Activating Appointment syncing

Needles bidirectional syncing with Outlook is a Needles individual staff preference which links the Needles Staff ID to a computer name and Outlook profile on a specific machine in order to ensure syncing with the correct Outlook profile.

Each Staff ID within Needles can only be set to sync with one Outlook profile. If a Staff ID in Needles is set to sync with a shared or public folder in Outlook, no other staff ID can be set to sync with that same folder.

Appointment synchronization settings can be activated in Needles directly within the Staff Directory. Once activated, specific appointment criteria must be set as part of the activation process. To configure these settings, the user or an administrator must have proper permission to modify the Staff Directory.

Appointments Settings

To activate the Appointments sync:

1. Click the Staff Directory button on the Needles Directory ribbon.
2. Double-click the desired staff and navigate to their Outlook tab.
3. Select the Synchronization Enabled check box to turn on the Appointments sync. Appointments will be synced to that staff’s default appointments folder in Outlook.

When enabled, appointments will sync between Needles and Outlook using the Bidirectional With Delete setting. This means that changes and additions, including deletions, in Outlook will overwrite data in Needles on linked items being synced. In turn, changes and additions, including deletions in Needles will overwrite the data in Outlook.

4. The sync criteria for appointments includes a setting to sync items no earlier than a certain date. Click into the Appointments no earlier than date field and type in the date you wish to use as your starting point or click the Calendar icon to open a calendar dropdown to use for date selection.

5. If you are already using Outlook reminders and do not wish to have Needles reminders on appointments that are syncing with Outlook, click on the check box to Disable Needles Reminders.
6. Click the Send All Calendar Items To Outlook option to send a user’s existing calendar items to Outlook.  Select the Send Silently option if you do not wish Outlook to send an alert during this process.
7. Click the Save button to save changes.

Once changes have been saved, the Appointments sync will initiate and as a result, you will see the Appointments Status Information icon displayed on the NEEDLES ribbon in Outlook. Refer to Understanding Status Information Icons for more details.

You can verify which appointments are synchronizing by clicking on your Calendar folder in Outlook and changing your view to a list view. Synced Appointments will be listed with the “NeedlesSync” category. For additional information on maintaining your synced appointments, review Managing Synced Items.