Frequently Asked Questions About The Communikate
Virtual Assistant
The Questions
A. Welcome Page
B. Voice Mail
C. Faxes
D. Fax Contact Directory
E. Forwarding a Fax
F. E-mail
G. Viewing E-mail Messages
H. Composing and Forwarding an E-mail
I. Calendar
J. Conference Calls
K. Scheduling a Conference
L. Active Conference
M. Contacts
N. New Contacts
P. New Contact Lists
Q. Settings
R. My Account
S. My Account: Options and Security
T. My Account: Call Transfer
U. My Account: Call Transfer--Follow-Me
V. My Account: Call Transfer--Single Destination
W. My Account: Call Transfer--Call Blast
X. My Account: Call Transfer--Call Transfer Rules
Y. My Account: Voice Mail Greeting Rules
Z. My Account: E-mail Accounts
AA. My Account: Call Records
BB. My Account: Personal and Billing Addresses
CC. My Account: Personal Destinations
DD. Notification
EE. Downloads
The Answers
A. Welcome Page
-
Use Online Call Back to schedule your
service to call you at a certain time and day. Use this feature
to have your service remind you of a conference call or of a call
you need to make. Once your service calls, you are able to quickly
enter your account and join a conference, call a contact, check
your voice mail, etc.
-
Yes. Go to the My Account section and
click on Web Preferences. Select your Preferred Startup Page and
hit Save. The next time you log into your website, you will be taken
to that page.
-
Am I charged for Online
Callback?
Yes, a charge of $0.07 per minute in
six-second intervals does apply.
B. Voice Mail
-
There are several possibilities.
Make sure that your computer has the
software to play your messages. The Assistant's messages are in
MP3 format, and your computer needs software that supports MP3 to
play back your messages. Microsoft Windows Media Player and Nullsoft's
WinAmp both support MP3. Get WinAmp at http://www.winamp.com/getwinamp/
and Windows Media Player at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/default.asp.
The audio downloads area has specific instructions for installation
and usage.
Take a look at your computer speakers.
Make sure the speaker volume is set to an adequate level.
Make sure that your computer volume
setting is set to play sounds at an adequate level. Check this setting
by clicking the right mouse button on the small yellow speaker icon
in the Taskbar. Select Open Volume Controls, and adjust the Master
Volume Setting.
Other MP3 players such as Real Time,
Music Match and AOL Media Player may not be able to play your voice
message.
If this problem persists, please e-mail
or phone Customer Care.
-
Yes. Mark the checkboxes (they appear
to the left of the From column) of the messages you’d like to work
with, and then select an action.
-
Yes. Arrange your voice mail by clicking
on any of the column headings. From sorts by contact; Phone sorts
by phone number; Receive sorts by time; Length sorts by the size
of the message. The icon next to the column heading indicates the
current sort criterion, as well as the direction of the sort.
-
Click on ‘Check for New Messages’.
It looks for new messages that have arrived since your web session
started.
-
The sender of the message may be known
well to you, but the caller is not one of your contacts, and is
not known by the personal assistant. Clicking on the Business Card
will prompt you to add the caller as a contact. If you do decide
to add the caller as a contact, future messages will be labeled
with the caller’s contact name.
-
While looking at your voice mail section,
you will see a Status Column. If you click on the icon in this column,
you will see it change. If the envelope is closed, the message is
new. If the envelope is open, the message has been listened to,
or "read." If there is a yellow folder, the message has
been saved. If there is a red exclamation point, the message is
urgent. You may change the status of any voice mail message at any
time just by clicking on the icon in the status column.
-
If you choose not to save your voice
mail messages, they will "age off" after 14 days of receiving
the message. There will be no way to get these messages
back after they age off. If you want to keep your voice
messages, save them by clicking on the icon in the status column
until it turns to a yellow folder. If your message has been saved,
it will not age off.
-
You can forward any of your voice mail
messages by clicking to the left of the message in the white box
to select the message, and then clicking on the Forward button at
the top of the page. The next page will take you to where you need
to choose from contacts, contact lists, or e-mail addresses. You
can choose one or more of these options. When selecting a contact,
contact lists, or e-mail address click on the add button in the
middle of the page. After you have selected all recipients, click
on the Send button at the bottom of the page.
-
If you have saved any previous voice
mail messages to your desktop on your computer, you can use this
option to upload this message and send it to any of your contacts
or contact lists through your personal assistant. Also, if you have
any other voice files on your computer that you'd like to send to
any one of your contacts or lists, just click on the Browse button,
choose where you stored the file, and then click on Upload. (Remember
that these files need to be .wav. or MP3.) You will see the file
in your voice mail inbox, and can now forward it to anyone in your
contact section.
