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SPS Email Console SPS
includes the user application Email Console, a MIME-compliant email client
(also known as a “Mail User Agent” or “MUA”).
This email client functions similarly to many existing MUA’s in the
marketplace, such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes, with a couple of
important enhancements:
·
Email Console ties SPS users with their mailboxes without
the need to configure each user’s computer individually. Essentially, each user's SPS login (user
name, password, and permission scheme as detailed in the “Groups and Users”
section of this manual) determines his configuration for the Email Console
without any further setup. A user can
access his email from any computer so long as he is able to log into the
SPS. ·
Email Console allows access (if the user’s permissions
allow) to a common pool of contacts (as discussed in the Contact Manager section). In this way, each user does not keep contact
information on his stand-alone computer, preventing the necessary sharing of
data within the company. ·
Email Console receives notification emails from the SPS workflow automation (Links)
module, allowing the user to simply click on the “links” icon from within an
email to quickly access the appropriate application screens, all without
leaving the Email Console. ·
Email Console allows users to store emails on the Same
Page Mail Server without being required to download and backup mail
folders. Mail is automatically backed
up for users until they wish to discard it.
Additionally, if a user changes or upgrades his computer, there is no
need to transfer email files between machines since data is stored centrally on
the mail server. ·
Finally, internal company documents can be shared via
email (if the user’s permissions allow) from the Document Manager. In this manner, users can email documents
both from their local hard drive and the company “file cabinet” as
attachments. This is especially helpful
when users are attempting to send contracts, manuals, or any document where a
customer must be sent an official company document. Primary Screen The
Email Console's primary screen displays the user's email folders in the left
frame (hereafter referred to as the “folder tree”) and a listing of mail
messages contained in the highlighted folder of the folder tree in the right
frame (hereafter referred to as the “folder message list”). To view the mail messages contained in a
different folder, simply click on the desired folder in the folder tree and the
contents of that folder, if any, will appear in the folder message list.
A
user will always have an INBOX, SENT, DRAFTS, TRASH, and PERSONAL folder. Administrative users will also have an
ADMINISTRATIVE folder in which rejected emails from the system will be stored
until address correction occurs. Users
may also define and sub-categorize more user folders under the “Personal”
branch of the folder tree. To
add a new user folder, simply choose the Personal folder from the folder tree
on the left frame and click the Modify button from the top button
bar. You will receive the “Modify
Folders” pop-up. Choose "Create
New Folder Under Personal” to receive a dialog to enter the name of the
folder. You should take care to enter a
folder name no longer than forty characters long, including spaces.
Once
a folder has been added, you may move mail in and out of that folder as
described below. You may also change
the name of the folder or delete the folder and all its contents by
highlighting the folder from the folder tree and once again choosing the Modify
button. Moving Mail Between Folders Mail
may be moved into any user-defined folder or into the Trash folder by
highlighting the mail message from the folder content list (causing it to be
highlighted in yellow) and clicking the Move button. You will then receive the “Move Dialog”
dialog showing all available folders where you may move the mail. Choose the folder by clicking on it and
select the Choose button. You
may cancel at any time by clicking Cancel. If Choose was selected, the mail will be moved to the appropriate
folder and you will return to the main screen.
Once mail has been moved, it may be moved again into any other
permissible folder in the same manner. To
permanently delete messages found in your Trash folder, simply click the Empty
button found on the primary screen button menu. The Empty button will only be active if you have mail in
your Trash folder. You may always
recover mail from your Trash folder back into your Inbox (or any other folder)
by selecting mail found in the Trash folder moving it into the desired folder
in the manner as above. The
right hand frame contains a sortable listing of all the mail messages contained
in the folder highlighted in the folder tree.
Mail messages are initially listed in date order, but you may sort them
based on sender or subject by clicking on the appropriate heading of the
sortable list. Mail messages that have
NOT yet been viewed are highlighted in red.
The Email Console will automatically “refresh” this list of mail
messages in the interval specified in your mail option settings (described
below). If you wish to manually refresh
the list at any time, simply click the Refresh button from the menu bar. After
choosing an email from the message list in the right hand frame (by clicking on
the message, causing it to be highlighted in yellow), choose the View
button to bring up the content in a new window. From this screen, you may print the message, delete the message
(by moving it into the Trash folder), forward or reply to the message, view and
download any attachments, or access any SPS Links that may be associated with
the message.
