Managing Time Zones in Outlook
What’s often unclear when you first start creating meetings with participants in multiple time zones is that if you’re all within one intranet (network), Outlook has already accounted for the time zone. For example, I am on Pacific standard time and I want to invite Nellie Noisome in eastern standard time to a meeting at 9 a.m. my time. I click on the “scheduling tab” to see if she’s free and am instantly confused. Whose time am I looking at?
The answer is “both.” If you can see her free/busy information, Outlook knows what time zone she’s in. When you look at that 9 a.m. slot, you’re seeing whether or not she is free at noon her time. When you send the invitation out, it will appear at noon on her calendar.
What if it turns up wrong? One problem that can occur is listed in the Outlook FAQ #11. Another way this can happen is when a traveling executive messes with the time zone, especially the Blackberry time zone. The Blackberry should adjust automatically, so messing around with it is unnecessary and causes trouble. Knuckle rapping is in order.
Changing the time zone on the computer and forgetting to change it back is another possible scenario. Follow the steps in the next section for adding a time zone, but verify that the computer is in correct zone instead. If not, there’s your answer. If the culprit was the Blackberry, first get the Blackberry set to the current zone (see how below) and proceed with knuckle rapping. Try rebooting both the executive’s computer and yours. It might work, but you’re probably going to have to recreate or re-accept all corrupted meetings. You can move them manually, but they will probably pop right back to the wrong spot when you look away. Fortunately, this is an unusual problem.
If none of those solutions work and all of your other meetings set up with people from other time zones are turning up correctly – which would indicate that all parties have set up time zone correctly in settings – the answer is probably simple: corrupt meeting. Throw it away and start over. If it continues, you have a systemic problem that will have to be addressed by your tech support.
What if you’re not on the same exchange? I see this question in one form or another in keyword searches all the time: “How do I accept outlook calendar invites from another time zone and convert to current time zone?” “How do I set up time zones in Outlook and Blackberry?” It’s all the same answer: it should happen automatically. If it doesn’t, you need to:
Find “Settings.”
Choose “Date and Time”
Find the choice to set Blackberry time to “Blackberry” or “Network.”
In theory, this will fix it. If it doesn’t, have her turn it off and back on again, or pull the pull the battery for a minute or so to allow the Blackberry to reset itself. When you put the battery back in, it should recognize the current time zone. Meeting invitations should show up translated to the current time zone. If they don’t, you have an exchange issue that you will need to take up with your system administrator.
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I’m in the east. My manager is flying back from Arizona. I want his departure to show up in Pacific time and his arrival to show up in eastern daylight time. Piece of cake! (German chocolate, please.) Create a meeting in Outlook 2007. In the appointment pane, choose “Time Zones” (in earlier versions, you have to choose “show time zones” in your options). Now the zones will appear next to your start and end times. Choose mountain time and uncheck “adjust for daylight savings time” because Arizona doesn’t do DST. Choose Eastern for the arrival time, and check “adjust for daylight savings time.” Done. This is also useful if you are setting up a meeting several time zones away and don’t want to rely on your arithmetic. Just choose the time you want to the meeting to happen in their time zone and choose that time zone in the drop-down.
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Another scenario: your executive is traveling from the EST to PST. You need to manage her meetings while she’s there. Here’s something you can to do keep from having to subtract hours every time you look at the calendar:
- On the left side of your calendar is a gray stripe with the times on it. At the top of it is a gray blank space. Right click on it and choose “Change Time Zone…”
- (Alternatively, pull down Tools>Options>Calendar Options and click the Time Zone button on the bottom right)
- Check the “show additional time zone” box, give it a name (like “PST”), choose the time zone you want to see from the pull down menu, and check “Adjust for daylight savings time” if they use it – a couple places don’t.
- You might also label your original time zone something like “East” while you’re there. It shows in a box at the top.
- Click “OK.”
The new time zone will appear to the left of your current one. It can be confusing until you get used to it, and some people find that it isn’t worth it, but I like it. When I have a traveling exec, I print out the calendar and highlight the appropriate stripe for the time s/he’s in at the…well, I should stop saying “time,” shouldn’t I?
More on time zones in the Outlook FAQ #10.
Best Practices for Invitations
Cannot Access Personal Contact from eMail
How to Avoid Disappearing Meetings