C. Faxes
-
You need image viewing software to
view the Assistant's faxes. Faxes are in two image formats: TIFF
and PDF. You can select your image format preference in the Web
Preferences section in the My Account directory page.
For TIFFs, the Microsoft Windows Imaging
application works well. Windows Imaging is included with Windows
95, Windows 98, and Windows NT, Win2k, and XP. By selecting a fax
and clicking View, Windows Imaging will automatically display the
fax.
For viewing faxes as PDFs, you will
need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Once downloaded and installed,
the Acrobat Reader will display the fax.
-
Certain faxes may be compressed or
discolored when they are opened directly from the web page. The
actual file, however, is intact. Simply save the file to your hard
drive and open it using your image viewer.
-
The default setting for forwarded faxes
is PDF, but this setting can be changed in the Web Preferences section
in the My Account directory page.
-
Yes. Mark the checkboxes (they appear
to the left of the From column) of the messages you’d like to work
with, and then select an action.
-
Yes. Arrange your faxes by clicking
on any of the column headings. From sorts by contact; Phone sorts
by phone number; Receive sorts by time; Length sorts by the size
of the message. The icon next to the column heading indicates the
current sort criterion, as well as the direction of the sort.
-
Use the print function of your image
viewer to create a hard copy. Printing from your browser will work
in most cases as well. If neither of these work, save the file to
your desktop (click on File, then Save As, and choose your Desktop)
and then print it from there.
-
TIFF is strictly an image format, like
the GIFs or JPEGs seen on most web pages. TIFFs simply allow for
more detail and are therefore larger files. PDF (Adobe Acrobat Reader)
files are searchable, hyper-linkable documents viewable on every
major computer platform.
D. Fax Contact Directory
-
Only contacts with fax numbers, e-mail
addresses, or your Assistant's accounts will be displayed in the
fax forwarding list. You don't have to worry about selecting inappropriate
contacts. However, all contact lists are displayed on the fax forwarding
page, even those that do not contain any fax-related information.
However, faxes are never forwarded to non-viable contacts, so you
do not need to worry that contacts with only cellular phone numbers
in your contact lists will start hearing fax tones.
-
Your contact may have their Personal
Assistant set to notify her via e-mail of incoming messages or even
rules to automatically forward a fax to another destination. They
should check their settings.
-
The Personal Assistant sends faxes
to only those in the list with valid destinations such as fax numbers,
e-mail addresses or Personal Assistants. When the contact list is
created, the contact's correct destination needs to be added. If
a contact list is comprised entirely of invalid numbers, such as
Home or Cellular numbers, you would not be able to use the contact
list.
E. Forwarding a Fax
-
The personal assistant will be able
to read your fax number no matter how you enter it, but the preferred
format is: 333-333-0000 (area code + prefix + four digits).
-
Enter fax numbers with extensions as
you would a regular fax number, and place an x before the extension
digits. An example: 333-333-0000x1234. This x places a pause before
these digits, which allows most automated systems to accept the
digits. If you need to extend the pause before the extension is
entered, place commas after the x. Each comma places an additional
one-second pause before the digits are played. An example: 333-333-0000x,,1234.
-
Sure. Simply enter the e-mail address
in the proper field, then click the "Add" button. Send
the fax to multiple addresses by entering each e-mail address individually.
Once all of your destinations are entered, click the "Send"
button.
-
You may only enter up to 256 characters
in the Comments field. Any additional characters will not be sent.
-
This is a Setting you can adjust in
the Web Preferences section in the My Account directory page. The
Personal Assistant by default sends a fax as a PDF, but you can
adjust the setting to send as TIFF.
-
Currently, the Personal Assistant does
not support fax receipt functionality. However, you will be sent
an e-mail notification if the fax could not be delivered.
F. E-mail
-
You must have quite a few e-mail messages.
If you have over 250 messages in your e-mail inbox, it will take
quite a while for all of these messages to appear on your web page.
If you have more than 250 messages, there is a chance that the page
will take so long to be completed that the web server will believe
there is an error, and cancel the page request. Your connection
to the Internet will also determine how fast your e-mail will appear.
Dial-up connections are considerably slower than DSL or Cable.
-
Every time you go to the contacts page
to add an addressee, your web page reloads, and the contents of
the Attachment field cannot be saved during a reload due to constraints
in HTML. The solution to this problem: always add your attachments
just before you send your e-mail.
-
Click the Check For New E-mail button.
It pulls all recently received e-mail from your e-mail server. Also,
remember that you may have more than one e-mail address set up in
your account. Make sure to check all e-mail accounts. In addition,
that person's mail server may be lagging.
