Note: This document should be viewed using the TeachText™ application which is included on the system diskette supplied with all Macintosh computers. It can also be viewed using any text editor, however the embedded graphics will not appear.
Introduction
If you have not installed FirstClass on your hard disk read the instructions in the document "Read Me First".
FirstClass has many features, almost all of which you can explore in the demo.
The demonstration program simulates the mail server and contains a ready to use system complete with users, mail, news and conferences. FirstClass runs over both the AppleTalk network and over telephone lines and provides the same graphical user interface in both cases. Since the features of FirstClass are fully available over phone lines, it makes an excellent Bulletin Board System (BBS) for providing customer support to Macintosh users.
Starting The Demo
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To begin the demo open the application named "FirstClass Demo". The login dialog will appear as follows:
You can login using the user name "guest" (no password is needed). Later on you can use the administration functions to add yourself to the mail system. Click on the Login button to connect to the First Class server - the demo simulates a login using a telephone connection. Note that you may customize the login dialog to show your company name and logo.
Once you have logged in a window will appear containing icons for your MailBox, News, Conferences and the Help system:
You can open any of the icons by double clicking on them.
The conferences may be customized to suit the needs of your organization. We have shown some sample uses here: Customer Support, Problems?, Software Updates, Product Information, etc...
The first thing that you will want to see is your mail. Each user has a mailbox where their private mail is sent and received. Your mailbox is totally private - even the administrator doesn't have access to it. Open your MailBox by double clicking on it:
Messages are listed in the lower panel of the MailBox window, folders in the upper panel. The mail system tracks which messages you have not yet read and marks them with "Unread" flags. The message list shows the sender of the message, the subject size and date of each message. It also shows unsent messages (with a hollow flag) and messages with attachments (using a file flag).
You can organize your mail into folders by dragging the message to the desired folder.
To read a message, just double click on it. To create a message, pull down the message menu and choose 'New'. A message window will appear allowing you to fill in the "envelope" and the content of the message:
To enter the To: and Copies: fields, just type in a name. The system attempts to match the name to the user database; if there are multiple matches, you will be asked to choose from a window. To enter the body of the message, just clich in the lower panel and type. Click on the close box to send the message.
News and Conferences work in a similar way. They are like shared mailboxes, which can be read by many users. The mail system tracks which items have been read on an individual user basis.
One of FirstClass's most powerful features is file transfer. To transfer files, you "attach"
them to ordinary messages and then send them. This is the case whether you connect by a modem, AppleTalk, or directly. To attach files, create a new message, pull down the message menu and choose attach. You will then be presented with a File Transfer Dialog:
You can select any file on your Macintosh to be transferred. Because FirstClass takes care of all the protocols, transferring files between users and machines is a matter of pointing and clicking.
Similarly, when you receive a message with attachments, you click on the attachments field to download it to your computer:
There are no limits to the number of files that can be exchanged except the amount of disk space on your computer.
If you wish to try out the administration features of FirstClass, then login with user name "Admin" and password "admin". An extra menu will appear, containing the various administration features of FirstClass. Pull down the admin menu and choose the desired command:
To list the users and conferences available choose List Users.
To add a new user pull down Add New User and fill in the dialog box which appears. You will need to supply a user name, the user's full name and (optionally) a password.
You can change an existing user by choosing Change User, and delete a user with Delete User.
You can change the system parameters by choosing System Profile.
The administrator can also create conferences. Open the "Conferences" area, pull down the Conferences menu and choose Create. You can rename the conference and set its icon using the Get Info command from the File menu.
Using the Subscribe command, you can create conferences for select groups of users. Or, this can restrict access to users as well.
