New Features in GroupWise 8

GroupWise 8 was released on 17^th Nov 2008:

Austnet had installed it as an upgrade seamlessly on 8 sites by Dec 14^th

The GroupWise 8 Windows client has been improved with an updated look and feel, more customizable user interface, more attractive buttons and icons, and many other changes. The main improvements include:

• Panels: A panel is a customized view of information in GroupWise. A panel can be created to display a multitude of information, from unread items to a summary calendar. A predefined list of panels has been created, but you can also create your own custom panels. You can now create three or more panels, and you can also create multiple Web panels for displaying Internet pages in GroupWise.

• Simple Folder List: The Simple Folder List has been changed to include the ability to create a Favorites list, RSS Feeds list, Contacts list, Calendar list, NNTP list, and Documents list.

• Time Zone Synchronization with Your Workstation: When you change the time zone on your workstation, GroupWise automatically switches its time to match the workstation without restarting GroupWise.

• Discussion Thread Tab on an Item View: When you view an item, you can click the Discussion Thread tab to display a list of items that were sent back and forth on the same thread.

• Display Settings: Several improvements have been made to the display settings in GroupWise. When you change the display settings from the main menu, the settings are preserved in your next session. In addition, you can now save your display settings and send your display settings to others. You can also import display settings that are sent to you.

• Drag-and-Drop Pop-Out: When you have hidden the Folder List, you can drag an item to where the Folder List is located and the Folder List automatically pops out for you to drop your item in.

New folder types give you access to more kinds of information and the ability to better organize your GroupWise items.

• Tasklist Folder: The new Tasklist folder replaces and expands upon the old Checklist folder. You can move any items (mail messages, phone messages, reminder notes, tasks, or appointments) to this folder and arrange them in the order you want. Each item is marked with a check box so that you can check off items as you complete them.

• RSS Feeds Folder: In this release, the GroupWise 8 client for Windows allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. When you subscribe to RSS feeds, the feeds are displayed in the RSS folder.

Several e-mail enhancements have been made to the GroupWise 8 Windows client.

Some of the key improvements include:

• Auto Save: Every 30 seconds GroupWise automatically saves a copy of the item you are composing. This is helpful if GroupWise stops unexpectedly. When GroupWise is restarted, you are prompted with recovery options for the items.

• Third-Party Composers/Viewers: You can now use third-party tools to compose and view your messages. You can use Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org to compose your messages, and several other viewers to view your messages in their native format.

• Editing an Attachment: You can now edit attachments you have and save them to the original item. These edited attachments are saved to the item as personal attachments.

• Adding a Note or an Attachment to an Item You Receive: You can now add a personal note and attachments to items you receive. These notes are not sent to others, but are for personal use only.

• Adding a Contact to an Item You Receive: When you receive an item from a contact, you can add additional contacts to that received item. This is helpful when you are viewing the history with a contact in the Address Book.

• Message Preview: In your Item List, you can select to display the first few lines of a message in the list. This is helpful when you do not have the QuickViewer open.

Several calendar enhancements have been made to the GroupWise 8 Windows client.

Some of the key improvements include:

• Publishing and Subscribing to Internet Calendars: You can select to publish any personal calendar to the Internet. When you to publish a personal calendar to the Internet, it is copied to the Calendar Publishing Host server. You can select the time period of the content to publish as well as what to publish, from just free/busy information to your entire calendar.

• Subscribing to Internet Calendars You can subscribe to calendars that have been published to the Internet. After you have subscribed to an Internet calendar, it displays as a new calendar in your Calendar list.

• Displaying an Additional Time Zone: You can now add an additional time zone to GroupWise. When you select to display an additional time zone, it displays in another column next to your time in the Calendar. Each time zone is assigned a label of your choice. You can also quickly switch among the time zones as you travel back and forth from locations.

• Importing ICS Files: When you import .ics files, you can now name the folder that the .ics file is imported into and add a description of the .ics file. If a folder already exists with the same name as the folder that was specified, the data in that folder is deleted before the .ics file data is imported.

• Aggregated Shared Calendars: Now you can select to display shared calendars in your main calendar view.

• Displaying Accepted Calendar Items in Your Mailbox: You can now select to continue displaying accepted items in your Mailbox after you have accepted them.

• The GroupWise Checklist feature has been greatly expanded and enhanced, and renamed the Tasklist. Tasklist items can be found in the Tasklist folder, but can also be placed in other folders, including the Mailbox and Calendar.

Several Address Book enhancements have been made to the GroupWise 8 Windows client.