-
Yes. Mark the check boxes (they appear
to the left of the From column) of the e-mail you’d like to delete
and select the 'Delete' option.
-
Enter multiple e-mail addresses separated
by commas without spaces. For example: jim@hostname.com, mike@wherever.com,
pierre@hostname.com.
-
Yes, your personal assistant can hold
up to 5 of your personal e-mail addresses. To set these e-mail addresses
up in your account, go to your My Account section, and then E-mail
Accounts. Here you'll need to enter your Username, Password, and
Server Name of all of the e-mail accounts you'd like to use. (Note:
if you don't know your e-mail server name, please contact your e-mail
provider for this information.) When you have all of your e-mail
information saved, click on the E-mail section on your left side
bar menu to manage your e-mail accounts. The default e-mail that
you'll see is your "Main" e-mail account. To switch to
another e-mail account that you have set up, click on the dropdown
box to choose the next e-mail account you wish to check.
-
Yes, your e-mail will go into a “Deleted
Items’ folder, where you can undelete by selecting the message
and moving back to your Inbox. Your Deleted Items folder is purged
on every login to your website. If you delete an e-mail, log out
of the website and log back in, it will be purged and you may not
be able to get it back. Should this happen, call Customer Care immediately.
-
To save an e-mail message to your hard
drive, first go to your list of e-mail messages. Under the Subject
Column, find the message you wish to Save. Right-click on the message
hyperlink and select “Save Target As”,
or “Save As”. You will then be able
to choose where on your hard drive you wish to save it to.
To save an attachment to your computer
hard drive, open the attachment. Under File on
your toolbar, find the “Save As” option,
usually underneath the “Save” option.
This will open up a window, which allows you to choose where in
your hard drive to save it to.
Remember to go back and delete the
e-mail message and attachment that you’ve saved onto your
hard drive from your e-mail. This will help free up some space.
You may also choose to set up your e-mail in an e-mail client such
as Outlook Express or Outlook. This will download your mail off
the server straight into your hard drive. Customer Care can assist
you in setting up your e-mail client.
-
How do I manage
spam on my e-mail accounts?
Go to the e-mail section of your website.
Click on the Preferences button. This will take you to the E-Mail
Accounts Settings page. One of the columns associated with your
personal assistant hosted accounts allows you to set Spam Threshold.
From the drop down menu you can select: Aggressive, Moderate, Relaxed,
or No Filtering. The threshold options define the attitude the filters
take towards spam. (E.g., aggressive lets less through than moderate,
which lets less through than relaxed.)
Note: For system to act upon selected spam thresholds
you must have proper rule set up.
To set the rules, click on the Click Here to Manage link under Rules
and Accept/Reject Lists within E-Mail Account Settings section.
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What else
can I do to minimize spam on my e-mail account?
In addition to selecting Spam Thresholds,
you can also set the system such that e-mails from certain e-mail
addresses are automatically rejected. Select the e-mail by clicking
on the check box next to it and then click on the Block Sender button.
This will automatically include this senders e-mail address into
your Reject List.
Note: For system to properly handle e-mails from
rejected list, you must have proper rule set up.
To set the rules, click on the Click Here to Manage link under Rules
and Accept/Reject Lists within E-Mail Account Settings section.
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Managing spam
is only available on certain accounts. Why is that?
Managing spam through your personal
assistant user interface is only allowed for personal assistant
hosted e-mail accounts. If you are accessing an e-mail account provided
to you by your ISP or any other provider than you will not be able
to manage spam through your personal assistant interface. To manage
spam for those accounts, you will have to access them directly through
the e-mail providers interface.
-
I am going
on vacation and may not be checking my e-mail on a regular basis
while I am gone. How can I notify my customers?
Notify your customers by using vacation
alert. To activate this feature follow these steps:
- Click on E-mail on the sidebar menu.
- Go to the Preferences section and click on
the Preferences link.
- Under Manage your E-Mail Account preferences,
you will see Vacation Alert.
- Click on Add Message. When a message is in
this box, it will automatically turn on the Vacation Alert.
To end this function, simply delete them message.
After you activate this feature, you
will receive a one-time response for each e-mail.
-
I use my account
website to send e-mail when on the go. Is there a spell-check tool
available?
Spell check is available on the Toolbar.
To download the Toolbar log into your account and click on Downloads.
G. Viewing E-mail Messages
-
Click on the Subject link of the e-mail
with the attachment you need to save. Right click on the e-mail
attachment link on the individual e-mail page. Select where you
want to save the file.
-
In the Subject field, click on the
Subject link of the e-mail with the attachment you need to open.
Left click on the e-mail attachment link on the individual e-mail
page. If you have an application associated with the attachment
file type, the file will open. If you do not have an application
associated with the file type, you will be prompted to select an
application to associate with the file. Once you have selected the
associated application, the file will open.
