Support for a Quicken feature request

I think the sync-to-outlook feature pertains to lesser Quicken versions than H&B: was there a specific reason you made your request only for H&B?

I had no reason for specifying H&B specifically, other that to indicate what version I use. I would hope that if Intuit chose to implement the feature, it would be implemented for all versions. (But if not, then I'd prefer it be included in the version _I'm_ using! :-)

Chad Neeper wrote in news:hqqjig$bkd$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

I use Google Calendar, but it is shared to others. I think this should preclude the interesting feature you are requesting. AFAIK, there is (yet) no possibility to NOT share individual items on a calendar. When that becomes possible, I would be highly interested. Comments?

Can you provide a panel or HELP for this? I searched my Quicken HELP tab for variations of this theme, and didn't find anything. Q2010 P. I'd like to perhaps investigate 'turning this on'.

Thanks!

You're right, when I ran across it originally, I also tried to find in the Help. If it's in there, it not indexed and I haven't found it yet. HOWEVER, here's where I stumbled across it in Q2010 H&B:

Bills tab -> Manage Bill & Income Reminders -> Create New -> Scheduled Bill or Deposit

The right side of this window has a section titled "Help". In this Help section, the last item on the list is "Can I see my reminders in Outlook?". Clicking on this item pops up a balloon window with the following text:

"Sure, you can. To see your reminders in Outlook, do the following:

1. Select the Sync to Outlook check box, enter your bill details, and then click Ok.
2. On the Bills tab, click Sync to Outlook. Alternatively, select the Sync to Outlook check box in the One Step Update Settings dialog.

Note: You can update the reminder details in Quicken at any time. To see the changes in Outlook, do step 2."

In Q2010 H&B, this is the _only_ mention I've found of doing any sort of synchronizing to an external calendar. In fact, I don't even seem to have the "Sync to Outlook" option itself. I'm wondering if the feature used to be available at some point, but has been removed and the mention in the help window is just an oversight.

I would find the ability to sync certain select reminders to an external calendar very useful. I use a non-Outlook calendar on a daily basis, but pretty much never use the calendar in Q. It's simply not convenient to me, even though seeing certain upcoming reminders would be useful.

Hope this helps.

(As I mentioned earlier, if anyone else finds this useful, please shoot off a feature request to Intuit! The more people requesting it, the more likely it will be incorporated in a future version!)

My limited investigation suggests that iCAL is an Apple thing.

Do any Windows desktop apps use it?

"John Pollard" wrote in news:hqvdkq$vol$1 @news.eternal-september.org:

I believe google calendar (a very nice one) can import/export it/them, but I don't use that feature ...

Yes, there are Windows apps that support ical. ical has become the standard for interchanging calendars. The format was originally developed by Lotus and Microsoft. The Wikipedia article is quite good.

The wonderful ReminderFox add-on to Firefox and Thunderbird uses the ical format.

Mozilla Lightning and Sunbird both handle ical. My Outlook 2003 for Windows can send ical meeting requests. Outlook 2007 can export and import ical formats for syncing with Google calendar and with phones that use the ical format.

Bernie

...Which is precisely why it would be really nice if Quicken would automatically update an ical file with select Bill Reminders. In my case, I use Thunderbird e-mail with the Lightning calendar extension. In the calendar, I have several local calendars configured. One each for birthdays, business appointments, personal appointments. I then also synchronize with several publicly-available ical calendars on the Internet, which provide calendars for phases of the moon, US holidays. I then also sync up with a Yahoo calendar that my wife uses so we can co-ordinate better. It would be nice to be able to add in notices of when select bills are coming due.

Since Outlook supports ical, if Quicken would support ical rather than strictly Outlook, Intuit can greatly increase the usefuless of the feature.

Of course, this is all a moot point unless Intuit becomes motivated to add the feature.

(BTW, nice summary on ical, Bernie.)

Thanks; to you and the others who replied.

OK Chad - thanks - so I ran a test, and (the key here!) is also one must then perform an OSU to get it to appear on the calendar in a nice RED bold entry. Thanks!

Well, it sounds like the feature actually does exist then, but just not in the Q2010 H&B version. I guess that's good in that it's not just an oops in the help text.