News Alert is easy to install, customize, and use. You can refine your selections at any time, choosing from the sections and topics that interest you.

Use of News Alert is governed by an End User License Agreement.

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Using News Alert

After you install News Alert, its small target icon appears in the status area of the Windows taskbar, usually located at the lower-right corner of your screen. While you're online, News Alert works quietly in the background, checking for news. When news breaks, the icon alerts you by turning red and flashing.

Reading headlines and stories

To see a small pop-up window containing one or more new headlines and their story summaries, click the flashing icon on your taskbar. If News Alert has found more than one story, you can click the arrows at the right end of the News Alert menu bar to scroll through the headlines.

When you want to read an entire story, click its headline to activate your browser. You’ll automatically connect to the full story on MSNBC.

Reviewing recent alerts

Any time you want to review recent alerts, just click the News Alert icon to bring up the alert window — it needn’t be flashing. Then, choose Review Recent Alerts from the File menu.

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Customizing your news

You can configure News Alert to bring you new top stories on your favorite topics — or to alert you to breaking news only.

Changes that you make to your News Alert settings will not affect your personalized MSNBC cover page.

Choosing the MSNBC sections you want

You can easily customize News Alert to announce just the news sections you want, as well as the level of news you receive from each section:

1. From the Customize menu, choose MSNBC News.
2. For each section listed at the top of the page, select one of the following:
   
   • No Alerts
   • Breaking News
   • Top Stories
3. When you’re finished, click Save at the bottom of the page.

When alerts appear in the News Alert window, the section name will be shown just above the headline.

Specifying your favorite topics on MSNBC

To specify topics you want to read about on MSNBC, choose MSNBC News from the Customize menu. You can choose from the list of topics in the middle of the page, or type in your own personal topics (for example, software) in the boxes at the bottom of the page. If you want to delete something from the list of Personal Topics, select the text of the item and then hit Backspace to delete it. When you’re finished, click Save.

A personal topic can be a whole word, or a word prefix. Words like "crash," "Senate," or "science," or proper names like "Anderson" or "Microsoft" are good. Avoid words like "news," "breaking news," "bulletin," or "sports," because they do not usually appear in headlines or story summaries. And never use such common words as "a," "an," or "the."

To specify a word prefix, add an asterisk (*) to the end of the topic. For example, America* would match both America and American, and diabet* would match diabetes and diabetic. The asterisk can only appear at the end.

Getting stock alerts from MSN MoneyCentral Investor

News Alert tells you when the values of your favorite stocks rise or fall significantly, according to your specification. To add stock quotes to News Alert, do the following:

1. From the Customize menu, choose MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stocks.
2. In the symbol column, type a stock or index symbol.
   If you need to look up a symbol, click the link provided and then search for it when the MSN MoneyCentral Investor Web site appears.
3. If you want to receive an alert when the stock moves by a certain percentage, enter that percentage into the changes by box.
4. If you want to be alerted when the stock rises to a specified price, type that price into the rises to box.
5. If you want to be alerted when the stock falls to a particular price, type that price into the falls to box.
6. Repeat the procedure for any other stocks that interest you. (Or, if you want to delete a stock quote, select the symbol, and hit Backspace to clear the box.)
7. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Extending your choices with news partners

News Alert extends your news choices by providing you with additional stories from CNET News and ZDNet News, online news services devoted entirely to computing and technology. To receive these:

1. Choose CNET News or ZDNet News from the Customize menu.
2. Select Top Stories. (Or, you can turn off this option by selecting No Alerts.)
3. Click Save.

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Changing your delivery settings

News Alert allows you to decide the way you receive the news. You can change these options at any time.

Changing the way you receive news alerts

News Alert can announce new stories in three ways:

• By flashing the icon on the taskbar
• By playing a sound
• By displaying the News Alert window on your screen

Choosing how often you want to be alerted

To change the the time interval between News Alert announcements, choose Delivery Settings from the Customize menu. Then, type the number of minutes for News Alert to wait before searching for new stories.

To apply the time interval only when you’re using dial-up networking, select the check box labeled Only when using Dial-Up Networking.

Specifying a proxy server

If you’re behind a corporate firewall, News Alert automatically adopts your proxy server settings from either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 3.x.

If you're using a proxy server with a different browser, you'll need to specify the settings. Choose Delivery Settings from the Customize menu. Then, select the Use Proxy Server check box and type the server name and port number into the appropriate text boxes.

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Upgrading to future versions

You won’t need to upgrade manually when new versions of News Alert are released. New versions upgrade automatically. However, if you prefer to upgrade manually, you can disable the automatic upgrade feature by choosing Delivery Settings from the Customize menu. Then, clear the check box labeled Upgrade when new version found.

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Using keyboard shortcuts

Although you can use your mouse to navigate through News Alert, you may prefer to use the following keyboard shortcuts:

	Action	Shortcut
	Full story	F, Enter
	Next	N, Right arrow, Space
	Back	B, Left arrow, Backspace
	File menu	Alt+F
	Customize Menu	Alt+C
	Close window	Escape, Ctrl+C
	Check for new alerts	Ctrl+U
	Review recent alerts	Ctrl+R

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Q: What’s that flashing red target at the bottom of my screen?

A: That's News Alert telling you that you have an important new story! Just click it to bring up the News Alert window.

Q: How do I read the stories that News Alert announces?

A: Move your cursor over the headline or summary text. See the arrow change into a hand? Just click, and News Alert will bring up your browser with the whole story.

Q: If I change my News Alert settings, will the changes show up on my personalized MSNBC cover page?

