Instructions:
WinCC flexible offers the following options for displaying messages on the operator panel:

• Alarm View:
  The alarm view is configured for a specific picture. Depending on the size configured, the alarm view can display multiple messages at the same time. You can configure multiple alarm views for different alarm classes and in different pictures.
• Alarm Line:
  The alarm line permits you to display the latest message available in Runtime (Alarm View: "Properties > Layout > Mode > Line").
• Alarm Windows:
  The alarm window is configured in the "Template" for the pictures and is thus a component of all the pictures of a project. Depending on the size configured, it can display multiple messages at the same time. Closing and reopening of the alarm window can be event-controlled.
• Alarm Indicator:
  The alarm indicator is a graphical icon that indicates messages that are available or are to be acknowledged, depending on the configuration. The alarm indicator can only be configured in the template.

Below are tips on creating/editing the alarm view/window. 

Shifting columns of the alarm view/window:
Right-click the alarm view/window. Click on "Edit" in the pop-menu that opens. Now you can move the individual "column heads" with the left mouse button.

Fig. 01
 

Creating your own alarm classes:
You can add more alarm classes to the existing alarm classes (Diagnosis Events, Errors, System, Warnings). It is thus possible to assign a separate "alarm class" for each subsystem. You then assign the alarm class accordingly to an alarm view/window.
Only the messages from that subsystem are then displayed.

The "alarm classes" are in the project tree structure under "Alarm Management > Settings > Alarm Classes". The following figure shows the modified "alarm classes" in the alarm view.

Fig. 02
 

Editing buttons:
Under "Properties > Settings" of the alarm view/window you can assign buttons to the display ("Infotext" button, "ACK" button, "Edit" button). You cannot change the icons of these buttons. If you wish to use your own texts/icons, you can create your own buttons to which you assign the desired texts/icons.

The functions are available under the Properties of the buttons ("Properties > Events > Press > Keyboard operation for screen objects > Alarm...").

Color configuration of the alarm classes:
In order to better differentiate between the messages statuses (Activated, Deactivated, Acknowledged) you can configure colors for the alarm classes. Please note that the message on which the current "focus" is positioned is not displayed in the color configured.

For the configured colors of the alarm classes to be displayed in Runtime you enable "Use alarm class colors" in the project window under "Alarm Management > Settings > Alarm Settings > General".

Configured tags in the display text:
If you have configured a tag in the display text in order to output the current measured value at the time of error, for example, this value is "static". This means that the value of the tag is displayed with the value that the tag had when the message was triggered. The value is not updated subsequently in the alarm view/window.

Line breaks in the bit message texts:
You cannot configure line breaks in an alarm line. Line breaks are made automatically on the operator panel during Runtime.

A "non-configure" alarm display is shown when an error occurs:
If you migrate a ProTool configuration to WinCC flexible, in the "Template Picture" you check whether an alarm display is there. Under "Properties > Layers" of the "Template Picture" you show all the layers ("Show all layers" button). This function once again displays all the objects that might have been deselected when selecting a layer.

Notes on configuring error messages and on handling alarm views/windows:
More information on the topics mentioned above is available in the Online Help of WinCC flexible and in Entry ID: 21976869 .