If you do this, then you need to change the Windows time zone settings as you move from time zone to time zone, as well as select a different Notes location to set up everything else. I think this is cumbersome, so I operate with Notes in "R4" mode; that is that each location contains the time zone information itself. In that way, I switch Location, and Notes switches its own time zone, the system clock, and the Windows time zone. I find this to be a much better way to operate. Whichever you use, however, make sure that you have it all set correctly in the client and that your home server is also set correctly.

If the server isn't set correctly and you do calendaring with people on another server, you're probably in trouble. In such situations, you really have little option but to set your networked Notes locations to match the server. If you don't, you'll find your calendar entries don't match your colleagues, and you'll all get horribly confused. Even if you all set your locations to match, you may still get problems, where the server does things for you and time stamps them, such as with mail delivery.

Time zones and traveling
There are two things to time zones and traveling. One is the mental discipline to think time zones while you travel, and the second is to tell Notes the correct time zone information. Telling Notes is actually the easy bit.

When you make an arrangement with someone else for a meeting, you make the arrangement for a given time. Implicit in the understanding you have with that person is that the meeting time includes the time zone where the meeting will take place, and that may well not be the time zone that you're in when you set up the meeting.

For example, when I'm at home in the UK, I get an email from a contact in Germany and agree to a meeting in his office for 2 p.m. next Tuesday. If I just create an entry in my calendar for 2 p.m. next Tuesday, that's fine, until I go to Germany and select a new location with the local time zone. All of a sudden, my meeting is at 3 p.m. in my calendar, and I turn up late. Or worse, I send him an invitation for 2 p.m. and put it in my calendar. He looks at the invite and sees that it's for 3 p.m. Now what will he do? Reject it, because we've agreed 2 p.m. in Germany, accept it and change it to 2 p.m., or just not notice?

As you can see, you need to think about the time zone and the absolute time that things happen in, rather than just the clock face time. To help you, there are a whole mess of world clock programs available for both Windows and for various handhelds that can help you with this. One free Windows example is Sun Clock (pictured in Figure B) from Map Maker at http://www.mapmaker.com.

FIGURE B


Sun Clock is a free piece of software from Map Maker. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Big Clock from http://www.gacel.de is an example of a Palm OS application. It's pictured in Figure C. This image was taken from their Web site. Rest assured, it looks much better in color on the screen of my Sony Clie.

FIGURE C

Big Clock is available on the Palm OS.