-
Yes, you can change this setting by
going under the My Account section, and then Web Preferences. Here
you will see the default setting for Messages Per Page. Choose the
number of messages per page that you would like to see from the
drop down menu, and then click the Save button. You can also select
the “Show All” button, however the more messages there
are, the longer it will take to load.
H. Composing and Forwarding an E-mail
-
Enter multiple e-mail addresses separated
by commas. An example: jim@hostname.com,mike@hostname.com,pierre@hostname.com.
You can also forward e-mails to multiple contacts by selecting multiple
contacts, or selecting from you contact lists. However, your website
does automatically log you out after 15 minutes as a security precaution.
If you take too long to type your message, you may accidentally
log out and your message will be lost.
-
Every time you access the contacts
web page, your web page reloads, and the contents of the Attachment
field cannot be saved during a reload due to constraints in HTML.
The solution to this problem: always add your attachments just before
you send your e-mail.
-
You may add three (3) attachments to
your e-mail.
-
There is no limit to attachment size
by your Assistant, but large e-mails (over 10M) tend to be refused
by many popular e-mail services, and are often corrupted in transit.
Also, the slower your connection, the longer it will take to send
and receive.
-
The E-mail Contacts page will display
only those contacts who have e-mail addresses, so this is not a
worry for individual contacts. However, you are allowed to send
e-mail to all of your contact lists, even if the contacts in the
lists do not have e-mail addresses. However, when sending to a list,
the Personal Assistant filters out contacts without e-mail addresses
and sends the e-mail to the applicable contacts.
-
Yes! If you would like to attach a
signature to all of your outgoing e-mail messages, go under the
My Account section of your account and then click on the e-mail
accounts section. Here you will find the E-mail Signature text box.
Type in the signature (limit 250 characters) you'd like to use,
and then check the box next to the "Attach signature to all
outgoing e-mails", then click the Save button. You will now
see your signature at the bottom of all of your outgoing e-mail
messages.
-
I see
a “BCC” field now, what is that?
BCC stand for Blind Carbon Copy. Recipients
entered in this field will receive a copy of your e-mail, however
no other recipients will know it was sent to them.
-
Yes. If you would like to be able to
send a copy of all of your outgoing e-mails to yourself, go into
the My Account section, and then e-mail Accounts. Here you will
see the "Send a copy to myself" option. Click on the check
box to the right of this option, and then click the Save button.
You will now receive a copy of all outgoing e-mails in your e-mail
inbox.
-
Can
I create folders for my e-mail?
Yes. In your e-mail section, type in
the folder name of your choice in the Create Folder Text Box. Then
click on the Create Folder button. Now, you can manage your e-mail
messages, and store them in the desired folders. You can also manage
your folders by clicking the “Manage Folders” button.
This will allow you to delete unwanted folders or select which folders
are available for viewing.
I. Calendar
-
Click on the event's date. Which opens
the View/Re-Schedule an Event window. Then make any edits you want
to the reminder text of your event. When you are finished, click
on the Save button, which saves your changes and returns you to
the Calendar.
-
You are allowed a total of 200 events
on your calendar.
-
No. Each event is only counted once,
even if it repeats multiple times.
-
How do
I set up receiving notification of tasks and events?
Setting up a notification method is
optional. Initially, you can set the notification method in the
Add a New Event window when you add an event to your calendar. Click
on the checkbox of the notification method you want to use: pager,
e-mail, or phone, then click on Save. The Notify by field on the
Calendar screen will indicate your choice. To change the notification
method for an event, click on the event's date, which opens the
View/Re-Schedule an Event window. Uncheck the current notification
method by clicking on its checkbox. Then select a different method
by clicking on its checkbox, then click on Save. Remember, some
notification methods are charged features.
-
There are two ways. The quickest way
is to click on the event's checkbox you want to delete, which places
a checkmark in the checkbox. Then click on the Delete button. This
is the easiest way to delete several events at once. The second
way is to click on the event's date, which opens the View/Re-Schedule
an Event window. Then click on the Delete button, which deletes
the event and returns you to the Calendar. The advantage of the
second method is if you want to view the event before deleting it.
J. Conference Calls
-
Check the checkbox to the right of
the conference you need to change. Click on Edit. You will be taken
to the Currently Scheduled Conference page. Change the Date and
Time as appropriate. Then click on Save.
-
Create a Contact List with your conference
participants and compose an e-mail or fax to them through your Assistant.
-
Conferences can be started before their
scheduled time or before participants have been added. Once started,
parties can be added, muted, or dropped.
Editing a conference changes the scheduled
start date and time.
