Outlook-synch with any web based programs?
 

Forgive me if this has been asked;could not find anything in a search. I have Outlook (which is used with the Exchange system at UCSF) and would like to know if there are any web based calendar programs that I could synch with it? I have an assistant who works remotely much of the time and I would like her to be able to enter calendar items remotely that I could then synch/download into my Outlook. I also use a Mac Powerbook, so if it could be done that way I might be able to synch it through the Exchange server and then to the PC and the iPhone, but that would probably be more complicated and glitchy! (the iPhone is glitchy with appointments already with the desktop PC, the mac laptop and the Exchange server...)

if you google

sync gmail calendar outlook

you will find dozens, maybe hundreds of applications that will sync outlook calendars with the ical format used by google's web based calendar and many others out there. I don't have experience with any of them, but I do know people have gotten them to work without too much trouble. You continue working on outlook, you let anybody else who needs to access your calendar do so with the gmail calendar.

Some are free, some are low cost.

Thanks. I thought of the gmail calendar, but I was told a while ago that it would not work with Outlook. Guess I had better take a look for myself. Anyone have any experience doing what I am trying to do?

I'm assuming they don't already offer you Exchange Web Access on that server? That would solve a couple of the issues, probably everything except the iPhone. But that would be too easy. ;) It might even work on the iPhone but I doubt it. The ideal solution for the iPhone is something that works within its version of Safari rather than syncing.

I dunno about the connections with Gmail Calendar, but Google does pay special attention to iPhone so that could be a good bet.

This is overkill, but at work we use collaboration app called Zimbra. The operation of this server to Outlook mimics an Exchange sever, syncing up mail, calendar, etc, and you can find an online provider that would sell you an account with those capabilities. (Some of them may become part of Yahoo since Yahoo now owns Zimbra.) But, since you're only looking for calendar, this is way overkill and maybe wouldn't really achieve what you want anyway. It does also have an iPhone-specific client, though.

Seems to me unless you can get web access to the Exchange server you are going to end up duplicating your efforts one way or another. Having the info residing in two servers, say it's the UCSF server and Gmail calendar, just seems like it's asking to get messy. Although, I am assuming it is important for your calendar info to be in a group calendar on the UCSF server. If that is not the case, then you could move all of your calendar info to something different and not have this overlap problem. Whether you can get Outlook to behave nicely with this setup is another matter. ;) It seems to do best when everything is combined in one.

Sorry, might be rambling and not much help, but just in case.....

Thanks CrazyOne. Our Exchange Server, does in fact, have web access and I guess I did not think of that more directly because I don't really want to give someone I don't know that well my password and access to all of my contacts (which in one way or another contain a lot of my life with bank account numbers etc. No passwords, but lots of personal information and bits and pieces of things). There is no way to access the web based Exchange calendar without the email and contacts. Was hoping that something simple would be possible like setting up a calendar in something like gmail or yahoo and then synching it with my iPhone, which would then synch it to the Exchange server. I know enough tech stuff to come up with ideas that seem like they should be easy, but not enough to know that most of them are infeasible in the practical world :)

I swear by airset (www.airset.com) - and it's FREE and has been wholly reliable for me in the couple of years I've used it.

It syncs directly to Outlook.

When I'm at work, I enter/change schedules in Outlook on my work PC. Synchronise using the small Airset application, then later re-sync on my laptop in Outlook (then to my N95 or whatever).

The other excellent thing is that in the meantime, you can fully access your calendar, contacts (or whatever you've synced from Outlook) on their website too, with your login details.

so you have a number of options of where you enter the data (laptop, desktop, or web), and the same number of options of where to look at it.

the best one out there is plaxo.com. I am using it for the last few years and I am able to synch all my devices (PC, MAC, cell, palm, BB)

Terrific. Thank you and Moocherx too. Will check them out.

In looking at the Plaxo site it seems like it syncs contacts. Does it also sync calendar? Can it sync from an Exchange server to a Blackberry? Can it do it wirelessly? Thanks.

Another vote for AirSet!

My wife has had nice success with gsyncit.

http://lifehacker.com/software/googl...ows-228594.php

GMail and Outlook work very nicely together.

If you use Google Apps you can also have a very good BB solution as well...

www.google.com/a

Thanks to all for more ideas to check out. AirSet looks interesting, and though have created an account, have not tried to get it to talk to Outlook yet. Looks very versatile for tracking and calendaring other parts of life.

If your Exchange server has web access, it most likely also has IMAP enabled. If that's the case, you don't really need to use anything to sync it up with your devices, other than the devices themselves.

On the Macbook, you can use Entourage exchange settings, and the IPhone standard mail client. We have people set up this way @ our corporate office.

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchan...ngeathome.html

http://www.networkworld.com/columnis...rc=rss-columns

Both of those should help. And you don't need anything special.

-SF