ARCHIVED: How does Indiana's adoption of Daylight Saving Time affect my Exchange calendar?

• Background
• What you need to do
• Outlook Web Access
• Synchronizing with mobile devices

Background

On April 2, 2006, most Indiana counties will begin observing Daylight Saving Time (DST) for the first time since 1970. For more information, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: At IU, how does Indiana's adoption of Daylight Saving Time affect my computer, PDA, or telephone? Operating systems or other applications that include an Indiana or Indianapolis time zone have been configured to ignore DST. The Eastern or East time zone is configured to observe DST, by default.

Time-sensitive Exchange items (calendar appointments, tasks, reminders) use the time zone setting that the creating client was using (regardless of server time) when they were created. For calendar items you create, this is the time zone setting your computer is using. Based on the way that the Indiana (East) or Indianapolis time zone was configured to work, items created on a client that is set to Indiana (East) or Indianapolis will be one hour behind Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). For more information about how Outlook deals with time zones, see:

• Microsoft Office Assistant: Troubleshoot time zones (Outlook 2003):

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP010223091033.aspx

• Microsoft Office Assistant: Work with time zones in Outlook (Outlook 2002):

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/ha010565301033.aspx

If you reset your computer's time zone to use the Eastern time zone setting in preparation for the advent of DST, calendar items for April 2-October 29 that you create after you reset the time zone will use EDT and will appear with the correct time even after the move to DST. Confusion may arise in the following circumstances:

• Meetings, including recurring meetings, that were set up on a computer that was using the Indiana (East) or Indianapolis time zone setting and take place between April 2 and October 29. These meetings will be one hour behind EDT, which will be a problem after Indiana begins observing EDT. See the instructions below for updating any such meetings that you have created.
• Meetings that include both users who have changed the time zone setting to the standard Eastern time zone and those who are still using Indiana (East) or Indianapolis. In this context, users can include resources like meeting rooms or equipment.

Several options exist for you to manually update your Exchange calendar entries. Regardless of what client you use to access your Exchange calendar (e.g., Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Entourage, iCal, Groupcal), your best course of action for fixing your appointments is Microsoft Outlook 2002 or 2003 on a Windows computer.

What you need to do

You may have numerous items on your calendar that need to be adjusted. UITS has developed a web-based tool, the Time Zone Checker, that you can use to locate and change your affected calendar items. For more information, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: At IU, how do I use the Time Zone Checker to update my Exchange calendar? If you use this tool, you do not need to follow the steps below for manually locating and changing calendar items.

If for some reason you need to manually adjust calendar items, the instructions below will help you to identify categories of items and manage the changes efficiently. (The Time Zone Checker is likely to be much quicker, however.) For each type of item, you will need to search for instances on your calendar and then adjust them as needed. Follow the instructions below after you have changed the time zone setting on all the computers from which you access your Exchange calendar, as described in the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: In Windows, how do I change the time zone?

Note the following terminology for items on your calendar:

• Appointment: For appointments on your calendar, you are the only attendee.
• Meeting: Meetings have multiple attendees; you can be either an attendee or the organizer. In the search results, meetings will have an icon that looks like two heads in profile.
• Event: An event spans 24 hours or more. Holidays are a category of event. In the search results, events will have a calendar icon.
• One-time items: These items (appointments, meetings, or events) occur only once on your calendar, for example, a single meeting or personal appointment.
• Recurring items: These items (appointments, meetings, or events) recur regularly (e.g., weekly or monthly). In the search results, the icon next to recurring items will have double arrows forming a circle.

Important: Before implementing any change to your time zone settings or your calendar, print your schedule for reference.

Follow the appropriate instructions below to adjust your calendar after you have changed the time zone on your computer:

• Recurring items
• One-time items
• Events
• Holidays

Recurring items

To find and update any recurring appointments and meetings that you have set up on your calendar, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, go to your calendar.
2. From the Tools menu, in Outlook 2003, select Find and then Advanced Find.... In Outlook 2002, select Advanced Find....
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then All Day Event. Under "Condition", select equals. Under "Value", select No.
5. Click Add to list.
6. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then Categories. Under "Condition:", select doesn't contain. Under "Value:", type holiday.
7. Click Add to list.
8. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then Recurring. Under "Condition:", select equals. Under "Value:", select Yes.
9. Click Add to list.
10. Click the Field button and select All Appointment fields and then Organizer. Under "Condition:", select contains. Under "Value:", enter your last name.
11. Click Add to list.
12. Click the Field button and select Date/Time fields and then Start. Under "Condition:", select on or after. Under "Value:", enter 4/2/2006.
13. Click Add to list.
14. Click Find Now.
15. Maximize the search results window for easy viewing.
16. Open each item. If the time zone is "Indiana", click Recurrence, then OK, and then Save and Close. If you are prompted, send an update.

