OL2000: Changing the Time Zone Without Changing Appointment Times

MORE INFORMATION

Outlook automatically adjusts the times of your appointments when you change the time zone setting. For example, if you have an appointment at 9:00 A.M. on your calendar and you change the time zone from Eastern Time to Pacific Time, the appointment will be changed to 6:00 A.M. This feature is useful if you travel with your computer.

However, you may want to change the time zone setting in Outlook without changing the times of your appointments. This is useful if Outlook was set to the incorrect time zone when you began entering appointments in your calendar.

To change the time zone setting in Outlook without changing the times for your appointments, follow these steps:

Export the Appointments

1. On the File menu, click Import And Export.
2. In the Import and Export Wizard, select "Export to a file," and click Next.
3. Click to select "Comma Separated Values (Windows)" and click Next.
4. Click to select the Calendar folder and click Next.
5. Type the full path and name of the file into which you would like to temporarily export the calendar data, for example, c:\calendar.csv.
6. Click Next.
7. Verify that there is a checkmark in front of "Export Appointments from the Calendar folder," and click Finish.
8. Enter a date range for appointments to be exported and click OK.
   
   NOTE: It is important to note that any recurring appointments within this range will be permanently converted to individual appointments.

Delete the Existing Appointments

1. On the View menu, point to Current View and click Active Appointments.
2. On the View menu, point to Current View and click Customize Current View.
3. Click Filter. Click Clear All. Click OK twice.
   
   This allows all appointments to be displayed by Start Date.
4. Select and delete all items within the date range selected in the procedure above.
5. On the View menu, point to Current View and click Define Views.
6. In the View Name column, click to select Active Appointments and click Reset.
   
   This resets this view back to its original filtering options to display only appointments starting on or after today.

Change the Current Time Zone

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click Calendar Options.
3. Click Time Zone. In the Time Zone list, click to select the time zone you want.
4. Click OK three times.

Import the Appointments

1. On the File menu, click Import And Export.
2. In the Import and Export Wizard, click to select "Import from another program or file," and click Next.
3. Click to select "Comma Separated Values (Windows)" and click Next.
4. Type the full path and name of the file you exported earlier and click Next.
5. Click to select the Calendar folder and click Next.
6. Click Finish.
   
   Outlook will import the calendar data back into the Calendar folder with the original appointment times.