GroupWise Articles
What's Great About GroupWise 8: Part 1
By Donna Moyer

On November 17th, 2008, Novell announced the long-awaited release of GroupWise 8. For GroupWise fans around the world, this is great news! All clients have been updated with productivity features that users have been waiting for. In this issue we will explore the new features of the Windows client. In our next issue, we’ll review the new features in WebAccess and the Linux/Mac client, as well as discuss some points on the administrative side of things.

So what’s great about the new GroupWise Windows client? Here are six of our favorite features!

Personal Productivity: The main focus of the new GroupWise Windows is to aid personal productivity. This includes:

• Web 2.0 management. You can now set up panels that allow you to view web pages, RSS feeds, team workspaces, or your favorite blogs right from your Home View.
  
• Folder management. You can set up a “favorite folders” area to include those folders from your cabinet that you access the most frequently.
  
• Panel management. The Home View allows for a virtually unlimited amount of panels.
  
• Task management. You can sort your task list into subfolders, set up subtasks, and track the percentage completion for a task.
  
• Email management. You can view the first few words of an email by hovering your mouse over the message, and can annotate emails with your own comments on their content.

Contact Management: We all know that the key to success is our relationship with others. Managing and maintaining contacts is often a challenging task, but with GroupWise 8 it is easier than ever. A redesigned address book card provides the ability to add photos and additional personal information. You can also view contact history and
notes, making follow-up a breeze.

Calendaring: You’ve have been shouting for more calendar features and Novell has heard your requests! You can now:

• Subscribe to external calendars. This is great for organizations who want to set up an event calendar which users can then add to their own calendar. Currently this feature is a pull feature, not a push.
  
• Publish your calendar externally. This allows users outside of your organization to busy-search.

Auto-save: Ever spend a great deal of time typing in an email only to have your computer crash and you lose everything? We’ve all been there, but no longer! The new auto-save feature will save your work in the event of a crash and can be retrieved the next time you start GroupWise.

Text Editor Choice: Users now have more choices regarding which text editor they can use. In addition to the old standard WordPerfect editor native to GroupWise, users can elect to use MS Word or OpenOffice Writer depending on what is installed on their workstation.

Migration Help: Sometimes finding time to train users is difficult. To ease the transition, Novell has integrated a BrainStorm Help button in the new client. Users can click on this and view mini-tutorials on a predefined number of new features. BrainStorm also offers a full set of tutorials available for purchase that will then integrate with this feature.

All in all, we give the new GroupWise Windows client two thumbs up!

© Copyright 2008, Uptime NetManagement, Inc.

Article Source: http://www.uptimenmi.com/

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About the Author:
Donna Moyer is Principal/Senior Network Consultant of Uptime NetManagement, Inc. (http://www.uptimenmi.com/). Uptime is a Novell Gold Solutions partner providing technology solutions, customized training, and consulting services. If you are interested in finding out exactly what Novell can do for your business, or are seeking to maximize the benefits from your current Novell systems, call us today at 610-621-1244!