Managing a conference allows you to
add, drop, or mute parties once the conference has participants.
-
You may start conferences before the
scheduled time has arrived. Technically, this is Starting, not Managing
a conference, but the ability to add, drop, or mute parties is the
same. Also, parties may access the conference over the phone with
the Join the Conference command.
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Conference cleanup procedures remove
conferences approximately 48 hours after the scheduled time. If
there is any doubt as to whether a conference number will be removed,
always schedule a new conference.
-
What is
Calling Party Pays?
Calling Party Pays is a type of conference
where all participants log in through their own accounts, then join
the conference. They are billed for their own portion. Non-subscribers
cannot join a Calling Party Pays conference unless the owner of
the conference invites them. The owner would then pay for their
portions of the conference.
K. Scheduling a Conference
-
Always schedule conferences for earlier
rather than later dates. For this particular conference, scheduled
for 3:00 P.M.
-
Conferences are scheduled by the time
zone you’ve indicated in My Account: Options and Security.
-
Your Assistant will always allow conferences
to be scheduled up to a year in advance. This is not recommended
however, because this leaves the conference bridge open to anyone
for this entire time period.
L. Active Conference
-
It's a matter of convenience. Add Yourself
allows you to dial one of your own phone numbers, like your home
or cell, with a single click. After all, you'll want to participate
in the conference you scheduled, won't you?
-
No, you may only add one contact or
dial one phone number at a time.
-
Most likely, they did not answer the
phone. When parties enter or leave a conference, the personal assistant
plays two short beeps to all listening on the phone. If your call
from the web is not connected, two beeps will be played.
-
Attempt to join the conference again.
There is always the chance that speech recognition has been thwarted
by phone connections and or fussy microphones. If the problem persists,
please contact customer support. Also, you can try to join the conference
using DTMF commands only.
M. Contacts
-
This contact list is a summary of the
information about each individual contact. To see the full information
you’ve entered about any particular contact, click on the contact
name for the full view.
-
Sadly, no. Once you’ve removed a contact,
it’s gone forever.
-
Microsoft Outlook 95, 98, and 2000,
Palm Pilot, Outlook Express, and Netscape.
-
You’ll need to download and install
the PIMSync application. There are some thorough instructions there,
and you should be able to import your contacts from just about any
PIM or PDA.
-
Yes. Mark the checkboxes (they appear
to the left of the Name column) of the contacts you’d like to work
with, then select the 'Delete' option.
Deleting multiple contacts removes all of the selected contacts.
-
Enter any portion of any contact’s
name. You do not need to enter full names or to match case. For
example, entering "jo" would return John Smith, Joanna Baker, and
William Johnson.
N. New Contacts
-
Enter numbers for contacts with extensions
as you would a regular phone/fax/pager number, and place an "x"
before the extension digits. An example: 333-333-0000x1234. This
"x" places a pause before these digits, which allows most
automated systems to accept the digits. If you need to extend the
pause before the extension is entered, place commas after the "x."
Each comma places an additional one-second pause before the digits
are played. An example: 333-333-0000x,,1234.
-
If your contacts have a "Personal
Assistant" service, enter the their phone number in the 'Mailbox'
field. You may then call or fax this contact at that number.
-
Select either Numeric (if your pager
is contacted using a phone number) or Alphanumeric (if your pager
is contacted using an e-mail address) and enter your pager's e-mail
address. These are the generic pager selections and will function
for any pager of the Numeric and Alphanumeric type.
O. Contact Lists
-
Contact Lists are shortcuts to sending,
forwarding, and replying information to multiple contacts at once.
They are used in broadcasting faxes and messages over the phone.
On the web, use them to forward voice mail, e-mail, or faxes to
multiple contacts.
-
You are allowed to send e-mail to all
of your contact lists, even if the contacts in the lists do not
have e-mail addresses. However, when sending to a list, the personal
assistant filters out contacts without e-mail addresses and sends
the e-mail to the applicable contacts.
-
No. Deleting contacts and contact lists
is a permanent action.
P. New Contact Lists
-
After adding all of the contacts to
your new list, you must save and name the list itself. If you do
not, the list will not be added.
-
Contact lists are for sending or forwarding
information electronically. If you contacts contain only name and
address information, they cannot be added to a contact list.
-
Absolutely. All contacts can be added
to any and all lists.
Q. Settings
-
Go to the My Account directory page
by clicking on the My Account option in the sidebar menu. A description
of each of the kind of setting is provided, as well as links to
the appropriate settings pages.
-
Go to the My Account area of the site.
Here there are three areas for setting up your phone numbers, your
e-mail server information, and your personal information (such as
address and billing address).
