Comments on: Hot to stop Outlook reminders from hiding behind other open programs

Question: Hot to stop Outlook reminders from hiding behind other open programs

IndigoJones — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:04:54 -0800

Co-worker's Outlook (2003) reminders pop up fifteen minutes and five minutes before appointments, but invariably hide behind whatever application is being worked on. Meetings are being missed or appearances are late because of this. How to make the reminders less shy? My searching turns up nothing.

By: Nightwind

Nightwind — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:19:22 -0800

Connect some cheap speakers? The default is to play 'reminder.wav' I think. You could set it to something really loud, long, and highly annyoing.

You can set the sound options for each appointment individually, by the way. So you could go with something soft for regular appointsments and something more drastic for the "miss-and-you'll-die"-type of events. Just click on that little speaker icon when setting up an appointment and choose the appropriate sound file.

By: blue_wardrobe

blue_wardrobe — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:30:28 -0800

He may have a program such as PowerMenu, which can keep certain windows "on top". This kind of feature also exists in some current display driver extra functionality.

If you right-click on Outlook's title, is there an "Always on top" option? If not, is there any unusual submenu like "nView Options" with an option within for "Always on top"? The option can also be set on a sub-submenu called something like "Individual options".

If the last exists, and the option in the sub-submenu dialog exists, then you could expect this behavior to be persistent from one usage session to the next.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:04:36 -0800

If you find out the answer and what the previous problem settings were, please post them. I have the opposite problem: New meeting notices pop to the top, grab focus, and depending upon what I'm typing at the time disappear immediately. A horrible PITA.

By: blue_wardrobe

blue_wardrobe — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:05:52 -0800

@unixrat: then PowerMenu may be for you.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:13:21 -0800

If you right-click on Outlook's title, is there an "Always on top" option? If not, is there any unusual submenu like "nView Options" with an option within for "Always on top"? The option can also be set on a sub-submenu called something like "Individual options".

Nothing like that, alas. Seems pretty white bread

(@unixrat - noted, you're on the list)

By: SuperSquirrel

SuperSquirrel — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:29:17 -0800

The "Always on Top" functionality could be coded into whatever application she is working with (the one that isn't Outlook). Does it consistently happen when she's working in a certain application? Create some test reminders and watch what happens when different apps are open.

By: blue_wardrobe

blue_wardrobe — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:45:13 -0800

BTW, I have to confess I went through a period of this for inexplicable reasons, to the extent that the task bar was ALSO behind stuff, even when IT was set to on top. So I think strangeness is par for the course in some of these cases.

By: Lanark

Lanark — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:08:30 -0800

I think this is the ForegroundLockTimeout, but do be aware there are some good reasons why Microsoft changed this default in XP and Vista.

TweakUI has the option as 'Prevent applications from stealing focus'

By: gjc

gjc — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:14:12 -0800

a) I *wish* I could keep things from stealing the application focus.
b) That's what notify sounds, the systray, and the taskbar is for. So you can see things that are not in focus.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:46:27 -0800

@blue_wardrobe: That power_menu works great - thanks!