FirstClass Basics

New accounts

FirstClass accounts are available for all Wellesley faculty, staff, and students.

Students: Accounts are created for new students before the beginning of each semester. When you arrive on campus, an information packet including your username and initial password will be provided.

Faculty and Staff: Some new faculty accounts are created during the summer. Accounts for faculty and staff may be requested at the Computing Helpdesk (X 3333). The Helpdesk will need to know the name of the department head or staff supervisor in order to verify the account. After the new account is created, a paper confirmation will be sent to the on-campus address of the person who owns the new account. This confirmation includes the username and initial password. Call the Computing Helpdesk for information and technology training for new users.

Your Internet e-mail address is in the form: username@wellesley.edu (substituting your assigned username). This is the address people from off-campus should use when sending e-mail to you.

Usernames are a maximum of eight characters. To prevent duplication, some usernames end with a number.

When you use FirstClass to send e-mail to someone else who has a Wellesley FirstClass account, instead of using their Internet address, you should use their "FirstClass name" which is their first and last name.

Starting, logging in and exiting

Start FirstClass

Windows: Either double-click the FirstClass shortcut on your desktop or click the Start Button and choose Programs (or All Programs) > FirstClass > FirstClass.

Macintosh OS X: Click the FirstClass icon in the Dock or open the Applications folder and double-click FirstClass.

Log in

1. After starting FirstClass, a Login window will appear.
2. Verify that the Server field says firstclass.wellesley.edu. (If you need to correct this field, see the installation instructions.)
   
3. Enter your Username and Password.
4. In the Login window, type your FirstClass username in the User ID field. Press the TAB key or click in the Password field and type your assigned initial password. As a security feature, the characters of your password will appear as asterisks (*) as you type them. Click Login. (If you see a message that says Logins disabled [1035] you have typed your password incorrectly 3 times. You will need to wait 5 minutes before logging in with the correct password. If you have forgotten your password, contact the Helpdesk. Students must visit the Helpdesk at Clapp Library and show a Wellesley ID.)
5. After logging in, your FirstClass desktop window will appear. (Because System Notices and Official Announcements can be urgent or critical, they may be set so that an message opens automatically when you log into FirstClass.)
   
   

Note about the Save button: It is possible to save your entered user ID and/or password on the computer by clicking Save. We recommend against saving this information because it may leave your account accessible to anyone using that computer. To reset the fields to blank again, delete the username and password and click Save. If you decide to save your password on a computer that is not accessible to others, you will notice that the Password field has been filled with extra asterisk characters. This is a feature intended to obscure from an observer the number of characters in your password.

Exit FirstClass

Clicking the Exit icon on the desktop toolbar will log you off and close the program. Note that simply closing the desktop and other windows will not log you out and may leave your account vulnerable to use by others.

You can also exit using a menu:

• Windows: File > Exit
• Macintosh OS X: FirstClass > Quit FirstClass

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Password

You should change your assigned password immediately after your first login. You can change your password again at any time.

1. Collaborate > Change Password...
2. In the Old password field, type the password that you used to log in.
3. TAB to the New password field.
4. Type a new password. You can use letters, numbers and/or most symbols. Choose a password that is not easy to guess. Do not share it with anyone or write it in an obvious place.
5. TAB to the Retype password field.
6. Type the new password again.
7. Click OK.

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FirstClass desktop

The FirstClass desktop is the starting place for the program. When you first open your desktop some of your icons will be arranged along the top and left border. There will also be a few Wellesley-specific icons in the middle space. You can drag the icons to arrange them as you like. If you prefer to see these objects in a list, from the View menu choose View by List.

Description of desktop icons

The icons on your desktop allow you to navigate through your account and many Wellesley conferences that contain messages. A red flag will appear near any object when it contains an unread message (a message that you have not opened or that you have marked as unread). One of these icons is your mailbox and is described below. General information about using conferences is also below on this page.

Several of the icons are explained in other parts of this documentation: Bookmarks, Calendar, Contacts, Trash can and Mailbox.

Conferences that have been created as part of the standard desktop for Wellesley FirstClass users are System Notices, Official Announcements, Computing Questions and Wellesley Conferences. These can not be deleted.

 

Deleting desktop items

Some items on your desktop are permanent: Wellesley Conferences, Computing Questions, System Notices, Official Announcements, Trash Can, Instant Messaging and your Mailbox. If you put a item on your desktop or if it is put there for you by a conference controller, you can delete it. You can also delete the icons called Bookmarks, Contacts, and Calendar but if you later decide that you want them on your desktop again, the data they contained will be lost.

To determine what kind of item (conference-original, conference-alias, folder etc.) is represented by an icon on your desktop,select it and from the File menu choose Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Macintosh) and look near the top of the window. If the item does not delete it may be protected. To unprotect it, select the item then File > Properties (Windows) or File > Get Info (Mac) and uncheck the Protected box before deleting. Deleting an alias to a conference has no effect on the original conference or on anyone else's desktop.