Some of the key improvements include:

• Now looks like a real PIM
  Displays full information on contacts and includes a note fields

• Importing and Exporting Contacts: You can now import contacts from the Contacts folder instead of opening the Address Book. In addition, you can now import contacts from a CSV file as well as export contacts in a CSV file.

• Contact Birthday/Anniversary: When you add a contact's birthday and anniversary in the contact's information, you can select to have the contact's birthday and anniversary show as a reminder note in the calendar.

• Contacts Folder: The Contacts folder now displays a list of all personal address books under the Contacts folder for quicker access to your personal address books.

• Address Card View: A new address card view has been created, which allows you to add a picture to a contact. The address card view is a condensed view of the contact information, along with a picture.

Several other enhancements have been made to the GroupWise 8 Windows client.

Some of the key improvements include:

• Rules: When you have marked an item as completed, you can create a rule to trigger an event to happen.

• A Vacation Rule Wizard has been created to help you quickly create a rule for times when you are away from the office.

• Quick Find: In this version of GroupWise, Filter has been replaced with Find on the toolbar. Now you can search across all folders, your default library, all libraries, and by item type. In addition, you can select from recent finds as you type.

• Categories: You can now quickly search on similar categories directly from the Item List by simply clicking the Category icon, then clicking Find.

The GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac client has been improved

with an updated look and feel, more customizable user interface, more attractive buttons and icons, and many other changes. The main improvements include:-

• The GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac client now has a Nav Bar similar to the Nav Bar on the Windows client. The Nav Bar is customizable and can contain the folders you use most.

• The Toolbar is now customizable. You can add or remove items from the Toolbar and configure the way icons and text display.

• A panel is a customized view of information in GroupWise. A panel can be created to display a multitude of information, from unread items to a summary calendar. A predefined list of panels has been created, but you can also create your own custom panels.

• The time and date formats in GroupWise are highly customizable. You can specify the order of elements, the type of separators between elements, whether dates are spelled out or represented by numbers, and several other options.

• Categories provide you with a way to organize your items. You can assign a category to any item, including contacts. You create and add categories and can give each category an identifying color. The colors display in the Item List and in the Calendar

New folder types give you access to more kinds of information and the ability to better organize your GroupWise items.

• Home Folder: Your Home folder (indicated by your name) represents your GroupWise database. All folders in your Main Window are subfolders of your Home folder. The Home folder can be organized into panels to display your most important folders.

• RSS Feeds Folder: In this release, the GroupWise 8 client for Windows allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. If you use the Windows client to subscribe to feeds, you can read the feeds in the GroupWise Linux/Mac client, after the Windows client has downloaded the feeds. When you subscribe to RSS feeds, the feeds are displayed in the RSS folder.

• Tasklist Folder: The new Tasklist folder replaces and expands upon the old Checklist folder. You can move any items (mail messages, phone messages, reminder notes, tasks, or appointments) to this folder and arrange them in the order you want. Each item is marked with a check box so that you can check off items as you complete them. See Using the Tasklist Folder.

The GroupWise 8 WebAccess client has been improved with an updated look and feel, more customizable user interface, more attractive buttons and icons, and many other changes. The main improvements include:

• Scrollable Item Lists: Your message list now contains all items in your Mailbox, rather than displaying only 20 items at a time.

• Time Zone Synchronization with Your Workstation: When you change the time zone on your workstation, GroupWise WebAccess automatically switches its time to match the workstation without restarting WebAccess, or you can specify to use a selected time zone.

New folder types give you access to more kinds of information and the ability to better organize your GroupWise items.

• RSS Feeds Folder: In this release, the GroupWise 8 Windows client allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. If you use the Windows client to subscribe to feeds, you can read the feeds in the GroupWise WebAccess client, after the Windows client has downloaded the feeds. When you subscribe to RSS feeds, the feeds are displayed in the RSS folder.

• Tasklist Folder: The new Tasklist folder replaces and expands upon the old Checklist folder. You can move any items (mail messages, phone messages, reminder notes, tasks, or appointments) to this folder and arrange them in the order you want. Each item is marked with a check box so that you can check off items as you complete them.

E-Mail Improvements

• Auto Save: GroupWise WebAccess automatically saves a copy of the item you are composing every 10-60 seconds. This is helpful if GroupWise stops unexpectedly. When restart WebAccess, you are prompted with recovery options for the items.

• HTML Options: You can choose to view and compose messages in either Plain Text or HTML format. In the HTML format, you can quickly change fonts, sizes, and colors and add bulleted and numbered lists.

• Spell Check: GroupWise WebAccess uses a new spell checker that highlights all the misspelled words in your subject or message fields. You can choose to automatically check each message you create before you send it.

