KB170300 - OL97: Behavior of Appointment Reminder Check Box

Article ID: 170300

Article Last Modified on 1/20/2007

Microsoft Outlook 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q170300

SYMPTOMS

When you create a new Appointment, Recurring Appointment, Meeting Request, Recurring Meeting, or All Day Event using Microsoft Outlook 97, the default behavior of the Reminder check box may appear inconsistent.

CAUSE

If the appointment date and time is in the past, the Reminder check box is not selected by default. If the appointment date and time is in the future, the Reminder check box is selected by default. This behavior is a design feature of Outlook; there is no user interface to change this behavior. Outlook assumes you do not need a reminder for past appointments and do need a reminder for future appointments.

MORE INFORMATION

When the Calendar is opened in Outlook, the cursor must be focused somewhere. The default focus point for the Outlook Calendar is the first displayed time on the Calendar that is marked as working hours. Working hours are defined in Outlook by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Options. Click Calendar Options and in the Calendar Work Week section, define the workday Start and Stop times.

If you open the Calendar and click Actions, and then select New Appointment, creating a new appointment without first selecting the desired time on the Calendar, a New Appointment form will be displayed that will have the appointment time occurring in the past. Therefore the reminder ox will be unchecked by default.

If you open the Calendar and click on an available time space in the Calendar, and then click Actions and select New Appointment, the reminder checkbox will be checked by default.

If you create a custom form that has the Reminder check box either selected or cleared, publish the custom form in your Forms folder, and assign the custom form as your new default appointment form, the Reminder check box reverts to the default behavior.

If you create a custom form that has the Reminder check box selected or cleared and publish the form in your Calendar folder, you can override the default Reminder check box behavior. This form becomes available on the Calendar menu and is not the default form. The drawback of this method is that the appointment date and time defaults to the time that was in the form when you published it.

For further information regarding custom forms and solutions in Outlook 98, please refer to:

172752 OL97: Custom Forms and Programming Limitations

REFERENCES

For more information about how to create custom forms, type "custom form" in the Office Assistant, click Search, and then click to view "Create a form."

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