Has this happened to you? You are in the middle of a demonstration or presentation and a New Mail Desktop Alert appears at the bottom corner of your screen, revealing information you would rather keep private.

Although Outlook 2003 will not display a Desktop Alert when you are running a PowerPoint 2003 slide show, if you switch to another program or a Web site during your presentation, Desktop Alerts and other notifications will resume displaying. Here is a quick way to prevent revealing personal information.

Turn on or off Desktop Alerts

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.
3. Under When new items arrive in my Inbox, clear the Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box.

   To resume displaying Desktop Alerts, select the Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box.

Note  To suppress other notifications (playing sounds, changing the mouse pointer, or displaying an envelope icon in the notification area), clear the Play a sound, Briefly change the mouse cursor, or Show an envelope icon in the notification area check box.

Now that you know how to turn on and off Desktop Alerts, here is a handy way to remind yourself to turn them off (and then turn them back on again when your presentation is over): Create an Outlook task with a reminder to turn off Desktop Alerts. The reminder appears before the meeting, and you can use the Snooze feature to get another reminder to turn Desktop Alerts back on.

Create a task with a reminder

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Task.
2. In the Subject box, type Turn on or off Desktop Alerts.
3. Select the Reminder check box.
4. Click the meeting date and time in the date and time boxes.
5. To make the task a recurring one for slide shows that you give regularly, click Recurrence, click the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly) with which the meeting occurs, and then select options for that frequency.

   Do not click Regenerate new task or the task will not recur at regular intervals.

When the reminder to turn off Desktop Alerts appears in the Reminders window, click it, and in the Click Snooze to be reminded again in list, click the meeting length time, and then click Snooze. After the meeting, when the second reminder appears, dismiss the reminder and turn your Desktop Alerts back on.