Quota Indicator

Navigation pane

The navigation pane on the left side of your screen is similar to the optional explore view from previous versions. It is meant to give you an alternate way to look at your messages and files and to reduce the number of windows that are open the same time. To show the navigation pane, click the triangle on the vertical separator bar (circled in red). To hide the pane, either click the X to close the window (circled in green at right), or click the triangle on the vertical separator bar. The triangle will remain after you close the pane so that you can click it to reopen whenever you wish.

Another way to close or open the navigation pane is by clicking the Show/Hide Navigation Pane button on the bottom left of the window

Reading pane

If you use the navigation pane you can also open a reading pane to display the content of selected messages. This allows you to peruse messages without opening them in separate windows. Click the icon on the bottom right of the window . This causes the window to cycle among three modes: no reading pane, reading pane below message list, reading pane to right of message list.

 

Desktop Backgrounds

You can add a background picture to your desktop. To use a default image provided in FirstClass Client, open your FirstClass desktop, and go to View > Change View Properties. Click the Background tab, and select one of the image files listed in the Image field. Check the box next to Use background picture.

If you wish to customize your desktop by using an image not provided by FirstClass, you may use your own .JPG image. There are two ways to do this, depending on whether you wish to see the image on just your own computer or on other computers as well.

Background on your own computer only:

Windows: Open C: > Documents and Settings > All Users > Application Data. (If you do not see the Application Data folder, it may be hidden. Go to Tools > Folder Options and click the View tab. Under the Hidden Files and Folders heading, check Show hidden files and folders to unhide items.) Open Application Data > FirstClass > Images. Place your background image in this folder. The new image should now be listed among the images available under the Background tab in the Change View Properties window. If it is not listed, exit and restart FirstClass.

Macintosh: Open Macintosh HD > Library> Firstclass > Images. Place your background image in this folder. The new image should now be listed among the images available under the Background tab in the Change View Properties window. If it is not listed, exit and restart Firstclass.

Background on all computers:

If you use the following procedure, your image will download to the hard drive of each computer that you use to read your mail, so that the image will be accessible for others using the computer.

Click the Preferences button on your desktop. In the Preferences window click the Messaging tab and Mail Rules sub-tab. Click the Mailbox Rules button to open your rules folder. You will see a Rules log and possibly some mailbox rules.

Drag your image file into the rules folder. Close the rules window (and the Rules Log window if this pops up). Open your mailbox, and when the file transfer is complete, close your Mailbox. The new image should now be listed among the image files available under the Background tab in the Change View Properties window.

When you open your FirstClass desktop for the first time on a computer that is not your own, your desktop will be blank until you open your Mailbox, which will load the image file onto that computer.

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Toolbars

At the top of each FirstClass window you will see a toolbar of buttons. Different windows have different toolbars because the common commands for each window differ. For example on a window where you type a message you will find buttons to attach a file to the message and to show a bcc: field. Those toolbar buttons would not be useful on your desktop or mailbox. All functions provided by toolbar buttons can also be found within the menus.

There are several settings changes you can make to toolbars, however some conference toolbar settings may be temporary if the controller has saved specific settings for that conference. To access the settings menu for a toolbar, right-click (Windows) or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) and choose from the pop-up menu. When applying a change to a particular button, you should click directly on that button.

Buttons can be added or removed from toolbars. If you edit a toolbar you should see a change on any computer that you use, however if you move between platforms (Mac and Windows) the changes may not be consistent.

Most windows have Go Back and Go Forward buttons on the left side of the toolbar. These behave in a similar way to the back and forward buttons on a Web browser.

Icon only or Icon and Text

To change the entire toolbar to either icon only or icon and text, right-click (Windows) or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) on the right side of the row of buttons, past the last button, and choose either Display Icon Only or Display Icon and Text.

To change an individual button, right-click (Windows or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) directly on that button.

Toolbar Size

The size change applies to the entire toolbar. For some conferences, this is set by the controller. To change the size, right-click (Windows) or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) on the toolbar and choose Size > Large, Medium or Small.

Adding a toolbar button

1. Open the window where you would like to add a button. (If you add a button to any received message, the new button should appear on every received message. The same holds true for sent messages.)
2. From the View menu choose Toolbars then Customize Toolbars.
3. Choose a category of buttons using the pull-down menu in the field labeled Categories.
4. The Buttons section of the Customize Toolbars window shows you icons for all the buttons in the selected category.
5. Arrange windows so that you can see the entire Customize Toolbar window as well as the toolbar of the window that you would like to customize.
6. Drag the button from the Customize Toolbar window to the toolbar at the location where you would like it to appear. You can also drag a spacer to any location on the toolbar.
7. Click Close.

