If you work for a company that manages multiple large projects at a time, you know that the key

to a successful project is most often efficient and effective communication and collaboration. Microsoft Office SharePoint is perfect for this It allows you to create a server which houses many different sites for discussion, collaboration, and file version control. It is simply a great tool for project management. !ut even with the help of a great SharePoint site, it can still be difficult for a busy professional to keep up with all of the updates and changes that come up with any given project. "nter# Email Alerts and RSS Feeds. $e%re living in a web &.' world ( and it%s time to take advantage of all the benefits it has to offer. )ow you don%t have to fre*uently check and re+check a SharePoint discussion or wiki for updated content. Instead, if you have administrator access, you can configure the site to enable outgoing email and have updates sent directly to you. I%ll show you how to get started with email alerts and ,SS feeds in three painless, *uick and easy steps

Easy Step # 1: Enabling Outgoing Email in SharePoint

-o enable your SharePoint site to send email alerts to users, all you need to have is the address of your SM-P server, and an email address that can receive the replies from users responding to the alert emails. -his email address should probably be some kind of administrator or support address. $ith this information handy, navigate to your SharePoint site%s .entral /dministration page 0in the e1ample below, the site is titled 2Operations34 and click Outgoing "mail Settings.

On the Outgoing "mail Settings page enter your SM-P server%s address and the Reply-to email address mentioned earlier into their respective input bo1es. -he From address is the email address that the users will see in the From field when they receive email alerts from the SharePoint server. -his address can be arbitrarily made+up, since the users will be replying to the actual email address you put in the Reply-to field. Of course, I still recommend you use something to the effect of SharePoint/lerts5 so your users know who they are getting an email from.

Once you%ve done this hit O6, and you are done with the setup Pretty simple right7 8et%s move on to the ne1t step.

Easy Step # 2: Enabling Email Alerts in SharePoint

)ow that the site has been configured to allow sending of email alerts, all your users need to do to start getting alerts sent to them is to turn the feature on. -o do this as a user, simply navigate to the SharePoint site you want to be alerted about, click the /ctions menu, and then click the /lert Me button 0the site in the e1ample below is a discussion page called 2Process Improvement 9iscussion34.

On the )ew /lert page, you will see that the Alert Title and Send Alerts To fields are already populated. -hese correlate to the subject line and the to field respectively, in your email client. If you want to change or add other email addresses to be alerted here, or if you would like to change the alert title to meet a set filter or rule in your email client, you may do so here.

/fter you have decided on all these items, scroll down the page to set some other options. :ou can change what types of items you want to be alerted on 0such as new items or changes to older items4, filter these items based on what changes occur, and even decide whether you want to receive an email every time something happens, or just receive daily or weekly summaries. -hese options are e1tremely useful for those of us who want to stay current on projects, but don%t want to be inundated with emails from the SharePoint Server.

Once you%ve done that, just press O6 and you have email alerts )ow, let%s move on to the final step.

Easy Step # 3: Enabling RSS Feeds in SharePoint

If you thought that was painless, you are in for a real treat ,SS feeds are great because they are arguably even more useful than email alerts 0we can%t always be there to check our email, right74 and they are enabled by default on almost any SharePoint page that you have on your server. ;ust navigate to the page you want your feed on, and hit /ctions just as before. )ow click on <iew ,SS =eed. $hatever you have as your default feed handler will kick in, and then you just follow the normal steps to subscribe to the feed.

,SS feeds can be turned off on your page if you like, just go to the settings menu for your page, click ,SS settings, and then turn the option off. !ut really, who wants less information7 -hat%s it, we%re done >uick, painless and easy. -hat%s what we%re all about here at -S-. ?ave fun with your shiny new alerts and feeds, and keep your browser locked to -S- for more useful tips and 2how+to%s.3