Wellesley College
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Computing Documentation

FirstClass 8.3 iconFirstClass 9
Macintosh and Windows
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Index of FirstClass 9 Topics

Install, upgrade, remove FirstClass (select operating system):

Windows
Macintosh

Controller's Guide

FirstClass on the Web

Using FirstClass from off-campus

Frequently Asked Questions

Basics:

New accounts
Starting, logging in and exiting
Password
FirstClass desktop
Toolbars
Aliases and shortcuts
Quotas
Mailbox
Conferences
Printing


Messages and Documents:

Reading messages
New message, replying, forwarding
Addressing messages
Message editing features
Attachments
Unsending messages
Message history
Personal Stationery
Documents


Organizing:
Window view properties
Filtering messages
Deleting and undeleting
Sorting messages
Selecting multiple messages
Creating and using folders
Saving, archiving

Rules:
Spam rule

Features:
Bookmarks
Contacts (Addresses and Mail Lists)
Directory
Instant Message (Chat)
Presentations
Resume
Find/Search

Calendars:

Preferences:

Default mail client
Reply sender or reply all
Automatic reply
Automatic forward
more...


Using a POP client with FirstClass mail

FirstClass Rules

What are mailbox rules?

FirstClass allows users to set rules on their mailboxes. Mailbox rules are instructions that apply to messages in your mailbox, at the time they are sent or received. For example, you can set up a rule so that when you send a message to a certain address, your copy of that message will go to a sub-folder of your mailbox. You can set up a rule so that when you receive a message from a certain address, it is redirected to your alternate e-mail account. You can set up several rules that apply to different types of messages and you can edit them at any time. It is recommended that you limit your mailbox rules to fewer than 25 conditions and actions in order to keep message receipt in your mailbox from lagging. More than 50 will have an impact on the server. This feature is optional. It is not necessary to set up any mailbox rules at all. If you choose to do so, please heed the following cautions.

Important things you should know about mailbox rules

  • If you create a mailbox rule that moves certain received messages to a sub-folder of your Mailbox they will lose their red flags, just as they would if you moved them to a folder directly. You will not know that these new messages have been received until you open the folder.
  • Do not create a receive rule to Delete silently or Reject. Messages handled this way never reach your mailbox so they can not be undeleted. In addition, applying the Reject action to received messages causes a reply to be sent the originator, verifying your address as valid to a sender who may be unknown to you. If you expect to receive messages that you will want to delete, the safest filtering method is to create a rule that moves the messages to a sub-folder. Later, you can open the sub-folder and review its contents before selecting all and clicking the Delete button. This will protect you from losing a message that was filtered unintentionally.
  • It is possible to set up very complex rules with unintended consequences. Please proceed slowly when experimenting and, if you run into problems, disable the rules immediately. You can turn them on again once you have fixed the problem. The section called Managing and editing your rules on this page tells you how to disable a rule.

  • If you have a rule that moves messages into a folder but then delete the folder, the rule will still operate until your rules are re-compiled. This means that the rule will try to move your messages, but because the folder does not exist there is no place to put them, so these messages will not reach your mailbox. If this happens you need to delete the rule. If you want to recreate the rule you will need to make a new folder and a new rule.

  • If you have a rule that moves messages into a folder and the folder fills up (4096 messages), the rule will no longer work and a rejection reply will be sent to the sender of any message that fulfills that rule.

  • If you create a folder that will be referenced by a rule, do not name it beginning with an ! (exclamation point) or the rule will not work.

  • There are buttons on the toolbars for creating new rules of each type. There are two additional buttons that should NOT be used, New Application Rule and New Custom Column.

