GroupWise: managing your while you are away

GroupWise: managing your email while you are away IS1017/Aug03/ISD017/Sep02/ This document is intended to suggest some strategies for managing your e...
Author: Paula Andrews
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GroupWise: managing your email while you are away IS1017/Aug03/ISD017/Sep02/

This document is intended to suggest some strategies for managing your email while you are away and not intending to access your mailbox. Vacation rules are covered to help you to create auto-reply rules without replying to mailing lists etc.

1. Introduction Although you can send an automatic response to email while you are away from the University and not intending (or not able) to access your mailbox, this is not always an adequate response. GroupWise provides a number of mechanisms that you can use to ensure any — or selected — email arriving for you is appropriately managed in your absence, and some of these are discussed below. Setting up a rule to autoreply is also described.

1.1

References

[1] Novell’s GroupWise 6 User’s Guide (365pp) [2] Novell’s GroupWise WebAccess User’s Guide (82pp)should be consulted in preference to [1] if you are accessing GroupWise via the web interface. PDF copies can be obtained from

downloads.nottingham.ac.uk/ — follow the links through GroupWise 6 client and

GroupWise add-ons

2. Alternatives to an auto-reply The following strategies assume that you don’t want to, or won’t be able to, read your email yourself while you are away. If in fact you would prefer to read your mail, you can either use the interface provided via a web browser; or you can obtain the full GroupWise PC client (from IS IT Stores1 in the Cripps Computing Centre South Building) to install on a PC or laptop to which you will have access while you are away.

2.1

Proxying

GroupWise provides a feature that allows you to permit another GroupWise account-holder to read your email and/or calendar and/or tasks etc. No-one can do this unless you have given them permission; and you can remove that permission at a later date if necessary. However, if you permit someone to read your email, you cannot restrict how much of your mailbox they can see. At the other extreme, you can also permit them to send email messages in your name.

2.2

Shared folders

Shared folders can provide a means for a colleague to be allowed to see only new mail that arrives for you while you are away. You can create a folder and share it with a colleague, then you can create a rule that automatically filters incoming mail into it. You can be very selective about mail that you filter into this folder — only if a certain word is in the Subject, for example, or only if it is From a particular individual.You could enable (activate) this rule before you leave, and disable it on your return (you can also empty the contents of the shared folder on your return, delete it altogether, or simply remove permission for your colleague to read it). Thus your colleague is able to keep an eye open for important messages arriving for you and deal with them as necessary. Using this mechanism, they cannot appear to be you, but they are able to reply on your behalf (i.e. replies will clearly come from them, not from you). Figure 2.1 describes creating a shared folder and Figure 2.2 creating a rule to move new mail into it.

3. Vacation rules You can set up rules to reply automatically to messages that arrive for you while you are away. Such a message should be as brief as possible; and it might suggest alternative people or services that can be contacted instead. However, it is normally unnecessary to reply in this way to messages that have not been sent explicitly to you — for example, messages you have received because you are on a mailing list, or messages that have been cc’d (copied) to you. Thus you should set up a rule to auto-reply only to messages that are addressed to you personally. It is strongly recommended that you do not use the “Reply to all” option when auto-responding. Setting up an appropriate auto-reply rule is described in Figure 3.1

For many people, this feature will be completely inappropriate — but for others it may be a very convenient way of keeping important communications underway in partnership with a colleague. A brief description of how to set up and use proxies is given in Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2 below.

1.

www.nottingham.ac.uk/is/services/it-stores/

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Figure 1.1 Setting up and using a proxy To allow someone to proxy to your GroupWise account: In this example, Sandi Golbey allows “Third Trainee” to read mail and calendar items.

1. Tools> Options

2.

Double-click Security, then select the Proxy Access tab

3. In the Name box, give the (GroupWise) address of the person you wish to be able to proxy to your account, then click Add User or press the Enter key.

4. Ensuring that the relevant name is highlighted, tick all relevant boxes to give permission for proxy access.

Note: The person to whom you have granted proxy rights is not informed automatically, so you must let them know when they are able to access your account.

