FirstClass and the NLC Intranet Version 12 Date Modified 15/06/2016
Use of the FirstClass E-mail system Introduction Please read the following in conjunction with the Internet and E-mail Policies issued by NLC. FirstClass is the name of the software which allows users in North Lanarkshire access to e- mail and other communication facilities. Once FirstClass has been installed, any computer can be used to gain access to your e-mail and your personal FirstClass desktop. Personal mail is stored on central computers and is not downloaded to your computer while being accessed, however it can be copied to a hard drive to be stored and archived any time you wish. FirstClass is available for mobile devices. Search for FirstClass GO in your preferred app store. Every member of staff working in a school in North Lanarkshire can have a personal FirstClass account created for them. FirstClass software can also be installed on personal computers at home. Once the software has been installed the only configuration required is to put in the address of the FirstClass server to which your establishment is connected. This will normally be done by whoever installs the software and is fcnlc.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk If there is a problem connecting to your server check this address as outlined below. Logging In On opening FirstClass you are prompted for a User ID and a password. You will have been given a User ID by your system administrator and you will have been told what your initial password is. Click the green and white button to log in. Note - Once you have successfully logged in, you should change your password to something memorable and personal to you. To do this, choose Change Password from the Collaborate menu and follow the instructions. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 2
If you have a problem logging in, first, check you have internet access from your computer. Do not click the Save button as this will save your details and allow others to login and read your mail. Once logged in your desktop will appear. If it does not look similar to this, e.g. the icons are too big or too small, find out how to adjust them in Appendix 2. As the system develops you may find more folders on your desktop for various Conferences and Calendars. Most conferences are inside the Previous Desktop icon and can be added to your desktop by right-clicking on them and choosing Add To Desktop. In this way you create your own desktop with the conferences you use most often. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 3
The main difference you will notice from previous versions is the navigation pane at the side. This can be closed by clicking any of the points at 1-3 and can be re-opened by clicking 2 or 3. Button Bars menus and button bars now show information specific to the area you are viewing. Note the storage capacity for your total FirstClass account is 200MB and this information is shown in the small bar below the button bar. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 4
Icons and buttons in the Navigation Pane Mailbox - Contains all the personal messages which you have received and sent. If there is a small red flag on the icon it means that you have unread mail waiting for you. Calendar - This is your personal Calendar. You can use it to keep track of meetings and tasks. You can also share it with others so they can see when you are available. You can set up your calendar to be viewed in several different ways. Contacts Information about your personal contacts. These contacts only appear in your view of the Directory. Conferences - Allow for the discussion of educational topics and are divided into Curriculum and Headquarters. Most conferences are open to anyone to read and contribute. Remember when contributing to a conference, you are leaving a message on a public forum. Instant Messaging Online chats with others who are also online. You can either use text to chat or you can speak to the other people. This feature is turned off for pupils. Workspaces Online forums designed for workgroup collaboration. Documents, group contact lists, calendars etc. can be created for groups requiring joint access to information. File Storage An area to store your own files. You have access to these files whenever and wherever you are logged into FirstClass. A handy place to backup important files you are working on. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 5
Documents Word-processed documents and notes can be written and stored or sent to other FC users. These can include graphics, pictures etc. Note if these files are opened in another application they open as simple text files and do not include any pictures or formatting. Web Publishing A tool for building web pages., blogs, podcasts, online calendars etc. Bookmarks An area to store website bookmarks. These can be imported from browsers such as Safari which means you can always have access to your bookmarks from wherever you are logged in to FC. Help Opens an area with folders relating to various help topics. Changing passwords Your password should be changed from that originally given to you by the administrator and thereafter should be changed if you think someone has found out what it is. From the Collaborate menu choose Change Password and type your old password and your new one (twice). If you forget your password contact your administrator or the staff at the Computer Centre. Passwords are case sensitive eg Welcome is not the same as welcome. Closing and Exiting FirstClass For security, it is important when you are finished using FirstClass that you close down the program or disconnect from the server so that someone else cannot login and read your mail. Ensure that you exit the program rather than just closing any open windows. Choose Quit FirstClass from the FirstClass menu (or Exit on PCs). OR Click Disconnect from the Collaborate menu. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 6
