First Class Tips and Tricks

First Class can be such a terrific resource.   Without the eTeacher conference, for example, imagine the phone tag that would be played answering all of the questions that arose.  The power of conferencing is not to be overlooked.  Post a question once and hundreds of people read it.  Better yet, answer a problem once and everyone reads the solution.

Have you ever opened a conference and had it look like this?

Looks like a lot of reading ahead to get the maximum benefit from the conference.  At this point in time, many people will double click on the first message, read it, close it, and then repeat the process for every unmarked message.  That's not a bad strategy if you just want to read the odd message.

But, suppose you want to read them all.  That's a lot of clicking to get the job done.  There is a more efficient way.

Customize your toolbar to include the "Next Unread" icon as circled above.  (It's in the Conferencing Menu, when you select "View -- Toolbars -- Customize Toolbars"). 

Now, it's time to be efficient.   Open the oldest message that you haven't read yet.  This time, instead of closing it and opening another, just click on the "Next Unread" icon and the unread messages will all appear in the same window.

When you've reached the end of the messages, First Class will work its way through any sub-conferences enclosed within that conference.   After all messages have been read, First Class will "ding" at you to let you know that you're done.

If you don't like all this mousing to click on the "Next Unread" icon, there's also a keyboard short-cut.  On a Windows computers, CONTROL-U or on a Macintosh computer, COMMAND-U will display the next unread message!

Give it a try and see how quickly you can work your way through a list of unread messages!

First Class Client Software

http://www.firstclass.com/downloads/client