Options

In the “Options” section, define when the alert will be sent. By defining conditions and times when alerts should be delivered, you can create a custom schedule for sending alerts. For instance, you can set alerts to be sent only when someone changes an item within working hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.).

First, decide whether you need to filter items before sending alerts.

Choose “Use condition(s)” to create a custom condition for sending the alert.

Click on “+” to add a new condition and “x” to delete a condition.

For example, to track changes in a specific list field, select “Use condition(s)” and choose the required field with the “has been changed” condition.

You can also combine conditions; use the “And/Or” operators to create a group.

The Filter items list has three choices: Apply to all items, Apply to items in the following view, which limits the alert to the items of one of the list’s views, and Use condition(s). A condition compares a field with a value using one of these operators: equals, not equals, contains, not contains, begins with, greater than, less than, greater or equals, less or equals, has been changed, not changed, is null and is not null.

Define when to send the alert. Alerts can be sent immediately after any changes or created as a daily or weekly summary schedule.

If you schedule any available summaries (daily, weekly, monthly, or hourly), select the desired time from the drop-down lists and choose, for example, the days you want to receive the summary.

To receive only the latest status of a chosen field instead of details of all changes made since the last summary, tick the box “Show latest version only.”

Select the “Send on date depending on a field value” option to apply special conditions for sending the alert based on a field value, such as sending an alert three days after the change. If necessary, tick the “Send separate e-mail for each item" checkbox. You can also set the exact time for sending the alert.

Finally, let us see how the resulting alert looks in Microsoft Outlook.

Dates counted from today#

For a date field, type [Today] into the Value box instead of picking a fixed date, and add the number of days with a plus sign. The rule then counts from the day it runs, so the same alert picks up new items every time. The calendar icon next to the box sets a fixed date instead.

• Due date less than [Today]+0 together with Status not equal Done gives the open items that are past their due date.
• End date less than [Today]+90 and End date greater than [Today]+0 gives the items that end within the next 90 days.

The value is counted from the moment the rule runs. In our tests, less than [Today]+8 also returned items dated on the eighth day, so check the first and last day of a range against your own items.

Combined with a daily or weekly summary, such a filter sends one table of overdue or upcoming items instead of an email per item.

Documents in one folder#

When the alert watches a document library, two settings narrow it to part of the library. Filter by Folders in the Options section limits it to the folders you tick instead of All folders. A condition on the Path field does the same with text: Path contains /IT security matches every document whose path includes that folder, so a separate alert can tell another team about changes in its own folder.