Sending an e-mail Message 1. Open your mailbox by clicking the MailBox icon or the Mail button on the side navigation bar. 2. Click on the New icon or choose New Message from the Message menu. Note that the name of the sender is inserted automatically. 3. Type in a Subject. This makes it easier for a recipient to quickly check a list of messages. This top section of your e-mail is known as the Message Envelope 4. Click in the To: box or you can use the Tab key to move between boxes. In the To: box you can either type the Internet e-mail address, e.g. jbrown@albert.n-lanark.sch.uk OR If the recipient uses the same FirstClass server, type his/her name or even just the first part of a name. Double-click the name you want if a directory list appears. OR Choose a name from the Directory or Contacts Folder which is the same as your Address Book on your FirstClass desktop. Note Every FirstClass user has his/her name included in a Directory. If you start to type someone s name in the To: box then press Return, FirstClass will look to see if there are any matches in the Directory. If you type Ia and then press Return, the system will try to match the letters I and A at the start of either a person s forename or surname. If there FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 7
is only one match it will automatically put the person in the To: box. If not choose from the list by double-clicking. TIP uncheck the Conference box so you only get the names of people. You must press Return after typing the name in the To: box. Note that more than one name can be put in the To: box or names can be added to the CC (Carbon Copy) box. These people will receive this message too. You send messages to conferences in the same way. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 8
Writing your e-mail The text of your message goes into the text area in the bottom half of the window (the Message Body). It can be as long as you want, but anything over about 40 lines would probably be better sent as an attached file. (see Page 13) Extra features There is a wide range of text formatting tools available. You can change the text size, font, style and colour. Highlight the text to be changed and choose from the formatting bar. FirstClass also has a built-in spell checker. You can get it to check every e-mail automatically by selecting it in Preferences or check it manually by clicking the Check Spelling icon on the toolbar. Sending your e-mail When you have finished composing your e-mail, check the Address, Subject and any other recipients and then send it by clicking the Send icon. If you change your mind and want to alter an email you have sent, click Unsend. The email can then be edited before sending again. Note - This can only be done if the recipient is on the NLC network and has not yet opened the email. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 9
Reading your e-mail The icons to the left of each message indicate its status. = an unread message = = an unsent message i.e. written but not sent = a file is attached. This could be a document, photos, a presentation etc. Messages can be read by double-clicking them. Note that all mail will be retained on the server for 400 days and then deleted. If you want to keep a permanent copy of a message, it can be copied and stored in a folder. Note that when you do this it may then be accessible by others who use the same computer as they are no longer protected by a User ID and password. To save mail like this, do the following; 1. Open the message you want to save and from the File menu choose Save As. 2. In the dialogue window, navigate to where you want to save the message. You may want to create a new folder. 3. Give the file a name and click on Save. Saved messages can be opened by TextEdit on Macs and Notepad on PCs. Note that both the message and the details from the Message Envelope are saved. OR, a message can be set to never be deleted by Right-clicking on the message and from the Get Info /Properties menu change the Expiry Period to Never. Deleting messages Your mailbox can quickly become full and it can be difficult to keep track of messages sent and received. You can delete messages you no longer require by clicking once on the message(s) to be deleted to highlight them and then click the Delete icon or choose Delete from the File menu. Note deleted mail is permanently removed from the FirstClass after 7 days and it cannot be retrieved after this. To retrieve deleted mail it, go to the Trash Can on your FirstClass desktop (or in the Navigation Pane): click the deleted message(s), Right-click on the message(s) and choose Undelete. You can also choose Undelete from the File menu. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 10
