Mac 101: Notification Center

Notification Center in Mountain Lion provides you with an elegant and unified view of new stuff that pops up on your Mac from third-party apps, Mail, Calendar, FaceTime, Game Center, Messages, Reminders, and updates from the Mac App Store. You can access Notification Center from anywhere, anytime, including full-screen apps.

Notification Center

To show the Notification Center, either:

• Click the menubar icon() in the upper right of the menubar.
• On a trackpad, two finger swipe left from the right edge of the trackpad.

In Notification Center, you can view your most recently added items.

Click an item to go directly to the associated app.

Click the "X" icon () on the right of the app bar to clear all items related to that app.

Tip: On a trackpad, swipe down to expose the Show Alerts and Banners switch to quickly suspend or activate Alerts and Banners. Note: If you connect a projector to your Mac, Alerts and Banners are automatically suspended.

 

Note: A Twitter button () will appear at the top after you configure your Mac with a Twitter account via the the Mail, Contacts & Calendars pane of System Preferences.
 

Banners, Alerts and Badges notifications

Banners

Banners slide down in the upper right corner of your Mac for a short period of time, then slide off screen to the right.

On the left is the icon of the app that generated the banner. The rest of the banner will contain a brief message from the app.

Click the banner to go directly to the associated app.

Alerts

Alerts are important announcements that appear the same way as banners. They remain on your screen until you take action.

Tip: To dismiss an Alert or Banner without interacting with it, place the cursor over the banner and use a two finger swipe to the right.

Badges

A red badge with a number will appear on the upper-right of an app dock icon to indicate how many new items are available for it.
 

Configuring Notifications

Notifications options are configured in the Notifications system preference.

To open, select Apple () menu > System Preferences… > Notifications

Tip: Click the settings icon () in the lower right corner of Notification Center to open its system preferences.

To configure options for apps:

1. Highlight the app by clicking it in the "In Notification Center" pane on the left.
2. Choose the alert style for the app. Options are:
   • None – No alerts will be presented.
   • Banners – Show a temporary banner when new items occur.
   • Alert – Show an Alert that requires acknowledgement.
3. Check or uncheck the "Show in Notification Center:" option for the apps presence in Notification Center. 
   • Choose the number of recent items to appear from the pop-up menu.
4. Check or uncheck "Badge app icon" option to show badges on the icon of the app in the Dock.
5. Check or uncheck "Play sound when receiving notifications" for the Mac to play its alert sound.
   • Tip: The alert sound is configured in the Sound pane of System Preferences.

Select the "Sort Notification Center:" option pop-up menu to sort Notification Center Manually or by the time events are added.

Tip: Click and drag an app in the "In Notification Center" pane on the left to arrange the order of apps.