Horribly frustrating email alerts

[msnyc07]

How come Outlooks alerts are so intrusive? I simply want to be alerted, not
have my work flow interupted. It doesn't matter if I am typing in Outlook or
out of it, the focus is taken from whatever I am working on to the alert.
Why? Who would think that is something useful? Is there a way to keep the
alerts ON but not have them 100% interrupt anything else I am doing?

 

[Bob I]

Then adjust the settings, Options, Preferences, E-mail options, Advanced
e-mail options, and also desktop alert settings.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Version of Outlook? Do you have all updates installed?
Which alerts are annoying you? The blue window, a grey new message window,
or the envelope icon?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

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Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
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[msnyc07]

I understand that I can turn the alerts *off* but that isn't what I need to
do. I have alerts set on a # of critical contacts and on tasks and such.

What I am looking for is Alerts that 'Alert' but don't grab focus. It is
crazy that an Alert about an email or task in fact interrupts my workflow and
steals my keyboard entry at the time it pops up.

Isn't there some setting for that? Or is my choice "No Alerts" or "Intrusive
and Potentially Damaging Alerts"?

Sorry if this sounds snide but it is terribly frustrating.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Which alerts? Are they set using rules? Normally, the blue alerts do not
take focus.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Outlook do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=27072

 

[Syrinx]

I wish I had an answer for you. All I can say is you are not alone in this.
My coworkers and I are going nuts with the interruption caused by this stupid
new mail desktop alert. Microsoft, are you listening? Your users are sick
of focus stealing!

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I wish I had an answer for you. All I can say is you are not alone in this.
My coworkers and I are going nuts with the interruption caused by this
stupid
new mail desktop alert. Microsoft, are you listening? Your users are sick
of focus stealing!

What version of Outlook are you using and what type of account? New messages
alerts haven't stolen focus since Outlook 2003 SP2.

 

[Leo D]

I have the same problem. I'm using Office 2007 on XP with an Exchange mailbox.

The alerts that interrupt are the new email alerts that fade in and out on
the bottom right of the screen. The alert does not actually keep focus, but
if it pops up while you are typing an email message, any keystrokes are lost
while the alert is popping up. This usually results in about 4 or 5
characters missing.

It really is definitely annoying!

 

[Willem]

Same here, Win7 & Office 2007Enterprise, people are starting (well..) to
doubt my sanity with missing letters or entire words whenever an alert comes
in. The alert is a nice feature so I do not want to turn it off. All I can do
is reduce the pop up time to very short to reduce the amount of lost letters.

Microsoft, help?

 

[Bob I]

Why not just have it play the sound and show the envelope in the
notification area instead? That way no interruption at all!