Hidden Outlook reminders

[Lindsay Graham]

My wife has Outlook 2003 under Windows XP. When she had Outlook 2000
(or 2002, I'm not sure), each reminder arrived in its own pop-up window,
but in Outlook 2003, they appear only in the taskbar (and therefore tend
not to get noticed) and several reminders are grouped together. I've
read all the recent threads on this topic, and share the frustration of
those who just cannot understand why MS would remove the option to have
pop-up reminders.

In several threads, jmaxon wrote:
"This is annoying me as well. It appears to be an issue with Windows 7
(Win7), not Outlook. By default, Win7 combines the taskbar buttons. By
doing so the Reminder gets embedded into the "grouping" behind the
Outlook icon. This makes the reminder difficult to notice.

"If you change the "Taskbar buttons" setting under the "Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties" to "Never combine," then the grouping separates
and the reminder pops-up in front of whatever else you have open.

"I'm hoping that Microsoft comes up with a fix for this, as I'm sure
more and more people are going to become annoyed."

Is there a similar solution in Outlook 2003/Win XP?

Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia

 

[Lindsay Graham]

My wife has Outlook 2003 under Windows XP. When she had Outlook 2000
(or 2002, I'm not sure), each reminder arrived in its own pop-up window,
but in Outlook 2003, they appear only in the taskbar (and therefore tend
not to get noticed) and several reminders are grouped together. I've
read all the recent threads on this topic, and share the frustration of
those who just cannot understand why MS would remove the option to have
pop-up reminders.

In several threads, jmaxon wrote:
"This is annoying me as well. It appears to be an issue with Windows 7
(Win7), not Outlook. By default, Win7 combines the taskbar buttons. By
doing so the Reminder gets embedded into the "grouping" behind the
Outlook icon. This makes the reminder difficult to notice.

"If you change the "Taskbar buttons" setting under the "Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties" to "Never combine," then the grouping separates
and the reminder pops-up in front of whatever else you have open.

"I'm hoping that Microsoft comes up with a fix for this, as I'm sure
more and more people are going to become annoyed."

Is there a similar solution in Outlook 2003/Win XP?

Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia

I've had no replies to this post, but I have done quite a bit of
research, which unfortunately seems to indicate that there is no
workaround for this Outlook deficiency. I've seen a *lot* of people
complaining about Microsoft's decision to change from pop-up to taskbar.

Has anyone here heard of a workaround? -- I guess I thought the change
had been so unpopular that someone would have found a way to bring back
the pop-up option.

In the absence of a workaround, what is the best way to get the message
through to Microsoft in the hope that they will do something about it?

Here's hoping.

Lindsay

 

[barry]

Does anyone from Microsoft read these issues? What is the workaround for
this? Will this issue be fixed?

I'm tired of missing meetings/conf calls because the reminders are not
working. I guess they are "working" but are hidden behind windows... thus
I'm not reminded.

This is VERY poor design.

 

[Bob I]

Answer to the first question is no, this is a public newsgroup populated
by users helping users. If you want to find out directly what Microsoft
has to say you will need to contact their tech support.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

In Outlook 2003 and later the reminders are in a single window. The reminder
window comes up on the screen but doesn't always take focus if you are busy
in another program - most users find it annoying when the reminder comes up
as they are typing.

If you want the reminder window to come up on the screen, you need to have
the reminder window in the background, not minimized. When its minimized, it
will only flash on the task bar.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

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[kevin_ortman]

I completely agree. This is VERY annoying. I was able to get around this by disabling the "Combine Taskbar Buttons" feature in Window 7. Instructions on how to do this are posted here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...7-taskbar-work-more-like-windows-xp-or-vista/

Very sad that we have to disable new OS features just to have such a standard / important feature of outlook work as expected!

 

[AudreyG]

I'm having the same problem with Outlook 2010 also. You can download Outlook plugin called Showreminders from sagelamp.com that pops up the reminder window in front.

good luck
Audrey

 

[Jose Gabriel]

Same here. Tired of missing meetings because of Outlook reminders. I'm not a big fan of downloading addins but desperately need a solution. I will try out Showreminders from sage.

Jose