Index
of FirstClass 9 Topics
| Install, upgrade, remove FirstClass (select operating
system): |
Windows
Macintosh
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FirstClass Messages and Documents
Reading messages
To read a message in a list, double-click 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.
When you are done reading, close the message window. If
the message is in your mailbox it will remain listed in your
mailbox until you delete or move it. If the message is in
a conference it will remain until it expires or has been
deleted by someone with permission to do so.
You can open messages in sequence in the same window without
closing and opening each one. To do this, click the Next
Unread  , Next
in Thread  or Previous
in Thread  button
on the toolbar of any message, depending on which message
you want to read next. After you read a message its red flag
will be gone. You can put the red flag back again by selecting
it, then Message > Mark as Unread.
Back to Top
Sending a
new message, replying, forwarding
Sending a new message
- Click the New Message button
 on
your toolbar. A New Message window will open with
a header section, a message body section, a row of formatting
tools and a ruler. To enter any field in the header or the
body of the message, click or TAB between fields.
- Type something informative in the Subject: field.
- Address the message by typing or by using the Directory.
(See the section Addressing messages.)
- Enter your message in the body of the message window. You
can paste text or images into the message and you can use editing
tools to change the way your message looks. (See the section Message
editing features.)
- If you want to attach a file to your message, first be sure
that you have a copy of the file on your computer or a removable
disk and that the file has an appropriate extension. Click
the paperclip button on the message window toolbar and navigate
to the location of your file. Select the file and click Open.
(See the section Attaching a file to a
message.)
- If you do not want to send the message at this time, close
the message window. The unsent message will be marked with
a white flag
 in
your mailbox until you send it. You can open the unsent message
to edit it if you like.
- When you are ready to send the message, click the Send button
 on
the toolbar. A copy of your sent message will remain in your
mailbox. If you open it again you will see an icon similar
to a postage cancellation at the top right of the message header.
- If you are sending a message to a conference, you may want
to override the default expiry period for that conference.
First send the message then select it in the conference and File > Properties (Windows)
or File > Get Info (Macintosh) to change the expiry
period.
Replying
to a message
 Replying
to a message creates a new pre-addressed message with the same
subject as the one that you replied to, prefixed by Re:. Open
the message you wish to reply to and click the Reply button
on the toolbar. The triangle next to the reply button (circled
in red in the picture) gives you pull-down menu with additional
options. If you want to quote any part of the original message,
select that text in the message before replying using any of
the following methods.
Important Note: No
matter which option you choose, carefully check the header
addresses in the new message. You can delete any address
in the header before sending the message. |
- Reply - The message will
be addressed as determined by the reply preference for
your account. The reply
preference can be changed in your account preferences. Choices
are: Reply sender, Reply all or Automatic. (Automatic
is equivalent to Reply Sender for messages in your mailbox).
- Reply All - The message will be addressed to everyone
who was addressed in the original message, whether in the To: field,
the CC: field or the Bcc: field.
- Reply Sender - The message will be addressed
to the sender of the message only.
- Reply Conference - When replying to a conference
message, it will be addressed to that conference.
- Reply with Quote -
The message will be addressed as determined by the reply
preference in your account, and the entire content of the
message you are replying to will be included as a quote
(highlighted in gray).
- Reply Original Author - The message
will be addressed to the person who sent the original message,
whether it was addressed to you, to another user, or to
a conference.
Forwarding a
message
To forward a message you receive, Message > Forward.
Address the message as usual. If you like, you can add some
text before you send the message. The original sender's address
will be listed below your own in the From: field.
Back to Top
Addressing messages
Messages are addressed in two ways: by typing
the names of one or more recipients into the message header
or by using the FirstClass Directory. Using either method you
can enter names in the To: field and optionally in
the Cc: and Bcc: fields.
Addressing a message by typing the recipient
name(s) in the message header.
- Type a destination address in the To: field. Then
type the ENTER, RETURN or TAB key. The cursor will remain
in the To: field so that you can enter another name
if you wish. Names will appear side by side horizontally.
To move to the next (Cc:) field, type
the ENTER, RETURN or TAB key one more time, or else click
in the field.
