How do I change default time for reminders

[Guest]

I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15 min. I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences page?

 

[Guest]

Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer would
have been more helpful.

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15 min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook]

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Guest]

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.) However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks default. It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours old, the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people out (in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook]

I never suggest managing your work to do using reminders. Tasks are great
but reminders are just renamed interruptions.

The setting for what time the Task reminder appears is on the Tool | Options
| Preferences Tab | Task options.


You could also try configuring your TaskPad this way:

set it for Active Tasks for Selected days (View | TaskPad View) and use
Start Date as the day you want to get started on a Task and Due date as it's
crucial end date. Tasks will go red when overdue and not appear in the
TaskPad until start date. So you can have a Task to follow something up in
a week - and it will only appear according to the Start Date a week away.

You'll also find adding columns to the TaskPad useful - right click the
column header and use the field chooser to drag Owner onto the taskPad -
that will show you who you assigned the Task to.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It
works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.)
However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks default.
It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the
time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours old,
the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the
entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people out
(in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at
least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it
is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it
say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

:

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences
page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am
not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change
an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the
snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Guest]

The answer to the question I asked appears to be that there is no method for
changing the default time on a task reminder.

Reminders on tasks are interruptions only when they aren't flagging
something time sensitive that a person had overlooked in the press of other
work or phone calls. For those items, reminders are a key reason that we use
Outlook for task management. For our busiest management staff who find
themselves coordinating work that might consist of working with 20 people on
numerous small, inter-related tasks through the day (and night when we are
dealing with staff in different time zones) we find that having a few of the
tasks set with urgent and or time sensitive reminders is useful. Having a 5
minute default is what we found not useful, and that's what generated my
question.

Thank you, however, for your advice on the other methods of working with
Outlook. We actually tried all of those at various times over the years.
Outlook is not new to our organization. I've been teaching our staff how to
ever more efficiently and effectively perform closely coordinated team tasks
using Outlook for the past 8 years. I've taught close to 400 students over
that period who have successfully learned to use Outlook tasks as well as
some unusual programmatic uses we found it could handle nicely including
managing complex projects from within Outlook using a form of workflow that
keeps everyone on a team advised at a glance as to whose 'court' an item is
in and when it is due to be passed along. The best feature of that use was
the version control it brought as a side benefit because we attach all parts
of all documents to the individual tasks.

It is possible that our uses are so unusual that we have a higher than
normal demand for automatic task reminders of reasonable intervals.

Let's consider my question answered.

I never suggest managing your work to do using reminders. Tasks are great
but reminders are just renamed interruptions.

The setting for what time the Task reminder appears is on the Tool | Options
| Preferences Tab | Task options.


You could also try configuring your TaskPad this way:

set it for Active Tasks for Selected days (View | TaskPad View) and use
Start Date as the day you want to get started on a Task and Due date as it's
crucial end date. Tasks will go red when overdue and not appear in the
TaskPad until start date. So you can have a Task to follow something up in
a week - and it will only appear according to the Start Date a week away.

You'll also find adding columns to the TaskPad useful - right click the
column header and use the field chooser to drag Owner onto the taskPad -
that will show you who you assigned the Task to.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It
works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.)
However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks default.
It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the
time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours old,
the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the
entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people out
(in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at
least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it
is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it
say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!


Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

:

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences
page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am
not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change
an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the
snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Guest]

By the way, I suggest you look at your suggested
Tools/Options/Preferences/Task Options to see just what features are actually
offered there. On my Outlook 2003 version none of the options or two color
choices addressed "What time the Task reminder appears" as you suggested.
Perhaps this oversight has been fixed in the beta of Office 2007 and you were
looking at a 2007 options choice.

I never suggest managing your work to do using reminders. Tasks are great
but reminders are just renamed interruptions.

The setting for what time the Task reminder appears is on the Tool | Options
| Preferences Tab | Task options.


You could also try configuring your TaskPad this way:

set it for Active Tasks for Selected days (View | TaskPad View) and use
Start Date as the day you want to get started on a Task and Due date as it's
crucial end date. Tasks will go red when overdue and not appear in the
TaskPad until start date. So you can have a Task to follow something up in
a week - and it will only appear according to the Start Date a week away.

You'll also find adding columns to the TaskPad useful - right click the
column header and use the field chooser to drag Owner onto the taskPad -
that will show you who you assigned the Task to.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It
works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.)
However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks default.
It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the
time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours old,
the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the
entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people out
(in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at
least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it
is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it
say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!


Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

:

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences
page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am
not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change
an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the
snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Tasks fire at the time they are set for unless you disable reminders (which
Judy recommends - then use the colors to determine if it's on schedule and
do the red ones first). If you want them to fire at 4:15 pm, set them for
4:15 pm or change the working hours (tools, options, calendar options
button) for the day to start at 4:15 pm. (Changing this setting generally
doesn't make a difference in other areas, so it's not a problem for most
people - just don't use show working hours only view when Scheduling.)

You can't change the snooze default, but it will accept any valid time
format typed in the screen (no shortcuts - you need to type the time out: 22
minutes) and you can select multiple items and snooze all at once for the
same period. You can also type any valid value in the time fields on any
form - if you wants tasks to fire at 7:52 am, type 7.52 in the workday
starts field. If you are setting a task and you want it to fire at 3:15,
type 3.15p in the field instead of using the selector.

