The Office of Information Technology

FirstClass: Frequently Asked Questions

How do I identify my email address?
How do I clean up my mail box?
How do I download or export emails?
I am currently above my quota. What should I be doing?
Once a quota is placed on my Email account, what will happen if I exceed the quota?
What happen if I cannot reduce my disk space utilization to under the quota?
How do I practice good “Netiquette” in my electronic communications?
How to Deal with Pop-Up Windows or Red Flags?
Why does my Reply go to People I Don’t Want?
How to use a Signature Line in FirstClass?
How Do I Change My FirstClass Password?
How Do I Use the FirstClass Directory Tool?
Quick and simple email/conference archiving
Downloading of files from Conferences
Downloading of files from Emails

I am currently above my quota. What should I be doing?

We will delay putting a quota on anyone’s account that is currently over the quota. However we do ask that you use your best efforts to reduce your disk utilization to under the quota as soon as possible. I is especially important that you get the size of your Email account reduced before we do the Email conversion which will take place sometime next year.

Once a quota is placed on my Email account, what will happen if I exceed the quota?

As you get close to your quota you will receive an automated Email message that you are getting close to your quota and that you should remove some Emails that are no longer required. If you do go over your quota you will still be able to receive Emails however you will not be able to send Emails until you reduce your disk space.

What happen if I cannot reduce my disk space utilization to under the quota?

We recognize that there are some people who will not be able to reduce the size of their Email quota to under the quota. At the same time we know that everyone has a certain amount of Email in their accounts that can be eliminated and we ask that everyone make a legitimate effort to reduce the size of their Email storage for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of all system users.
We do know from previous experience that large Email accounts will cause problems when we are ready to convert to a new Email system sometime next year.  As a result we will be scheduling the conversion of those accounts that are within quota first. We will make a best effort attempt to convert the larger accounts when the other accounts have been converted.

How do I practice good "Netiquette" in my electronic communications?

As we increase our usage of the Internet and internal e-mail, let's take a moment to learn (or review) the social conventions of the online community.

  • Never assume your email messages are private nor that they can be read by only yourself or the recipient. Never send something that you would mind seeing on the evening news.
  • Never give your password to another person. System administrators that need to access your account for maintenance or to correct problems will have full privileges to your account.
  • Keep paragraphs and messages short and to the point.
  • When quoting another person, edit out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply. Don't let your mailing or Usenet software automatically quote the entire body of messages you are replying to when it's not necessary. Take the time to edit any quotations down to the minimum necessary to provide context for your reply. Nobody likes reading a long message in quotes for the third or fourth time, only to be followed by a one line response: "Yeah, me too."
  • Focus on one subject per message and always include a pertinent subject title for the message, that way the user can locate the message quickly.
  • Don't use the academic networks for commercial or proprietary work.
  • Include your signature at the bottom of Email messages when communicating with people who may not know you personally or broadcasting to a dynamic group of subscribers. Your signature footer should include your name, position, affiliation and e-mail address. Optional information could include your address and phone number.
  • Capitalize words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading. Capitalizing whole words that are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING!
  • *Asterisks* surrounding a word can be used to make a stronger point.
  • Use the underscore symbol before and after the title of a book, i.e. _The Wizard of Oz_
  • Limit line length to approximately 65-70 characters and avoid control characters.
  • Never send chain letters through the Internet. Sending them can cause the loss of your Internet access.
  • Because of the International nature of the Internet and the fact that most of the world uses the following format for listing dates, i.e. MM DD YY, please be considerate and avoid misinterpretation of dates by listing dates including the spelled out month: Example: 24 JUN 96 or JUN 24 96
  • Follow chain of command procedures for corresponding with superiors. For example, don't send a complaint via Email directly to the "top" just because you can.
  • Be professional and careful what you say about others. Email is easily forwarded.
  • Cite all quotes, references and sources and respect copyright and license agreements.
  • It is considered extremely rude to forward personal email to mailing lists or Usenet without the original author's permission.
  • Attaching return receipts to a message may be considered an invasion of privacy.
  • Be careful when using sarcasm and humor. Without face-to-face communications your joke may be viewed as criticism. When being humorous, use emoticons to express humor. (Tilt your head to the left to see the emoticon smile: :-) = happy face for humor)
  • Acronyms can be used to abbreviate when possible, however messages that are filled with acronyms can be confusing and annoying to the reader. Examples: IMHO= in my humble/honest opinion; FYI = for your information; BTW = by the way; Flame = antagonistic criticism
  • Under United States law, it is unlawful "to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement" to any "equipment which has the capacity (A) to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper." The law allows individuals to sue the sender of such illegal "junk mail" for $500 per copy. Most states will permit such actions to be filed in Small Claims Court. This activity is termed "spamming" on the Internet

