Simple E-mail Notification Workflow

A SharePoint Workflows tutorial by Peter Kalmström

SharePoint gives various possibilities to have e-mail alerts sent out automatically. To have the best control over such notifications, you should create workflows or flows that send them automatically under certain conditions. Then you can also customize these alerts with links, lookup data and rich text.

In the demo below Peter Kalmström, CEO and Systems Designer of kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, shows how to create a simple list notification workflow in SharePoint Designer.

SharePoint Designer 2013 allows you to create either a SharePoint 2010 or a SharePoint 2013 workflow. In the demo below Peter creates a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow, as it gives a possibility to send notifications to people outside the tenant.

The method Peter shows will work for all kinds of SharePoint lists, but in his example, Peter uses a document library.

Create a SharePoint 2010 workflow that sends an e-mail when a new item has been added

In SharePoint Designer, open the site that has the list you want to send notifications for.
Open the Summary page for the list. At 'Workflows', click on the 'New' button.
Give the new workflow a Name and a Description and select the Platform Type, SharePoint 2010 workflow. Click OK.
Click on the Action button in the ribbon and select 'Send an Email'.
Click on 'these users'. In the right part of the 'To' field, click on the address book icon to add recipients of the e-mail. Type in e-mail addresses, or select internal users or groups and add them. Click OK.
Enter a subject for the e-mail to be sent. Peter adds a lookup for the name of the new item.
Enter the body text you wish to use. Peter adds a lookup for the display name of the creator. Click OK.
Set the start options you wish to use under Start Options in the Workflow settings.
Publish and test the workflow.