Re: Birthdays/Anniversaries & Activesync/WMDC

Hi,

Yes, I do know the problems and annoyances that you are referring to. Duplicate entries has been a pain over the years but with Outlook 2007, there have been some improvements which has definitely minimized this. So if I were to edit a anniversary or birthdate after saving one, it doesn't leave duplicates in the Calendar. They seem to have got the Contact and the Calendar event to have an internal link within Outlook which updates the event instead of recreating it. I am not saying they have solved the duplicate appointment issue completely since I still see some users having the odd duplicate issues creeping up at times.

With respect to selecting the year, its easier to simply input the date then scroll through the months on the Calendar. Just tap the day or month or year and you can type into them.

At present I am unaware of a way to completely disable the brackets that appear in the default Calendar application.

--
Regards,
Raj Pillai
Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices
http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/raj


"Sean" <Sean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:5EA40019-CE91-46BA-8CE8-4A206B4E6BCF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I very much appreciate the continued dialogue Raj.

The problem is you (well at least I) don't know the birthdates and wedding
dates for most people, just the important dates. If it is a milestone,
typically that info would be known anyway. I know when my friend's 30th
birthday is and when my grandparents 60th anniversary was.

A few problems/annoyances in trying to fix that. First Outlook does not
make it easy to go back to an old date. If I create a new contact, go to the
details tab and set a birthday, it is in 'current month' 'current year'
automatically. You cannot select a year, you have to go back month by month.
So if I add someone born in the 1940's, I would have to make 700 clicks to
get to the correct year. Multiply that times many contacts and it is
ridiculous. Secondly, when you change an existing date, it creates a
duplicate entry. Then you have to figure out which one is the old one and
delete it. Another huge pain.

This feature seems a little pointless and unnecessary. I wish there was an
EASY way to do this without time wasting manual editing or writing a script.

"Raj Pillai" wrote:

Hi Sean,

The feature is pretty useful if used with the correct dates to remember the
landmark years. So if you were to put the correct year of birthday in your
example, 1974 (2007-33), you would get the bracket to display 33. I don't
know of a way to disable the feature permanently. Additionally this feature
has been part of Windows Mobile devices for quite a while and I am pretty
certain its there on all of them (even the newer ones).

The figure is calculated using the Starting date of the recurrence. So the
only way you can avoid it completely is if you can set the year of the date
to the current year. For example, if you have a event which is scheduled
for today's date with 2006 as the year, it will appear with (1). But if you
set it to 2007, then the bracket won't appear. To edit the recurrence date,
open the recurrence pattern and set the Starting date

If its annoying you a lot you can consider writing a vba macro which will
automate this task to set the dates of birthdate/anniversary to current
year. If you decide to do this, you would need to run the macro once every
year to set the year of the date to that of the current year.

--
Regards,
Raj Pillai
Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices
http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/raj


"Sean" <Sean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5A4FE513-7356-40B8-AA93-1B5DD5916BC8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Thank you so much Raj. I had my suspicions that could be the answer.
>
> Unfortunately, that number is based on when the event was input into
> Outlook. I always input a birthday or anniversary for the next > occurance.
> So someone who may be turning 33 whose birthday I just happened to > enter
> appears as (1) not (33) because I do not put the date of birth or day > of
> the
> wedding for anniversaries.
>
> Is there anything that can be done to circumvent that field? I do not
> like
> its appearance on my phone. Would it appear the same on all phones? I > am
> surprised none of the engineers at T-Mobile had ever heard of this. It
> definitely looks peculiar on the calendar.
>
> THanks for your time very much sir.
>
> "Raj Pillai" wrote:
>
>> Hi Sean,
>>
>> The figure in the bracket is the number of years of the particular >> event
>> based on the starting year of the event. For example if the birthday >> or
>> anniversary date was in the Jan 2000, this reminder would appear with >> as
>> (7)
>> for the current year on that date. So 7 here would mean either 7th
>> Birthday
>> or the 7th year of Anniversary depending on the event.
>>
>> -- >> Regards,
>> Raj Pillai
>> Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices
>> http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/raj
>>
>>
>> "Sean" <Sean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:2410E754-AF62-4209-A22A-E7AB4E866280@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > Good evening and thx in advance for all help.
>> >
>> > I have sought advice from my mobile provider (TMobile - using the >> > Dash
>> > phone) and was told by their 3rd level engineers to ask the Outlook
>> > experts.
>> > The Outlook experts concluded this was a sync issue with Activesync >> > and
>> > WMDC.
>> >
>> > I am using Office 2003 SP 2. I am currently using Vista Home >> > Premium
>> > with
>> > Mobile Device Center but have experienced the same issue since XP >> > Pro
>> > SP 2
>> > with Activesync 4.5 and earlier.
>> >
>> > I have no duplicate birthdays or anniversaries for my contacts in
>> > Outlook.
>> > However when I sync to my cell phone and look at the Calendar on my
>> > cell,
>> > several (but far from all) of these recurring birthdays and
>> > anniversaries
>> > appear as "John Doe's Birthday/Anniversary (1)." Some say 2, 3, or >> > 4
>> > in
>> > the
>> > ().
>> >
>> > I imagine that the () is due to a duplicate entry at some point, >> > just
>> > as
>> > if
>> > you tried to copy a file with the same name to the same folder and >> > it
>> > would
>> > append a (1) to the end of the file name.
>> >
>> > Question is why can I not see this in Outlook on my PC? In Outlook,
>> > everything appears spot on. I have had duplicate entries in the >> > past
>> > for
>> > one
>> > reason or another but I have long eliminated these. I have also >> > tried
>> > deleting the birthday or anniversary from the Outlook Calendar
>> > (deleting
>> > the
>> > series) and separately tried deleting it through the Activities Tab >> > in
>> > the
>> > Contact itself. Then I go back to the respective fields in the >> > contact
>> > and
>> > re-add the dates I need. I think this has resulted in the further
>> > appendages, ie. (2), (3), (4). There are also many of my contacts
>> > birthdays
>> > and anniversaries that read correctly on the calendar on my cell, >> > but I
>> > cannot discern a reason, as I know I have tried to force a (1) etc. >> > on
>> > certain contacts unsuccessfully.
>> >
>> > It is more annoying than anything to not have consistency in the
>> > calendar
>> > view on my cell phone. I am sorry for the long post and if I need >> > to
>> > further
>> > clarify any part of this issue please let me know and I will do so.
>> >
>> > I have searched far and wide for a solution or even just a clue to >> > no
>> > avail.
>> > MVPs please shed some light for me.
>> >
>> > Thanks for all you do.
>>
>>



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