There have been dozens of comments recently on my previous post about Changing the default reminder time in Outlook 2007. The comments are not about the default reminder time for appointments… but rather the default reminder time for follow up flags. The concern being that it is really strange that the default is 4pm and it seems there is no easy way to change that to something more acceptable (like 8am).
I would like to discuss this a little to hopefully help everyone out. Whilst on the surface it might look annoying (especially for those how have just moved to Outlook 2007)… there is actually a good reason why the default reminder is 4pm.
First lets talk about Outlook 2003
In Outlook 2003, a follow up flag is a follow up flag. You set a time and a date for the reminder and that is that.
In Outlook 2007 however, there are different types of follow up flags. There is a “Today” follow up flag, a “Tomorrow” follow up flag, a “This Week”, a “Next Week” and a “Custom”. Obviously, if you use a “Today” follow up flag (which is the default), it will remind you today. If you set a “Tomorrow” follow up flag, it will remind you tomorrow.
The “Today” flag is designed to remind you about things that you need to finish before you go home from work today… hence why it the default is for it to remind you 1 hour before the end of your work day (which would be 4pm in most cases).
As the “Tomorrow” flag is designed to remind you about things to do tomorrow, it will remind you by default at the start of the next work day (8am in most cases).
So say you want to have your default reminder first thing tomorrow morning? Then it is easy to change the default flag that is set. Simply right click on where you currently set your flag, and then in the pop up menu click on “Set Quick Click”. Change the default to “Tomorrow” and your default reminders will now be 8am on the next business day.
Hope that helps clear up some of the confusion around follow up flags. I can understand why it would be confusion coming from Outlook 2003, however with the new flexibility to set different types of flags, Outlook 2007 gives you a lot more control over when you get your reminders.
’till next time!
TNP 
PS. If you want to learn more about the default times, you can look at this Office Online help page – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA012317831033.aspx
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I dug around elsewhere and found a screen shot of what this should look like. “Set Quick Click” is not a menu choice in my Outlook. Why might it not be?
I think the question we’re all asking is how to change the default time for custom flags. It’s a pain to set a flag for a specific date, and have to change the time to the morning of that date every time. I’d rather have it default to the morning, which is what I’m more often looking for, than an evening reminder.
I agree with Salina. Either give the option to set our own today reminder time, or default it to first thing in the morning. Some jobs take more than 1 hr to finish up!
What hell happened to Office Online “help?”
(My next computer will be a Mac. Microsoft SUCKS!
I also agree with Salina. Would it be possible to default to a different time for all instances EXCEPT marked as today. (I never use the Today option, so I am having to change the time on every message I flag.)
The default reminder time is still set at Tools, Options, Preferences tab, Calendar section.
Hey TNP:
I have a different problem on default date and time. I’ve set my quick click to “Complete”. When I do that, the reminder is set to “Saturday, January 01, 4501″. It forces me to select today to pick an actual date. Any suggestions on how to fix?
Salina and the others are correct. Much more often than not, I am setting custom flags for as much as a month out. Every single time (and this occurs frequently during my day) I must reset the default time from 4:00 pm to 8:00 am. MS designers have summarily decided that 4:00 pm is the best default time, but that is no reason to not have other options; especially since other options are clearly desired.
it is not only the custom flags but the “Add Reminder” option as well in the same menu. That defaults to 8pm! If I am adding a reminder on an email to take care of it on March 1st there is no earthly reason I would want to be reminded at 8 pm! If I am in a hurry and forget to check the time I am out of luck on getting that job done that day. There must be a way to change the default time on these…please!!!!!
In Outlook 2007, when I set a custom reminder or choose the date manually, the reminder time in the window defaults to 6:30pm. Every time I then have to reminder to set the time to 8am. How can I reset the custom reminder time to something more useful (8am)? Thanks! Mike