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BlackBerry and Outlook Tips

Written by: Linda Jacobson

Article Overview: Conflicts, repeats, disappearing and reappearing meetings and tasks in BlackBerry and Outlook calendars... infuriating and problematic! The key: Outlook is King. That's really all you need to know - but for good measure, this short article outlines how to deal with calendar items in ways that prevent these problems. (For users of BlackBerry Exchange Server).

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BlackBerry and Outlook Tips

Outlook, the Blackberry, BES and Calendars - How to Prevent Conflicts and Annoyances

If you use Outlook and a BlackBerry on a BlackBerry Exchange Server, or BES, you may experience these sorts of problems:

• Appointments mysteriously disappearing or reappearing

• Conflicts between Outlook and the BlackBerry

• Problems with recurring appointments

Here are some tips and suggestions to help avoid these problems.

(The tips apply to all versions of BES up to 4.x.)

KEY POINT: OUTLOOK IS KING

If you ONLY remember that Outlook is in charge, and use it, not your BlackBerry, to manage e-mails and calendars, you will avoid most calendar problems.

Accepting, deleting, dismissing, rescheduling

• ACCEPT invitations in Outlook, NOT on the BlackBerry. If you accept an invitation on the BlackBerry, it will remain unchanged in the Outlook Inbox. You need to accept it a second time (in Outlook) to remove it from view.

• DON’T delete an invitation from Outlook after you have accepted it on the BlackBerry because the meeting will be deleted from your calendar.

• If you delete an meeting from the Outlook calendar and then accidentally click the Accept button in the e-mail, you will add the meeting back to your calendar.

• If you want to DELETE an meeting or task, do this on Outlook. It will then automatically be deleted from the BlackBerry. If you delete it on the BlackBerry, it will NOT be reliably deleted from Outlook.

• Outlook and BlackBerry REMINDERS ARE INDEPENDENT. If you Dismiss or Snooze a reminder on one, the reminder will still show up on the other.

• DON’T Dismiss on one and Snooze on the other – dismiss on both OR snooze on both.

• You CAN Dismiss on one and Ignore on the other.

• If a meeting is RESCHEDULED and you delete the rescheduled email from your Inbox without responding to it, this will delete BOTH the original calendar entry and the rescheduled one.

Recurring meetings

• When scheduling recurring meetings or tasks, always enter an END DATE. Try to make the end date within one year.

• Always EDIT recurring meetings on OUTLOOK, NOT on the BlackBerry.

• When you edit a reccurring meeting, make sure you edit the SERIES if you want to change ALL of the appointments. If you want to change just one day, make sure you edit the SINGLE appointment.

Messages about meeting invitations

• When you receive a meeting invitation, make sure to read the message in the GREY SHADED AREA. The message may indicate a conflict or another issue that you need to be aware of.

Popups

• When a popup appears, read what it says BEFORE clicking on anything. The key is to properly respond to the request.

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Home > Technology > Linda Jacobson > BlackBerry and Outlook Tips
Article Tags: annoyances, appointments, bes, blackberry, calendars, e mail, exchange server, how to prevent conflicts, invitation, invitations, key point, nbsp, outlook calendar, outlook inbox, reminder, reminders, rsquo, second time, sorts

About the Author: Linda Jacobson
RSS for Linda's articles - Visit Linda's website

Linda Jacobson is Partner and General Manager at Nash Networks Inc. We provide computer support and managed IT services to businesses in Toronto and the GTA. Our clients are usually from 5-50 employees and often have complex IT needs and low tolerance for downtime. We manage several mixed Windows, Mac and/or Linux or UNIX networks. We are producing a series of articles in 2009 to educate business owners about IT, with a focus on costs, productivity, and cost-effectiveness. The series is titled, "Making every IT dollar count!"

Click here to visit Linda's website
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