-
Yes, if you have a paid e-mail account
through Yahoo!. Follow these steps to configure your account:
- From the Yahoo home page, click on the "Check
E-mail" button.
- From the Yahoo mail page, select "Options"
in the Mail menu.
- Under "Mail Management" column,
select the "POP Access & Forwarding" option.
- In the "Sign Up" section, click
the "Yes" radio button.
- At the bottom of the screen, click on the
"Finished" button.
- When the Mail Delivery Status screen opens,
in Step 1, select "Web & Pop Access."
- In Step 2, select a format, and then click
on the "Submit" button. Now you're ready to set
up your account.
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Notification is a function of the personal
assistant that sends you a page, an e-mail, phone call or all of
the above when a voice message or fax arrives in your inbox. Notifications
can include information on the sender of the message/fax and the
message/fax itself. Some notification methods are charged features,
such as a phone call or numeric pager.
R. My Account
-
Call records describe the calling activity
in your account. Every incoming, outgoing call, fax and page are
recorded in these records. You can select call records by day, week
or month. They will not contain e-mail information.
S. My Account: Options and Security
-
Barge-thru allows you to interrupt
the assistant over the phone and give a command. It's useful most
of the time, except when you have entered noisy environments with
sudden, loud sounds that the assistant might confuse with voice
commands. Before entering these environments, turn Barge-Thru off.
By turning off Barge-Thru, it will only be disabled while a message
is playing. To Turn off Barge-Thru for all menus, touchtone 97 each
time you log in.
-
If you turn off Call Screening, you
will not hear the name or number of a caller. Turning off Call Screening
also turns off Call Waiting. Your calls will be sent to voice mail
while you are talking to another party through the assistant.
-
Instead of being presented with a menu
of options (such as Find Them, Take a Message, or Join a Conference),
your callers will be asked for their name (if Call Screening is
on) and then will be put on hold while the assistant dials your
call transfer setting. This also limits the length of time that
the system can listen for incoming fax tones.
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Your message indication tone is the
tone you hear when you call your account, and before your assistant
starts talking. The reason this tone is here, is to let you know
if you have any new voice mail messages or faxes before you log
into your account. This tones helps save you time. If you hear 2
short tones, this means you have at least one new voice message
or fax in your account. If you hear 1 long tone, you don't have
any new messages or faxes.
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You find this feature under Options
and Security in the My Account section. Your message report is what
you usually hear when logging into your account. As soon as you
enter your PIN, your personal assistant reads to you where your
calls are being transferred, and how many new, old, saved, and urgent
voice messages and faxes you have in your account. You can turn
off, or shorten your report by using this drop-down menu. If you
turn your message report Off, you will not hear anything when logging
into your account. If you have the Short message report, you will
only hear how many new messages you have, and where your calls are
transferred to. If you have your message report set to Full, you
will hear all of your settings when you log into your account.
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Having your Barge Thru enabled or disabled
for your voice mail works in the same way Barge Thru works for the
rest of your account. If you are in a noisy area, you will want
Barge Thru disabled so that any background noise does not interrupt
your personal assistant. When you disable Barge Thru, you will not
be able to give your personal assistant any voice commands while
your voice mail messages are playing, you will only be able to use
touch-tones. Having Barge Thru disabled for your voice mail settings,
is a good idea.
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You'll need to change your time zone
on the Web every time you move drastically. A move from the Eastern
to the Central time zone probably does not require a change if you'll
be gone only for a day. However, if you're traveling from the Eastern
to the Tokyo time zone, it will save you quite a bit of headache
if you change your time zone before you get on the plane.
T. My Account: Call Transfer
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Follow Me works by sending calls to
your current location. When you move to a new phone you'll need
to be reached at, simply call the assistant, initiate a session,
and your calls will be transferred to the phone you're calling from.
Use Follow Me when you are on the road
moving from office to office. Also use Follow-Me when you'll be
at your desk most of the day, but will occasionally need calls sent
to your cellular phone. A quick call to the assistant from your
cellular phone assures you that you won't be missing any calls.
Some PBX systems will only relay the “front end” number.
If that happens, you will not be able to get your calls transferred
to you. However, simply have your assistant transfer calls directly
to your office as listed in your Personal Destinations without using
Follow Me.
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Call Blast sends calls to up to four
of your phones at the same time. When you accept the call at one
of your phones, the rest will stop ringing. Use Call Blast to save
on your cellular bill. Blast calls to both your office and cellular
phone. Take every call you can at your office phone when you are
there, and grab calls on the cellular when you are on the run.
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Go to the My Accounts page and click
on the Call Transfer link. Then click on the To a single telephone
number link, which takes you to a page of settings for single
destinations call transfers.
