2 Ways to Keep a Task’s Due Date Unchanged when Changing Its Start Date in Outlook

When you change an Outlook task’s start date, by default, its due date will be changed automatically. If you dislike this, you can use either of the 2 approaches introduced in this article.

Perhaps you have discovered that Outlook task’s due date will vary with the start date. More specifically, when you modify a task’s start date, its due date will alter as well. Nevertheless, many users would like to keep due date unchanged even if the start date is changed. Therefore, here we will expose 2 means.

Method 1: Utilize “Shift” Key

1. First of all, start your Outlook application as usual.
2. Then switch to the “Tasks” area.
3. Next select and open a task by double clicking on it.
4. After that, in the subsequent Task window, you should click the down arrow of the “Due Date” field.
5. In the popup “Date Picker”, you should hold “Shift” key and meanwhile click on the date which you want to use as the new Start Date.
6. After selecting such a date in the above way, you will see that the “Start Date” field has been changed to the new date.
7. Ultimately, you can save this task by hitting the “Save & Close” button.

By this means, every time when you want to maintain the due date when altering the start date, you have to press “Shift” key. It may be a bit tedious. Thus, here we will teach you one more way, which is more effective.

Method 2: Apply Outlook VBA

1. To start with, in the main Outlook screen, press “Alt + F11” key buttons.
2. In the subsequent “Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications” window, you can find and open the “ThisOutlookSession” project.
3. Next you should copy the following VBA code into this project.

Public WithEvents objInspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Public WithEvents objTask As Outlook.TaskItem
Public dStartdate, dDueDate As Date

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set objInspectors = Outlook.Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
    If Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olTask Then
       Set objTask = Inspector.CurrentItem
       dStartdate = objTask.StartDate
       dDueDate = objTask.DueDate
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub objTask_PropertyChange(ByVal Name As String)
    If Name = "StartDate" Then
       If objTask.StartDate <> dStartdate And objTask.StartDate <= dDueDate And objTask.StartDate <> #1/1/4501# Then
          objTask.DueDate = dDueDate
          objTask.Save
       End If
    End If
End Sub

4. Later you should digitally sign this code.
5. After that, you should change your Outlook macro settings to enable signed VBA projects.
6. Eventually, you can restart your Outlook to activate the new macro.
7. From now on, every time you change task’s start date, the due date won’t be changed.

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Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including mdf recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com