A: No. The changes you make to News Alert settings will not affect your MSNBC cover page.

Q: News Alert doesn't always work. Am I doing something wrong?

A: Check your Internet connection. You must be connected to the Internet in order for News Alert to work.

Q: What are personal topics?

A: Personal topics are the words News Alert uses to find the MSNBC stories that interest you. After you add these keywords to your personal topics list, News Alert's search engine looks for those words in the story's headline and summary. To add personal topics, choose MSNBC News from the Customize menu. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and type your keywords into the personal topics boxes. When you're done, click Save.

Q: May I use wildcards in personal topics?

A: Yes. Wildcards (partial words followed by an asterisk) are supported in this version of News Alert. For example, the personal topic diabet* would match stories containing diabetes and/or diabetic.

Q: I hate sports. Can I fix it so I never see sports stories?

A: Absolutely. From the Customize menu in the alert window, choose MSNBC News. In the list of sections, change Sports to No Alerts. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Q: How can I receive alerts about changes in market indexes?

A: You can enter symbols that correspond to market indexes as well as individual stocks or mutual funds. Some common symbols are:

	Symbol	Index 
	SPX	Standard and Poor’s 500
	$INDUA	Dow Jones 30 Industrial Average
	RUT	Russell 2000 Average
	WSX	Wilshire Small-cap Index

If you don’t know the symbol for an index or stock, you can look it up in MSN MoneyCentral Investor. Choose MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stocks from News Alert’s Customize menu, and then click the "find a company symbol" link to automatically jump to the MSN MoneyCentral Investor site. After searching MSN MoneyCentral Investor for the symbols you need, close the popup browser and enter the symbols on the Customize MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stocks page.

Q: I have a proxy server, and I’m not getting updates.

A: Check to make sure your proxy settings are right. News Alert copies the proxy settings from those of your browser, but it can be fooled. From News Alert’s Customize menu, choose Delivery Settings and correct the proxy settings, if necessary.

Q: I checked my Internet connection, and it’s OK. How come I haven’t been getting any new alerts?

A: There may not be any alerts which match your selections. From the Customize menu, choose each of the menu items in turn, and review your choices.

Q: Why don't I ever get news about my personal topics?

A: The personal topics search only matches occurrences of the actual word in a headline or summary of an article — so the personal topics you selected may be too narrow or too specific to match the desired article. Consider broadening your topic selection. For example, if you’re interested in news about basketball, enter the names of the teams you follow.

Q: I receive too many alerts. How can I reduce the number?

A: You can do this in various ways.

• Reduce the number of MSNBC sections you have selected.
• Set News Alert to deliver only breaking news in the sections that interest you.
• Narrow your search by adjusting your personal topic choices until you’re satisfied with the number of alerts. You may have chosen too many keywords or chosen topics that are too broad. For example, MSNBC typically has many articles containing the keywords "Bill Clinton."

Q: I receive alerts too often. Can I cut down the alert frequency?

A: Yes. From the Customize menu, choose Delivery Settings. Then, increase the number of minutes for News Alert to wait before searching for new stories.

Make sure that you don't confuse receiving alerts too often with receiving too many alerts. These are different conditions that require separate solutions (see the previous question).

Q: My News Alert icon on the taskbar has a slash though it. Is something wrong?

A: The slash means that News Alert cannot connect to MSNBC. Several things could cause this, and you may need to ask your System Administrator or Internet provider for help — but first, try the following:

• If you’re behind a corporate firewall, make sure that your proxy settings are correct. From News Alert’s Customize menu, choose Delivery Settings and then review the proxy settings.
• Check your network connection.
• Check your Internet connection.

Q: How can I cause News Alert to fetch breaking news on demand?

A:You can ask News Alert to get news for you whenever you want it. Click the News Alert icon on the taskbar to bring up the alert window, and then choose Check for New Alerts from the File menu.

Q: I saw a story earlier today, and I want to read it again. How can I review recent news that I’ve already seen?

A: To see past alerts, click the News Alert icon on the taskbar to bring up the alert window. Then, choose Review Recent Alerts from the File menu.

Q: I set a stock symbol to alert on a 1% change. I expected an alert on every 1% change in price. I did get an alert at 112, but the stock closed at 115 with no subsequent alerts. What gives?

A: For stock quotes, News Alert issues only one alert each day for each alert condition (change, rise, and fall). Otherwise, you could be overwhelmed with multiple alerts on the same condition.

Q: What if I don't want News Alert on all the time? I don't always maintain an Internet connection.

A: You can disable News Alert temporarily by right-clicking the News Alert icon on your taskbar and then choosing Exit from the pop-up menu.

News Alert will restart whenever you restart your computer. However, if you want to restart News Alert without rebooting your computer, do the following:

1. On your Desktop, double-click My Computer, and then double-click your hard-drive folder (usually your C drive).
2. Double-click each of these nested folders in turn: the Program Files folder, then the MSNBC folder, and then the Alert folder.
3. Double-click the News Alert icon.

Q: I've been getting News Alerts about the Olympics from the Salt Lake Olympics or NBC Olympics web site. Why am I getting News Alerts from MSNBC now?

A: If you signed up for News Alerts from the Salt Lake Olympics or NBC Olympics web sites, you will automatically receive MSNBC's regular News Alert feature with Breaking News headlines after the Olympics games are over.

Q: How would I uninstall News Alert?

A: If you want to uninstall News Alert:

1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Settings, and then choose Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog box, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. In the Install/Uninstall tab, select News Alert, click Add/Remove, and then click OK.

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