In addition to sending mail, Snap Mail can post alerts. Alerts immediately grab the recipient’s attention by bringing up an alert box. For added convenience, you can remove an alert after you have posted it, or have it automatically unposted after a given time. Alerts are never permanent and should not be used in place of mail. Alerts are commonly used for time-sensitive messages such as “I’ll be right over,” for which you want to get immediate attention from the recipient but which do not necessitate a permanent record.
Alerts are useful for messages that should be read right away. For example, you might send out an alert saying “Let’s all meet for lunch in 5 minutes in the cafeteria.” Alerts are only considered active for a limited time. When this time expires, all alerts that have been received will be deleted automatically. This feature prevents dated messages from cluttering up others’ mailboxes. In addition, anyone who did not receive the alert within this time period will not be bothered by it. In the above example, if the alert was set to be unposted after ten minutes, someone who arrived half an hour later would never have to deal with the lunch message, because it would not be stored in his or her mailbox.
Alerts may be unsent even after they have been received by other computers. This allows you to take down an alert that is no longer accurate and replace it with an update without worrying about recipients getting confused because they read the wrong alert.
To post an alert, first pick a notification icon, then type your message and select its recipient(s), just as you would when sending mail. Click on the “Alert” button instead of the “Send” button. Note that you can’t send enclosures with alerts.
• Using the Option Key with “Alert”
If you hold down the “Option” key when you click on the “Alert” button, a special window will pop up which allows you to quickly change a number of preferences for the particular alert you are sending. You can change the amount of time after which Snap Mail will unpost your alert, whether or not you want a return receipt, and whether or not to send a copy of the alert to yourself.
