A method for generating data change alerts in a collaboration environment and highlighting changes. The method generates a message that contains information on a data change event, in response to a first user changing data in a cell of a data table. The method further determines whether there is a representational object that is based on the data being changed, and if so, alerting a second user, who is associated with the representational object, of the data change. Moreover, the data change is highlighted in the representational object.