Replying to e-mail Note - Care should be taken when replying to an e-mail as you may send a reply to not only the sender of the original message but to others who were sent the same message. However there will be occasions when you do want to do this so it is important to be aware of your options when replying to e-mails. You can send a message reply to: the message sender plus all other recipients of the message just the sender just the conference that contains the message. Reply Creates a new blank message with the name of the recipient(s) already inserted. Remember: This will send a reply to all the original recipients of the e-mail. Type your message and send as before. Reply with Quote Opens a new message window but the contents, the date and time of the original message and the name of the original sender will all be included at the start of your new message. Reply All Sends a reply to everyone who was sent the original email. Reply Sender Opens a new blank message but in this case the e-mail will only be sent to the original sender regardless of anyone else who also received the message. Reply to Conference Sends a reply to just the conference that contains the message, if the message is in a conference. Reply Original Author Sends a reply to just the original author. Forwarding email If you simply reply to a message without specifying recipients, the reply is sent to your default reply recipients, or, in the case of a message in a conference, to the conference's default reply recipients. No matter how you decide to direct your reply, you can change the reply recipients just as you would address any other message. A message reply is given a subject of "Re:" plus the subject of the original message. E-mail messages which you receive can be sent on in their entirety to others. Clicking on Forward will open a new message with the text and subject of the e-mail you received already inserted. All you need to do next is insert the address and send it on. Again, think carefully about the appropriateness of sending a message in this way. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 11
Enhancing Your Email Attachments Mail Lists FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 12
Attachments E-mail messages can have attachments sent with them. An attachment can be a file for almost any application such as AppleWorks or MS Word, a PDF document etc. To send a file in this way, click on the button with the paperclip image, or choose Attach File from the File menu. Navigate to the file you want to send and click on Choose. The file will be uploaded and a file transfer progress indicator like the one below will appear. Click Close to complete the file transfer. More than one file can be added in this way. To remove an attached file, highlight it and press the Delete key. Any attachments added to a message are shown in the area below the Cc box. To open an attachment Double-clicking an attachment in an e-mail will start up the application and open the file but only if you have that program on your computer. Files can be saved by dragging them from the e-mail onto the desktop where they will be saved and can be opened later. Alternatively, choose Save Attachment from the File menu and select a destination for the file. File sizes The size of an attachment has implications for both sending and receiving messages. If you try to attach a file which is too large (over 10Mb) it may not be sent by an Internet service provider. Large files also take a long time to send and to receive. Sending a large file to someone, especially if it is unsolicited, can tie up their system when they open it and if they are at home it will extend the length of time they are online. In general, keep attached files to under 1 Mb unless you know the recipient is on the Education Network or has a broadband connection at home. Adding a Signature Every message should show quite clearly the electronic signature of the sender. Once you have entered your details as below, the signature will be added to every e-mail you send. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 13
Choose Preferences from the FirstClass menu Click the Messaging tab Click on the Initial Content tab In the box type your name and school contact details - do not include personal details Tick Automatically add signature to new messages Click OK. Contacts Folder Addresses which are frequently used can be saved in a contacts folder. To create a new contact address, click on the Contacts Folder button or the Address Book icon. Then click the New Contact icon or choose New Contact from the File menu. In the window which opens type the person s name and e-mail address. You can type in other details if desired. Close the window and the contact details will be saved. When you next send an e-mail instead of typing in the full address, type the person s name or even part of the name and press the Return key. If the name is in the Address Book (or the Directory), FirstClass will fill in the details. If there is more than one match a Directory window will appear to give you a choice of recipients. Double-click the name you require. TIP Give your contact a Quick Name (in the Notes part of the Contacts card). Make this a unique nickname and when you type it in the To: box it will be the only possible match. In this example it is TV. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 14
Creating Mail Lists Another way of reaching a number of people with a single message is to create a mail list. This is done by going to the File menu and choosing New and then New Mail List. In the box that opens you should name the list e.g. Dept. Members and then add the names of all the people you wish to have on the list or click on the Directory button and drag names into the Members box. Click OK when your list is complete. Thereafter, to send the same email to all of them you simply put the name of the list (or part of the name eg De Mem (press Return) in the To: box. TIP - Make the list name unique so it comes in automatically e.g. don t use Staff as there are already Directory entries with Staff in them. Use ThornlieStaff or similar instead. Customising The Toolbar Most of the common features of FirstClass can be accessed from the toolbar. This saves hunting for them in menus. To find out what a button on the toolbar does, simply hold the pointer over it and a drop down tag will appear for a few seconds. If you want to add more buttons or remove those you do not use, choose Toolbars from the View menu and then Customize Toolbars. Buttons for various categories can be added or removed by clicking and dragging. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 15
