On the cusp of Christmas last year, Micro Focus released two new products in conjunction with one another:  Micro Focus Enterprise Messaging and Micro Focus GroupWise 18.  The interest in both has been great.  However, one of the many questions I get is about changes that happened to the GroupWise 18 desktop client.  A new version of the product usually means new features and functionality for the end-user.  GroupWise 18 (and by extension, Enterprise Messaging) is no exception.  So let’s explore some of the new things you and your users will want to know about the new GroupWise 18 desktop client.

GroupWise 18 Client Overview

For many users doing an upgrade from an existing GroupWise client—one of the first things they will notice is that their user settings and default views have changed.  When the GroupWise 18 client is installed, the following options are automatically enabled for the end-user, despite any previous settings they might have had in a GroupWise 2014 client, for example.

These automatically enabled features are:

• • Quick Viewer
    Allows users to quickly read the content of the message inside the client itself without opening another window.

• • Group Labels
    Displays a visual header in the mailbox that groups messages into the days they were received.

• • Message Preview
    Gives a quick preview of the message body of the email. This preview will vary depending on if conversation threading is enabled or not. But more about that in the conversation threading section.

• • Conversation Threading
    Collapses replies to messages into a logically nested thread so multiple replies are displayed in the inbox under the original message. A more detailed explanation of this will follow.

GroupWise 18 has new some new default user settings and views.

It is important to note that these changes only apply to the main mailbox however.  Settings of other folders remain unaffected.

 

View Display Settings

In the GroupWise 18 client, changing your display settings is both easy and now happens dynamically.  The view display settings icon is located in the top right corner of the main display window.  Clicking on it will either reveal or hide the view options in the main window.  This gives users immediate access to the most common viewing options for their mailbox, filter options, folders, and quick viewer.  Changes applied here will happen dynamically to the view without having to leave the menu.  Additional viewing options can be located in the traditional manner through the “View” top menu.   However—this ability to change common viewing options right from the main view means you can easily change and sort your viewing options on the fly without having to bother with drop-down menus.

The drop down menu is context sensitive in its options.

The options displayed here will change—depending on what is selected in the folder list.  Selecting Mailbox, Calendar, or Task List will make different display options appear when the icon is selected.

Color Scheme

By default, there is a new color scheme to the client as well, called GW 18 Blue.  However, changing the color schemes is easy under the Tools>Options top menu and then choosing “Environment” and the Appearance tab. This is also where users can change the viewing options of both the Quick Viewer and the Folders list.

The default GroupWise 18 color scheme can be changed.

Just like in previous versions of GroupWise, the GroupWise 18 desktop client is for Windows only.  While Mac users may feel this downplays their needs to access their email on their desktop OS of choice, Micro Focus has provided ways to integrate calendar, appointments, and email with the native Mac apps for the last few versions.  For many Mac users, this works great and the lack of a desktop client isn’t really noticed because work email and calendars flow seamlessly into the native apps many were already using.

Next up in this series:  Conversation Threading