Comments on: Follow Up Flags and the Default Reminder in Outlook 2007

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:16:31 +0000

Great explanation, but I will agree with a few other posters re a “mistake”…in my view No Date should have defaulted to 0800h! I like No Date because there are indeed no dates…too bad the time defaults to the “Today” time of 1600h.

By: Gealach

Gealach — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:01:52 +0000

Thank you Original Paulie-D! Changing my end of day in the calendar options to 9am has made my default flag time 8am. Such an odd way to fix it, but it works!

By: joeb

joeb — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:22:12 +0000

This post is getting long in the tooth, but it appears that there is still no solution to the mistake Microsoft made in setting up their follow up flags. Yes, as Salina and others have pointed out, it is a mistake. I don’t buy the “there is actually a good reason” line… there is a reason, but it’s a pretty flimsy one. Most of us can recall things to do today. It’s later in the week, month, geologic cycle that presents problems. For those follow up flags (the VAST majority we set – I don’t think I have EVER used “today”), a morning reminder is far, far more useful. Typical big software arrogance/myopia… I’m sure it sounded like a good idea in the conference room when they explained their “good reason” for setting a 4:00 PM default that cannot be changed. Too bad the real world is generally not the same as that Redmond conference room.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:05:17 +0000

Default reminder times for flags are based on the start/end of day in your calendar settings.

For the longest time my default for right-clicking the flag in a message and choosing ‘Custom’ would be 10:30pm. This was confusing me until I changed my Tools > Options > Preferences > Calendar > Calendar Work Week settings.

It had been configured so that my workday that ends at 11:30pm. All my reminders were one hour prior to the end of the workday (10:30pm). Once I corrected it to 6pm, my default reminder time became 5pm.

Make sense?

Murph

By: Original Paulie-D

Original Paulie-D — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:38:21 +0000

**TYPO CORRECTED**

Since Outlook is uncompromising in this regard, here’s an alternative approach:

1. Outlook >> Tools >> Options
2. Under Calendar, click Calendar Options button
3. Under Calendar Work Week, change the End Time to (for example) 9:00 AM
4. Click OK to close Calendar Options window, as well as Options window

Then, right-click the Reminder / To-Do Item flag for any email, choose ADD REMINDER and note that the Default Reminder Time is now 1 hour prior to the time you defined as the End Time (EOD). If you configured the Start and End times less than approx 3 hours apart, the Default Reminder Time will be one hour after Start Time.

Please note that the End Time is utilized for other functions as well .. such as “All Day” calendar entries .. but I would suffer that loss of function, just to have a true custom reminder time!

~The Original Paulie-D

By: Original Paulie-D

Original Paulie-D — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:35:44 +0000

Since Outlook is uncompromising in this regard, here’s an alternative approach:

1. Outlook >> Tools >> Options
2. Under Calender, click Calendar Options button
3. Under Calendar Work Week, change the End Time to (for example) 9:00 AM
4. Click OK to close Calendar Options window, as well as Options window

Please note that the End Time is utilized for other functions as well .. such as “All Day” calendar entries .. but I would suffer that loss of function, just to have a true custom reminder time!

~The Original Paulie-D

By: thankful

thankful — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:27:08 +0000

Thanks for posting this–been annoyed by this “feature” for years. Finally decided today I was going to “fix” the annoyance. Dug and dug in Outlook and couldn’t find where to “fix” it. Outlook Help wouldn’t give me the answer no matter what I entered for search words. Makes complete sense once you know this simple explanation. Go figure I’d have to find the answer somewhere other than within the Help file!

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:46:39 +0000

Same problem as Matthew. One of my e-mail accounts does not have an option for a reminder date. All I can set is a message flag. Another e-mail account on the same Outlook 2007 install works perfect.

I have searched for nearly 2 hours for a fix but found nothing yet.

By: simonip

simonip — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:27:46 +0000

Excellent tip – it has been driving me bonkers for ages!

Thanks again!

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:14:14 +0000

Unlike what the article says, the Tomorrow flag also defaults to the end of the day. It seems most readers here, including me, want the option of changing the default to the beginning of the day. I agree with Don 13/08/2010.