Containers: Changing the Look
Split and View Properties
You own and control some areas of your FirstClass desktop. Really. However, most areas in FirstClass are shared, and you neither own nor control them. C'est la vie.
In the areas that you do own and control, you can make a lot of visual changes to suit your needs or preferences. These areas are:
Your Mailbox
Your Contacts
Your Calendar
Your Bookmarks
You can choose how the screen is split - on the top or the side. You can use backgrounds. You can view your messages and folders by icon, by scaled icon or by list. You can change the look of your text.
SPLIT
FirstClass allows windows to be split. One portion (top or left) contains subconferences or folders. The other portion (bottom or right) contains the messages that have been sent to the main course conference.
To change the split of your mailbox:
Open your mailbox.
Choose View>Split. You may then choose no split, split horizontal, or split vertical. This can be very useful in your mailbox if you create folders for saving messages.
BACKGROUND
You can color the background of either half of your window.
Click on the portion of the conference for which you would like a background.
Choose View>Change View Properties. Click on the Background tab.
Use the Image selection box to select a background.
Check all three boxes to use the picture, to tile it (make it continuous) and to take the white background off of the text label (transparent text).
Click Apply. Click OK.
Note: if you have an older computer — backgrounds may cause you trouble. Some users have had their computers hang when trying to open a window with a background.
ICONS or LIST View?
FirstClass allows you to view a window by icon, scaled icon, list, or index card. This is your choice in the areas you own.
Click in the window you want to change.
Choose View>View by Icon, or View by Scaled Icon, View by List, or View by Index Card
By choosing View>Change View Properties and clicking on the Icon tab, you can also lock your icons in place so that you can't move them, set your icons to open with a single click, or hide icon titles. If you have chosen View by Scaled Icon you can choose the size of the displayed icon by dragging the pointer from 16 up to 128, or any number between. The middle number will reflect the size chosen.
After making a change, be sure to click Apply and then OK.
CHANGING THE LOOK OF YOUR TEXT
By choosing View>Change View Properties and clicking on the Display tab you can change the look of the text in the areas that you own.
REMEMBER - you can only change the look of an area that you own. Mailbox, Contacts, Calendar, Bookmarks. FirstClass will let you THINK that you can change other areas. But after you've spent a half hour changing the look of a conference that you don't own, you will find that when you return to it — voila — it is back the way that it was.
Revised 06/08
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