A user asks: “Is there any way I can change the options for ALL recurring events. When I add a birthday into my contacts it sets the reminder at 15 minutes starting at 12:00 a.m. I would like to change the reminder and the time to something else without having to do them all individually. Also how can I set a category without doing it all individually as well?”
Ah, the solution to this problem is one of my favorite Outlook tricks: drag and drop between groups. For the birthday reminders, use a group by category view and add the Remind Beforehand field as a secondary group. Change the reminder on one item then drag the others to that group.
You can use this method to change categories but it’s usually easier to just select a group of items, right click and choose a new category. You can group by many other fields then drag and drop to change the values.
So why does Outlook use 15 minute reminders with birthdays it creates but 18 hours for events you create? Who knows. :) Outlook uses the default reminder for timed events, so you could change the default reminder time in Tools, Options but it would apply to all new appointments too.
A video tutorial is available at Change the Reminder on Several Appointments at Once
Published May 29 2008
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WRT:
I would like to change the reminder (at 15 minutes) *and the time* (starting at 12:00 a.m) to something else without having to do them all individually.
The solution does not talk about changing the time: It deals with changing only the reminder. How do we change the time “without having to do them all individually”?
Thanks in advance
Do you want to change the start time or the reminder to fire at a different time?
Birthdays are all day events so they start at 12 am. If you want the reminder at a decent hour you need to change the remind beforehand time to something else, like 720 minutes (noon the previous day).
The actual starting time is date and time based so you can’t use the ‘drag between groups’ method to change it. You might be able to use VBA but i don’t have any VBA samples.
Hi Diane:
Thanks for all this wonderful information. Bless you.
I am only able to find retrospective solutions, so more painful than others. I wonder if you have a recipe for setting a default reminder for birthdays and anniversaries such that as I create a new contact, when a anniversary or birthday is provided, create the all day, recurring calendar event with a reminder of, n weeks/days/hours prior at 10am. This way one actually has an opportunity to put a card/gift in the mail, or schedule a time to call. The default 15 minute reminder was incredibly short sighted.
AdThanksVance,