Setting up your Alerts.
As soon as you have made some friends on Windows Live and begun to write a blog on your Spaces page, you will no doubt wish that you could be informed every time that someone posts a comment about your blog post, or whenever a friend updates their Spaces page. You could of course use RSS feeds to keep track of your ‘What’s new with your Network’ but if all you require is some sort of update about Spaces either yours or someone else's, then making use of Windows Live Alerts is the obvious answer. Here is how to do it.
Alerts for your Space.
1. In order to enable this you must make sure that when you customise your Spaces page, you enable the Visitors Tools Module. To enable this module simply go to your Spaces page, click on Customize, Add Modules, then scroll down to the bottom of the modules list to Space Tools, and select Show next to Visitor Tools and then click on Save.
2. You can of course then place this module anywhere you wish on your Spaces page. I have placed mine right across the top of my Space so that it is handy for visitors to access, but it can be placed in a different column if you wish. See my previous post here about how to move modules around on your Spaces page.
3. On your own Spaces page, click on Sign up for alerts, then on the following page click on Continue.
4. The next page allows you to choose where you wish to have your alerts delivered, either to your email program or to Live Messenger if you make use of that program. Just tick or untick the choice of delivery that you would prefer, and then click on Save.
5. Next you need to choose the type of alert that you wish to receive. As we are currently setting up an alert for our own Space, the last choice of Comments is obviously the most appropriate choice.
6. You are then required to fill in the characters of a Captcha for security reasons and once you have done that click on Submit. Now you will receive an alert every time someone comments on your Space either to Messenger or to your email inbox or both.
Alerts for your Friends Spaces.
7. Visit the Spaces page of the friend on Windows Live that you would like to receive alerts for. If they do not have the Visitors Tools module anywhere on their Spaces page, then you will have to request that they include it.
8. As before, click on Sign up for Alerts, and then on the following page, click on Continue.
9. Because this is someone else's Spaces page, your choice of which Alert to receive will obviously be different than previously. You can choose between the following,
a) Blog entries, photo albums and lists.
b) Blog entries and comments.
c) Blog entries only.
d) Photo albums only.
10. Choose by clicking in the small circle next to each choice. Fill in the Captcha characters at the bottom of this page and then click on Submit.
Your Alert will now be added to the list of any other alerts that you have enabled so far. If you wish to change your preferences for exactly where your alerts are delivered, the just click on the blue Change delivery preferences at the top of the list.
You can continue now to add any other friends Spaces to your alerts in the same way.
Setting up other Alerts.
There are other types of Alerts that you can set up on Windows Live as well as those for your Space and any Spaces belonging to your friends. The choice of Alerts that you can subscribe to is entirely dependant on the country that you live in. I am going to set up an alert for Insider Club, so that I can keep a track on any news about Windows Live and also Xbox News so that I can keep tabs on any Gaming news.
11. In the search box at the top of your Home page, type in Windows Live Alerts making sure to select Search the Web, and then from the search results click on Windows Live Alerts or alternatively go to http://alerts.live.com/Alerts/Default.aspx
12. Choose your country by clicking on the small down arrow next to the Change country/region box and selecting it from the drop down list followed by clicking on Go.
13. For this how to we are going to select the Insider Club.
14. In the next page, place a tick in the small box next to Insider Club Tips and then click on Save.
15. Next we will do the same with Xbox News. This has three separate choices, News and features, This week and also Xbox 360 games. For this how to I will select all three by ticking all the boxes next to each choice.. Click on Save.
So Alerts help you to keep up to date with comments on your Space, your friends posts, photos and lists that they make to their Space and also any other updates from other services that are available in your area and are interested in being informed about.
TG
