Outlook should contain a calendar field for spouse's birthday

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I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
 
What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of his/her own
and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their birthdays too?
Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents you could
always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Diane Poremsky said:
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






netbroad said:
I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since most
of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Separate contacts isn't necessary - and can be confusing (because you don't
need a contact for the kids), but you can make separate events for members
of the family and link them to one contact.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






kj said:
What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of his/her
own and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their birthdays
too? Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents you
could always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Diane Poremsky said:
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






netbroad said:
I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since
most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
To answer your first response, making an appointment is unacceptable because
you can have the problem I had where the link gets broken or the event get
accidently deleted and you no longer have the actual date of the
child/spouse's birthday.
And to answer kj...contacts is like an address book. When a child moves out
of the home, I create a contact for them, not before...so I would never have
grandchildren listed...I would make a note that the child is connected (and
link if possible) and remove that child's birthdate so it doesn't show up
twice...
I think it is better to HAVE this option and choose not to use it than just
to say it is not useful. This has been asked for for years by Outlook
users!!!

Diane Poremsky said:
Separate contacts isn't necessary - and can be confusing (because you don't
need a contact for the kids), but you can make separate events for members
of the family and link them to one contact.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






kj said:
What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of his/her
own and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their birthdays
too? Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents you
could always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Diane Poremsky said:
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since
most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I would agree with the original poster. However one thing that is also a pain
doing it this way is that even though the birthday is in the calendar and
linked to the main contact - which is OK for me, I would really like to see
birthday age showing as it would if it was a sole contact with the date
entered correctly.

If we set a calendar entry to "Birthday" it would be nice to have it display
in the same way with the age showing - just add somewhere to put in the year
of birth and it can do the rest.

shellig said:
To answer your first response, making an appointment is unacceptable because
you can have the problem I had where the link gets broken or the event get
accidently deleted and you no longer have the actual date of the
child/spouse's birthday.
And to answer kj...contacts is like an address book. When a child moves out
of the home, I create a contact for them, not before...so I would never have
grandchildren listed...I would make a note that the child is connected (and
link if possible) and remove that child's birthdate so it doesn't show up
twice...
I think it is better to HAVE this option and choose not to use it than just
to say it is not useful. This has been asked for for years by Outlook
users!!!

Diane Poremsky said:
Separate contacts isn't necessary - and can be confusing (because you don't
need a contact for the kids), but you can make separate events for members
of the family and link them to one contact.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






kj said:
What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of his/her
own and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their birthdays
too? Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents you
could always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since
most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I agree as well - there needs to be at least a field for the spouse's
birthday and kids as well. Moreover the age is important in the financial
planning business.
Perhaps this has been updated since the 2007 postings but we cant find it.

John. said:
I would agree with the original poster. However one thing that is also a pain
doing it this way is that even though the birthday is in the calendar and
linked to the main contact - which is OK for me, I would really like to see
birthday age showing as it would if it was a sole contact with the date
entered correctly.

If we set a calendar entry to "Birthday" it would be nice to have it display
in the same way with the age showing - just add somewhere to put in the year
of birth and it can do the rest.

shellig said:
To answer your first response, making an appointment is unacceptable because
you can have the problem I had where the link gets broken or the event get
accidently deleted and you no longer have the actual date of the
child/spouse's birthday.
And to answer kj...contacts is like an address book. When a child moves out
of the home, I create a contact for them, not before...so I would never have
grandchildren listed...I would make a note that the child is connected (and
link if possible) and remove that child's birthdate so it doesn't show up
twice...
I think it is better to HAVE this option and choose not to use it than just
to say it is not useful. This has been asked for for years by Outlook
users!!!

Diane Poremsky said:
Separate contacts isn't necessary - and can be confusing (because you don't
need a contact for the kids), but you can make separate events for members
of the family and link them to one contact.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of his/her
own and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their birthdays
too? Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents you
could always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since
most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
because there are other uses for the data than just birthdays - why not just
make the changes?

