Exporting (Saving) .ics / .vcs

[Bowlie]

To make a long story short I've been trying to Sync my Outlook Calendar with my iPod touch and iCal on my Mac. We're running outlook on Exchange and for whatever reason I can't get outlook to sync.

So one of the workarounds I'm thinking of is to save some (or all) of my calendar as .ics (iCalendar) or .vcs (vCalendar) from Outlook and then import them into my Mac. My iPod will then synchronise ...

However when I try to export to ics or vcs I can't find the file types and Outlook help tells me: "Note Exporting to iCalendar, vCalendar, or vCard file format is done by saving the information into the file format, not by using the Import/Export Wizard."

When I highlight the Calendar folder and Click on Edit - I only get "Save as webpage" and the "Save as" is grayed out.

Any ideas how an outlook calendar can be saved to iCalendar (preferred) or vCalendar?

Many thanks in advance (including a virutal beer, and two virtual cocky bars!)

[JoeP517]

[quote name='Bowlie' post='774824' date='12-May-2009 08:08']To make a long story short I've been trying to Sync my Outlook Calendar with my iPod touch and iCal on my Mac. We're running outlook on Exchange and for whatever reason I can't get outlook to sync.

So one of the workarounds I'm thinking of is to save some (or all) of my calendar as .ics (iCalendar) or .vcs (vCalendar) from Outlook and then import them into my Mac. My iPod will then synchronise ...

However when I try to export to ics or vcs I can't find the file types and Outlook help tells me: "Note Exporting to iCalendar, vCalendar, or vCard file format is done by saving the information into the file format, not by using the Import/Export Wizard."

When I highlight the Calendar folder and Click on Edit - I only get "Save as webpage" and the "Save as" is grayed out.

Any ideas how an outlook calendar can be saved to iCalendar (preferred) or vCalendar?

Many thanks in advance (including a virutal beer, and two virtual cocky bars!)[/quote]

What version of Outlook? Outlook 2007 will allow you to save the whole calendar in iCal or vCal but I don't think you do that with prior versions of Outlook.

Joe

[Bowlie]

Joe,
Sorry I've edited my original post to indicate Outlook 2003. You are right this version doesn't save .ics / .vcs files.

I did find this Macro that appears to work: http://outlook2ical.sourceforge.net/ I've managed to create an .ics file of my calendar. I've e-mailed it to myself and once I get home tonight I'll try and merge it into iCal on my Mac.

I'm not up on Outlook VB - but I'm going to see if I can edit this Macro to skip over Steps 2 (which I don't need) and Step 3 - to send it to my own website on mac.com.

I'll repost if I make progress!

Bowlie

[JohnBF]

[quote name='Bowlie' post='774838' date='12-May-2009 07:12'][/quote]
This may be more trouble that it's worth, but can you use iTunes as an intermediary on your Windows machine where Outlook is located? iTunes for Windows version 5 and up enables synching of Calendar and Contacts to iPods; from there perhaps your Mac will accept the data from the Touch. (I don't use the synching because I want nothin' but tunes on my Nano, but the capability is there... http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38297?viewlocale=en_US)

[Bowlie]

[quote name='JohnBF' post='774848' date='12-May-2009 15:03'][/quote]
Hi John,
That's what I used to do - but they have changed iTunes and doesn't allow a touch to sync with two PCs. It's either the Dell or the Mac, not both. (Actually the sync with the mac is with wifi, which isn't possible with the Dell)

Copying in the ics file into an iCal calendar doesn't sync the messages, but just adds them. So the second time I do it I'll end up with duplications. But since iCal can deal with multiple calendars (unlike Outlook) I set up one for the Outlook messages and simply replace the old data with the new.

This isn't something that I need in real-time. Plan on doing it once a week or just before going on a trip.

I haven't started improving the macro yet - It's well commented. I've also just noticed that there is a Javascript Version at http://www.ryanwatkins.net/software/. I'll check that out next

Thanks for your help!

[Bowlie]

OK - to close this discussion the Javascript version is even better so I've abandoned the idea of editing the Macro. Just two things - It's set up only to grab the last 90 days of history, I changed this to 9999 days. Also it saves the .ics file to the C: root. This too can be edited but I discovered that the path has to use double \\ or it doesn't work. I edited it in notepad.