Note: If
you are using version 8.315, multiple names in the
header fields will appear in a vertical list. |
The address can be in any
of these forms:
 FirstClass
name (first and last name). If you type
the first letters of a name, FirstClass will
complete it for you or will let you select from
a list of names that match what you typed.
 Conference
name. If a conference was open when you
chose New Message, the message was automatically
addressed to that conference.
 Internet
e-mail address (e.g. friend@college.edu)
or anyone not in the Wellesley FirstClass
system.
 Personal
Address name or Personal Mail List name that
you created and saved in your Contacts
folder.
- An icon will appear next to the address if it is correct.
(FirstClass names need to match a user or conference name
in the Directory. Internet addresses are only checked for
proper format.) You can enter more than one address by pressing
ENTER or RETURN after each, however you should not send to
a long list of addresses. If you have a message that needs
to be read by many people at Wellesley, post it to one or
two appropriate conferences. This will keep the system from
being bogged down and will avoid the annoyance of seeing
the same message repeatedly.
- If you like, you can enter addresses in the Cc: field
as you did for the To: field. If you need to use a Bcc: (blind
carbon copy) field, View > Show
Bcc.
Addressing a message
by using the Directory
Method 1:
Click in the header of a new message then
click the Directory button on the toolbar.
The Directory will open with extra buttons for addressing
messages.
Select any name then click the To:, Cc: or Bcc: button
to put that name into the header of your new message.
Method 2:
Drag a name from the Directory or Contacts
Folder into a header field.
Method 3:
Click in the header field you want to address
(e.g. To: or Cc:) then double-click any name in the Directory.
Method 4:
Right-click a name in the Directory and choose Create
Mail To. This method does not work with conferences
or Personal Contacts entries.
Back to Top
Message
editing features
There is a toolbar of formatting buttons and pull-down
menus just above the body of each message you create. These tools
are also in the Format menu at the top of the window.
Select your text and apply fonts, sizes, colors and styles using
these tools.
Pasting text copied from other FirstClass messages
or other applications
In most cases this is a standard and straightforward process
(CONTROL-V or from the Edit menu choose Paste)
however if your pasted text includes links or other formatting
that you don't want, from the Edit menu
choose Paste Plain Text.
Background
You can select a color or image for the background of your
message. Click in the body of an unsent message and Format > Format
Background.
Links
There are several ways to insert a link from a FirstClass
message to a Web page. The most straightforward way is to
type the URL. While you are editing the message it will appear
as normal text, but after you send the message it will become
a blue underlined link. The reader can click on this link
to open the page in a web browser. The second method creates
a link similar to one on a web page. Type some text describing
the link, highlight it, then click the Make Link button  on
the toolbar. Enter the URL in the Target URL field
and click OK. You can make a link to a FirstClass
conference by dragging the icon of a conference to the body
of a FirstClass message and you can make a link to a web
page by dragging the symbol from the browser location/address
bar (e.g.,  )
to the message area. Double-click the Format Link button in
the unsent message if you want to make a change.
| If you are the controller of a conference
or have been assigned Edit Items permission in a conference,
any links in messages in that conference will appear
to be regular text (not blue and underlined). You can,
however, right-click (Windows) or hold down the mouse
(Macintosh) on the link then choose Open Link from
the pop-up menu. |
Spell Check
Edit > Check Spelling or click the check
spelling button  in
the row of buttons between the message header and the body.
Images
You can drag an image to the body of your message but the
image format must be JPG or PNG in order to work properly.
If your image is some other format besides JPG or PNG (such
as GIF), you can either convert it using an image editing
program or you can copy it to your computer's clipboard then
paste it into the FirstClass message body where it will be
converted to a JPG file. Screen shots paste as PNG files.
You can change the alignment of your image on the page or
change its size by double-clicking the image and changing
the settings in the Format Image dialog box. If you want
to add a tool tip to the image (text that appears when you
point to the image) add the text to the comments field. Image
editing can be done using the keyserved version of Macromedia
Fireworks on campus. You can resize an image
that is in the body of a message by dragging its corner.
This will not change the file size, so an image that you
have dragged to be smaller will still use the same amount
of space in your account.