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Receive rules

  1. If your new rule will make use of a sub-folder in your Mailbox, that folder must be created before you create the rule. The folder name must be 23 characters or fewer, including spaces.
  2. Click the Preferences button on your desktop. In the Preferences window click the Messaging tab and Mail Rules sub-tab.
  3. Click the Mailbox Rules button rules button .
  4. Click the New Receive Rule button.
  5. A form will appear. First name the rule by entering something descriptive in the Name field so that you can easily tell the rules apart if you have more than one. receive rule
  6. Enter data in the fields of the form (most fields use pull-down lists). The example below shows a rule that will move messages into a folder as they are received from a particular listserv. Depending on the choice that you make in the first If field, additional fields may be displayed. The options available in the various pull-down lists depend on the choices you make. For example if you choose to filter messages based on the address that sends them, choosing "The sender" ... "matches" prompts you to choose a name from the FirstClass Directory (including your Address Book listings). But choosing "The sender" ... "contains" lets you choose any part of the sender's address. This second option, therefore, lets you choose an Internet e-mail address.
  7. After choosing your condition (If section) make your selection of an action (Then section). In a similar way, the options available in the various pull-down lists depend on the choices you make. There are some options that we are not using at Wellesley such as notifications, pager messages and warning levels, however they will appear in the rules menus.

    Caution: We strongly urge you not to use the actions Delete Silently or Reject for the reasons outlined above in the section called Important things you should know about mailbox rules

  8. Click the Save button when you are done so that the new rule will be compiled with any existing rules and begin to apply to messages that you receive.
  9. If you made a mistake (such as specifying a folder that doesn't exist) the Rules Log window will open, listing the error. If this happens, close the Rules Log window and double-click your rule so that you can edit it. Be sure you fix and save your rule right away so that the changes will be compiled. If you can't fix the rule right away, disable it.
  10. After saving a rule the Mailbox Rules window will display an updated list of your rules. Close the Mailbox Rules window.
  11. If possible, test your rule by sending messages that conform to the condition you set and check that the intended action took place. The Rules Log inside the Mailbox Rules window may give you information if your rule does not seem to be working.

Receive rule to move tagged spam

Messages received by our mail server are analyzed by software that calculates the probability that each message might be spam. Subjects of messages that are at least 50% likely to be spam will usually be tagged with the prefix [SPAM:xx%] and will have an icon including a red, orange or green circle as in these examples: (note that messages rated above 95% likelihood of being spam are now deleted from the server and not delivered.)

spam in mailbox

You can use mailbox rules to move messages that have been rated as likely to be spam into a folder in your mailbox.

Note: Rules are interpreted in the order they appear in your mailbox rules window. If you have other receive mailbox rules that also move certain messages into folders, you will probably want to place spam rule last on the list of the Mailbox Rules window. You can drag rules in the list to change their position.
    1. Open your mailbox.
    2. Create a folder in your mailbox and name it. A name such as "A Spam Folder" will bring it to the top of the alphabetical list if your folders are in list view to help you notice it and remember to check it often.
    3. Click the Preferences button on your desktop. In the Preferences window click the Messaging tab and Mail Rules sub-tab.
    4. Click the Mailbox Rules button rules button .
    5. Click the New Receive Rule button.
    6. The rule illustrated below will move any messages that are rated as having a spam level of above 49 (50 and above) into your new folder.
    7. Choose The spam level and is greater than from the pull-down lists in the condition (If:) section. You can click in the box to type the number 49. (The drop-down menu offers "Low," "Medium," and "High." The level of Low corresponds to a spam level of greater than 50.)
    8. In the action (Then:) section choose File in Folder from the pull-down menu and type the name of your new spam folder in the blank field.
    9. Click Save then close the Mailbox Rules window.

      spam rule

Note 1: You should regularly examine the name and subject of the messages in your spam folder to be sure that none of your important mail has been tagged as spam. Then delete any real spam messages so that you don't go over your FirstClass quota. Tagging of messages that are not really spam is more likely to happen with listserv messages. If this is happening with a listserv that you are subscribed to, you may want to make a mailbox rule that moves the messages to a folder. This rule will need to precede any rule that recognizes messages tagged as spam.

Note 2: You should delete spam from your spam folder before it fills up (4096 messages). Otherwise, the mail rule will not be able to move messages into the folder and FirstClass will send an automatic rejection reply to senders of tagged spam.

