GroupWise 6 WebAccess
Email 101

Training Yourself Online
(revised 5/6/03)

To get to your GroupWise email and also have this online handout open at the same time you will need to minimize this page and then go open Internet Explorer a second time. Then go to GroupWise WebAccess to log in, at http://ppsmail.portlandschools.org, from this second open browser .

Your other option : print this handout (9-10 pages) and then go to the above GroupWise website and use the printed handout as your guide. This is not an interactive online tutorial. It is self-training using online resources (versus attending an actual class using the same handout).

Once you are at http://ppsmail.portlandschools.org, login with your regular Novell username (first five letters of last name, then first initial of first name).

Type “gwise” for the default password and click “Login”. You cannot login until a GroupWise account has been
activated for you. Make sure that you have signed up on the email training preference database or contact your BTC.

You will be able to set your own password at the end of this training.

GroupWise WebAccess Main Screen:

The folder options in GroupWise WebAccess are on the left side of your screen. You will be working primarily with the Mailbox features in this training.

Your Mailbox

Click on the word “MAILBOX” to see a list of any mail you may have.

To Make a New Message:

Click on the blank paper symbol to the left of your MAILBOX to compose a new message

The mail message form has options to create an “Appointment, Task, Note, or Phone” message at the top of this screen. These will be covered in GroupWise 202. We will only be working with the “Mail” message form at this point.

*The best way to address your message with Web Access is to click on the words ADDRESS BOOK on the right side of this Mail Message form.

Using the GroupWise Address Book

It’s most effective to do a “last name” search through the address book. Type the first 5 or more letters of the person’s last name and click the “Search” or “Search Address book” button (different browsers will display these buttons slightly differently).

Matches will now appear on the left side of the address book window. Select the correct person and then click on the word “TO”. Their name will then appear on the right side of the screen. Click the word “MAIL” (or OK) to return to your email message form (again this screen may look slightly different from browser to browser or PC to Mac).

The person’s email address will now be in the TO: line of your email message from and you are ready to compose and send.

Spell Check

After filling in your subject line and composing your message, you can run a spell check by clicking on the words “SPELL CHECK” on the right side of this window. “Replace” or “Skip” the suggested spellings as you see fit. When you click “CLOSE” you will return to your email.

Attachments

Click on the word “ATTACH” on the right side of the email screen to attach a document to the email. You will then be prompted to “Browse” to the file (saved either in your network space or on your hard drive/desktop/disk). Once you attach the file, click OK. You can add more than one attachment to an email in the same method.

Click OK when done and then click SEND to send your email.

The person you sent this attachment to will see a paper clip icon telling them it is there. It is always a good idea to let them know in the body of the email to look for this attachment as well.

Checking the History (or Status):

To see if your email has been opened or not, go to your SENT ITEMS folder and open the piece of mail you want to check.

At the top of this mail message, you will see “Properties” in the right hand corner.

If you open Properties you can see if your mail has been “opened” (and presumably read) by the recipient. Only the sender can view the status of an email they have sent. Other people who receive your email can only view who this mail was sent to but not whether it has been opened or not.

Saving Email:

GroupWise emails will be saved in your mailbox for a limited time unless you delete them yourself. If you want to save an email permanently, you must save it into your network space by going to FILE then to SAVE and directing the email to this safe space.

Deleting or Retracting Email (the “Unsend”):

Go back to your SENT ITEMS folder

Choose “Delete from All Mailboxes” in the top right hand corner.

Or you can open the actual email you want to delete or retract and choose this option at the top of this Mail Message screen.

If you mark an item as “READ LATER” here, it will appear as a new mail in your mailbox, however the sender will still be able to check the status and see that you have opened the email.

Printing Email:

You can print any email you have received or sent simply by opening the email and going to FILE then to PRINT. You are unable to print an “unsent email” that you are composing but unable to finish before you log out with GroupWise WebAccess. *There is NO autosave feature in GroupWise WebAccess. If you log out before sending an email it will be gone. The best solution is to copy and paste your unfinished email into a word processor and then copy and paste it back to GroupWise when you are able to finish writing the message.

Other Features:

At the top of the main GroupWise WebAccess menu screen you will see the following icons, representing Help, Options, and Exit.

Options:

Click on the middle icon as seen above. In the options window, you can change your password, add a signature, or set rules.

To Change your Password:

Choose the Password tab and type your old password (“gwise”) and then your new password twice. Choose “save” and then “close”. It is recommended that you use the same password you use to log into Novell so that this will be easy to remember.