Conferences and Calendars FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 16
Conferences The Conferences that appear on your desktop depend on what the system administrator allows you to see. Every user of FirstClass is a member of one or more Groups and each Group can be assigned access to certain Conferences and Calendars. A Conference works like a discussion group: any messages sent to a Conference can be read by any of the members of the Conference who can, in turn, reply to the message. This leads to threads developing. A thread is a series of messages all relating to the same topic. A Conference may have many threads running in it simultaneously. The main advantage of Conferences is that a single message can be read by many people without the need to send it to many individual addresses. If you send a message to a Conference you address it to the name of the Conference. So if you wish to contribute to the PT Discussion Conference you would put PT in the To: box and press Return - the Directory will fill in the full name for you (assuming there is only one entry beginning with PT.) A Conference can accept emails containing graphics and attachments, so it can be a useful method of distributing material. The owner of a Conference can create folders that can be used to hold files or even software that everyone with access to the Conference can access. You can delete messages you send to a Conference but cannot delete anyone else s message. TIP - Conferences which you use frequently can be added to your desktop. Highlight the conference icon and from the Conference menu choose Add To Desktop. You can then move the conference icon to a suitable position on your FirstClass desktop. Using Calendars Calendars provide a great deal more than a simple diary function. A personal Calendar can be created on your desktop (if it is not already there) by going to the Message Menu and choosing New Calendar Event (or New Calendar Task). To open a Calendar you double click it. The Calendar can be viewed a day, week or month at a time. Daily Calendar FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 17
Weekly Calendar Monthly Calendar Customised Calendars Calendars can be customised to give the view you want. You can add Events and Tasks to your Calendar by clicking in the day you want then choosing the appropriate icon from the Toolbar. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 18
A Calendar Event has a certain duration, like a meeting, and may require a number of other participants to be contacted and resources to be booked. Imagine that you want to invite people to a staff meeting. You select the day and then double-click a space on the calendar for that day or choose New Event from the New button or from the File menu to bring up the Event window. Set the start time either by typing or by dragging the pointer up or down over the time to change it. You can then either set the finish time or select the duration, which will set the finish time automatically. The description of the event and its location can be typed into the appropriate boxes, and any message placed in the message area at the bottom of the window. If you want to remind people about the Event then you can have a reminder sent automatically before the time. You can choose any time from one week to one minute beforehand. Inviting Others To invite people to attend you should click the Participants Tab and then select the People tab. Note as well as inviting individuals you can invite groups of people you have added to mail lists. If you have access to the calendars of the people you want to invite to your event the coloured bars at the right hand side of the screen will show their availability at that time. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 19
Booking Resources Click the Resources tab to book rooms and equipment required. Rooms, computers, playing fields and the like can be given their own booking sheet in the form of a Calendar. When a resource is booked for a Calendar Event then an entry is automatically made in the resource s Calendar to show it is in use. If it is unavailable then a message is displayed warning you that this is the case. Repeating Events If the Event will repeat then click the Advanced tab and adjust the settings accordingly. Creating a Calendar Task A Calendar Task is like an item on a To Do list. It appears in your Calendar simply as a reminder and can be marked with a due date or completion date as required. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 20
If you look at your Calendar you can see the Events and Tasks marked for each day. You can place the pointer over a day to give you a summary of the Event or Task in a popup window. Sharing Your Calendar You can have your Calendar appear on anyone else s Desktop by adding their name to a list of Members. To do this you should open your Calendar then choose Permissions on the Collaborate menu. This will open a window in which you can assign editing permission to various Groups (if you wish) and give access to your Calendar to individuals. They will then be able to see what you have in your Calendar which will appear on their Desktop. Different people can be given different levels of access by setting their permissions accordingly. Setting permissions and allocating rights to Groups is a complicated business, best undertaken with help from the system administrator. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 21
