Comments on: Getting Outlook Meeting Reminders In Focus, Over Other Applications

By: Max

Max — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:46:29 +0000

Is there a chance to get a copy of the add-in?

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:52:16 +0000

Could you possibly send me the add-in?

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:55:16 +0000

I noticed the first reminder on the bottom of other apps using full screen but subsequent reminders, (e.g., remind me again in 10 or 5 mins) were on TOP.

By: Michael Fettner

Michael Fettner — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:11:46 +0000

I tried for that originally, but was only able to get it to work when the window steals focus. Even that was a challenge with the Windows API.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:59:39 +0000

I agree with Jay and Bryan. Michael, would you be able to add that functionality? To have the reminder pop and stay on top of all other windows, but not steal the focus?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:27:51 +0000

I’m with Jay on this one.
I think the best scenario is to have the Reminder window pop up on top of everything else, but not take focus as far as keyboard input.

Other windows do this. I have a scheduled task for SyncToy that pops up a command window. This will stay on top of everything else until I minimize it, but it does not take any keyboard input, that still goes to whatever app I was already in.

I find it particularly important as I have 2 monitors (laptop and external) and I’m often looking at the other monitor (or at print copy I’m typing from) and I keep typing, next thing I know my keystrokes are not appearing in the app, I see an open notification window on the other monitor, but its empty as my keystrokes that I thought went to the other app have either snoozed or dismissed my reminders. And there is not way to easily know what they were.

By: Michael Fettner

Michael Fettner — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:45:58 +0000

That’s the opposite of what this app does. Sorry, but we didn’t build in that functionality.

By: Jay Libove, CISSP, CIPP, CISM

Jay Libove, CISSP, CIPP, CISM — Sat, 07 May 2011 09:13:10 +0000

My problem (about which I’ve seen many others complain also) is a nuance on this – I run Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 and, frequently, when a reminder arises (or a re-reminder, as I have the bad habit of leaving reminders open for days), the Outlook Reminders window will steal keyboard input focus.

I always keep the Outlook Reminders window open, in a fixed spot on my second monitor, over top of which I never place other windows. So, I can always see it. My problem is not at all related to the also-common theme of “Outlook Reminders do not pop to top”. The Reminder sound is enough to get me to glance over at the always-open Reminders window, so pop to top etc are not an issue for me.

What I would love to have is a way to permanently prevent the Outlook Reminders window from ever stealing keyboard input focus (with or without any particular implications for the Reminders window being on top of other windows).

Is that something which the AddIn described in this article does – or could be tweaked to – do, please? .. to prevent the Outlook Reminders window from ever stealing keyboard input focus?

Thank you!
Jay

By: Phil Seeman

Phil Seeman — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:24:04 +0000

For an alternate solution, you might want to check out Reminder Alerts at http://www.moreproductivenow.com/reminder_alerts.htm (free beta available), which I wrote in response to the large number of people experiencing this issue. In short, it displays the reminder above the system tray in an alert window, similar to Outlook’s email alerts.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:58:48 +0000

Michael, I had noticed that. I was thinking that it happened in other programs. But now you have me thinking – did it only happen when I was typing emails or was it any program. I’ll have to watch and see.

I know it happened in Word – but Word is my email editor, so I may have been typing an email at the time.