Tables
| Tables are available in FirstClass 8 and
9 only. Note that if you insert tables in your messages,
people who are using older versions of FirstClass will
be unable to see tables properly. |
To create a table, Edit > Table > Insert Table.
A New Table form will appear, allowing you to enter the number
of rows and columns you want. Click in any cell to enter
text or to paste an image. In versions prior to 8.1, you
can not tab from cell to cell. To add or remove cells, Edit > Table then Insert or Delete
Rows or Columns. To change the
table or cell layout and the width and color of the borders Format > Format
Table. To change the color of a cell, select the
cell(s) then Format > Format
Cell. You can copy and paste tables from Excel and
Word files into FirstClass messages. However, depending on
the version of your FirstClass software, you may be able
to copy and paste tables from FirstClass messages into Word
only, not Excel. In this case, copy and paste your table
into Word, then copy and paste from Word into Excel. Also,
formatting of tables (such as changes in color, font, text
size) will only be preserved when you copy and paste from
Word into FirstClass or vice versa. To preserve formatting
done in Excel, you will need to copy and paste from Excel
into Word, then from Word into your FirstClass message.
You can convert tabbed text to a table. Select
the text and Edit > Table > Convert
to table.
Foreign language text
See Sending
e-mail using foreign language keyboards.
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Attachments
Opening and saving attachments
| When an attachment
is opened within FirstClass by double-clicking the attachment
name, it is not automatically saved in a download folder.
This is to avoid inadvertent saving of private files
where they can be found by others. Certain
file types such as Word and Excel are saved in a temporary
folder called fcctemp and are deleted when you exit FirstClass.
If you would like to edit an attachment and/or
save it on your computer, you must choose a location
other than the temporary folder using the instructions
below. |
Saving an attached file to
your computer or removable disk without opening it:
One method for saving an attachment is to drag its
name from the message header to your computer desktop
(not the FirstClass Desktop). Another method is to
follow this procedure:
- Open a message with an attached file.
- Click once on the attachment filename to select
it.
- File >Save Attachment.
- Navigate to the location on your computer where
you would like to save the file.
- Rename the file, if you like, and click Save.
Opening an attachment before saving it:
| For security reasons, when an attachment
is opened within FirstClass by double-clicking the
attachment name, it is not automatically saved on your
computer. Certain file types
such as Word and Excel are saved in a temporary folder
called fcctemp and are deleted when you exit FirstClass.
If you would like to edit an attachment and/or
save it on your computer, you must choose a location
other than the temporary folder using the instructions
below. |
- Either double-click the attachment filename in the
message header or click the filename once to select
it, then File > View File. Note that
your attachment is open but has not yet been saved
to your computer. If you want to edit it or keep it,
you must explicitly save it on your computer.
- Certain file types such as JPEG and TXT open in a
FirstClass window. For other file types, FirstClass
attempts to find a program to open the attached file.
If this is not successful, a message will display telling
you that the file can not be opened. (This will happen
if, for example, your attachment is a Word file but
there is not a .doc extension on the file name. A Windows
computer is not able to tell that this is a Word file
without the extension.) If this happens, you can still
save the attachment to your computer without opening
it using the method above. Then launch a program that
you think will open the file and File > Open.
- To save the opened attachment on your computer or
a removable disk, File > Save As then
navigate to the location on your computer where you
would like to save.
Be
sure that you DO NOT save in the
fcctemp directory as everything in
fcctemp is deleted when you exit
from FirstClass.
Attaching
a file to a message
Any type of file (e.g. text, image, sound, executable)
can be attached to a FirstClass message. You can even
attach a FirstClass Mail list. Because there are different
kinds of computers, operating systems, and application
software, you need to think about whether the recipient
of your message will be able to use the attached file.
For example, if you send an Excel file to someone who
does not have Excel on their computer, that person will
not be able to use the file.
In order for Windows computers to recognize which program
will open the file you should add a standard extension
to the file name - a period followed by 3 or 4 characters.
(Files created with Macintosh software usually do not
have an extension by default so you will need to add
it to the filename yourself.) For example a Word document
might be named travel.doc. Some common extensions
are in the following table.
