By: Rob Fisch | Comments | Related: > SharePoint
Problem
SharePoint is a great collaborative environment. Our work teams love to share information and documents using an easy, intuitive web interface. It would be great if there was a way to get automatically notified whenever someone else changes or adds information. Is there a way to do that?
Solution
Yes! The simplest way is to use the built-in SharePoint alert system. SharePoint alerts allow users to selectively choose a library or list (or even an individual document or list item) to receive alerts from. Alerts come in the form of an email notification with a brief description about the item along with a link to it.
Here's how it works:
In this example, a document library called "Jazz Records" is used.
The user clicks on the "Actions" menus and selects "Alert Me".
![1 Action Alert Me](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_01%20Action-Alert%20Me.jpg)
The user decides on which alert options are suitable. It's tempting to choose "immediately", but unless it's a time critical function, daily or weekly summaries work quite nicely. These options are editable afterwards, so not to worry.
![2 Alert options](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_02%20Alert%20options.jpg)
Immediately, the users receives an email that confirms that an alert was setup. It shows which resource (library or list) was selected and provides links to the resource and a page to change the alert options. Don't worry about losing or deleting this email...there's another way to check up on things. Read on...
![3 Email of Alert Setup](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_03%20Email%20of%20Alert%20Setup.jpg)
After (anyone) uploads a ..jpg image called "01 Action-Alert Me.jpg, the user receives an email alert informing them that a new document has been "added", with various useful links.
![4 Alert Email](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_04%20Alert%20Email.jpg)
Now here's the big surprise! In Outlook, select "Rules and Alerts..." from the "Tools" menu. Normally Outlook rules are managed here. I never thought anything about the "and Alerts..." until I stumbled on this one day.
![9 Rules and Alerts](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_09%20Rules%20and%20Alerts.jpg)
Click the "Manage Alerts" tab. (Get ready!)
![0 Manage Alerts](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_10%20Manage%20Alerts.jpg)
Alas, all SharePoint Alerts are displayed in one option-filled management screen, right in Outlook!
![1 Alert Listing](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_11%20Alert%20Listing.jpg)
If a site administrator wants to review and edit alerts that were created on a particular site, they go into "Site Settings".
![5 Site Settings](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_05%20Site%20Settings.jpg)
Click on "User Alerts".
![6 User Alerts](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_06%20User%20Alerts.jpg)
Choose the user from the drop down and click "Update".
![7 Choose User](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_07%20Choose%20User.jpg)
This shows the resource (in this case a document library) and the frequency of the Alert. Administrators can delete user alerts from this page.
![8 User info](/tipimages_sharepoint/3706_08%20User%20info.jpg)
Next Steps
- Check out these other Sharepoint Tips
About the author
This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.
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