• Name Completion: When addressing a new mail message, the system automatically searches for a name when you begin to type. As you type, the remainder of the name fills in for you. This feature works off your contacts and address book helping you find a name even faster.

Calendar Improvements

• Graphical Calendar Interface: Calendars display in a way that allows you to choose a Day, Week, or Year view. You can also quickly add appointments, notes, and tasks in your Calendar and see a summary view of an item by mousing over that item.

• Multiple Personal Calendars: You can now create one or more personal calendars, in addition to the main GroupWise Calendar. Aggregated Shared Calendars: Now you can select to display shared calendars in your main calendar view and select a different color for each calendar.

• Publishing Internet Calendars: You can select to publish any personal calendar to the Internet. When you select to publish a personal calendar to the Internet, it is copied to the Calendar Publishing Host server. You can select the time period of the content to publish as well as what to publish, from just free/busy information your entire calendar.

The GroupWise Checklist feature has been renamed the Tasklist. Tasklist items can be found in the Tasklist folder, but can also be placed in other folders, including the Mailbox and Calendar.

The Contacts folder displays a list of all personal address books under the Contacts folder for quicker access to your personal address books. It also includes a new QuickViewer option where you can quickly view and edit details for a selected contact.

GroupWise Calendar Publishing Host

The Calendar Publishing Host is a new feature in GroupWise 8. It provides the following new capabilities:

• Publishes GroupWise users' personal calendars to the Web, so that they are readily available to non-GroupWise users.

• Returns free/busy status to non-GroupWise users who want to set up appointments with GroupWise users.

The GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac client now includes Notify.

If it is enabled, Notify informs you when you receive a GroupWise item or when it's time for an appointment.

The search features have been greatly enhanced. You can use the Find field in the Item List header of any folder to quickly find an item in the current folder, or you can use Global Find and Advanced Find for more advanced search features, including the ability to specify a variety of criteria for narrowing your search.

Several e-mail enhancements have been made to the GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac client. Some of the key improvements include:

• Item Personalization: When you receive an e-mail message, you can click the Personalize tab to add personal information to the e-mail. You can change the subject, add a note, select a category, and add associated contacts to the message.

• External Account Support: The GroupWise Linux/Mac client supports external accounts, such as POP3, IMAP4, and NNTP.

• Delayed E-Mail Delivery: When you write an e-mail, you can set it to be delivered on a different date and time.

• Changing E-Mail to Another Item Type: You can change an item from one type to another.

• Concealed E-Mail Subjects: You can hide the subject of an e-mail you send so the recipient does not see it until the e-mail is opened.

• E-Mail Expiration Date: When you set an expiration date for an e-mail or phone message you send to another GroupWise user, the message is automatically deleted from the recipient's GroupWise Mailbox when the message expires.

The GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac client Calendar has been improved for multiple calendar support, better customization, sharing, and multiple time zone support. Some of the key improvements include:

• Multiple Personal Calendars: You can now create one or more personal calendars, in addition to the standard GroupWise system Calendar.

• When you receive a calendar item, you can accept it to your main Calendar or to a personal calendar.

• Shared Calendars: Calendars can be shared with other GroupWise users.

• Calendar Customization: Several options have been added for customizing your Calendar. For information about all Calendar customization options, including the new options.

  • Changeable Date and Time Format: There are several date and time formats that determine the way dates and times display throughout the application.

  • Definable Work Schedule: You can define your work schedule so other people can see when you are available for appointments.

  • Definable Work Days: You can specify the days of your work week. This is especially useful for people who do not work the standard Monday to Friday work week.

  • Highlighted Weekends: You can highlight weekends in the Calendar so they do not look the same as your work days.

  • Week Numbers: You can show week numbers on your calendar.

  • Changeable Calendar Colors: You can change a calendar's color.

  • Multiple Time Zone Support: You can display two time zones in your Calendar, so working with people in other locations is easier.

  • You can also calculate the difference between two time zones.

  • Calendar Import and Export: You can import calendars and appointments from other sources, such as Internet Calendars, into GroupWise as personal calendars. You can also export GroupWise calendars and calendar items so you can use them in other calendars.