To Add a Signature:

Choose the Signature tab and type what you would like to appear at the bottom of an email as your ‘signature”. This can be as formal or informal as you would like and you can choose to have it automatically appear, or prompt you to add it in to particular pieces of email. Click Save and then Close when done.

Rules:

Rules will be covered in GroupWise 202. It is possible to create rules to forward your email and autorespond to all emails when you are vacation for example. Feel free to use the help options to explore the rule features on your own!

Bookmark this Site:

Add this site to your Internet FAVORITES to save time getting to your web-based GroupWise email. Remember that you can do all of this from home as well!

Creating a Personal Address Book (to include people outside PPS and groups)

GroupWise WebAccess automatically creates one additional blank address book for you, which is called your name. Open your address book and then you can choose this personal address book from the drop down menu and add people who are not part of our GroupWise system. You can also create groups and then add them to this personal address book.

To add someone to your Personal Address Book:

Open the address book and then click “Add”. There are three fields with red asterisks that you must fill out. The rest is optional. These will be saved in your personal address book (not in the main GroupWise system book).

To make a group:

Go to an address book and do a search for each person you want to add to the group.

After you click “Search Address Book” you will see their name appear on the left side of this window. Next click “To” and you will see their name appear on the right side of the screen. Do a “search address book” again and add more then one person to the list on the right side. You then have the option to “Save Group”.

This group will be saved to your personal address book (you can not add groups or other personal contacts to the main

GroupWise Address book, as this is maintained by the system administrator). Give your group a very easy name to remember and a short description and then click “Save”. Whatever name you give the group is what you will use in the To: line of your email so make it short and sweet (i.e. easy to remember).

Exit:

Click on the "door and arrow" icon above to EXIT GroupWise when you are done. It is VERY important that you exit GroupWise this way. If you do not EXIT this way, you will continue to take up disk space on the server for 60 minutes (the time out period for inactivity). If people do not EXIT the correct way, there could be issues with server space in the future. Now. you should log back in and test your new password!

Time Out Period:

Addendum (4/3/03)

The time out period for inactivity has been extended to 60 minutes. If you are inactive for this amount of time, you will have to log back in to GroupWise. If you time out in the midst of an email, you will lose what you have started. If you cannot finish an email, it is suggested that you copy and paste the content to a word processor and save it there until you are able to get back to it. There is NO autosave feature in GroupWise.

Using at Home:

Because this is GroupWise WebAccess, everything you have learned here will be the same at home. You do not need to download anything new. Just go to http://ppsmail.portlandschools.org and login.

AOL Users:

A caution to AOL users. To access your GroupWise WebAccess from home, you must minimize the AOL window and open Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator separately. Then go to http://ppsmail.portlandschools.org

If you try to access WebAccess through AOL you will get this message:

Options for Moving People from your First Class to your GroupWise Address Book:

There are currently three ways to move you email addresses over:

1. Enter each person individually by clicking on “Add” in GW address book

2. Save your First Class Address Book as a text document and then login to GroupWise and copy and paste them in individually (To do this you must open your First Class Address Book and go to EDIT then to SELECT ALL and then SAVE AS a text document in your network space. Open this text document, log into GW and copy and paste the people in).

3. Write people with your new GW address and ask for a return email to your GroupWise address (this also allows you to verify that you have their correct and current email address). As you receive these return email to your GroupWise account, copy and paste them into your GW address book (see below)

When the directory opens you will see everyone in your First Class address book appear at the top pf this list (with three small people icons next to there name instead of one).

Select each person that you want to send your new address too from this list and click “To:” at the top of this window. Once you have selected everyone, close this window and you will see that this piece of mail will be addressed to everyone.

In order to check that you have a current email address for people in your First Class address book as well as save yourself from re-entering these people into your new GroupWise address book, send one email to everyone asking people to write you back at your new GroupWise email address (username@portlandschools.org). When you receive email from these people you can simply add them to your GroupWise address book

Please fill out the evaluation below by either copying and pasting the questions into a GroupWise email and answering them there (or printing this page and filling it out by hand) and sending this to your Building Technology Coordinator or Technology Leader. Receipt of this evaluation will allow us to improve our trainings, as well as notify us that you have completed your online training. We will then also be able to send you a contact hour certificate. Thank you.

Last modified 3/13/03

Evaluate the GroupWise Training

1. The training for GroupWise was (adequate/not adequate) because:

2. The GroupWise handout was because:

3. Now I want to learn how to:

Thank you!