Sending Email Alerts from your MS Excel spreadsheet
This article walks you through the process of setting up and triggering email alerts from your MS Excel spreadsheet using ipushpull. You trigger alerts by updating a special page in your folder called MyAlertsPage. It's a good idea to understand the basics of pushing data to ipushpull using the ipush(...) function before trying this - see this article for details.
If you want to try email alerts you must contact sales@ipushpull.com first so we can activate this functionality.
1. Sign up for ipushpull and install the Excel add-in
This article explains how to download and install our Excel add-in.
This article explains how to log in to ipushpull using the Excel add-in.
Press the Start button on the toolbar to activate the add-in.
2. Download the attached spreadsheet
Download the "AlertsDemoSheet.xlsx" spreadsheet below:
This sheet demonstrates how you can send emails to yourself or other folder members when events occur in your spreadsheet. It looks like this:
You will need to enter your own values in the coloured cells - see the next step.
3. Enter your folder name
First, enter your folder name in cell C4 (coloured yellow). Your folder has the same name as the user name you entered when you signed up to ipushpull. You can find your folder name by clicking the My Pages button on the ipushpull Excel ribbon. This will display the list of folders you have access to - it will look something like this:
Find your personal folder from the list and enter its name in cell C4.
4. Make sure you're pushing to your Alerts page
You have to use your dedicated Alerts Page for alerts to work. This page is usually called MyAlertsPage. You can identify this page in your folder as it has a bell graphic next to the name:
Make sure that this name is entered in cell C5 (coloured orange).
5. Enter your email address
Next, enter your email address in cell I4 (colored green). This has to be the email address you used when you signed up with ipushpull, or the email address of someone you have invited to your folder. You cannot use any other email addresses here.
6. Trigger your first email alert
You are now ready to trigger an email from your spreadsheet.
The value in cell F4 (coloured red) is used to trigger the email. If this value changes from FALSE to TRUE, an email will be sent containing the message in cell H4 (coloured blue) to the email address in cell I4 (coloured green).
Try it:
Change the value in F4 to FALSE. Wait a few seconds.
Change the value in F4 to TRUE.
Check your email inbox. You should receive an email containing the message in cell H4.
7. Next steps
Now you've mastered the basics, try the following
Instead of manually changing the trigger TRUE/FALSE value in cell F4, enter an Excel IF(...) statement based on changing values in your spreadsheet.
Create a custom message in cell H4.
Try SMS messages or mobile notifications using PushBullet.
For full details of ipushpull alerts see this article.
Troubleshooting
If you didn't get an email, check the following:
Have you logged into ipushpull in Excel and pressed the Start button?
Is your Folder Name correct?
Are you pushing to the special Alerts page in your folder? This is usually called MyAlertsPage.
Did you enter the correct email address? It has to be the same as the email you used to sign up, or the email address of someone you have invited to your folder.
Have you asked sales@ipushpull.com to activate your folder for alerts?
Is the email in your spam folder?