Simply
click on the Print button to activate your Windows Print dialog. Please note that you must first configure
your printer under Windows before you are able to print email messages from the
Email Console. To move a message into
your Trash folder, click the Delete button. Remember, email in the Trash folder may be recovered back to any
user folder at any time before you empty your Trash folder. Viewing Or Downloading Attachments If
an email message contains one or more attachments, you will see an icon in the
bottom frame of the View Email window for each attachment. The icon represents the type of attachment
which has been received, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, image files
such as gif or jpeg, HTML files, text files and so on.
To
access the attachment, simply click on the icon and you will receive the
Windows “File Download” dialog.
At
this point, you may view the attachment or save it to your local hard drive by
choosing the appropriate option from the File Download dialog. If you wish to save the file to disk, you
will need to choose the directory on your local hard drive to store the
document. You may edit the suggested
name of the attachment (found under the "Attachment Name" input area
of the download attachment dialog) if you wish. Click Save to complete the download. You will be notified when the download is
complete. Once downloaded, the
attachment exists on you hard drive under the name and directory that you
specified. You may access the attachment
from your email on the Email Console at any time, even after downloading it,
until you have deleted the message. If
the SPS has sent you a Ticket link (see discussion under the Process Workflow (Links)
section for more information), you will see an active SPS Ticket icon on the
bottom frame of the view email window similar to an attachment.
SPS Ticket Link Icon To
access the link, simply click on the icon in the same manner as you would
access an attachment. The appropriate
Ticket screen will be opened from your Email Console. Once you have completed the link requirement, you may return to
the View Email window. Forwarding Or Replying To Messages
From
the primary screen, you may compose a new email or forward or reply to an
existing email by choosing the appropriate button from the menu bar. For a new message, simply click New
to receive the Compose Mail window. If
you are forwarding or replying to an email message, you must first highlight
the email from the folder content list and then click the Forward or Reply
button as described above. To
send or draft an email, you must have at least one “To” address listed in the
Compose Mail screen. SPS users may be
addressed without a domain since internal mail does not flow through the
Internet. For example, if your SPS
system has a user named “dave_taylor”, you may send an email with the “To”
address of “dave_taylor” while users not on the SPS would require the domain to
which the email address belonged (i.e., jsmith). Any valid SPS group name may also be used as
a valid email address. Each user
assigned to that group will receive a copy of the email.
As
with other SPS applications that utilize the SPS Editor functionality, email
text may be formatted in a variety of ways, including font variations, bold
text, italics, bullets, and numbered lists.
Emails containing formatting will be delivered to their recipients as
HTML pages encoded as emails. For this
reason, any recipient who does not have an email client with the ability to
display HTML encoding (such as many UNIX-based mail programs) will only view
the plain-text format of your message.
Please note that most Windows-based email clients are able to display
the HTML encoding created with the Email Console application. See the SPS Editor section for more information
about the formatting functions and capabilities of the SPS Editor. You
may type in the email addresses or the SPS user name of the desired recipients
in the to, cc, or bcc address input boxes with each recipient separated by a
comma or you may click on the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons found in the upper left hand
portion of the Compose Mail screen. You
will receive the Address Book dialog containing the users, groups, and contacts
found in your company's SPS database.
You
may designate an email address as a “To”, “Cc”, or “Bcc” recipient by selecting
the appropriate recipient from the left frame and “moving” it to the
appropriate right frame using the “>” button. You may remove a recipient from the list on
the right frame by selecting it and using the “<” button. When complete, choose OK to accept
the names or Cancel to return to the Compose Mail screen. Those names that have been chosen will
appear in the appropriate input box. CC
stands for carbon copy, literally a copy of the message which is being sent to the
“To” recipient. Everyone that receives
a CC is noted on the email and all CC recipients are able to see the TO and CC
recipients of an email message.
