Secrets of the Office Masters: Juggling Multiple Time Zones

Sooner or later, every world traveler who works with Outlook discovers the peculiar way it deals with changes in time zones. Microsoft's engineers designed Outlook so that, when you change time zones on your computer, Outlook adjusts all appointments, past and present, to match the new time zone.

How does that cause problems? Imagine you've scheduled your regular staff meeting for Monday, October 1st, at 10 a.m. You've added the appointment to your Outlook calendar with a few notes about the agenda. A few days before the meeting, you're called away to London on a business trip. You book your return flight on Tuesday, October 2nd at 10 a.m. and dutifully enter the time in Outlook.

You bring your notebook with you to London. What happens next depends on what you do with your computer's clock:

• If you adjust the time zone to Greenwich Mean Time when you land in London, Outlook changes the entry for both appointments from 10am to 3pm. If you phone your office, you'll be able to participate in the meeting via conference call. Unfortunately, when Tuesday rolls around, you'll miss your flight if you rely on Outlook's reminder instead of your ticket.

• If you don't adjust the time zone, Outlook will leave both appointments at 10am in your Calendar folder. When you try to phone in for the status meeting, it will actually be 5am in New York and no one will be there to take the call. But you'll be right on time for your flight the next day.

Microsoft claims that Outlook is working exactly as intended. You're expected to adapt by adding a second time zone to your Calendar, using this simple shortcut: Switch to Day view, right-click the time display along the left edge of the calendar, choose Change Time Zone from the menu, and check the Show an Additional Time Zone box. Enter a label for each time zone, click OK, and you'll see two time displays at the left side of the Day view. Whenever you enter an appointment or meeting, make sure you choose the correct time scale.

This solution is cumbersome, but it works well enough if your trip takes you to only two time zones. When you reach your destination, open the Time Zone dialog box again and click the Swap Time Zones button. The time on the system clock changes, but you can still stay on time as long as you don't succumb to jet lag and look at the wrong scale. If your trip takes you to three or more time zones, however, using this technique is a one-way ticket to hopeless confusion. If you can't handle this date arithmeticwith jet lag—leave Outlook's time zone alone and add a note about the time zone in the Subject of every appointment.

Oh, and if you move across country, all your records of previous appointments will be changed to reflect your new time zone. So if you consult the Calendar folder to determine exactly when you had a particular meeting, you'll discover that Outlook's records are off by several hours. Outlook is irritatingly insistent on making these changes, too. If you move from New York to Los Angeles, every holiday, birthday, and anniversary will be shifted three hours earlier on your calendar; to set each of these recurring events right, you'll have to open it, change the time, and click the Save and Close button.