 

Removing a button toolbar button

Right-click (Windows) or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) on the button and choose Remove Button.

 

Resetting a toolbar to its default state

Right-click (Windows) or CONTROL-click (Macintosh) on the right side of the toolbar, Reset Toolbar

 

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Aliases and shortcuts

To avoid spending time navigating through levels of conferences, it is useful to add aliases (shortcuts) on your desktop for the conferences that you read frequently. These aliases will be marked with red flags when they contain messages you have not read, however a flag does not apply to any sub-conferences within that conference. Conference controllers may also add an alias to your desktop for you. To determine whether an icon represents an alias or an original item, click it once to select it and from the File menu choose Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac). The top right corner will report either original or alias. Unless you are the controller of the original conference, you will not be able to change the name of an alias.

To add a conference alias to your FirstClass desktop:

Navigate to the conference icon for which you would like to make an alias. Do not open the conference.

Right-click on the conference icon (Windows) or hold down the mouse button (Macintosh) and select Add to Desktop from the menu. A copy of the icon will appear on your FirstClass Desktop as an alias to the original conference.

You can delete any alias you have added to your FirstClass desktop. This will have no effect on the original conference. To delete:

Click the alias you want to delete.

Either click the Delete button on the toolbar or press the DELETE key.

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Open Wellesley Conferences on your desktop to access most conferences. Conferences are spaces for sharing messages among members. Many conferences are open to all Wellesley FirstClass users and many others are limited to certain groups of individuals such as a class, department or club. Most conferences allow members to send messages to the conference and to read messages, but other types of permissions can be set allowing people specific kinds of access to a conference (e.g., allowing members to send messages but not to look at message history or delete messages). The controller of each conference is responsible for setting up these permissions. If you would like to learn more about conference permissions, read the Controller's Guide for FirstClass.

Many conferences contain other conferences and are organized in a hierarchy that is meant to help FirstClass users find information that is useful to them. For example, the conference named Wellesley Conferences contains many conferences including a conference called Departments. Departments contains two conferences called Academic Departments and Administrative Departments. Academic Departments contains a conference for each academic department such as Spanish, Mathematics and Music.

Reading conference messages

Double-click the icon of the conference that you would like to read. When you open a conference, you will see messages and/or other conferences. Unread messages and conferences that contain unread messages are marked with red flags . Messages with attached files are marked with a paperclip . Whether a message or conference is marked as read or unread refers only to you, not to others using the conference.

To read a message in the list, double-click on that message to open it in a new window. The header section at the top tells who sent the message, to whom it was addressed and the subject. If there are any attachments they will be listed in the header. Either the header or the message text area may have a scroll bar. To change the magnification of the text in any message, use the control at the bottom left of the window. Close the message window when you are done reading the message.

For more information about conference messages see the Messages and Documents page.

Conference view

As in your mailbox, conference messages with the same subject are often grouped (threaded) together by subject. If the group is open, all messages are listed individually. The the message is marked with a minus sign (Windows) or down-pointing triangle (Macintosh). If the group is closed, only the top message in the group is listed. A closed group is marked with a plus sign (Windows) or a right-pointing triangle (Macintosh). You can alternate between an open and closed group by clicking on the +/-symbol or triangle. Click the symbol or triangle at the top of the column to change the entire list.

Conference controllers can determine the way sub-conferences and messages are displayed. For example, the controller can set the default size of the window, whether the messages are displayed as a list or as icons, the order of messages and the expiry period of messages. You can temporarily change the view properties (e.g. window size, sort order) of a conference that has been formatted by a controller. Some controllers do not set the view for other users. In these cases, the default conference view set on your computer will take hold. To set the default, open any conference that has a controller who is not you (such as System Notices) and set the view the way you like. This will be the default on that computer. (It will not hold when you go to a new computer.)

If you see one or more user icons on the left of the status bar on an open conference window, click them to see a directory of others who have this conference open.

In some conferences you will see one or more icons on the top right of the window. These tell you which changes the conference controller allows you to make. You will see some of these icons in
your mailbox and desktop too. The picture at the right describes the meaning of each icon.

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Printing

To print any open message or window, File > Print. The default printer for the computer you are using will be selected, but you can change to an alternate printer.

To print with additional features such as an optional header or footer, File > Print Layout and click the Messages tab. Select the elements you want from the pull-down menus.

Note: If you are using version 8.315, when printing a message, note that the message date is in the top right of the page. In order for the date to appear on the printed page you will need to narrow the message window. Upgrade FirstClass to avoid this problem.

 

Printing multiple messages:

Select multiple messages to be printed. Selection of a closed thread includes ALL messages in that thread.

Right-click (Windows) or hold down your mouse button (Macintosh) on any of the selected messages and choose Print from the pop-up menu

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