One-time items

To find and update any one-time appointments and meetings that you have set up on your calendar, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, go to your calendar.
2. From the Tools menu, in Outlook 2003, select Find and then Advanced Find.... In Outlook 2002, select Advanced Find....
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then All Day Event. Under "Condition", select equals. Under "Value", select No.
5. Click Add to list.
6. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then Categories. Under "Condition:", select doesn't contain. Under "Value:", select holiday.
7. Click Add to list.
8. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then Recurring. Under "Condition:", select equals. Under "Value:", select No.
9. Click Add to list.
10. Click the Field button and select All Appointment fields and then Organizer. Under "Condition:", select contains. Under "Value:", enter your last name.
11. Click Add to list.
12. Click the Field button and select Date/Time fields and then Start. Under "Condition:", select on or after. Under "Value:", enter 4/2/2006.
13. Click Add to list.
14. Click Find Now.
15. Maximize the search results window for easy viewing.
16. Open each item and adjust the time if needed. To ensure that your item is saved with the correct time information, you need to turn recurrence on and then off again (this will not permanently make the item recurring). Click Recurrence and then OK. Click Recurrence again, and then click Remove Recurrence. Then click Save and Close. If you are prompted, send an update.

Events

To find and update any all-day events that you have set up on your calendar, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, go to your calendar.
2. From the Tools menu, in Outlook 2003, select Find and then Advanced Find.... In Outlook 2002, select Advanced Find....
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then All Day Event. Under "Condition", select equals. Under "Value", select Yes.
5. Click Add to list.
6. Click the Field button and select Frequently-used fields and then Categories. Under "Condition:", select doesn't contain. Under "Value:", select holiday.
7. Click Add to list.
8. Click the Field button and select Date/Time fields and then Start. Under "Condition:", select on or after. Under "Value:", enter 4/2/2006.
9. Click Add to list.
10. Click Find Now.
11. Maximize the search results window for easy viewing.
12. Review the list and open any events with a start time of 1am. For one-time events, check the All day event checkbox, change the "End time:" to the same day as the "Start time:" and then click Save and Close. For recurring events, click Recurrence, then OK, and then Save and Close.

Holidays

For information on how to update holidays on your calendar, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: In Microsoft Outlook, how do I add or remove holidays in my Exchange calendar?

Meetings and events organized by others

If you are an attendee at a meeting or event that someone else organized, the organizer of the meeting or event will have to adjust the time. All you need to do is accept the new invitation you receive when the organizer adjusts the time. If you attend a number of meetings organized by others, you might want to temporarily set up Outlook to automatically accept meeting requests. Follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, from the Tools menu, select Options.... Click the Preferences tab.
2. Click Calendar Options.... In the window that appears, under "Advanced options", click Resource Scheduling..., and select the following:
   • Automatically accept meeting requests and process cancellations
   • Automatically decline conflicting meeting requests and process cancellations

After DST begins on April 2, you will probably want to stop automatically accepting meeting requests. Follow the steps above again, but deselect these two options.

Outlook Web Access

By default, the Outlook Web Access (OWA) time zone is the same as the server time zone. Indiana University's servers have been changed to the regular Eastern time zone that uses DST. If you use OWA, you also need to change your time zone setting in OWA to Eastern time. There is currently no centralized process for administrators to configure this across an organization. To change this setting, in OWA, click Options (in the button bar on the left; if you don't see it, click the "Enlarge Button Bar/Shrink Button Bar" icon at the bottom of your folder listing). Then, under "Date and Time Formats", select (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) for your time zone. At the top of the screen, click Save and Close.

Any changes made to appointment times via Outlook will be reflected in OWA once Outlook syncs with the Exchange server. Note that you will still need to change your time zone settings in OWA options, but the appointment times will be properly adjusted.

If you use only OWA, rather than Outlook, you may change appointment times using OWA. To do so, go to the OWA options page and change the time zone to the appropriate setting. Reschedule/recreate any recurring meetings that have been shifted so they reflect the correct time zone.

Synchronizing with mobile devices

Mobile solutions with Outlook and OWA will reflect the operating system time zones, so no further changes should be needed to keep appointments and meetings from shifting for mobile devices once clients are updated.

However, you may need to adjust the time zone on your mobile device. See the following Knowledge Base documents:

• ARCHIVED: On my BlackBerry, how do I change the time zone?
• ARCHIVED: On my PocketPC, how do I change the time zone?
• ARCHIVED: On my Palm, how do I change the time zone?