Essentially, there is no difference between being a TO recipient and a
CC recipient. When you reply to a
message, the sender of the original email plus any CC recipients are
automatically listed in the address fields of the Compose Mail screen. BCC
stands for a "blind" copy -- blind to everyone other than the sender
and the BCC recipient. The BCC recipient
differs from the CC in that ONLY the sender of the email message and the BCC
recipient know that the BCC recipient has received a copy of the email
message. BCC recipients cannot see each
other; meaning that a sender that sends a BCC to two different people is
assured that each of those BCC recipients is anonymous as to the other BCC
recipient. Attachments
to emails in the Email Console come in two forms – those from a local/network
drive (local PC file) and those found in the company document repository
(Document Manager application). You may
include up to three attachments to be sent with each email message by clicking
either the Attach or Cabinet button from the Compose Mail screen.
To
add an attachment file derived from your local PC or a network drive, click the
Attach button to receive the “Upload File” dialog. You may input the name of the file you wish
to upload, taking care to specify the file path or simply click Browse
to see a dialog which presents a standard Windows directory structure of you
local hard drive along with those found in your Network Places. You should navigate through your files to
select the appropriate file. Once this
is done, click Submit to add the attachment or Cancel in order to
return to the Compose Mail screen.
The
Document Manager application represents the primary user interface to the files
found in the SPS database. Files may be
added as attachments from the Document Manager by clicking the Cabinet button
and choosing the appropriate file from the Document Repository dialog. Folders are found on the left frame of this
dialog and files found in those folders appear in the right frame of the chosen
folder much like the folders of the Email Console primary screen. Any added attachments, from either source,
are listed at the bottom of the Compose Mail screen. You
may compose an email without actually sending it to its recipients by
performing all the actions of preparing an email and clicking the Draft
button (instead of the Send button) from the Compose Mail screen. The email will be moved into the Drafts
folder of the Email Console primary screen awaiting your direction to send
it. You may access the email in the
same manner that you would when viewing an email by choosing it from the Drafts
folder message list and clicking View.
You will notice that you will receive the email displayed within the
Compose Mail screen (instead of the View Email Detail screen). At this point, you may further modify the
email if you wish before clicking Send to deliver the email to its
recipients. Once an email has been
sent, it will be removed from the Drafts folder and may be placed in the Sent
folder based on your mail user option settings as described below. Users
may designate default mail options by clicking the Options button from
the primary screen. You will receive
the Mail Options dialog consisting of a number of tabs. Each tab contains various items representing
mail client functions as described below.
The
General tab of the Mail Options dialog contains the “Send / Receive Messages”
section of inputs which define default option settings related to how the Email
Console sends and receives email messages.
The “Automatically check for new messages every” drop-down list defines
the time period for refreshing the Inbox folder message list. Setting the setting to “0 minutes” will turn
off automatic refreshment resulting in the Refresh button of the primary screen
as the only way to refresh your messages.
The “Save copy of sent messages in Sent folder” checkbox designates
whether you wish for a copy of all messages that are sent to be copied into
your Sent folder. The “Include message
in reply” checkbox provides for the content of an email message to be included
in any forwarded or replied to message.
By default, this option is turned on.
Finally, the “Play sound when new message arrives” checkbox causes a
short sound to be echoed from the Email Console when you receive a new mail
message.
Return
receipts are defined in the Internet email standards to provide a method of
acknowledging that an email message has been received (and possibly viewed) by
its designated recipient. The mail
option settings in this section relate to how mail receipts are requested and
returned. The “Request return receipt
for all sent messages” checkbox causes a return receipt request to be
associated with every email that you send, for all messages. Once your recipients receive the email, they
have the option of returning the return receipt, indicating that they have
received the email message. The
“Returning Receipts Requested By Others” radio button section allows you to
specify the default action of the Email Console when receiving email messages
from others who have requested a return receipt. You may designate to never send a return receipt, have the system
notify you of any return receipt requests on an email per email basis, or
always send a return receipt without asking.
You
may designate the name that is displayed on your outgoing email as the sender
name in the “Outgoing mail display name” input. You may also designate your signature line that automatically
appears appended to the end of each email you compose.
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Root Systems LLC – http://www.idcs.info/ |