[Permission to duplicate or distribute this document is granted with the provision that the document remains intact or if used in sections, that the original document source be referenced. © Copyright 1998, Arlene Rinaldi + Florida Atlantic University]

Other good "Netiquette" sites:

  • The Core Rules of Netiquette (http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html)
  • Business Netiquette International (http://www.bspage.com/1netiq/Netiq.html)
  • Stop that hoax: http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/hoax_big.html or that great source of anti-virus information, http://www.symantec.com

How to Deal with Pop-Up Windows or Red Flags

Question: How do I keep folders from popping up when I'm trying to read other messages? And how can I remove red flags without reading ALL those messages? I don't have all day!

Answer:Some folders on FirstClass are set up to open automatically when there are messages in the main folder that you haven't read.

If you want red flags to go away or you want a folder NOT to open up each time you log on, you have a couple options:

  1. Read (or simply open) all the messages in the main folder. But that might take a long time... Or,
  2. Select the folder on your desktop (by clicking ONCE) on it. This will highlight the folder. Then go to the Message menu and choose Mark as read. (This will remove the red flag from the entire folder, which means it will not open until there is a NEW message there that you haven't read.) You can do the same thing by selecting individual messages and going to the Message menu and choosing Mark as read.
Please note that each subsequent time a new message is posted in a folder set up to auto-open, the folder will open automatically when you log in.

Why does my Reply go to People I Don't Want?

ABOUT REPLYING:

By default, all new user accounts are set up with the reply preference set to "Reply Automatic." "Reply Automatic" works very much like "reply all", which means that if you get a message that was sent to more than one person and you simply click the Reply button, your message will go to everyone who got the original message, rather than just the sender.

Most people want to reply only to the sender, most of the time. To change your preferences to "Reply Sender," go to Preferences and choose the Messaging tab (shown below), and under Reply preference, choose "Reply Sender." This will eliminate the risk of sending messages to people you don't mean to send them to.

If you want to Reply All sometimes, you can do so by going to the Message menu and choosing Reply Special/Reply All.

Using a Signature Line in FirstClass

Wondering how to add text at the bottom of every message you write, such as your name and contact information? Here's how!

  1. Go to Preferences
  2. Go to Messaging tab
  3. Under Initial Content, you can make changes to your signature. You can have it apply to all new messages or not. See below for more information.

Adding signatures to selected messages:

If your preferences do not tell FirstClass to automatically add your signature to all new messages, you can add it to a specific message by choosing Edit > Insert > Insert Signature with the message open.

How Do I Change My FirstClass Password?

If you are using the FirstClass client software (desktop application):
  1. Go to the Collaborate menu
  2. Choose "Change password"
  3. Type in your old password
  4. Type in your new password
  5. Retype your new password
  6. Click OK.
If you are using the web interface (i.e., signing on by way of the Antioch website):
  1. Click on Preferences (left side of screen)
  2. Click "Change password"
  3. Type in your old password
  4. Type in your new password
  5. Retype your new password
  6. Click Save
**It's probably a good idea to write your new password down somewhere so you'll be able to look it up if you forget!

How Do I Use the FirstClass Directory Tool?

  1. Sign into First Class. If this is your first time using First Class, refer to the "First Class Getting Started" guide.

  2. Click on the "New" button in the First Class menu bar.


  3. Click on the "Directory" button in the email menu bar.


  4. After you click on the directory button, the window below will open. If you intend on searching for recipients, ensure all of the check boxes are checked.


