Ever scheduled an event like a teleseminar or product launch? Hopefully
theyll copy down all the details correctly, adjust the instant to match their
measure zone, AND actually remember to attend. Luckily theres an user friendly way to
do all this by marking your visitors calendar with just a couple of clicks
using Microsoft Outlook.

This works because programs like Outlook can read different types of files.
The file were going to be building is called a vCalendar file -- be aware
this will only work if your visitor has Outlook 97 and above (Outlook
Express is no dazzling here).

What well be doing here is creating the event on our computer in the form
of an appointment on the Outlook calendar. Then, well export it to a document
our visitors may click on, and when they do, itll import all the info about
the meeting right into their Outlook calendar.

Lets get started. Open Outlook, go to your calendar and find the correct
date, and double click.

Type in a subject, this will be your events title. For the location put in
something like the URL if this is an Internet thing or a phone number with a
passcode if this is a phone-based teleseminar.

Then choose a beginning time and finish time, in your instant zone. The COOL thing
about this is when the user increases this appointment, it will appear adjusted
to their own instant zone.

Then in the body type in any other details the user needs to understand about your
event. Thats all you positive need to set, things like the reminder instant wont
export so do not bother setting it. Any formatting you do (setting fonts,
making things bold or colorized, etc.) will not save either.

Go to File -> Save As, then where it says "Save As Type" choose "vCalendar
Format (*.vcs)". Save this to your desktop as something like: event.vcs

Then in your .htaccess file, put this in:

AddType text/x-vCalendar .vcs

If you do not have an .htaccess file, put this text in a new text document
(in Notepad), then save as ".htaccess" (with the dot in front) and upload
into the identical folder your .vcs file is going.

(That part with adding the .htaccess file *shouldnt* be necessary, we are
just being cautious by adding that in.)

Now upload your event.vcs document . Link to it from an HTML document , and tell
people that if they have Outlook 97 or higher, all they have to do is click
that backlink , then click "Open" and the event or yours (whatever it is) will be
added to their calendar.

Since the event is adjusted for the persons time zone, theres no guessing
whether or not 6 PM your measure means 7 PM or 10 AM their measure . In most cases
an alert will appear on their screen 15 minutes before the event starts, so
if you have a teleseminar theyll remember to call in and wont be late.

Whats more, a lot of PDAs (Palm Pilots and some cell phones) have Outlook
integration so YOUR meeting could also be copied to their personal
organizer.