Not sure if this is Outlook 2007 only - but if you select 2 or more items to
snooze, default snooze is 10 min.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/

The answer to the question I asked appears to be that there is no method
for
changing the default time on a task reminder.

Reminders on tasks are interruptions only when they aren't flagging
something time sensitive that a person had overlooked in the press of
other
work or phone calls. For those items, reminders are a key reason that we
use
Outlook for task management. For our busiest management staff who find
themselves coordinating work that might consist of working with 20 people
on
numerous small, inter-related tasks through the day (and night when we are
dealing with staff in different time zones) we find that having a few of
the
tasks set with urgent and or time sensitive reminders is useful. Having a
5
minute default is what we found not useful, and that's what generated my
question.

Thank you, however, for your advice on the other methods of working with
Outlook. We actually tried all of those at various times over the years.
Outlook is not new to our organization. I've been teaching our staff how
to
ever more efficiently and effectively perform closely coordinated team
tasks
using Outlook for the past 8 years. I've taught close to 400 students
over
that period who have successfully learned to use Outlook tasks as well as
some unusual programmatic uses we found it could handle nicely including
managing complex projects from within Outlook using a form of workflow
that
keeps everyone on a team advised at a glance as to whose 'court' an item
is
in and when it is due to be passed along. The best feature of that use
was
the version control it brought as a side benefit because we attach all
parts
of all documents to the individual tasks.

It is possible that our uses are so unusual that we have a higher than
normal demand for automatic task reminders of reasonable intervals.

Let's consider my question answered.

I never suggest managing your work to do using reminders. Tasks are
great
but reminders are just renamed interruptions.

The setting for what time the Task reminder appears is on the Tool |
Options
| Preferences Tab | Task options.


You could also try configuring your TaskPad this way:

set it for Active Tasks for Selected days (View | TaskPad View) and use
Start Date as the day you want to get started on a Task and Due date as
it's
crucial end date. Tasks will go red when overdue and not appear in the
TaskPad until start date. So you can have a Task to follow something up
in
a week - and it will only appear according to the Start Date a week away.

You'll also find adding columns to the TaskPad useful - right click the
column header and use the field chooser to drag Owner onto the taskPad -
that will show you who you assigned the Task to.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It
works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.)
However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks
default.
It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the
time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours
old,
the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the
entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people
out
(in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am
getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

:

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at
least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said
it
is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the
Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it
say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the
Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!


Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific
pointer
would
have been more helpful.

:

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences
page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to
15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am
not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to
change
an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the
snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.

 

[Guest]

oops - my directions took you one step too far. Tools | options and it's
right there on the preferences Tab beside the Task Options button.
--
Judy Gleeson

By the way, I suggest you look at your suggested
Tools/Options/Preferences/Task Options to see just what features are actually
offered there. On my Outlook 2003 version none of the options or two color
choices addressed "What time the Task reminder appears" as you suggested.
Perhaps this oversight has been fixed in the beta of Office 2007 and you were
looking at a 2007 options choice.

I never suggest managing your work to do using reminders. Tasks are great
but reminders are just renamed interruptions.

The setting for what time the Task reminder appears is on the Tool | Options
| Preferences Tab | Task options.


You could also try configuring your TaskPad this way:

set it for Active Tasks for Selected days (View | TaskPad View) and use
Start Date as the day you want to get started on a Task and Due date as it's
crucial end date. Tasks will go red when overdue and not appear in the
TaskPad until start date. So you can have a Task to follow something up in
a week - and it will only appear according to the Start Date a week away.

You'll also find adding columns to the TaskPad useful - right click the
column header and use the field chooser to drag Owner onto the taskPad -
that will show you who you assigned the Task to.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

I am using Outlook 2003.
I had long ago set my reminder default for my calendar at 4 hours. It
works
fine. (That was possible in much earlier versions of Outlook too.)
However,
my question was not about the calendar. It was about the Tasks default.
It
seems to be defaulted at 5 minutes. While it is possible to change the
time
for EACH INDIVIDUAL TASK, when the time I have set becomes 24 hours old,
the
reminder defaults back to the 5 minutes and I need to go through the
entire
process for each individual task again. As we have two staff people out
(in
the hospital) and I'm doing their work in addition to mine, I am getting
behind on my tasks and their assigned tasks and the every 5 minutes is
driving me crazy.

:

A more specific pointer would be possible IF you bothered stating at
least
your version.

And anyway, most versions have that setting exactly where Diane said it
is.
She was quite specific: Tools | Options | right there is the Preferences
Tab. So read the line: Default setting for Calendar what time does it
say?

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!


Well that was an unsuccessful 'treasure hunt'. A more specific pointer
would
have been more helpful.

:

Version of outlook? What choices are on tools, options, preferences
page?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/






I simply want to change the default from an annoying 5 minutes to 15
min.
I
do not want to replace the Outlook native reminder system as I am
not
exceptionally tech savvy. I do completely understand how to change
an
individual reminders time via the selection at the bottom or the
snooze
button. I'm interested in the default 5 minute mechanism.