How to see Approver Comments in Alert Notification emails

Step 1: Select “Publish a Major version” of the document:

Step 2: Optionally enter Version comments which will be visible in the Version History but not in the Alert Email:

Step 3: When you set the Approval Status to “Approved”, enter the approver comments that will be visible in the alert email that is sent out:

Step 4: When the Alert is received by the user, they will see the Approver comments in the body of the email:

Default behaviour of SharePoint Alerts

I have just spent some time system testing SP Alerts and thought I would put some notes up here:

• The Timer job that sends the alert emails runs every 5 minutes (or as defined by administrator)
• Alerts are security trimmed. Example:

• If a user has access to view Minor versions (eg people with Contribute permissions), they will get alerts for all changes at the minor level
• If a user has access to ONLY Major, Approved versions (eg. site visitors) they will only get alerts at this time
• If a user self-subscribes to a list item, and then an Admin ALSO subscribes that user to the same list item, take note that:
• User will receive 2 alert emails
• Administrator/user will NOT be notified that an alert already exists for that user
• If a user self-subscribes multiple times to the same report, they will receive multiple alert emails
• Also, there was some confusion when 2 changes are made within a 5 minute period (between 2 Timer jobs).  See the example below for activities I undertook within 5 minutes:

1. Published a major version (Status = Pending)
2. Set from Pending to Approved (Status = Approved)
3. Made a change (Status = Draft, Checked out)
4. Published MINOR version (Status = Draft, Checked in)
5. Published a Major version (Status = Pending)
6. Set from Pending to Approved (Status = Approved)

The alert I received was from Step 5 (when the item was in “Pending” state).  This seems strange as one would expect the alert to send information from Step 6.