Desktop alerts are messages that appear on your screen when certain things happen in Outlook. You've most likely seen them in the lower-right corner of the screen, popping up over whatever you happen to be doing when new mail arrives in Outlook. While the most common time to see desktop alerts is when new messages arrive, they can actually appear when any of the following things happen:
- You receive email messages: In this case, the alert displays the name of the sender, the subject of the message, and a bit of the body of th
message. - You receive a meeting request: An alert for a meeting request displays the name of the sender, the subject, and the date, time, and location of the meeting.
- You receive a task request: An alert for a task request displays the name of the sender, the subject, and the starting date for the task.
As long as Outlook is running (whether minimized or not) and desktop alerts are active (this is the default option), any of the above events will trigger an alert.
Desktop alerts appear over whatever else is visible on the screen. They're usually partially transparent, accompanied by some sort of tone or other sound to alert you to their arrival. They remain visible for a few seconds, then disappear. Every one of these characteristics is customizable.
Working With Desktop Alerts
Desktop alerts not only alert you to something important, but they allow you to work with the item without stopping what you're doing in the Inbox. Next time you see a Desktop Alert, notice the little down arrow in the top-right corner. If you click that down arrow, Outlook displays a menu of options you can click to take various actions.
Customizing Desktop Alerts
What many people don't realize is that you have complete control over the behavior of alerts, including how how long they appear or whether they appear at all. The easiest way to customize alerts is with the Desktop Alert Settings dialog box from the main Outlook window. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
- From the Preferences tab of the Options dialog box, click email Options.
- From the email Options dialog box, click Advanced email Options.
- From the Advanced email Options dialog box, click Desktop Alert Settings.
Once you get to the Desktop Alert Settings dialog box, you can adjust the amount of time that alerts appear on the screen along with the transparency of the alert box (visit Using Desktop Alerts at the Living With Outlook website for more information). Click the Preview button at the bottom of the dialog box to see what your changes would do. Click OK when you've got things adjusted the way you want them.
About the Author:Learning how to work with Desktop Alerts is just one of the topics covered in the second lesson of the 6-week online course, Introduction to Outlook 2007. If strengthening your Microsoft Outlook 2007 skills in this time of uncertain job prospects makes sense to you, I suggest you visit http://IntroToOutlook2007.info to learn more.
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