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Creating Alert and News Channel Messages

This section contains the following information:

Send Alert Message/Post News Message Window Overview

To compose an alert message click on the Contacts tab then click on the Alert button in the main Instant Messenger user interface window.

For a news message click on the news button in the main messenger window. Select the tab for the desired news channel, then click the Post New Message button.

The compose window is similar for both types of message.

The Post news Message is used to create and send new alert messages, and to create news channel messages.

When creating an alert, the title of this window is “Send alert message.” When creating a news channel message, the title is “Post news message.” The only difference in the window is that when creating a news channel, there is no Recipient button and no “Show message status” checkbox as there is for the Send Alert window.

The four main areas in this window are:

Recipients and Subject

This section of the window contains the following items:

Message Creation Tab

The Message Creation tab contains the following buttons and other items to configure and manage alert and news messages:

Attachments Tab

The Attachment tab enables you to attach a file to a message or remove an attached file from the message.

Add button - Click Add to attach a file to your message. The selected file appears in the Attachment tab window.

Remove Selected - Select the attachment and click Remove Selected to remove the file attached to the message.

When the attachment is sent, a pop-up message appears on the user’s screen, with options to save or launch the attachment.

Web Poll Tab

The Web Poll tab contains the following items:

To Send an Alert

Use alerts, rather than chat, to send notifications. The alerts are displayed as pop-up messages on the recipients screen.


Note

You need the Alert privileges to be able to send alerts. Contact your administrator for more information.


  1. With the Contact List tab selected, click the contacts to whom you want to send the alert.
  2. You can send an alert to one or more contacts. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selection. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.


    Note

    You can click the Alert icon without selecting any contacts and then add them later. See Step 3.


  3. Select Alert from the Tools menu option or click the Alert icon:
  4. Alert icon

    The “Send alert message” window appears. Recipients of the alert (if any) appear in a scrollable list box. If you do not need to add or delete recipients, skip to Step 4.

  5. To add or delete recipients, click Edit Recipients to display the Edit Recipients window.
  6. The Edit Recipients window enables you to create a recipient list for the alert. After adding or deleting recipients, click OK.

    See Edit Recipients/Invite Other Users Window Overview for more information.

  7. In the “Send alert message” window, type the alert message subject in the Subject text box. Type the text of the message. Use the text formatting tool bar options to format your message.
  8. Select “Show message status” check box, if you want to display a pop-up Status window on your desktop showing the status of each recipient.

  9. When done, click Send.
  10. The alert appears on the recipients’ desktops, and in the Alerts tab in their News Channels window if the recipients have subscribed to that channel. If you selected the “Show message status” check box, a Status pop-up appears on your desktop.


    Note

    You can chat with the sender of an alert. In the “Alert received” window select “Chat with sender” from the Tools menu.


See Also:

To Post News Channel Messages

  1. In the Main window, select News from the Tools menu or click the News icon:
  2. News icon

    The News Channels window appears.

  3. Select the tab of the news channel to which you want to post a message.
  4. The first message for that news channel is displayed.

  5. Right-click in the message pane to display a pop-up menu, and select “Post new message.”
  6. The “Post news message” window appears.


    Tip

    You can also post a new message by clicking Manage in News Channel window. Select the news channel and then click “Post new message”. The “Post news message” window appears.


  7. Type a subject and message. When done, click Send.
  8. See Message Creation Tab for more information.

  9. The new subject is displayed in the Messages pane in the News Channels Management window, and is posted to the news channel.
  10. The News Channels window is updated to show the new message.


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