The GroupWise Checklist feature has been greatly expanded and enhanced, and renamed the Tasklist. Tasklist items can be found in the Tasklist folder, but can also be placed in other folders, including the Mailbox and Calendar

GroupWise Administration

GroupWise administrators benefit from a new GroupWise Installation program that streamlines creation of a basic GroupWise system (administration, domain, post office, and agents) and that provides for saving installation options so that installations can be repeated without interaction. The GroupWise snap-ins to ConsoleOne® have been improved to provide more currently appropriate agent settings defaults, more efficient addressing for external Internet domains, a significantly larger maximum mailbox size, the ability to set the default MIME encoding character set, and the ability to customize the Training and Tutorials URL. The options file for GroupWise Check now uses the same XML format across NetWare®, Linux, and Windows so that the same options file can be used on any platform. The following sections provide additional detail:

Enhanced Installation Program

The GroupWise 8 Installation program provides the following new capabilities:

• Runs on Windows Vista.

• Streamlines installing and updating a basic GroupWise system (administration, domain, post office, MTA, POA, and Internet Agent). Additional components (GroupWise WebAccess, GroupWise Monitor, and Calendar Publishing Host) are installed separately.

• Enables you to save all installation option settings you select, so that you can run the installation again on additional servers, either by using the saved selections as defaults, or by performing an installation that automatically uses the save selections and requires no interactions at all.

E-Mail Address Publishing

The GroupWise databases and eDirectory both contain information about users' e-mail address formats. When you change settings for users' GroupWise e-mail addresses, you can publish the changes to eDirectory so that user e-mail address information matches in both places.

Simplified Addressing for External GroupWise Systems

Before GroupWise 8, if you wanted users in your GroupWise system to be able to exchange messages conveniently with users in another GroupWise system, you needed to set up external domains, external post offices, and external users, or use dynamic Internet links

Starting with GroupWise 8, you can set up an Internet domain in GroupWise to represent the other GroupWise system. As a result, messages are routed to the other GroupWise system based on links set up in the Link Configuration Tool, rather than through the Internet Agent. Users in both systems are listed in the GroupWise Address Books for both systems, so that users can conveniently address messages to users in either system.

 Client Auditing

ConsoleOne can now display the number of users who are using the Windows, Linux, or Mac client. The client version is also displayed.

Customized Client User Training and Tutorials URL

When the user clicks Help > Training and Tutorials in the GroupWise Windows client, the GroupWise 8 End-User Training Web page displays by default. If you purchase more in-depth training from BrainStorm, or you want to provide your own customized training materials for your GroupWise users, you can change the URL that Help > Training and Tutorials displays.

Default MIME Encoding

You can now set the default MIME encoding (for example, UTF-8, Windows Default, ISO Default, and so on) that is used by the GroupWise clients.

GroupWise users can override the default MIME encoding in the GroupWise clients.

New Format for the GWCheck Options File

In the past, the GWCheck options file (gwcheck.opt, by default) was created in a different format on Linux than it was on NetWare and Windows. As a result, if you migrated from NetWare or Windows to Linux, you could not use any existing GWCheck options files on Linux.

In GroupWise 8, the GWCheck options file is created in XML format on all platforms. Therefore, you can create the GWCheck options file on any platform and use it on any platform interchangeably.

Updated Identity Manager Driver

The GroupWise Identity Manager driver has been updated with additional searches and more client options.

GroupWise Agents

Post Office Agent and Message Transfer Agent

• The POA provides support for the calendar publishing and free/busy searching features in the Windows and WebAccess clients.

• The POA includes the new Document Conversion Agent to provide indexing of additional document formats such as PDF, OpenOffice, and Microsoft Office 2007.

• The POA also has enhanced performance when auto-archiving and emptying large numbers of items.

• You can now display the agent startup files ( domain.mta and post_office.poa) from the agent Web consoles.

GroupWise Internet Agent

• Delayed Message Notification

Before GroupWise 8, users needed to check the Properties pages of messages sent to Internet users to see whether or not the messages had been transferred out of the GroupWise system. In GroupWise 8, the Internet Agent can be configured to provide a notification message to users whose e-mail messages cannot be immediately sent out across the Internet.

• More Flexibility with Rule-Generated Messages

Blocking of rule-generated messages has been enhanced to provide more options. Before GroupWise 8, you could configure the Internet Agent to either block all rule-generated messages or allow all rule-generated messages. In GroupWise 8, you can differentiate between rule-generated replies to messages (such as vacation rule messages) and rule-generated forwards of messages (which can be a security issue).

• More Complete Configuration Information in the Internet Agent Web Console

The Internet Agent Web console now displays configuration settings for all settings that are available through ConsoleOne. In addition, you can view the Internet Agent startup file (gwia.cfg) at the Internet Agent Web console; however, you cannot edit it from the Web console.

GroupWise WebAccess Agent

The GroupWise 8 WebAccess Agent includes no changes from the previous release.

GroupWise Monitor Agent

The GroupWise 8 Monitor Agent includes no changes from the previous release.