Private appointments in calendar

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Level 1

21 points

Private appointments in calendar

I can't find anywhere where to set an appointment as private. I keep looking for it because it's extremely hard to believe this would be left out. Our organization mandates, as I'm sure others do, to keep private appointments in your calendar as well so that others know when you will be out for a doctor's appointments, etc without showing detailed personal information. It's crucial so that others know when meetings can be scheduled, etc.

You can do this easily with any other mobile phone that uses active sync for exchange. I also used this feature when out on the road setting up appointments. If I can't create private appointments, I would have to go back to early 2000 by typing it in notes and then create the private appointments when I get into the office. Huge step backwards.

Anyone find it or have a solution?

Thanks!

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jul 16, 2008 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 18, 2008 11:02 AM in response to jdTrader

I have the same problem so I'm looking forward to someone from Apple to answer the question. It's driving me crazy...

Why can't I create PRIVATE appointments on my iPhone's calendar?

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Answer 2

Jul 18, 2008 2:06 PM in response to jdTrader

EXACTLY. This is hugely important for me because I use this device for both business and private purposes. If I have something private going on, i'll mark it as such so prying corporate types don't happen upon something that's personal.

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Answer 3

Blits

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:06 AM in response to jdTrader

Add me to the list.

I can't believe they didn't think of this and the lack of responses leads me to believe it was a mistake to leave something like that out.

Maybe in a patch they'll provide us with a new "feature" that allows us to touch the screen switching visibility to "Private"

Message was edited by: Blits

Message was edited by: Blits

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Answer 4

Andrew J

Level 3

790 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:15 AM in response to Blits

When you say "private" do you mean hidden information, locked, password protected?

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Answer 5

Blits

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:28 AM in response to Andrew J

No...let me give you the scenario:

- New iPhone 3G
- Added my work exchange account, set sync for "Calendars" to ON

... at this point all is well however, now I want to (in my iPhone) add an event "Dinner with wifey"

If I do that, the iPhone adds that event (syncs it) with my work exchange account. I don't want them to know I'm going to dinner with the wife.

Hope that helps. All I'm talking about is the ability to add that event and indicate "this is private, don't sync this event"

Message was edited by: Blits

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Answer 6

jdTrader Author

Level 1

21 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:33 AM in response to Blits

It should sync, so that in outlook I can view my calendar with that appointment, but the purpose of it is that when other manager or whoever looks at my calendar instead of saying what it is it just says private, but it display the time I will be busy or out of the office. This is very very important for many businesses so that something is not scheduled when someone has a private appointment.

You can create private appointments in outlook and then it gets on the iphone, but it doesn't show you if it's private or not and doesn't let you select private or not just like you can do in any other pda phone. It's basically not handling private appointments.

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Answer 7

Andrew J

Level 3

790 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:34 AM in response to Blits

So it's to do with Microsoft exchange then. Not my field I'm afraid. All the best.

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Answer 8

jdTrader Author

Level 1

21 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:37 AM in response to Andrew J

It has nothing to do with exchange, it's completely apple. One of our IT guys that is on the beta exchange program mentioned that apple wrote their own software to connect and sync with exchange, not like other pda phones that use microsoft's active sync to handle and sync stuff. So apple hasn't programmed for that and that's why it's buggy and lacks many features.

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Answer 9

Andrew J

Level 3

790 points

Jul 25, 2008 9:41 AM in response to jdTrader

I agree. As a long term Apple user, they've rushed this OS on the iPhone and it shows. Badly.

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Answer 10

jdTrader Author

Level 1

21 points

Jul 25, 2008 10:13 AM in response to Andrew J

And just yesterday I found out that apple released the iphone 3G on beta 8 or 6, which is build 5A345. I guess release 5A347 is out and the non-beta version. So I can't believe they released beta just to meet deadline.

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Answer 11

Arkware

Level 1

0 points

Sep 3, 2008 8:58 AM in response to jdTrader

Firmware 2.0.2 (5C1) still doesn't resolve this issue. If this is to be a corporate/enterprise solution (with Exchange Server support), this is very important.

Other features I am finding that are missing in the calendar: Ability to assign a category, invite others, and assign free, busy, tentative (and display as such on the phone's calendar in the list or day views) status.

These are necessary to interact (or even compete) with Outlook, Windows Mobile, OWA/Webmail, etc.

Message was edited by: Arkware

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Answer 12

Sep 3, 2008 12:56 PM in response to jdTrader

This is critical to anyone in a business environment using an iPhone with Exchange.

For those of you that don't understand, setting an event as "private" works best with shared calendars in Exchange. Lets say I allow my bosses to 'see' my calendar. They can technically see everything in detail except for the stuff that's 'private'. The private events appear as mysterious, blocked out time. And that's how it should be. There needs to be a separation of work and personal time in Calendars. And flagging something as Private in Exchange accomplishes this task.

I'm hoping the iPhone guys see this. It's a small checkbox that I'm sure won't take too much effort to release. But adds great relief in the corporate world.

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