The Bottom Line
Pros
- Mail Alert notifies you about new Outlook mail in a useful way
- The folders checked by Mail Alert can be configured, Outlook filters are supported
- You can delete and otherwise deal with new mail right from the Mail Alert pop-up
Cons
- Mail Alert does not work with Hotmail accounts
- Encrypted or digitally signed messages are not announced
- Mail Alert has no mode that lets you cycle through new messages
Description
- Mail Alert adds Outlook 2003 style new message alerts to Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 (or later).
- The Mail Alert new mail pop-up displays the sender, subject and a few lines of the message body.
- You can open the message in Outlook, delete it or mark it read or deleted right from the alert.
- From a drop-down menu, replying and forwarding (and other message actions) are available as well.
- You can tell Mail Alert which folders to watch for new messages.
- Mail Alert can wait for Outlook to filter messages before checking its folders for new ones.
- Unicode messages are fully supported by Mail Alert.
- Mail Alert supports Windows 98/ME/2000/3/XP and Outlook 2000/2/3.
Guide Review - Mail Alert 1.1 - Outlook New Mail Notifier
Mail Alert does away with some of these shortcomings, and it makes those useful new message announcements available for all users of Outlook 2000 or later. Most importantly, Mail Alert can be set up to check any email folder (with the unfortunate exception of Hotmail accounts) and can wait for Outlook to filter the messages before announcing them.
Mail Alert also opens a new pop-up for each email you receive. If you get many in short order, you can cap the number of windows, but Mail Alert cannot use only one window and cycle through the messages.
The layout, font and colors of Mail Alert's alerts can be configured to the finest detail and you can choose from a number of available button actions, but replying is only available through a menu containing further actions.
With all this usefulness, is is a pity that digitally signed emails are not announced by Mail Alert.
