Wanted: email notifier for outlook which only shows the sender, not the subject or message text.

March 2, 2009 5:50 AM

I am looking for an email notifier which only shows one thing: who the email was from. All the programs I've found which offer something like this also show the subject line, and often an excerpt of the message itself. My users (most of them teachers) object to this because often the subject is sensitive and will popup on a projector in front of a roomful of teenage boys. Hilarity ensues.

I've tried to persuade them to not use subject lines like "Tommy's AIDS test" or "Meet me for lunch darling" but apparently this is unacceptable. I've looked at the configuration and filter options for Outlook 2003 but the subject line is always there, regardless. My Google-fu is not strong enough to find the answer myself, so I would appreciate any help you can offer.

posted by BrokenEnglish to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I don't know if this would help, but MSN instant messenger notifies you of mail, but only who it's from.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:54 AM on March 2

I don't know of a piece of software. But, I feel like I'm missing something.

Perhaps you should disable email notification, not find software to enable it. It seems that the easiest solution to not broadcasting your dirty laundry to a group of teenage boys is to not broadcast it. If the computer is driving the projector, they shouldn't be dealing with email anyway, should they? Isn't that in the middle of a lecture?

They can then check their email when it's unlikely to be writ large in front of the boys.
posted by Netzapper at 6:03 AM on March 2 [5 favorites has favorites]

I have my mail program set up to make a different noise depending on who the email is from. I don't need to see anything.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:16 AM on March 2

If the computer is driving the projector, they shouldn't be dealing with email anyway, should they? Isn't that in the middle of a lecture?

Ideally, yes, but having dealt with similar problems in a school setting, some teachers are so technically unwilling that they'll forget over and over and over again.

You may want to try something like Pop Peeper which notifies you in a tray that an email has arrived but which doesn't offer any information about the email.
posted by David Fleming at 6:37 AM on March 2

@netzapper: I entirely agree but I don't get to choose my users, or what they will be awkward about. For example: one of my users keeps objecting to the fact that Outlook deletes his messages shortly after he drops them in the bin; he'd like to be able to "refer back to them" sometimes {Insert own sarcastic comment here -- believe me, I've tried loads of them.} Another user objects to the fact that our email sometimes gets tagged as spam by her friend's ISP, but she won't sign up for a Yahoo or Gmail account because she wants "to keep everything in one place." This is systems administration, the game where the rules always change, you don't get to see your score, but you suspect you're probably losing ;)

@David Fleming: thanks, I'll give it a try. I think I did see that earlier but it looked like it did too much, eg allowing replying to emails, etc. but maybe it can be configured differently.

Thanks all for the responses.
posted by BrokenEnglish at 9:18 AM on March 2

If you're the sysadmin, what your users are "awkward" about is none of your concern (bedside manner aside). If they don't want to be embarrassed they can turn the notifier off, plain and simple. You have better things to do than to hunt all day for specialized email notifiers which may not even exist. Have the guts to lay down the law.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this..."

If you're working in a school and they're using Outlook, maybe you also have a Windows 2k+ domain that they connect to while there. If you do, then you can set up a GPO for Outlook to disable the notifier when they log in. Done and done.
posted by rhizome at 11:09 AM on March 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

"what your users are 'awkward' about is none of your concern"

I have to look at the available options because, you know, I like my job, I like the people (even the awkward ones) and I want to provide a good service. Having looked for solutions and asked here I can now go back and say "sorry, not possible". In fact, I already did that, after the helpful, informative and polite responses other people have so generously provided, in response to the question I asked.
posted by BrokenEnglish at 12:22 PM on March 2 [1 favorite has favorites]