One of Outlook 2003’s most useful features is the system tray pop-up that displays a digest of each new message. Unfortunately, this pop-up vanishes after seven seconds, which could be too little time to click on the message to open it in full. To extend this time, click Tools and select Options, then choose Preferences, E-mail Options, Advanced E-mail Options, and Desktop Alert Settings. Here you can change the length of the alert as well as its level of transparency.