To remove proxy rights at a later date: proceed as above, but at step 3 highlight the relevant name on the “Access list” and click “Remove User”.

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Figure 1.2 To proxy to another account (once permission has been given) Now “Third Trainee” proxies to Sandi Golbey’s account. 1. Click on the proxy access button at the bottom left of the main GroupWise window, or a calendar window.

2. Choose the Proxy menu item.

3.

Replace your name in the Name box with that of the account to which you wish to proxy, and click OK or press the Enter key. The main window, or calendar window, now displays the proxy account.

From now on, you can switch between accounts simply by choosing the relevant one from the proxy access button.

Notes: 1.

If you wish to have your own GroupWise mailbox displayed at the same time as the one to which you are proxy, use Window>New Main Window from the drop-down menus on the main GroupWise window.

2.

If you have been given proxy rights to someone’s calendar but not their mailbox, you may appear to be able to proxy to their mailbox but it is displayed as if empty.

3.

Proxying is a powerful feature that is no more than introduced in this document. For more information, please see Novell’s documentation [1] or [2] (see Section 1), or consult GroupWise Help, see

Help>Help topics (or press F1) then Contents > How do I > Collaborate with others > Proxy.

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Figure 2.1 Sharing a folder You can create a new folder as a shared folder, or you can share an existing folder. The latter case is shown here as an example. 1.

Right-click on the folder you wish to share, then click on Sharing from the resulting menu.

2.

Click on Shared with, and give the address of the person to share the folder (this can be selected from an address book). Note: this must be a GroupWise address.

3. Then click Add User (or press the Enter key).

4. Tick any relevant boxes to provide additional access rights (note, “delete” allows the person to delete messages within the folder, not the folder itself). 5. Click OK

6. You are now given the option of sending a message to accompany the “Shared folder notification” sent to the person with whom you are sharing this folder. Click OK. Your folder icon now changes to indicate it is shared.

Please note: When the person with whom you are sharing this folder receives the “Shared folder notification”, it arrives in their mailbox as though it were an incoming email message. They must Open this message (not just view it using the QuickViewer), e.g. by double-clicking it. They will then be given the option of including your shared folder within their own hierarchy of folders, as if they were creating a new folder.

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Figure 2.2 Setting a filtering rule 1. Tools>Rules

2. Click New to create a new rule

3. Give your rule a name

4. Select the relevant details (e.g. when “items are received” and “item type” is mail.

5. Choose Add Action>Move to Folder

6. Tick the folder to receive new mail, and click the Move button

You can, if you wish, additionally “Define conditions” to be more selective about the mail to be filtered. This is a reasonably selfexplanatory process; however, an example of its use is given in Figure 3.1.

7. Review your rule settings and when you are satisfied, click Save.

The rule is active when the box next to it is “ticked”. When you no longer want to filter new mail to this folder, you can deselect the rule. Next time you want to activate it, you need only click Tools>Rules and tick the box.

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Figure 3.1 Setting a rule to reply to personal mail • • • •

Tools>Rules Click New to create a new rule Give your rule a name, and Select the relevant details (e.g. when items are received and item type is mail).

These steps are shown in Figure 2.2. Now you will define the conditions under which this rule will operate — i.e. only if you are named in the To field of a message. Click Define Conditions and an additional box appears (as shown here). From the drop-down lists, choose • Include entries where To • Contains — and type either your first or second name in the box

• Or When you choose “Or” the Define Conditions box expands, providing a further row. Fill this in by selecting • Include entries where To • Contains — and type your username in the box. You should now have a Define Conditions dialogue looking something like the second example shown here.

Click OK. Now click Add Action and select Reply. You set up a message to be sent back to correspondents in much the same way as any other reply. Do not select “reply to all”. Keep your reply short and to the point. Review your rule settings and if you are satisfied, click Save. See Figure 2.2 for comments on activating the rule.

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