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Send rules

  1. Open your mailbox.
  2. If your new rule will make use of a sub-folder in your Mailbox, that folder must be created before you create the rule. The folder name must be 23 characters or fewer, including spaces.
  3. Click the Preferences button on your desktop. In the Preferences window click the Messaging tab and Mail Rules sub-tab.
  4. Click the Mailbox Rules button rules button .
  5. Click the New Send Rule button.
  6. A form will appear. First name the rule by entering something descriptive in the Name field so that you can easily tell the rules apart if you have more than one. Then enter data in the fields of the form (most fields use pull-down lists). The example below shows a rule that moves all messages addressed to a certain FirstClass name into a folder.

    send rule

  7. Depending on the choice you make in the first If field, additional fields may be displayed. The options available in the various pull-down lists depend on the choices you make.
  8. After choosing your condition (If section) make your selection of an action (Then section). In a similar way, the options available in the various pull-down lists depend on the choices you make.
  9. Click the Save button when you are done so that the new rule will be compiled with any existing rules and begin to apply to messages that you send.
  10. If you made a mistake (such as specifying a folder that doesn't exist) the Rules Log window will open, listing the error. If this happens, close the Rules Log window and double-click your rule so that you can edit it. Be sure you fix and save your rule right away so that the changes will be compiled. If you can't fix the rule right away, disable it.
  11. After saving a rule the Mailbox Rules window will display an updated list of your rules. Close the Mailbox Rules window.
  12. If possible, test your rule by sending messages that conform to the condition you set and check that the intended action took place. The Rules Log inside the Mailbox Rules window may give you information if your rule does not seem to be working.

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Advanced rules

Advanced rules allow you to set more than one condition and/or action for a particular trigger. Setting up properly functioning advanced mail rules can be more complex than setting up basic receive and send rules. For this reason we recommend that you do not create advanced rules unless you feel you have a good knowledge of mail rules.

To create an advanced mailbox rule:

    1. Open your mailbox.
    2. If your new rule will make use of a sub-folder in your Mailbox, that folder must be created before you create the rule.
    3. Click the Preferences button on your desktop. In the Preferences window click the Messaging tab and Mail Rules sub-tab.
    4. Click the Mailbox Rules button rules button .
    5. Click the New Advanced Rule button.

      advanced rule

    6. A form will appear. First name the rule by entering something descriptive in the Name field so that you can easily tell the rules apart if you have more than one. Then enter data in the fields of the form (most fields use pull-down lists). The example below shows a rule that moves all mail received from either of two Internet sender addresses into a folder, then sends an automatic reply.
    7. In the Advanced Rule window, note the When field near the top of the form. Unlike the simple receive and send rules, you need to specify the trigger for your advanced rule. The trigger is what causes the rule to take effect. You can choose to have it run when a message is received, sent or deleted. One of the options is Run Manually. See the section on Manual rules for more information on this option.
    8. In the If section, choose All or Any to specify whether all of your conditions must match before action will be taken. Build your conditions as you would for a basic receive or send rule. If you want multiple conditions, click plus (+) to add another row. Clicking minus (-) deletes the selected row.
    9. In the Then section, build your actions as you would for a basic receive or send rule. If you want multiple actions, click plus (+) to add another row. Clicking minus (-) deletes the selected row.
    10. Click the Save button when you are done so that the new rule will be compiled with any existing rules and begin to apply to messages that you receive or send.
    11. If you made a mistake (such as specifying a folder that doesn't exist) the Rules Log window will open, listing the error. If this happens, close the Rules Log window and double-click your rule so that you can edit it. Be sure you fix and save your rule right away so that the changes will be compiled. If you can't fix the rule right away, disable it.
    12. After saving a rule the Mailbox Rules window will display an updated list of your rules. Close the Mailbox Rules window.
    13. If possible, test your rule by sending messages that conform to the conditions you set and check that the intended action took place. The Rules Log inside the Mailbox Rules window may give you information if your rule does not seem to be working.

