FirstClass - Introduction

FirstClass (FC) is a communication system that offer both e-mail functionality and conference management functionality. There are two ways to use FC. Either with an FC client or through a web browser (FC web interface). The web interface does not supprt all of the functions available in the client version, but all the important functionality is available in both versions.

Log in

Client

To log in from Windows, double-click on the FirstClass icon on the Desktop:

You can also start FC from the Start menu.

Web interface

The web interface can be reached through this page, which offers three different version of FC: Only mailbox, standard version, and full version

The functionality described here is based on the client version.

Desktop and icons

When you have logged in, you see your desktop. Each icon on your desktop represents a conference. By double-clicking on an icon you can open the conference and see its content. A conference can contain other conferences, folders, messages and files.

Permissions

For each conference there is a set of user and group rights/permissions. These specify whether you can open a confernece, send messages to it, etc. To see the permissions of a conference, right-click on its icon and select "Permissions...".

Unread messages

When a conference contains messages that you have not read, a little red flag will appear next to the conference icon. Same applies to messages and files that you have not opened. Opening a message will mark it as read (by removing the red flag). If you want to read (or just mark as read) many messages at once, select them, right-click on them and select "Summarize selected".

Full FirstClass Tutorial

A tutorial that describes much more functions of FC is available here.