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Help Document |
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About FirstClass Personal
Normally, you must be connected to a server to work with the objects on your Desktop. Over expensive communication links such as long-distance telephone connections, this can become costly. For this reason, we provide a FirstClass Personal application that lets you do many of the things you normally do, without being connected to a server full time.
Note
You can only use FirstClass Personal if you have a regular user license. If you have a remote user license, you cannot use this application. If you are unsure whether you can use FirstClass Personal, contact your administrator.
FirstClass Personal creates copies of the following in a Personal post office on your computer:
• your Mailbox
• your personal calendar
• conferences and public calendars that you want to see offline
• the Directory information you want to see offline.
FirstClass Personal connects to your server at the times you specify. When connected, this application replicates new information.
Tip
If you have an expensive connection, check your FirstClass Personal configuration to make sure you will not connect more frequently than you want.
What you can do with FirstClass Personal
These are the things you can do with FirstClass Personal:
• create messages, using the normal message forms
• read messages and conference items
• attach files to messages, and save files attached to messages
• search your Mailbox or conferences
• send and retrieve messages
• use calendaring
• create and use an offline address book and a bookmarks folder
• upload files directly into offline conferences and to your offline Desktop.
These are things you cannot do with FirstClass Personal:
• participate in chats
• upload files directly into folders
• create personal conferences.
Installing FirstClass Personal
If you chose Typical setup (Windows) or Easy Install (Mac OS) when you installed the FirstClass client on the computer from which you want to run FirstClass Personal, this application has already been installed. All you need to do is make sure you have a properly configured connection to the server.
To install FirstClass Personal, run the FirstClass client custom installation. Install both the FirstClass Personal application and Personal Post Office.
Starting FirstClass Personal
If you are currently connected to a server
To start FirstClass Personal:
1 Choose Connection > Work Offline > Connect Offline.
2 Click Login at the Work Offline Login screen.
If you are not currently connected to a server
To start FirstClass Personal:
1 Start FirstClass.
2 Supply the settings file, user ID, and password that you want to use to connect to the server when working offline at the Login screen.
3 Click Work Offline.
If this is the first time you have used FirstClass Personal
The Registration form opens when you start FirstClass Personal, showing the settings file and user ID with which you logged in. Ensure that this is how you want to connect to the server when working offline, type your password, then click OK.
The first time you work offline, FirstClass Personal may take several minutes to replicate information.
Your offline Desktop
Your offline Desktop looks much like your online Desktop. It may contain offline versions of your Mailbox and personal calendar, plus an Offline Conferences folder containing copies of the conferences and public calendars you set up for offline work.
Setting up your offline conferences
To save disk space, FirstClass Personal does not automatically show all the conferences to which you have access when you are connected to your server. You must tell FirstClass Personal which conferences you want to work with offline. You will have the same permissions for a conference offline as you do online; if you are not allowed to post to a conference online, you will not be able to do so offline.
After you have specified your offline conferences, the next time you work offline, FirstClass Personal replicates any unread messages that are in these conferences. Within the offline version of your Offline Conferences folder, you will only see those conferences that contain unread mail. FirstClass Personal only creates these conferences offline when they contain unread mail.
Specifying offline conferences
To tell FirstClass which conferences to show offline:
1 Log into your server.
2 Choose Connection > Work Offline > Open Offline Conferences, if you have not yet started FirstClass Personal.
The Offline Conferences window opens, and the Offline Conferences folder is placed on your Desktop, if it is not already there.
3 Select a conference that you want to access offline.
4 Choose Conferencing > Add to Desktop.
5 Drag the newly created Desktop link from your Desktop to the Offline Conferences folder.
6 Continue adding links to your Desktop and dragging them to your Offline Conferences folder until you have specified all the conferences you want to work with offline.
Removing offline conferences
If you no longer want to access a conference offline, delete from both the offline and online versions of your Offline Conferences folder.
Reading and responding to messages offline
You can read, save, print, forward, or reply to messages offline just as you would when working online.
You receive new mail when FirstClass Personal connects to your server. At that time, copies of unread messages are replicated. After replication, the online copies of these messages are no longer flagged as unread.
Note
When you read a message using FirstClass Personal, that message's history just indicates that the message was routed to you.
Deleting a message from your offline Mailbox or an offline conference does not affect the online copy of the message.
Sending messages offline
You can send messages offline just as you would when you work online. When you are addressing messages to users rather than to conferences, you can use your offline Directory as an aid.
Note
Names that appear local when you work online look remote when you work offline. For example, Lou Kosta becomes Lou Kosta,Avalon in your offline Directory.
Your new messages are sent when FirstClass Personal connects to your server. To deliver a message immediately, choose Connection > Work Offline > Replicate Now.
Configuring FirstClass Personal
FirstClass Personal installs with default settings that you may never need to change. These defaults control:
• connection information
• when to connect to the server
• what to replicate
• how long to keep offline messages
• how to handle addresses for mail you send.
To change FirstClass Personal defaults:
1 Go to your offline Desktop.
2 Choose Connection > Work Offline > Configure Offline.
3 Update the FirstClass Personal Settings form as desired.
4 Click OK.
If your password changes
If your password changes on the host server, you must update the password on FirstClass Personal, or you will not be able to connect to the host server using FirstClass Personal.
To update your password on FirstClass Personal, type the new password at "Host password" on the Connection tab of the FirstClass Personal Settings form.
About your Personal post office
All your offline information is contained in the Personal post office folder. This folder is called PPO (Windows) or Personal Post Office (Mac OS).
It is important that you not make any changes directly to this folder or its contents, or FirstClass Personal may stop running. In this case, you might have to reinstall FirstClass Personal.
Do not:
• rename the folder
• move the folder to a different folder (Windows) or volume (Mac OS), unless you also move the FirstClass folder to the same location
• change, delete, or move anything within the folder
• add files to any subfolders within the folder, unless instructed to by your administrator.
Backing up your Personal post office
Be sure you back up your Personal post office on a regular basis. We recommend at least once a week. This is a safeguard against losing your messages and offline Directory information in the event of hardware failure or data corruption.
The easiest way to back up your Personal post office is to copy the Personal post office folder to a diskette.