News Post

Speaking of Outlook, a few days ago I discovered something interesting about how Outlook 2003 handles holidays so, with the 4th of July holiday upon us, I thought those who are still using that version might find it useful, too.

Outlook 2003 comes without any holidays installed, but it’s often useful to see not only the holidays for the United States but also those for another country, particularly if you have to schedule meeting dates which won’t conflict with its holidays. Since I’m chairing an ABA committee which also has members from Canada, I had added all the Canadian holidays to my calendar. For some reason, though, after the end of 2007 they stopped showing up.

I went back to Tools|Options|Calendar Options and clicked the Add Holidays button. Sure enough, I had both the US and Canada selected. I didn’t have time right then to worry much about it, so I mentioned the problem to Wayne Hughes, our fantastic Director of IT here at the bar and, almost immediately, he sent me the information I needed.

Turns out that even if you have holidays for one or more countires installed in Outlook 2003, they quit at the end of 2007 unless you download a file to extend them to 2012. I guess this is just one more way Microsoft acts to move us to upgrade.

If you’d like to keep using Outlook 2003 for a little while longer, like me, and you want all your holidays up to date, go to this page of Brain Litter and follow the instructions. It only takes a minute. There’s lots of other interesting info at the site, too, on almost any technology problem you might have.

Happy Independence Day!