Email Sounds-Email Notification

There are two possibilities for adding sound to emails:-notification sounds and/or background sounds.

Email Notification Sounds

Instead of constantly checking your mailbox why not receive sound notification when new emails arrive. Outlook Express and IncrediMail both support new email sound notifications.

In Incredimail email sound notification is part of the built in notifier and is covered in detail in Incredimail notifiers.

For Outlook Express Users

If you want to receive sound notification of a new email then proceed as follows:

1. Ensure that sound notification is enabled:

Go to Tools>Options - In the send/receive messages section  enable "play sound when message arrives" tick box.

2. Open Control panel>sounds and Multimedia. (sounds and audio devices -windows xp). Select a sound scheme (usually windows default ) From the 'sound events' list choose an event  use the scroll bar to locate the  new mail notification and then browse to locate a wav file to associate with it.

3. Save the sound scheme (choose save as). You must give the sound scheme a new name. You cannot save as windows default.

Outlook express must be open for a new mail notification sound to work- you can minimise it so that it shows as an icon on the taskbar .

Add Sound to Email in Outlook Express

If your email client is configured to send HTML email then you can add sound to the background of the email so that when the email is opened the sound file is played.

It is best to keep to .wav files or Midi files as they are supported by windows without the need for real media download (see supported files)

To add sound to an email:

1.Start with a new message in HTML format (select Format>rich text).
2.Select Format > Background >Sound... from the menu then use the browse button to select the sound file you want to play (Make sure the file is of a supported sound format).
3 Specify the sound options

•  played continuously 
• a certain number of times.

4.Click OK.

5. If you want to always add the same background sound then you need to save the message as a email stationary.
 

Supported Files for background email sounds:

1. .wav, .au, .aif, and .snd ---wave files
2. .mid and .rmi ----------MIDI files
3. .ra, .rm, .ram and .rmm ---------Real Media files

Email Notification Sounds - new email sound downloads (wavs)

New email alerts or notification uses wave files (wavs), these files have a .wav extension and are stored in the

• Windows\media---windows XP and 98
• Winnt\media folder --windows 2000.

You can use any .wav file on your system for email notifications by associating it with the email notification event. You can also download .wav files from the Internet and use those. If you do download them I would suggest you store them together with the default windows .wav files under the media folder. 

A list of download resources is available a the bottom of the page..

How to Download a .Wav file

From the list of 'wavs' (short for sound waves) select a sound you want. If you want to listen to it, click on the link and your media player should open up and play the sound. You can save it after listening to it by selecting the  File>Save as option.

 To download the wav file without listening to it right click on the link and then select "Save Target As".

Sending Audio Messages

If your tired of typing why not send audio messages instead!

My Voice Email lets you record and send audio messages instead of ordinary e-mail. All you need to do is speak and click, which will take less time than typing a message. It is a friendly interface that is easy to use. Your audio message will be compressed to mp3 format prior to sending to reduce file size and maintain sound quality.

No need for emoticons since you can easily convey humor, laughter, and other emotions online in voice email! The length of your voice message is unlimited (in registered version). Voice Email is a stand alone application and does not require any other email client. No special player is required to playback the messages.

Related Articles and Resources:

• Talking Emails

Here are some sources for free email sound wavs that you can download.

http://www.clayloomis.com/mailcall.html 

http://www.eventsounds.com/mail.htm

http://www.ilovewavs.com/Events/GotMail/GotMail.htm

http://www.geocities.com/jtrevolt/mail.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/wavworld/email.shtml

http://www.externalharddrive.com/waves/waves.html

Site with plenty of Funny sounds that can be used for new email notifications but you will need to convert the files to .wav as they are all in real media format.--http://www.audio4fun.com/