E-Mail

After opening the program and succesfully entering your login info you will come to this screen:

[[image:FCdesktop.jpg width="769" height="494"]]
It is called the First Class Desktop and yours will slightly differ from this one. It is completely customizable so you can change anything on it. You can open any of the included First Class tools by clicking on one of these three icons:

All of them will open your mailbox, which looks like this:

Clicking any of the emails will open them. First Class works just like any other email program. You can open, read, respond, send and delete emails as you would in any other program. Here are some icons that appear to the left of First Class emails:

Double click on an email that you want to read. There are different ways to respond. If you want to respond with a copy of the open email quoted in your response, click on the small downward arrow next to reply and chose the first option //Reply with Quote//.



This option creates a response that contains the message you are responding to with a gray background and a headline reading //The Sender writes//: Above that you will be able to add your message.

To create a new email, return to the mailbox page and click on the new icon from the top of the desktop page: You are given a whole list of new things to open. Click on //New Message// to open a new email message. There are a large number of special messages. Feel free to check those out at your leisure. We are going to deal with the //New Message// for now.

The new message looks like this :

Click on the different empty boxes to fill in: //Subject: To:// and //CC:// You can also change font and formatting of your email just like a word processor. You can check spelling and add hyperlinks to websites as well. Running your mouse pointer over the different icons will tell you what they do.

There are two ways to create a recipient for an email. Click on the //To:// line and type in the email address. You will notice that when you insert the first letters a box pops up looking like this:

FC uses first and last names to organize their users. You don’t need to enter their entire CPS email but just their first or last name. The list that appears contains the names of all CPS employees and students. Under the organization heading you will see whether they are an employee or student, what they do, where they are and what programs they are a part of.

The icon to the left indicates where their email address resides. The green person means the address is an FC address. The little purple one means it’s an address outside of FC.

First Class addresses always end in @cps.edu CPS Webmail addresses end in @cps.k12.il.us These addresses are still used downtown in the administrative offices.

The above steps can also be used to add //CC:// and //BCC:// to your email.

The second way to add an address is to use the //Directory// icon at the top of the email. Click on one of the address lines either //To:// or //CC:// then click on //Directory//. You should see this:

You receive a list of all the employees in the school district just like when you insert letters into your //To:// box. You can enter information into the search box to narrow the list. You can also click on the drop down box next to //Show//: This will narrow down the list using FC’s already included list of parameters. By clicking any of the boxes below the //Show:// drop down then you can enter the highlighted names into the //To: CC: BCC:// sections of the email. If you double click on a name they are automatically entered into the highlighted address box you were using in the email.

When finished with your email just click the //Send// icon and it will be off.

= Advanced Features =

There are three advanced email functions that you may find helpful. They are automatic reply, signatures and receive rules. Click on //Preferences// at the top of the FC desktop:

When the Preferences box appears click on the tab for messaging:

You can adjust the automatic reply here. Simply fill in what you want your automatic reply to say then set the two drop down boxes to the left as the reply rules. Once you change those boxes to yes then it is active and the reply goes out.

The same goes for automatic forwarding. This is useful for when you are out of the office. Remember to reset the rules to no when you are back to receiving emails. Click //Apply// or //OK// when finished.

Updating Your Signature
Within the same preferences box, under the messaging heading, click on //Initial Content// under the subheadings.

[[image:signature.jpg]]
Fill in what you would like to be your email signature at the bottom. Click the check box next to //Automatically add signature to new messages.// Your signature will now appear at the bottom of every email you send.

Rules
With First Class you can add different rules to all forms of messaging giving you many options with how you send and receive email. One method that is used by teachers and other staff is to set up //receive rules//. A //receive rule// will change how you receive emails and place those emails into folders you create for ease of organization. Example, you want the students to complete a task then email that task to you. It can be difficult to rummage through the dozens of emails on your desktop to find which ones were sent by students. What you can do is assign the students to use a certain subject heading and FC will recognize that subject heading and place the email in a folder you created. Here is how you do that: Inside your mailbox go to the //New// icon click on the down arrow to the right of the envelope and click on //New Folder//:

When the folder is created it will appear in your mailbox. Right click on it, select //Rename// and give it a new name. Go back to the desktop and click preferences again and head to the messaging tab: Now click on the small icon labeled //Mailbox Rules// which opens the box below//.// Click on the //New Receive Rules// icon at the top. This will box will open: Give the rule a name. In order to have the homework go to your folder you need to set up a receive rule. Under //If:// In the first dropdown box select subject. In the second dropdown box select //Contains//. Then fill in the last box with what you feel the students should call their subject. Make sure they all use the same subject or it will not work. Under the //Then:// In the first dropdown box select //File in folder// then in the last box fill in with the name of the folder you created. Click //Save// when done. It is **important** that you tell the students to use the proper subject so that the homework is properly organized.

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