recurrences most people want - they don't want the extra
work of moving appointments around, they want to select the dates or
multiple patterns as they make the appointment.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


Rufus said:
Apologies - I'm a new user and I've posted the below response to
another thread when I think it is meant for this one...

You say below that Outlook can not accommodate irregular occurrences. I
completely disagree with this advice. It is entirely WRONG!

I know as I looked for an answer to this specific question and was
disappointed to note this response (one that I've seen repeated on
other forums too - but mainly by software companies selling a
solution!). However, whilst trying to do this I came across a method
which seems to meet all of the criteria perfectly.

The question is asking for a way to set up one series of meetings, but
occurring on different dates, times etc. He wants these meetings to be
linked so that he can edit the series just as if they followed the
normal weekly pattern. I didn't think this was an unreasonable request
either! As it turns out it isn't - but it can be a bit laborious if you
need to set up a LOT of meetings...

Quite simply, you need to create a series of meetings that ALMOST meets
your requirements, say for instance, weekly. Whatever's closest.

I had a weekly meeting, but the day and time changed every week. One
week Wednesday, another Thursday. Some weeks 10am, others 2pm.

I created a weekly meeting, occurring every Thursday at 10am. Then, I
set my calendar view to 5 day.

I was then able to select each meeting individually and drag and drop
it to the correct day and time for that week. Outlook asks "Do you want
to change just this meeting or the entire series?". Obviously, I
selected just this meeting.
The changed meeting is now shown with the Recurring Appointment symbol,
but now with a line through it. However, it is still linked to the
series, but if you open the recurring appointment it will still show
'Every Thursday 10am'.

Once you've finished changing the various appointments, you can open
the series and add invitees. This will automatically send one recurring
weekly meeting and an update mail for each changed appointment.
If you open the series and delete the appointment, it will delete them
all - including the dates you changed.
I have tested this thoroughly and it seems to work for me. I hope it
works for you too.



------------------------------------------------------------ -----

tillman1952 wrote on Tue, 06 January 2009 14:23

That's now a broken link. Try:

http://www.websetters.co.uk/WSAddIns/WSRAII/index.htm

It wasn't when I posted it, but you're quoting form a VERY old thread.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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