Automatic reminders for email follow-up in Outlook

March 22, 2010 1:31 PM

Is it possible to configure Outlook to automatically create reminders when emails are flagged for follow-up? Thanks!
posted by mpls2 to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Are you in Outlook 2007? you can create a reminder by right clicking, hovering on "follow-up" and exploring those options for "creating reminders"
posted by bunny hugger at 1:40 PM on March 22, 2010

it's similar in Outlook 2003, as well. right-click on the flag at the right side and click on 'add reminder'.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, I was hoping there was a way to have a reminder created when I just click the flag, which uses the default follow-up setting.
posted by mpls2 at 3:16 PM on March 22, 2010

It's not automatic, but this macro will create a reminder for a task due in a set number of days with a simple click of a button.

http://www.fourteenminutes.com/outlook/taskfromemail/

Once you've installed the macro, you can make it automatic by editing the code directly and replacing this:

olTask.Display

with:

olTask.Save

and replacing this:

Public Sub CreateTaskFromEmail()

    Dim olTask As Outlook.TaskItem
    Dim objItem As Object
   
    Set olTask = Application.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
    Set objItem = Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
 
    ' Check if we're trying to use this with an email.

with this:

Public Sub CreateTaskFromEmail(objItem as MailItem)

    Dim olTask As Outlook.TaskItem
   
    Set olTask = Application.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
 
    ' Check if we're trying to use this with an email.

Once you've done that then you should be able to set up a rule within Outlook which calls "CreateTaskFromEmail" when an email arrives which is flagged.

At that point, the macro will automatically create a task which is due in two days time and save it in your tasks folder. There are a number of possible customisation options documented in the README file and within the code itself.

Full disclosure: I wrote the macro linked.
posted by mr_silver at 3:48 PM on March 22, 2010