Update Prospects'
Calendars Without Breaking And Entering
By Robert Plank
Ever scheduled an event like a teleseminar or product launch?
Hopefully they'll copy down all the details correctly, adjust the time
to match their time zone, AND actually remember to attend. Luckily
there's an easy way to do all this by marking your visitor's calendar
with just a couple of clicks using Microsoft Outlook.
This works because programs like Outlook can read different types of
files. The file we're going to be creating is called a vCalendar file
-- be aware this will only work if your visitor has Outlook 97 and
above (Outlook Express is no good here).
What we'll be doing here is creating the event on our computer in the
form of an appointment on the Outlook calendar. Then, we'll export it
to a file our visitors can click on, and when they do, it'll import
all the info about the meeting right into their Outlook calendar.
Let's get started. Open Outlook, go to your calendar and find the
correct date, and double click.
Type in a subject, this will be your event's title. For the location
put in something like the URL if this is an Internet thing or a phone
number with a passcode if this is a phone-based teleseminar.
Then choose a start time and end time, in your time zone. The COOL
thing about this is when the user adds this appointment, it will
appear adjusted to their own time zone.
Then in the body type in any other details the user needs to know
about your event. That's all you need to set, things like the
reminder time won't export so don't bother setting it. Any formatting
you do (setting fonts, making things bold or colorized, etc.) will not
save either.
Go to File -> Save As, then where it says "Save As Type" choose "vCalendar
Format (*.vcs)". Save this to your desktop as something like:
event.vcs
Then in your .htaccess file, put this in:
AddType text/x-vCalendar .vcs
If you do not have an .htaccess file, put this text in a new text
document (in Notepad), then save as ".htaccess" (with the dot in
front) and upload into the same folder your .vcs file is going.
(That part with adding the .htaccess file *shouldn't* be necessary,
we're just being cautious by adding that in.)
Now upload your event.vcs file. Link to it from an HTML file, and
tell people that if they have Outlook 97 or higher, all they have to
do is click that link, then click "Open" and the event or yours
(whatever it is) will be added to their calendar.
Since the event is adjusted for the person's time zone, there's no
guessing whether or not 6 PM your time means 7 PM or 10 AM their
time. In most cases an alert will appear on their screen 15 minutes
before the event starts, so if you have a teleseminar they'll remember
to call in and won't be late.
What's more, a lot of PDAs (Palm Pilots and some cell phones) have
Outlook integration so YOUR meeting could also be copied to their
personal organizer.
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