Diane Poremsky said:
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's birthday
fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






netbroad said:
I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so that
I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since most
of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
How many children fields does you think they should add? What is he
"business case" for adding this number?

Microsoft made the decision to not add a lot of extra fields for spouse and
children birthdays. If you need them on the calendar, make the birthdays and
link them to the parent's Contact. A CRM product (including BCM) is better
suited for relationship management.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Exchange server do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=33803

rlp said:
because there are other uses for the data than just birthdays - why not
just
make the changes?

Diane Poremsky said:
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday
fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






netbroad said:
I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main contact, so
that
I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and since
most
of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Nothing has changed or 2007 or 2010. If you want to see the age, you need
to create a custom form - but it won't be in the subject field.
http://www.outlook-tips.net/code/age_form.htm

You could use this method if you want to see ages in the subject:
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/countdown.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Exchange server do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=33803

rlp said:
I agree as well - there needs to be at least a field for the spouse's
birthday and kids as well. Moreover the age is important in the financial
planning business.
Perhaps this has been updated since the 2007 postings but we cant find it.

John. said:
I would agree with the original poster. However one thing that is also a
pain
doing it this way is that even though the birthday is in the calendar and
linked to the main contact - which is OK for me, I would really like to
see
birthday age showing as it would if it was a sole contact with the date
entered correctly.

If we set a calendar entry to "Birthday" it would be nice to have it
display
in the same way with the age showing - just add somewhere to put in the
year
of birth and it can do the rest.

shellig said:
To answer your first response, making an appointment is unacceptable
because
you can have the problem I had where the link gets broken or the event
get
accidently deleted and you no longer have the actual date of the
child/spouse's birthday.
And to answer kj...contacts is like an address book. When a child
moves out
of the home, I create a contact for them, not before...so I would never
have
grandchildren listed...I would make a note that the child is connected
(and
link if possible) and remove that child's birthdate so it doesn't show
up
twice...
I think it is better to HAVE this option and choose not to use it than
just
to say it is not useful. This has been asked for for years by Outlook
users!!!

:

Separate contacts isn't necessary - and can be confusing (because you
don't
need a contact for the kids), but you can make separate events for
members
of the family and link them to one contact.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






What happens when a kid grows up, gets married, has a spouse of
his/her
own and then has kids? Should there be grandchildren and their
birthdays
too? Great-grandchildren, half brothers, sister in-laws?

If you really want to track these individuals then they should be
separate
contacts. If you need to group them as descendants and antecedents
you
could always create your own family 'categories'.

--
/kj
Why is making an appointment not acceptable? You would need to
enter the
same information into the contact form anyway. How many children's
birthday fields would be acceptable?

http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)






I would like to be able to add extra birthdays to one main
contact, so
that I
can have their spouse's name, and the spouse birthday, as well as
children's
names & children's birthdays. Right now I either have to put the
birthdays
into the calendar manually, or create a whole new contact, and
since
most of
the information is exactly the same, addressess & phones, it is
quite a
chore.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds
to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion,
click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...b8682&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
rlp said:
I agree as well - there needs to be at least a field for the spouse's
birthday and kids as well. Moreover the age is important in the financial
planning business.
Click to expand...

Then as has been posted already - you need a CRM application.
Outlook is NOT a CRM application and AFAIK never will be. It's a PIM.
Why should changed be made to a successful application in order to deal with
your (minority) needs?
 
Just to throw fuel on the fire ... and to warn others ...
In another thread here Diane pointed out this article:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/recur12yrs.asp

I believe that by default when you enter a date in the birthday field
that Outlook does replicate it on the calendar as an all-day annually
repeating event starting on the actual date of birth and repeating
"forever". Based on the article above, repeating forever is a bad
idea.

Is there a better way to handle the bug than to put the calendar in
table view and sort by event type then edit all the repeating events
to be a sliding window of (say) 10 years of birthdays, and shorter
windows for events that repeat more frequently?

Slipstick says "A future update may address the problem" ... would
Microsoft necessarily publish an advisory that the bug was fixed?
 
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