Workspaces Workspaces are container areas where a group can store common resources. such as documents, contact addresses, calendar, bookmarks and a conference. To set one up, click the Workspaces button on the side navigation bar. Click the New Workspace icon at the top of the page. From the window which opens select the type of workspace most suitable to your project, the standard one is fine for most projects. Right-click on the icon, choose Get Info / Properties and re-name the workspace. Your new workspace contains folders for a Conference, Calendar, Contacts Database, Documents, Bookmarks and File Storage. Now you need to give access to members of your group. 1.Right-click on the icon and choose Members from the menu and then click Add Member. 2. Add the names of the group members. As you type their name it should appear from a list of people on the server. 3. When you are finished close the window. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 22
4. Right-click on the group icon and choose Permissions from the menu. 5. As above, add the names of your group and click on the Access drop-down menu to decide which level of access to give each user. 6. Click the Member button to check you have not missed out anyone. 7. Close the window to save the changes. Permission Setting for Conferences, Calendars and Workspaces Top Tip - Permissions are read by the system from top to bottom so you should put the most specific identifier eg a person name at the top and the most general one eg staff UG at the bottom. If you put a name beneath a group someone is part of then they will only get the group permission. In the example above, if staff UG was put at the top with See Times permissions and all the people were members of staff UG then Wendy Nisbet would no longer be able to Edit while Susan Cornwell would be able to read the contents instead of being blocked. Accessing FirstClass using Browsers or Mobile Apps If you are using a browser then you can either connect to https://fcis.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk/ (which is what comes up from a Google search for NLC FirstClass) or, the newer (and more functional) option of https://fcws.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk/ If using a mobile device then you should download the FirstClass Go app for ios or Android and configure the app to connect to https://fcws.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk/ If you download the original ios FirstClass app (which has a less friendly interface) then it connects to https://fcnlc.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk/ FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 23
Appendix 1 Installing FirstClass The FirstClass software will originally have been installed on all computers in a school. As new computers are acquired, or the software is updated and enhanced, the necessary software can be downloaded from the Internet and installed by someone in school. Anyone requiring access to FirstClass from home can also do this for their home computer. 1. Open your Internet browser. 2. Go to http://fcis.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk 3. Click on the link to download the latest FirstClass Client (at the bottom of the page). 4. On the page which opens, choose UK English, and the platform, Mac OS or Windows. 5. A page will open and you click the disk icon at the top to download either a.dmg file for OSX or a.exe file for Window. 6. When the download is complete, close your Internet browser. 7. On the desktop or in a Finder window double-click on the Install FirstClass Client UK icon. (There may be an icon for the file to be uncompressed first). 8. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. Make sure a previous version of FirstClass is not already running. 9. When the software opens it may tell you that you are not yet connected to a server. Click OK. 10. In the dialogue box which opens the Server option is already highlighted so type the address of the server fcnlc.ea.n-lanark.sch.uk 11. Click Save and the software is ready to use. Simply type in your User ID and password. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 24
Appendix 2 To alter the icon view on your FirstClass desktop Sometimes after upgrading the FirstClass software the icons on your desktop change size and are not in the position they used to be. To change them do the following: From the View menu choose Change View Properties. In the window which opens make sure Scaled Icons is selected. Click the Icon tab and use the slider to re-size your icons. Click OK. Drag your icons to where you want them to be. Creating folders To organise your email more efficiently, folders can be created into which mail from particular senders can be saved. To do this, do the following. Go to your mailbox and from the View menu choose Split and then Split Horizontal or Split Vertical whichever you prefer. In the blank pane which is shown, folders can be created. Go to the New button or the File menu and choose New Folder Click on its name and re-name it. If you want the folder to be larger, go to the View menu and choose View By Icon. Drag the folder to a new position. The position of the split can be changed by dragging the line between your email and the folders. FirstClass 12 North Lanarkshire Learning and Leisure Page 25