The Time Zone feature of Outlook and Pocket Outlook is probably the most misunderstood concept implemented in any modern
computing device. Some have managed to break it and bring it down to the level
of the lowly paper based planner while some have, after a while, grasped the
concept behind it and have used it to their advantage.
Understanding GMT and
GMT is Greenwich Mean Time and is measured based on, Greenwich noon
time which is theoretically, the moment when the Sun crosses the Greenwich meridian
at noon. And since the rotation of the earth is irregular and slowing down, this
means that GMT cannot be totally accurate.
Enter UTC, or Coordinated
Universal Time. UTC is the successor to GMT and is still colloquially referred to
as GMT. UTC is more accurate since it is based on Atomic Time. UTC is also
referred to as Zulu time, a term most of us would be familiar with if you watch
the TV series JAG.
All time zones are defined relative to UTC. The Prime
Meridian (longitude 0Â°) which passes through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in
Greenwich, London, England is still the reference point for Time Zones.
example: If an appointment is held at 12:00 GMT on July 5, it will reflect the
following times in different locations. New York which is GMT-5 will have the
appointment at 7:00am on July 5, New York Time while this same event takes place
in Japan at 9:00pm on July 5 Japan Time which is GMT+9.
The use of UTC/GMT has made it more manageable coordinating time around the
world. With more businesses going global, transactions taking place
simultaneously around the world, we must then learn and accept the concept of
Using the Time Zone feature on Outlook and Pocket Outlook
Outlook and Pocket Outlook use UTC/GMT as the basis for determining time
differences depending on your location. This helps when you receive a meeting
request from a client either on the same Time Zone, or half way around the
World. If your client in the UK wants to have a conference call with you at 6pm
on July10 for example, with your boss in Japan, your colleague in Africa and
yourself in New York, you will have everything synchronized because the time you
are using is based on only one standard, the UTC/GMT standard.
But how do you set an appointment so that it works as it should? Creating
appointments in the Home Time Zone is not a problem really. It's when you create
appointments that are supposed to take place in another Time Zone which causes
much confusion. This happens when you set an appointment relative to another
Time Zone and not yours, which can occur when your boss in Japan says "Call me
up at 8:00am Japan Time" or if you set an appointment for a meeting you're
attending in a week or so in a Time Zone several hours past yours.
the basic steps needed so that your appointments do not get messed up. I will
also point out some shortcomings of the current system which definitely does not
mean that the system is broken, rather, it points out that there are some
information which is lacking which ultimately causes all the confusion.
Situation 1: You are in New York and you set an appointment for a meeting in
Japan which is supposed to happen in a couple of days. The meeting is supposed
to take place on July 15 at 4:00pm Japan Time.
- Set your Visiting Time Zone to Japan time which is GMT+9
- Go to the specific date, in this case July 15. Enter the appointment at
- Go back to the Clock Settings and revert back to your Home Time Zone.
What will appear is that you will have a meeting on July 15 at 3:00am. But
remember that you reverted back to your Home Time Zone. So this time is relative
to your Home Time Zone and not the location you will be visiting or the Visiting
Time Zone. What is not shown is the appointment time made relative to the other
Time Zone which seems more logical. This is the missing piece of information
that needs to be entered which can take away all the confusion.
A work-around here is to write the time and Time Zone where the appointment
is supposed to take place. This way even if the appointment seems to appear in
the wrong time with reference to your Home Time Zone, you have the actual time
and date embedded into the appointment. Here you will see the appointments as
they appear in the different Time Zones. The first one being GMT+9 Japan, and
the second one is GMT-5 New York.
Here is a different view of the appointment in GMT-5 New York Time Zone where
I inserted the time of the appointment in the location field to reflect a fixed
time relative to where the appointment will take place.
Situation 2: Why you should not mess around with Time Zones. This
particularly works when you send out a meeting request. Let's say a friend in
New York set a conference call for him, Arne and I to attend to, he sends
us a meeting request which is sent via email based on the appointment he made in
his Pocket PC.
This in turn will be received by Arne and I, on totally
different Time Zones. From there we simply accept the meeting request and the
appointment is automatically entered into our Desktop PCs or Pocket PCs.
appointment and meeting request made which is a Conference Call at 1:00pm to
2:30pm on July 20 in New York will look like this.
While the Meeting Request sent to me, actually enters the
appointment based on my Home Time Zone which is in the Philippines. You will
notice that the meeting now takes place at 1:00am on July 21 Manila Time.
Arne who is in Germany will get it at GMT+1,
I'll get it at GMT+8 and our friend in New York would be ready at GMT-5 on his
side. While I'm up talking at 1:00am of July 21, Arne will be on the line
at 6:00pm of July 20, and our friend in New York is enjoying our conversation at
1:00pm of July 20. All these different dates and times actually happen
When is this not applied?
When is the concept of Time
Zones not used? Well, normally when the events are not based on an absolute time
in the earth's timeline which is represented by UTC/GMT. These are occasions
such as Birthdays, Holidays, and such where the event dates are rather
localized. An example is New Year. When the clock strikes midnight in the UK,
which marks the start of the year on January 1, certain countries have already
celebrated it as much as 13 hours earlier. More countries will also be
celebrating it hours after the UK.
Pocket Outlook handles such dates pretty well, and it may seem that it
handles these dates even better than Outlook 2003. If you create a whole day
appointment on the desktop PC via Outlook 2003, and you synchronize your Pocket
PC to it, you will notice that even if you shift Time Zones these whole day
events do not change dates. This holds true for appointments made in Outlook
2003, but seems to fail if the appointments are done in the Pocket PC.
other hand, Outlook 2003 exhibits these changes even though you would think it
shouldn't. This makes me assume that Outlook 2003 was not intended to cross Time
Zones, as it's supposed to be in a fixed location. (This then becomes a very big
shortcoming if you use a laptop and traverse Time Zones quite often.)
create whole day events in the Pocket PC, these whole day events shift as you
shift Time Zones. I think this is where the advantage of using the Birthday and
Anniversary entries in Contacts to set these types of dates. The limitation
though, is not being able to create whole day appointments via the PPC without
basing it on UTC/GMT.
Now this shouldn't really be an issue. Other than
Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Holidays, most other dates are dependent on UTC/GMT.
If I were to keep track of an employee's itinerary from half way across
the globe, I could easily do so. Even with whole day and multi-day events, I can
keep track of each meeting or seminar he attends. How? As long as I have the
same set of appointments in Outlook, even with the difference in Time Zones,
Each whole day event or individual appointment should be visible to me.
appointments may happen in the wee hours of the morning where I am, but I know
that if ever I had to get in touch with him, I would know where and how to find
Is it broken?
In my opinion, in no way is Outlook or Pocket
Outlook broken. It works as it should but lacks certain elements that can help
the Road Warrior who traverses Time Zones. I yet have to see a solution for
Pocket Outlook that does not destroy the concept of Time Zones based on UTC/GMT.
There are some applications though that aid in creating appointments across Time
To lessen the confusion, these are my recommendations which hopefully
all may find helpful.
What - When creating appointments be specific about the subject and
include specifics that will remind you a little about where this is also
When - be aware of the Time Zone. Is it happening in your Home Time
Zone or another Time Zone. prepare to make adjustments in time right
Where - Be specific about the location and include the info on Time
Zone here. You can also copy the time, date and Time Zone of the
appointment here so that it remains visible to you even if you shift
These may look like so much work. But until a developer comes up with an
easy solution that doesn't break the concept of Time Zones or Outlook and
Pocket Outlook are improved to include such information in the displayed
data, this for me has been a solution that makes most sense.
Mabuhay! ~ Carlo