Managing SharePoint Alerts in Outlook 2007

When you create an alert for an item, such as a document, list item, document library, list, survey, or search result, you immediately receive a confirmation e-mail message notifying you that the alert was successfully created. This message indicates that the alert process is working. The confirmation message also contains information about the alert and provides links to the SharePoint site where the item is located. When someone makes a change to the item, you receive an e-mail message alert that indicates what was changed, who made the change, and when the change was made. You should create an alert when content has changed and you need (or want) to take notice of it.

To avoid alerts swamping your inbox, you should carefully choose the SharePoint content about which you wish to be alerted. Ideally, you should select only important content that you want to monitor. Consider subscribing to RSS feeds for other SharePoint content that is not as important and does not need your close supervision.

By default, Windows SharePoint Services does not provide an alert aggregation capability for all of your alerts across every SharePoint site. To manage your alerts by using the browser, you would have to visit each site that has an alert set. To help you manage your alerts, you could save the message notifying you that an alert was successfully created because it provides a link to the SharePoint site. You could then use the e-mail message alert to navigate to those sites on which the alerts are set.

In an environment where many SharePoint sites exist, managing your alerts could be a daunting task if they were monitored and organized merely by the links in your e-mail alert messages and by memory. When using Outlook 2007, you can manage the e-mail alerts received from all SharePoint intranet and trusted Web sites from one dialog box.

In the following exercise, you will use Outlook 2007 to create a new alert.

OPEN Outlook 2007 before you begin this exercise, and open your inbox. The exercise will use the SharePoint Contacts list on the http://wideworldimporters site, but you can use any list or library on whatever site you want.

1. On the Outlook 2007 menu, click Tools, and then click Rules and Alerts. The Rules and Alerts dialog box is displayed.

Troubleshooting  

If the Rules and Alerts option does not appear on the Tools menu, you are probably viewing your Outlook 2007 calendar. Click the Mail button to view your e-mail messages.

2. Click the Manage Alerts tab.

3. Click the New Alert button. The New Alert dialog box is displayed.

4. In the Web site Address textbox, type the URL of a SharePoint site that contains a Contacts list, and then click Open.

An Internet Explorer window opens displaying the New Alert Web page.

5. Select the Contacts option.

6. Scroll down to the end of the Web page, and then click Next. The New Alert page is displayed.

7. In the Send Alerts To section, type your e-mail address if it doesn’t already appear. Review the other settings.

8. Click OK.

Important  

If your SharePoint server is not configured to send e-mail, an Error page will display.

Internet Explorer displays the My Alerts on this Site Web page. Under the Frequency: Immediate area, the alert named Contacts is listed.

9. Close all Internet Explorer windows.

10. Switch to Outlook 2007 where the Rules and Alerts dialog box should still be visible. A new alert for Contacts: All items (All Changes) should be listed.

Tip 

If the alert does not appear in the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click OK and then close Outlook 2007. Restart Outlook 2007, and then reopen the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

From the Rules and Alerts dialog box, you can:

• Alter the properties of an alert. The Alert Properties dialog box provides a link to the SharePoint site, buttons to “Modify Alert” and “View Item,” and a link to the Alerts management page on the SharePoint site.

• Select multiple alerts by using the or key when you click an alert. You can then click the A button to delete all of the alerts you selected. Click Yes to the Microsoft Office Outlook warning dialog box that appears and asks whether you want to delete the selected rows.

• Use Outlook 2007 rules to manage your alerts so that a notification window pops up, a sound is played, the alert e-mail message is moved to a specified folder, or some other action is performed on the alert message.

CLOSE all Outlook 2007 dialog box windows, and then close Outlook 2007.

Both Chapter 4 and Chapter 6, “Working with Library Settings,” contain more information about managing alerts on lists and documents from the browser.