File type |
Extension |
Microsoft Word |
.doc |
Microsoft Excel |
.xls |
Microsoft PowerPoint |
.ppt |
Web page |
.html or .htm |
QuickTime movie |
.mov |
Adobe Acrobat |
.pdf |
You may attach more than one file to a message by repeating
the process of clicking the Attach
file  button
and navigating to the file you want to attach. If you
want to attach several files that are in a folder, navigate
to that folder and select it. All individual files in
the folder and its subfolders will be attached but the
file structure (levels of folders) will not be retained.
Be careful that you don't have duplicate filenames.
Another way to attach
a file is to drag it from its location on your computer
to the header of your unsent message. The file name
will appear in the Attachments field in the
header. Mail Lists can be attached this way as well.
Just drag the icon from your Address Book to the header
of an unsent message and it will be attached.
When sound files
are attached to a message, a sound player pane may
be added to the message header. The recipient's
preferences may be set to automatically play sound
files the first time the message is opened. If you
wish to avoid this, you can embed the sound file in
the content of your message instead of sending the
file as an attachment. To do this, drag (or copy and
paste) the file into the content portion of your message.
The recipient may then download the file by clicking
the icon in the message content.
Wellesley limits attachment size in all incoming and outgoing
messages on our mail server. The limit is 10 MB. If you
have several attached files, the total must be less that
10 MB. If you send your attachment off-campus other limits
may be in place at the destination.
There is a limit of 63 characters for attachment filenames.
If your filename is longer it will be truncated.
It is helpful to describe the attachment in the message
text. Because many people are rightly concerned about receiving
a virus with an e-mail attachment, the message should address
the recipient by name, include the sender's name and some
information about the attachment. If you have an attachment
that contains important time-sensitive information, it
may be a good idea to include this information as text
in the body of the e-mail message in addition to or instead
of the formatted attachment.
Back to Top
Unsending
messages
FirstClass allows you to unsend certain messages
that were addressed to other FirstClass users and conferences.
Although the message may have already been read by one or
more people, the message will disappear from the mailbox
or conference where it was sent. This will only work for
messages that were sent to other FirstClass addresses, not
Internet addresses. You should check
the history of the message before unsending so you are
aware of who may have read it.
To unsend a message sent to a FirstClass user
or conference, open your copy of the message your mailbox,
then Message > Unsend. A white flag will
appear beside the message in your Mailbox. You can edit the
message and send it again if you like.
You cannot unsend any message that was:
- sent to a non-FirstClass account
- moved from the recipient's Mailbox to a folder
- deleted by the recipient
- deleted from your own mailbox (your sender copy)
Back to Top
Message
history
FirstClass keeps history data for every message
that is created in or sent to a FirstClass address. You can
view the history of any message in your Mailbox. You can
sometimes view the history of conference messages. (The conference
controller can choose whether or not to have the history
feature turned on.) Because you don't know how others handled
the message -- how it was received, downloaded or marked
-- you should not strictly rely on the message history. For
example, if someone opens a message then clicks the Reply
button, the message history notes a reply, however the reply
may have been re-addressed, deleted or left unsent.
- Select the message in your Mailbox or a conference.
- Message > History. The history window
will tell you when a message was created, when it was
sent, and the people within FirstClass who have opened,
forwarded or downloaded the message. For messages sent
to Internet addresses, the message history will indicate
the time the message was routed to a remote server (indicating
receipt of your message by that person's e-mail system).
Message history cannot tell you if or when a message
on a remote system (non-Wellesley, non-FirstClass) has
been opened.
Back to Top
Personal
Stationery
If you repeatedly send similar messages and would like to have
a partially pre-filled message saved, you can create personal
stationery. You may save several different stationery messages.
Open a new message and enter information that you would like
to save, such as a name or mailing list in the header, an introductory
paragraph in the message area, a graphic etc.
Close your message without sending it.
Select the message in your mailbox and File > Properties (Windows)
or File > Get Info (Macintosh). Check the box labeled Stationery.
If your mailbox is in a split window the stationery will move
to the upper or left pane.
When you want to use the stationery, double-click it and a
duplicate of the stationery will open for you to complete and
send.
Documents
Documents you create in FirstClass can be
named and saved to any folder.
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FirstClass 9