Volume 27 Issue 29

Issue Date: September 29, 2022 « Previous Issue | Next Issue »

The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on September 29, 2022.

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Today's Highlights

Appointment times are 24 hours
Find Unread Calendar Items
Show Tasks in the To-Do pane from one account only

Appointment times are 24 hours

A user brought this problem to my attention:

With the calendar in Month view, when you click New appointment, it defaults to 24 hour duration (12 AM to 12 AM) but the All-day box is not checked. Checking all-day then unchecking it defaults to a 30 min appointment at the start of the workday, which is correct.

Clicking the New meeting button opens a meeting request with the correct defaults, 30 minute duration, using start of workday time.

Creating a new appointment from the mail module has the correct time and duration – 30 minutes, start of workday.

I was able to repro it in my two work mailboxes but not in my personal mailboxes or in other mailboxes in the same tenant as my work mailboxes.

Where was Outlook getting the 24 hour duration from?

It turns out there was a MAPI property set on the affected calendar folders that caused this. Deleting one or both properties solved the problem. The property is added when you change the default form on the calendar folder (which I've done a "million" times.)

If your calendar is affected, you need to use MFCMAPI to look at the calendar folder properties for PR_DEF_POST_DISPLAYNAME_W (value is set to Appointment) and PR_DEF_POST_MSGCLASS_W (value is IPM.Appointment) and delete them. (I will add the instructions to slipstick.com this weekend.)

Find Unread Calendar Items

As with email, a number following your calendar name indicates there is one or more unread item in the folder. It doesn't happen very often and is more likely when you create events on a mobile device and they sync to Outlook or if using Exchange, someone creates an event on your calendar.

But unlike email folders, you can't right-click and choose Mark all read or select all and Ctrl+Q to mark as read.

To clear the count, you need to find and open the unread items.

You have two options:

Use isread:no or read:no in the search field to find them.

Or switch to the List view. If you don't have a lot of events, you can browse the list for items with bolded text. If you use a group by view and collapse the view, you'll see with groups the unread items are in. If you have a lot of events in the calendar, create a filtered view to show only unread items.

Open then save and close the appointment or meeting.

If you have a lot of unread items, you can use a macro to mark the events read or you can change the folder count to show total number of items, not unread item count. Out of sight, out of mind.

Show Tasks in the To-Do pane from one account only

A user asked: "I have two email accounts with the same display name, but different domains. Both accounts have some tasks and Outlook is showing me those all mixed together in the To-Do pane. How do I group the tasks by mailbox or hide the tasks in one mailbox? I tried using the Changed by field but it doesn't seem to work properly because the names are the same. The Outlook Data File condition doesn't work either. "

You would normally use the Changed by field to filter, but as you've discovered, when both accounts have the same name, it doesn't always work, but also depends on your account type and when you created the tasks – they might have different Changed by names since the name is picked up from the account name. You can use the Owner field but it has the same problem – the owner name is the account name when you created the task, plus not all tasks have a value in the Owner field. Outlook Data Field should work, but it is sometimes buggy if you use PST files or have an older version of Outlook.

To make it easier to know what field or value to use, add the Changed by and Owner fields to the view in each tasks folder.

To create the filter in the To-Do pane, right click on Arrange By at the top of the task list then select View Settings to open the Advanced view settings dialog. Click the filter button then switch to the Advanced tab and select the Owner or Changed by field. Use is (exactly) for the Condition and type in the account name.

The To-Do pane's task list has just one view – you can customize it and create filters, but cannot save and switch views list you can in folders.

Show Only Tasks in the To-Do List (or To-Do pane)