thanks for the thoughtful and detailed explanation. we do the same with ical and being that our business is publishing, we get to use all apple products :) (ical has invites, shared calendars, work can be one color, home can be another, shopping can be another, you can share one color, all, invite some people to some not others, allow some to be public some not, all of what i would expect - its all customizable the way i am kinda sure google or microsoft's are) much to the chagrin of our accountant who hates quickbooks pro for mac. (well i guess we could go windows but almost 20 years doing i this way, probably the same as you, makes it rough to change (for an old fart like me anyway).
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Microsoft broke Volkswagen's world record:
VW made only 21,529,464 bugs.
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Yes, you can do the same things with Google calendars, and I'm sure on an Apple or other platform. But Outlook Exchange Server is the standard in my business world.
Pam