Luckily, you can have the best of both worlds with one quick tweak to the way notifications are handled. So you can get alerts  when the boss mails you, but not when you get a company newsletter. First, we’re going to turn off all notifications.

  1. Click the File tab.
  2. Click Options.
  3. Select Mail and then uncheck all three boxes under Message arrival.
  4. Click OK. Now, we need to create rules to display notifications only from certain users.
  5. Under the Home tab, click Rules and select “Manage rules and alerts.” 
  6. Click New Rule.
  7. In the Rules Wizard, click “Play a sound when I get messages from someone.” If you don’t like aound alerts, just click “Display mail from someone in the New Item Alert Window.”
  8. Click “people or public group.”
  9. Select a name from your address book, or create a new one and then click From and OK. Now, when this person emails you, you’ll get a notification. Others will remain silent. You’ll have to repeat the steps fro anyone else you want to get notifications from, but your spouse, boss, and someone that typically demands a quick response are generally good starts.

Microsoft Outlook Tips

Previous TipNext Tip

Block a Sender in Outlook 2016How to Instantly Mark Messages as Read in Outlook 2016 and PriorEdit New Message Alerts in OutlookHow to Mail Merge in Office 2016Set an Out of Office Reply in OutlookHow to Create Custom Groups in Outlook 2016Download Your Address Book in Outlook 2016 and PriorHow to Archive Mail in Outlook 2016Create an Email Signature in Outlook 2016 and PriorAttach a Calendar Event to an EmailSet Up a Universal InboxImport Contacts to macOS Address BookPurge Deleted MessagesDelete Addresses in Outlook AutocompleteChange the Attachment Size Limit in OutlookImport Contacts via CSVBack Up Outlook DataChange Fonts in OutlookExport Contacts to CSVAdd an Image to Your SignatureSet Up Out-of-Office MessagesCreate Email TemplatesGet Read ReceiptsUse Two Time Zones for MeetingsRecall an EmailSave Common SearchesFilter EmailBlock Unwanted MailStop Sending Winmail.datAutomate Repetitive ActionsSchedule Outgoing MailCreate Canned Replies