  5. If you know where the person you are searching for is located, use the dropdown box and select the corresponding criteria, as pictured below.


  6. In this example, we are searching for "Joe FCUser" at the Antioch midwest Campus. Once you enter your criteria, the search will look like this.


  7. If that's the person you were searching for, simply click and drag their name into the "To:" box in the email window that you had open previously.


  8. After you have placed the user into the "To:" line, simply write your email text, and press send.

Quick and simple email/conference archiving

  1. In your FirstClass inbox/conference, select a list of emails you'd like to "summarize". You can make your selection simple by using the "Filter" box.


  2. In this example, we've chosen "Melissa" as the filter word. This will filter any emails from anyone with "Melissa" in their name, and any email with "Melissa" in the subject.


  3. Select which emails you would like to keep, then right click and press "Summarize Selected".


  4. After clicking Summarize Selected, a box of the summarized emails will appear. This may take a few minutes, depending on how many emails you've selected to be summarized.


  5. To save the summarized emails, click on "File" and click on "Export".


  6. 6. After you've selected where you would like to save the summarized emails, enter what you would like to name the file, and ADD ".TXT" AFTER THE NAME. By default, there is no file type, so make sure you ADD ".TXT". Then click "Save".


Downloading of files from Conferences

  1. In this example, we've created a folder on our computers desktop titled "FirstClass Downloads" where we can download all of the files we want to save.
  2. Navigate to the conference you want to save files from, and sort the messages by size. This should bring the largest messages to the top.
  3. If you only have one attachment in the message you are selecting to download the attachments from, simply right click on the attachment/s and choose "Save Attachment". If you have multiple attachments inside of the message you are selecting, left click on a single file, then hit CTRL+A to select all the attachments in that email, then click on "Save Attachment".


  4. A "Save As" window will appear. As mentioned earlier, we have a folder on our computers desktop titled "FirstClass Downloads", navigate to your save folder, and click "Ok".


  5. After clicking Ok, a progress bar will appear. Downloading will range in time depending on how many files you've selected to download.
  6. After the progress bar has completed, navigate to where you've downloaded your files and verify they have transferred.

Downloading of files from Emails

  1. In this example, we've created a folder on our computers desktop titled "FirstClass Downloads" where we can download all of the files we want to save.
  2. Navigate to your Inbox, and sort your emails by size. This should bring the largest emails in your inbox to the top.
  3. 3. If you only have one attachment in the emails you are selecting to download the attachments from, simply right click on the attachment/s and choose "Save Attachment". If you have multiple attachments inside of the email you are selecting, left click on a single file, then hit CTRL+A to select all the attachments in that email, then click on "Save Attachment


  4. A "Save As" window will appear. As mentioned earlier, we have a folder on our computers desktop titled "FirstClass Downloads", navigate to your save folder, and click "Ok".


  5. After clicking Ok, a progress bar will appear. Downloading will range in time depending on how many files you've selected to download.
  6. After the progress bar has completed, navigate to where you've downloaded your files and verify they have transferred.

Downloading websites inside of FirstClass

  1. In this example, we've created a folder on our computers desktop titled "Web Pages" where we can download all of the webpages we want to save.
  2. Navigate to your Desktop in FirstClass, then double click on the "Web Publishing" icon. It looks something like this.


  3. As seen in the picture, we want to to save 3 websites created in "Web Folder", those three being named "About Me", "Blank Page", and "Welcome to my web site."


  4. Highlight the the web pages you would like to save, and right click on them.


  5. You can also download whole web folders in FirstClass by clicking on a folder and right clicking, vice selecting individual/multiple sites.
  6. Click on "Download...", then select where'd you like to save. As mentionied before, we have a folder on our computers desktop that is called "Web Pages". After selecting the location, click "Ok".


  7. After clicking Ok, a progress bar will appear. Downloading will range in time depending on how many webpages you've selected, and the content of each webpage.


  8. Now, navigate to where you've downloaded your webpages and make sure they are there, and look as they are supposed to.
  9. After verifying the content of the webpages you've downloaded is correct, you may delete the copy in FirstClass. (The files will be in .rtf format, with images imbedded)

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