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Make sure that you clicked on Save
after making your selection of a radio button from the phone number
choices.
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Am
I being billed for Call Transfer?
Yes, all call transfers are billed
features.
U. My Account: Call Transfer--Follow Me
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Your Assistant automatically fills
the "Any phone number" field with the number from which you dialed.
You can change this number if manual updates are more convenient
for you.
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Yes. Manual changes to the Follow-Me
number are accepted. Just remember to click Save when you’ve finished
with your changes.
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The wrong
Follow-Me number is present, what happened?
Some business PBX lines and Cellular
Towers broadcast a "generic" phone number as the caller
I.D. You may need to turn Follow-Me off and have calls transferred
directly to a specific number or single destination.
V. My Account: Call Transfer--Single Destination
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Change your Home, Office, Mobile, and
Cellular numbers in My Account: Personal Destinations.
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We’ve used "Mobile" to signify your
car phone or your second cellular phone. "Cellular" is, of course,
your cellular phone.
W. My Account: Call Transfer--Call Blast
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Four at a single time.
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You may Call Blast to only one contact
at a time.
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The Follow Me field appears under Call
Blast to allow Follow Me users to transfer calls to their latest
Follow Me number. However, the Follow Me functionality is not active
at the same time Call Blast is active.
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Am I
billed for each call?
Yes, you are billed for each destination
during a Call Blast. Once a call is accepted at one location, billing
ceases at the others.
X. My Account: Call Transfer--Call Transfer Rules
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The most common uses for rules are
on-call scenarios. During normal days, your Assistant's call transfer
settings are in effect. However, during evenings and weekends, some
users will allow calls from certain caller IDs to reach them no
matter where they are. When these users are not on call, they do
not need to be found. Rather than have them delete and recreate
the rule every time they go on or off call, your Assistant allows
them to disable and enable the rule.
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Your existing Call Transfer setting
will be in effect.
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The rule listed first will be enforced.
The mostly recently added rule appears first on your list of Rules.
You can however, use the "Move Up" and "Move Down"
buttons to adjust the rules to your preference.
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Sadly, no. Deleted rules are gone forever.
Y. My Account: Voice Mail Greeting Rules
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Yes, in your Voice Mail Greeting Rules,
you can choose to have any of these four greetings: Unavailable,
Busy, Extended Absence, or After Hours played to any of your callers
at the times you specify. Just select the greeting you'd like to
use, and choose the period of time that you'd like them to hear
this greeting. You may also choose between Custom greetings, and
Standard greetings.
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The Standard Greeting is the greeting
that has already been pre-recorded for you. For example, for the
busy greeting your personal assistant says: "I'm sorry, your
party is currently busy. To leave a message, please start speaking
at the tone, etc." If you don't want to use the pre-recorded
standard greeting, you can record your own personalized greeting
under the Custom Greeting section. You can record these custom greetings
over the phone, on your personal website, or upload them from your
computer. (Recording your custom greetings on the website requires
a microphone and speakers.)
Z. My Account: E-mail Accounts
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You need to make sure you are entering
your correct username, password, server name, and service provider.
If you do not know your e-mail setup information, please contact
your e-mail provider. If you do have your e-mail information, enter
it in the correct text boxes. If you still cannot connect, contact
your e-mail provider to make sure there are no problems with their
mail server. Now go to your e-mail section, and check your e-mail.
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Your personal assistant can hold up
to 5 of your e-mail addresses at once. To set up these e-mail accounts,
go to the My Account section, and then E-mail Accounts. Here, enter
each piece of information for all of your e-mail accounts. Now,
click Save and then go to your E-mail section of your account. Here
you will be able to manage all of your e-mail.
AA. My Account: Call Records
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These records detail your Assistant's
usage. You'll need to double-check them for accuracy. Also, they
are a convenient way to track the day's, week's, and month's callers.
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What does each column in this
table mean?
- Date/Time: The date and time the call/fax/page
was sent/received.
- Type: Call, Voice Mail, Conference, Fax or
Page.
- Source: The caller ID or fax ID.
- Dir: Inbound (a call made to your Assistant)
or Outbound (a call/fax/page made from your Assistant).
- Conference: Conference number (if relevant).
- Destination: Destination Phone Number.
- Length: Duration of the call.
- Outcome: Connect or Failure.
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You will not be able to use the Export
to Excel feature, as it requires that Excel be installed and active
on your system.
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When you click on the Export to Excel
button, your Personal Assistant runs Excel on your system, collects
the data from the Call Records you specified into a file, opens
a spreadsheet and transfers the file into the spreadsheet. You may
then give the Excel spreadsheet a name and save it to your hard
drive, and exit Excel.
