I have a couple of associates who are always trying to discern my
availability for appointments and 'book' my sechedule for me.  I want
to find a free or very low-cost online calendar they can access,
determine my availability and set appointments.

Here are my parameters; can anyone help?

1. I am on a PC/Win XP
2. I use MS Outlook
3. Would like a facility that auto-synchs with the online calendar
everyday to update it.  I tried to use Yahoo!'s calendar, but it
doesn't work at all, and MSN is too overpriced.
4. I would like two or more people tobe able to access and review it .

---

Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 25 May 2004 13:49 PDT

prpro...

I can point you to a free online calendar, but you would
have to update it manually. I'm reasonably certain there
is no free software which will provide an interface between
a free online calendar and Outlook.

There is a company which provides such software and an
online calendar, but they charge $60/month for a service
which allows up to 5 users to interact with it, and a 
higher fee for more users.

Let me know what you think...

sublime1-ga

---

Clarification of Question by prpro-ga on 25 May 2004 14:50 PDT

Thanks, sublime!  Well, I know Yahoo Calendar has offered free
Intellisync software and there must be others; Visto used to offer one
called Visto Desktop.

When you say manual update, do you mean (1) I would have to input all
calendar info or (2) I would manually have to synch my Outlook with
the calendar?  Although I'd prefer something more automated, I could
settle for (2).

prpro...

I wasn't aware of Yahoo's Intellisync software, and I think
the trend is quickly moving toward charging for these services,
but I did find one free online calendar where you can manually
sync the online calendar to your Outlook Calendar, as in option
(2) of your clarification.

Calendars.net offers a free online calendar:
http://www.calendars.net/

You can customize your calendar using options on this page:

"Change the color of text and backgrounds
 Put a background image or texture behind your calendar
 Specify font faces and sizes for virtually all elements of
 the calendar screen
 Add headers and footers to appear on your calendar
 Change the month or day headings to another language
 Check any add-in lists you want your calendar to display,
 such as sets of  holidays
 Publish your calendar to a one or more static HTML files
 Delete entire months of old individual events, making your
 calendar load faster"
http://www.calendars.net/calsetup.htm

You can view sample user calendars here:
http://www.calendars.net/cool.htm

And the instructions for manually exchanging data with
Outlook are covered on this page:
http://www.calendars.net/calsetup.htm#outlook

Here is the page where you can upload your Outlook csv file:
http://www.calendars.net/calup.htm

And here's the page where the calendar can be downloaded in
csv format, for integration into Outlook:
http://www.calendars.net/caldown.htm


This is the only one I found that isn't either a free trial
before buying or an established service with a price.
For example, this page on CalendarZone.com lists a bunch of
online calendar services:
http://www.calendarzone.com/Web/

...but the only ones with Outlook synchronization are Connect
Daily, whose prices are quite high:
http://www.mhsoftware.com/priceconnect.html

...and Jump!, whose site is not working.


There's also a slight chance that you might find additional 
possibilities in the results from the Google searches 
I detailed below.

Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that  
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog  
established through the "Request for Clarification" process. 

sublime1-ga


Searches done, via Google:

software synchronize free "online calendar"
://www.google.com/search?q=software+synchronize+free+%22online+calendar%22

outlook site:www.calendars.net
://www.google.com/search?q=outlook+site%3Awww.calendars.net

software synchronize free "online calendar" outlook
://www.google.com/search?q=software+synchronize+free+%22online+calendar%22+outlook

Thanks, sublime -- again, I haven't been able to test this yet but
assume one of these options will work.  I am trying to use the MS
Free/Busy alternative that has been suggested because it seems the
least time-consuming.  Thnaks again!

OUtlook Internet Free/Busy Feature, seems it can do what you want -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291621

Also have a look at this..
http://freebusy.office.microsoft.com/freebusy/freebusy.dll

prpro...

Yes the Free/Busy option looks promising. Thanks, sachingoyal-ga!