About conferences
What you can do in a conference
Creating conferences
Conferences and mailing lists
About conferences
A conference lets a number of users exchange information online. You can send a message to a conference just as you would send a message to another user. You can also open a conference and read the messages posted there by others. A conference icon is flagged when the conference contains unread mail.
Conferences can be created by your administrator or by yourself or other users. On your Desktop, you will only see those conferences which you have created or placed there, or to which you have been subscribed. You can also see any subconferences within a conference to which you have been subscribed. If there is another conference that you want to see on your Desktop, ask the conference owner to subscribe you to it.
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What you can do in a conference
The conference owner determines what you can do in a conference.
For example, you may only be able to read messages in a conference that covers personnel policies, but be able to send messages to a conference that deals with a project that you are working on. In this case, the personnel conference serves as a way to broadcast information. The project conference lets everyone involved in the project discuss it.
Approving messages in conferences
A conference may be moderated. This means that either all messages sent to the conference, or messages with attachments, cannot be read until a moderator opens and approves them. Unapproved messages appear in italics in the list of conference items.
Only someone given permission to act as moderator for a conference can approve messages.
To approve a message, choose Collaborate > Approve. To make this message unapproved again, choose the same menu command.
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Creating conferences
You can create your own conferences and set conference permissions that specify things like message expiry periods.
If you have trouble getting your conferences to work as you expect, contact your administrator.
To create a conference:
1	Open the container where you want the conference.
2	Choose File > New > New Conference.
3	Choose File > Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac OS) with the conference selected.
4	Type the conference name at "Name".
Shortcut
Click the name of the New Conference icon twice to make it editable, type the conference name, then press Tab.
5	Type a short description of the conference at "Subject", if desired.
6	Set conference permissions.
Setting conference permissions
To specify the permissions for your conference:
1	Select or open the conference.
2	Choose Collaborate > Permissions.
3	Update the Permissions form.
Reminder
You can access detailed information about conference permissions by choosing Help > About this Window with the Permissions form open.
Your changes are saved automatically when you close this form.
Providing information about conferences
You can provide other users with information about a conference by creating a résumé for it. To do this:
1	Choose Collaborate > Permissions with the conference open or selected.
2	Click About.
3	Update the Résumé form.
Your changes are saved automatically when you close this form.
To see conference information, users can select your conference, then choose Collaborate > About Conference.
Updating conferences' Directory entries
A conference's Directory entry shows you the conference name and location. You can update certain conference information. To do this:
1	Choose Collaborate > Permissions with the conference open or selected.
2	Click Directory info.
3	Update information as required.
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Conferences and mailing lists
You can use conferences as access points to Internet mailing lists.
Subscribing conferences to mailing lists
When you subscribe a conference to a mailing list, messages sent to the mailing list will appear in the conference.
Each mailing list has its own instructions for subscribing. In some cases, you send a subscription request and the mailing list returns a reply saying the conference is subscribed. In other cases, you must respond to the mailing list's reply before the conference is subscribed.
To subscribe a conference to a mailing list:
1	Choose Collaborate > Permissions with the conference open or selected.
2	Click Message from conference.
3	Send the subscription request as instructed by the mailing list.
The mailing list will send a reply to the conference.
If you need to respond to this reply
4	Copy the text of the mailing list's reply.
5	Click Message from conference on the Permissions form.
6	Paste the copied text into your response.
If necessary, copy and paste the subject line as well.
7	Send the response.
Writing to mailing lists
Some mailing lists let anyone write to them. In this case, you and others using a conference can just send messages to the mailing lists, or respond to mailing list messages in a conference.
Other mailing lists only let registered users write to them. These mailing lists consider the actual conference to be the registered user, not you or others using the conference. This means that you cannot send messages directly to a mailing list, or respond to mailing list messages directly from the conference. To write to these mailing lists, you must use the Message from conference button on the conference Permissions form.
Sending commands to mailing lists
As well as sending messages to mailing lists, you can send commands such as help commands or requests for information about who is subscribed. These commands must be sent using the Message from conference button on the conference Permissions form.
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