BB. My Account: Personal and Billing Addresses
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Go to My Account, and click on the
Personal Destinations and/or Personal and Billing Addresses pages.
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Just select the box next to "Billing
Address is the same as Account Address".
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Yes, except when "Attention" and "Address2"
are not relevant, or if your Account Address matches your Billing
Address.
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Yes. Under My Account, and Personal
and Billing Addresses, you will see a drop-down menu named Salutation.
This will determine what is played to your callers when your personal
assistant says: "Find them/her/him." If you want your
callers to hear "them", select the blank (at the very
top) selection on the list. If you want your callers to hear "him"
choose, Mr. If you would like your callers to hear "her"
choose either, Ms., Miss, or Mrs.
CC. My Account: Personal Destinations
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We've used "Mobile" to signify
your car phone or your second cellular phone. "Cellular"
is, of course, your cellular phone.
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Select either Numeric (if your pager
is contacted using a phone number) or Alphanumeric (if your pager
is contacted using an e-mail address) and enter your pager information.
These are the generic pager selections and will function for any
pager of the Numeric and Alphanumeric type. Calls to a numeric pager
are charged, while e-mails to an alpha pager are not.
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Yes. The reason you keep getting your
Personal Assistant's voice on your home answering machine is because
you have your number of rings under your Personal Destinations set
too high. If you change your number of rings from 5 to 3 this should
keep you from getting your personal assistant's voice on your home
answering machine.
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Your security level can make calling
from this destination easy. Let's say that you are always calling
your personal assistant from your cell phone and you're tired of
always having to enter * + your PIN. Well, next to your cellular
phone destination on your website, set your security level to Quick
Access. This allows you to enter your account without having to
enter in * + PIN. Your personal assistant recognizes that you are
calling from this destination, and allows you to enter a session
easily. (Note: to change your personal settings, listen to voice
messages, check your e-mail, faxes, etc., you will still need to
enter your PIN.) Here are how the different settings work under
Security Level:
Normal - This setting is the default
setting. When calling into your personal assistant from this number
+ setting, you will need to enter * + your PIN to access your account.
Trusted - When calling into your personal
assistant from this number + setting, you will need to enter (*)
to enter a session.
Quick Access - When calling into your
personal assistant from this number + setting, you will not need
to enter (*) or your PIN to enter a session.
Secure Pickup - This setting is for
taking calls only, not for entering a session. When you have selected
Secure Pickup for this destination, you will need to enter your
PIN when taking any calls. This setting is very helpful for home
phone numbers who have more than one resident.
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The Sensitivity setting is used to
help you control how sensitive your personal assistant is from this
destination. If you are on your cell phone, which picks up a lot
of static, your sensitivity level should be set to Low. This way,
your personal assistant won't be interrupted by the static.
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Even though you have up to five (5)
e-mail addresses you can manage within your account, only one is
used to send e-mail notifications to. When you are sending e-mail,
it will be sent from the address that you are currently checking.
Also, if you have your notification options set up to send you an
e-mail, this is the e-mail address your personal assistant will
use to notify you.
DD. Notification
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"With" attachment sends a
notification e-mail with the voice mail or fax file attached to
the e-mail. "Without" attachment sends an e-mail with
the information about the message or fax (time received, message
sender/fax ID, number of seconds, or pages in the message/fax).
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Notification is a function of the personal
assistant that sends you a page, an e-mail, phone call or all of
the above when a voice message or fax arrives in your inbox. Notifications
can include information on the sender of the message/fax and the
message/fax itself. Some notification methods are charged features.
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Most often, e-mail is being sent to
a different address than you are expecting. E-mail notifications
are sent to the e-mail address you entered on the My Account, Personal
Destinations page. Make sure that this is the address at which you'd
like to receive notifications. If you still are failing to receive
e-mail, contact Customer Care.
EE. Downloads
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None of the downloaded applications
are absolutely essential. The service can be used without them.
If you’d like to view your faxes or
listen to your messages from the web, you’ll need to have a fax
viewer and audio player. You don’t need to do either of these things,
but they greatly increase the power of your Assistant.
If you want to synchronize your contacts
between your Assistant and a PIM or PDA, you’ll need PIMSync.
If you’d like to send a file from any
Windows application as a fax to either a fax machine or an e-mail
address, you’ll need IPFax.
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The fax viewer allows you to view faxes
sent to you on the Web. IPFax allows you to send any Windows file
as a fax to any fax machine or e-mail address. Sending to a Fax
machine is a charged feature.
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TIFF is strictly an image format, like
the GIFs or JPEGs seen on most web pages. TIFFs simply allow for
more detail and are therefore larger files. PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
files are searchable, hyper-linkable documents viewable on every
major computer platform.
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