Tweet

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).

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.

Related Articles
  BlackBerry: The First Choice in Smart Phone Segment
  Blackberry Application Development: still getting sound every passing day!
  Why the Blackbrry Smartphone is so Valuable?
  Blackberry as a business tool
  Blackberry 9300 Curve 3G features and specifications

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



Related Forum Posts
Outlook Business Contact Manager - I've just installed the new Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager and am testing it out to see how good of a CRM system it is. I like the concept because it works right within your Outlook and I already have all my contacts and emails here. Does anybody have any experience with Business Contact Manager for Outlook?
Managing emails - From the promo page it looks like they can handle up to 16 emails. What are the benefits of using this over other email checking software? I have 6 accounts that I check regularly and use Outlook while at the office and either my web hosting webmail or gmail when I'm away. Does this program save you time over using Outlook?
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Backing up data on Outlook - Hi Jen At the moment, I have 1 email account on Rogers Yahoo for personal use and 3 different emails for business (i.e. 2 on MS Outlook and 1 with Yahoo). However, I don't backup anything as I've never really had any problems yet. Can I ask what was the ineffective method used when trying to backup your Outlook data?
Update: Spam software - Well I still have not found a good plugin that will work with Outlook 2007. My web hosting client has an option to detect and delete spam on the server before it gets to my inbox but I am worried that it will delete some of my important emails. If anyone has had luck with Outlook 2007 and getting their spam issues solved, please post and let me know!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Resolving A Conflict Between Two Sales Staffs

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

Living on The Edge of Chaos...

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.