Replies

Microsoft definitely does *not* provide a built-in way to revert to the Outlook 2003 interface! The Ribbon is here to stay.

There are free “classic” interfaces for Word, Excel and PowerPoint but I don’t know of one for Outlook (the main Outlook application isn’t all that different anyway, it’s the mail editor that is radically changed).

Agreed — it’s really the mail editor that’s so frustrating… Even the keyboard shortcuts are all radically different..

I’ll be downloading pschmid.net’s RibbonCustomizer and trying it out soon..

thanks,
..dane

There are third-party add-ins that provide the “classic” interface, for example Show Classic Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Outlook 2007 (not free).

Yes, I saw that one on Google … but thought surely there must be some built-in and/or freeware mechanisms to do the same thing.. ??

Thanks Hans…

..dane

Cool.. That’s what I needed to know.

thanks a million, Hans!

..dane

Awesome, Hans. Thanks again.

I’ve now got a strange range comparison error..

I have two named ranges both of the same size (128 cells), but when I try to do a comparison like the below, it fails..

with thisworkbook.worksheets(1)

if (.Range(“Test_Row_Data”) .Range(“Golden_Row_Data”)) then

msg “error!”

end if

end with

and it errors with Error(13): Type Mismatch…

I have verified both ranges are valid and of size 128 cells…

I thought such range comparisons were valid, but I suppose not?

..dane

Hey John. I did some playing in the “Watch” area with “Now + x / y” and determined how it worked. I made some modifications to your code, but post it here for a permanant reference for those in the future looking for something similar.. Also, had to set ReminderSet to true…

thanks so much!
..dane

Option Explicit


Public WithEvents itmsNewTasks As Outlook.Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set itmsNewTasks = Outlook.Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks).Items
End Sub

Private Sub itmsNewTasks_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
    If Item.Class = olTask Then

        ' I had to compare against the date "1/1/2500" because 
        ' my PDA sets the equivelant date of "no due date" to 1/1/4501.
        ' Thinking that was just too far out, I scaled back my test to year 2500.
        ' If anyone in that time is using this script, I will feel pitty for them, 
        ' for it will break..

        If (Not (Item.ReminderSet)) And (Not (IsNull(Item.DueDate))) And _
            (Not (Item.Complete)) And (Item.DueDate < DateSerial(2500, 1, 1)) Then
            
            ' If the due date is before 'NOW' (plus some time) then 
            ' bump the reminder so that Outlook does not cancel
            ' the reminder altogether.

            If (Item.DueDate < (Now + ((1 / (24 * 60)) * 15))) Then
                Item.ReminderTime = Now + ((1 / (24 * 60)) * 15)    ' due in 15 min
            Else
                Item.ReminderTime = Item.DueDate + (8 / 24)         ' due 8am that day
            End If
            
            Item.ReminderSet = True
            Item.Save
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Application_Quit()
    Set itmsNewTasks = Nothing
End Sub

Correction!

Since I already had Outlook open, I didn’t have the event handler registered. Manually running the _Startup() routine did trip upon HotSync’ing with my PDA. Wahoo!

Now one last little problem. Setting to 8:30AM, if set to the current day, inherently cancels the reminder (it has already passed). You indicated that “17/48” equates to 830am of the date desired. How did you come up with that equation?

It would be nice to set to 8am on the date due (if not today or previously due), but to set to, say, today in 1 hour, if the due date is set to today or some previous date.

Can you help me understand the .Date format better to accomplish this task?

thanks so much,
..dane

Thanks for the reply, John.

I tried your suggestion, but it did not trigger during a HotSync.

I also have tried the following using jScript, but the .Save(); event seems to not be working. It does not report an error, but it does not update the Tasks items either… Not sure how easy it would be to convert to VBScript, and if it would even help. (My thinking is to just run this as a scheduled task every hour to go through my task list within Outlook..)

var olFolderTasks    = 13;

var ol = new ActiveXObject("outlook.application");
var tasklist = ol.getnamespace("MAPI").getdefaultfolder(olFolderTasks).items;
var task;

for (var i = 1; i < tasklist.Count; i++)
{
   task = tasklist.item(i);

   if ((task.ReminderSet != true) && (task.DueDate != null) && (task.Complete == false))
   {
      task.ReminderSet = true;
      task.ReminderTime = task.DueDate;
      task.Save();
   }
}
WScript.Quit();

Thanks for the reply, John. Sorry it took so long to get back here (proxy server problems)

I ended up going a different route; I have a script that I use to extract calendar items from Outlook and put them into the open-source iCal format, which another (desktop calendar) software uses to show the month’s events.. I simply updated that script to strip out the “Updated:” prefix as well as a few other tweaks, and it’s working great.

And it doesn’t matter if I updated the meeting or if it was an updated meeting request coming in…

thanks,
..dane

Not sure whiy, but it don’t work for me… no biggie..

Wow. That’s quite a difference. I’ll check them out more closely..

thanks!
..dane

Any way to keep Access from minimizing itself when it opens the hyperlink?

..dane

Awesome! thanks!

Thanks for the link to DBI, although on first glance it looks like pay-to-play software; unfortunately this tool is one of those “if the company’s not going to step up, I’ll do it myself,” so I don’t have any money to purchase tools with. I understand the limitation of having to send all the data to the browser, but that’s really not a big problem for me since it will be used within the intranet of our company (fast connections).

If you can point me to any free alternatives, I’d gladly take a closer look.

thanks!
..dane

Good question, Wendell.

It’s fairly simple, actually. I work in an electronics design area, and in this field there are many manufacturers that make the same part (resistors, for example). The decision, then, as to who to buy a resistor from comes from other areas of the design process (quality, puchasing [cost, availability, etc], etc). Additionally, this information changes regularly.

As a result, the actual electrical designers are continually having to ask who the ‘manufacturer of the day’ is for various part types, and I am trying to come up with an easy to use (and easy to maintain!) reference for the engineers.

I have an access database setup whereby puchasing/etc can update the preferred manufacturers for given part types (the part types being the nodes in the treeview control (resistors have sub-part types like sizes, power dissipation, etc. that may apply to the decision process). Once an end leaf is selected (a specific part type), then the “other” table is referenced for the ranked manufacturer list.

That’s all fine and dandy. The question is how to best put it in the hands of the engineers. Most of them don’t have (and don’t want) Access installed, so I need some easy-to-use method of getting the data out. Graphical representations are typically easiest to use, so I am imagining a fully-expanded tree, where each end leaf node then lists the ranked manufacturers list to its side… I could then publish this graphical list to a webpage, or to a PDF, and place it on the network for easy viewing access.

I should say here that I am currently using a slightly different approach, and that’s to recreate the tree and list structures using Javascript in HTML form. The user interface is much the same, but it is essentially in a “readonly” format (no buttons to change the data.. just the treeview control and a listbox off to the side). This method seems to be working so far (manually). Once completed, I will write the macro function within the access database to create the treeview and listbox definition structure information.

That of course is my current approach. Any easier mechanisms (that preserve both data management as well as data viewing) I am open to hearing about.

thanks!
..dane

Du-OH!

Like I said… missed the obvious.

Thanks so much, Hans.