Outlook email reminders

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

At work, I can add a reminder to an email message via the 'flag message' option. This presents me with a pull-down menu of options, the basic 'flag message' plus a variety of others, including the option to set a reminder 'to do by' date. I think it is Outlook 2017, but not sure.

I used Office 2007 at home, and only had the option to flag the message, no menu of choices to set a reminder flag. I presumed this was because it was an earlier version of Office, and I've just installed Office 2019, which is great, but still only has the option to flag a message, not to set a reminder. The help box seems to suggest there may be an option on 'custom' (wherever that is) to set a reminder. The help doesn't show where or how to do that, and the illustrations just show exactly what I see, which is not what I want.

Is this perhaps an add-on feature of Outlook that consumer versions don't have but which my employer has added? Any suggestions as to how or if I can get this facility? It's one of the main reasons I upgraded Office.

Ta!

 

[gintonic]

Does your employer use exchange as an email server?

What is the host of the emails you are flagging. I am using Outlook at work, and I receive all of my emails through the client. These include; work based where I can flag reminders as you suggest, personal (from Yahoo, and Google) where I cannot set a reminder. I suspect this is like this as our corporate email is manged through an exchange service and it has a connection to the calendar system through which reminders are managed. And that outlook just acts as simple client (bucket) for my emails coming from my gmail and yahoo.

Then again I might be wrong...............

 

[Wolfmancatsup]

I've just tried here at home. I'm using Outlook 2013, and my ISP - BT - has an IMAP service. I can also only set or clear the flag. I'm guessing it's a server-side setting.

Mick

 

[cj66]

I have Outlook 2010 which currently pulls emails from just a single source. I do have the option list when flagging that includes custom reminders. I did not make any special setting or import extra features, it's just always been like that.
Could it be a choice at time of install, custom or default for example? I can't remember as this was installed on the computer in 2015!

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Yes, I think we use Exchange. It seems odd if it is limited though, because Outlook also has a calendar function, and it’s not like I need to coordinate with lots of users.

 

[gintonic]

which currently pulls emails from just a single source

what is the single source?

 

[cj66]

Godaddy email, website linked.

 

[gintonic]

Godaddy email, website linked.

are you using hosted Exchange from Godaddy?

 

[cj66]

To be honest I don't know, I assumed Outlook simply had permission to log into Godaddy mail and fetch the mail.

I found a Wikipedia entry that may or may not answer the OP's question.

"The current version, Exchange Server 2019,[2] was released in October 2018. Unlike other Office Server 2019 products such as SharePoint and Skype for Business, Exchange Server 2019 can only be deployed on Windows Server 2019."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Exchange_Server

 

[Wolfmancatsup]

If your home email provider uses IMAP it would appear it's not possible to add any flags. This from a Microsoft support forum:-

"If you are using an IMAP account, you do not have the option to set a custom Follow Up Flag with a reminder. When you flag it, it will show up in your To-Do Bar but under the “No Date” group."

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

That’s a bit rubbish, but thanks for the news.

Wonder why that functionality doesn’t work?

 

[RichardH]

I've found the same limitation. I have got round it by having a separate account folder set up that I drag the IMAP emails I want to flag over into, and then flag them from there.

If you only use the email from one device, you ought to be able to set your email up to be delivered into a POP3 mailbox instead. This means that the emails are removed from the server and exist only on your machine - so if you wanted to access an existing email from your phone as well as your laptop/desktop, it wouldn't be there.

You can't convert an existing mailbox from IMAP to POP3, you need to create a new one - you should be able to use the same login details as before, just specify the box as POP3 when going through the config.