OS X El Capitan: Notifications preferences

Do Not Disturb

Stop notifications during the time range you specify, when the display is in sleep, or when you’re projecting the screen.

Select options to receive call notifications even when Do Not Disturb is on.

[App] alert style

Select a style for the app’s notifications:

• None: Notifications don’t appear on the screen.

• Banners: Notifications appear on the screen and disappear after a while.

• Alerts: Notifications stay on the screen until you dismiss them.

Show notifications on lock screen

When you wake your Mac from sleep, app notifications you received while it was in sleep are shown in the login window.

Show message preview (available only for certain apps, such as Mail or Messages)

Show a preview of a message in message notifications. For example, if you receive an email, you see a preview of the email in the Mail notification.

• when unlocked: Message previews are shown only when you’re logged in to your user account.

• always: Message previews are always shown (even in the login window).

Show in Notification Center

Choose how many of the app’s recent notifications to list in Notification Center. Notifications older than seven days aren’t shown.

Badge app icon

Let the app show the number of notifications on its icon in the Dock.

Play sound for notifications

Let the app play notification sounds.

Notification Center sort order

Choose how notifications are sorted in Notification Center:

• Recents: Notifications are sorted by time, with the most recently received at the top. Notifications older than seven days aren’t shown.

• Recents by App: Notifications are grouped by app; the app with the most recent notification is listed first.

• Manually by App: Notifications are grouped by app; the apps are sorted based on the order in which they’re listed in Notifications preferences when this option is chosen. You can reorder apps in the list by dragging them up or down.