One of my colleagues has recently had a new baby, cause for me to send him a congratulatory email.  I cannot recall the exact wording of my message, all I know is that it would have been suitably celebratory, given the happy nature of the event, but also slightly muted given my inherent character and the fundamental basis of my relationship with said colleague.  However, one thing I can say for sure is that at some point in my message I used the word ‘congratulations’.

Little did I expect that one word would spark off such digital pyrotechnics.  Showers of confetti; on-screen animation; colourful shapes.  The reason?  Microsoft Outlook has clearly linked a digital gif to be triggered upon the typing of certain key words.  Triggered?  The unanticipated gif certainly triggered something in me.  It gave my deliberately low-key message a pizzazz at odds with my intention.

On investigation, I discovered this was a feature of Outlook called ‘joyful animations’.  As well as ‘congratulations’, they react to ‘Happy Birthday’.

Automatically – perversely – my mind began composing possible messages where the ‘joyful animations’ would be wholly inappropriate:

“In no way are any congratulations in order for this month’s sales figures…”

or

“There is little to congratulate the staff in IT upon their dismal record of attendance…”

Of course, in the spirit of public service, I could not finish this blog without giving instructions as to how to turn off ‘joyful animations’. 

In Outlook, go to the ‘Settings’ cog-wheel.  Select ‘Mail’.  Then ‘Compose’.  Then click the check-box beside ‘Joyful Animations’.

And, if you succeed in doing this, I send you my congratulations.

© Simon Turner-Tree

Simon Turner-Tree has a few joyful animations of his own.