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Manual rules

One type of Advanced rule is a Manual rule. Manual rules are not triggered when an action takes place in your mailbox such as receiving or sending messages. Instead, you run the rule when you choose to on messages that you select. The ability in your account to run manual rules is paired with the ability to change certain settings in your FirstClass mailbox that could cause you not to receive some messages. Because of the concern that messages might be lost without a user's knowledge, this feature has not been turned on. If you feel that you need to have the ability to run Manual rules, please contact the Computing HelpDesk and ask for your request to be referred to the FirstClass user support person.

Managing and editing your rules

  • To re-open the Mailbox Rules window at any time, click the Preferences button on your desktop toolbar, click the Messaging tab and the Mail Rules sub-tab. Then click the Mailbox Rules button.

    rules window

  • The Mailbox Rules window displays a list of your current mailbox rules, some of which may not be enabled. A checkmark next to a rule indicates that it is enabled.
  • FirstClass runs the enabled rules in the order that they appear in the Mailbox Rules window. To change their order you should be able to drag the rules to the order you choose. (If you are not able to drag them, set the View Properties of the Mailbox window so that the Sort on field is set to None.)
  • To edit or disable a rule: double-click the rule in the Mailbox Rules window to open it. Unchecking the Enabled box will disable the rule.
  • To delete a rule: select it in the Mailbox Rules window then either type the DELETE key or click the delete icon on the toolbar.
  • The Rules Log shows you the date, time and number of rules, conditions and actions that have been compiled. If there were any errors, these will be listed as well.
  • If you would like to clear your Rules Log and start a new one, open the Mailbox Rules window and delete the Rules Log. The next time you create, edit or move a rule, a new Rules Log will be created.

Notes about specific conditions, actions and triggers

Some of the available conditions and actions are confusing or ambiguous. At Wellesley we don't use Pager Messages, Notifications or Warnings, for example. If you are not sure what something means, it is safer to avoid it rather than experiment. Here are a few things to note about some of the choices you will find in the forms for creating rules:

Conditions:

    • The send date within - Choose a time period, type the number of days, or type a value such as 1w 3d 4h.
    • The size - This calculation includes attachments.
    • The history contains - Because of the way message history works, it is better not to rely on this as a condition. For example the message history may report "Reply" even when the reply has never been sent or when it was re-addressed to a different person.
    • The sender matches - The blank field must match the sender's name exactly, either an Internet address, a FirstClass name, or a name defined in your Address Book.
    • The sender contains - The blank field will expect any text that is part of a sender's address. This condition is less specific than The sender matches.

Actions:

    • File in folder - You can only file mail in subcontainers that are within this container (your Mailbox).
    • Generate reply with fixed text - Type the reply message in the next field.
    • Generate reply with preferences autoreply text - The reply message will use the autoreply text from your preferences.
    • Generate reply with attachment name - The reply message will be based on the object attached to this rule. Drag the file you wish to attach to the Attachment section of an Advanced Rule form.
    • Turn approval - Turning approval on means that the object requires approval.
    • Redirect - This is similar to Forward. When you redirect a message, a copy of the redirected message will remain in your FirstClass mailbox. Unlike Forward, however, when you redirect a message, the original sender's name will appear above your own name in the From field. (In a forwarded message, your name appears above the name of the original sender.)
    • Send a new message - This is similar to Generate reply except that you can address the new message to a different person. This allows you to let a third person know when someone has sent you a message. (Generate reply sends the reply to the person who originally sent a message to you, triggering the rule.)
    • Turn the unread flag on/off - This, as with all other rules, only works in the main level of your mailbox. It will not change the flag within any sub-folders. Because the flag on any new message is already on, this action is only useful for manual rules.


Triggers:

    • Item Deleted trigger - This is an option of an Advanced Rule. The actions are performed before the actual delete, so that the rule itself can cancel the delete or move the object to a folder, for example, instead of deleting it. If you do not want to delete the object, add the action Cancel deletion after any other actions this rule will perform.