GroupWise to Gmail FAQ's

Why is Casper College moving employees to Gmail and Google Apps?

After careful consideration, Casper College has decided to migrate all faculty and staff email accounts to Gmail. Gmail is part of Google Apps for Education, a common platform for all students, faculty, and staff to collaborate. Google will provide large capacity email and calendars, along with Docs, Sites, and Chat to facilitate pedagogy and teamwork. Many of your initial questions may be addressed with the following blog post: https://nw4.caspercollege.edu/fuzzy/?p=291

What is Google Apps for Education?

Google Apps for Education is a suite of communication and collaboration applications. The core group of applications includes:

• Gmail: Email storage and search tools to manage and organize your messages. Email addresses will continue to use the username@caspercollege.edu format.

• Google Calendar: Organize your schedules and share events and calendars with others.

• Google Chat: Send instant messages to your contacts.

• Google Docs: Share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Collaborate in real-time with your class or team.

• Google Sites: Work together to keep related documents, web content and other information in one place, on one site.

What browsers can I use with Google Apps?

Google Apps supports the following browsers: (more)

• Chrome

• Internet Explorer

• Firefox

• Safari

What's going to happen to my GroupWise Archives?

Because your GroupWise archives are stored on your local computer, these cannot be transferred to Gmail like the messages in your live mailbox. The archived messages you wish to transfer to Gmail will need to be moved back (unarchived) into your live GroupWise mailbox prior to the transfer of data. IT will be removing the size restrictions on your GroupWise mailbox which should allow you to unarchive messages so they can be migrated. Only unarchive messages you want migrated to Gmail.

Will I see ads in my Casper College Gmail?

No. There will be no ads for Casper College employees using Google Apps for Education. You may however notice the appearance of Web Clips. Web Clips show you news headlines, blog posts, and relevant sponsored links, right at the top of your inbox. You may customize or remove Web Clips as per your liking.

Will my Casper College email address change?

No, you'll continue to use your existing Casper College email address.

Will my email messages be transferred to Gmail? How and by whom?

Information Technology will migrate email (including archives user has un-archived), calendar events, and contacts from GroupWise to Google Apps using a utility called Cloud Migrator made for this purpose. For more information on how to prepare your GroupWise content for the migration, please see the Before the Switch Checklist.

If you use an email client other than GroupWise such as Outlook and Mac Mail or use auto-forwarding, your messages will not be migrated (unless you have retained a copy on the GroupWise server). How you plan to use your Casper College Google Apps account after the migration will also inform how best to go about handling the migration.

Can I forward messages from GroupWise to my new Gmail account myself?

• Yes, you can forward messages to your temporary Google Apps email address user@apps.caspercollege.edu where "user" is your username

  • To forward a message you don't have to open it, right-click the message and select "Forward as Attachment" and in the To: field, enter your temporary Google Apps email address (ie. spock@apps.caspercollege.edu)

  • To forward multiple messages all at once, select them with any of the following Windows methods

    • To select multiple contiguous items, click on the first item to highlight it, then hold down the Shift key and click on the last contiguous item and this will select them all.

    • To select multiple non-contiguous items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on each item you wish to have selected.

    • If you want to forward all the messages type "Ctrl-a" to select them all

  • then right-click a selected message and select "Forward as Attachment"

• Your Gmail Inbox will receive a single message with all the messages you attached concatenated together within it.

Can I auto-forward GroupWise messages to Gmail and start using it now?

Yes, you can create a rule in GroupWise that will auto-forward any new messages received to your Gmail Inbox. The rule can be enabled or disabled anytime you wish to try this out. You have a temporary Gmail address which is your username @apps.caspercollege.edu that you can forward or send mail to. This email address is temporary and should not be used as a permanent address or supplied as contact information because it will only be deliverable through October. The following caveats should be recognized...

1. You'll have to maintain two mailboxes

2. Auto-forwarded messages received by Gmail will all have been sent by you so the "From:" field will say "Me" and when replying, the To: field will contain your email address so you'll need to replace this address with your intended recipient.

Example rule config follows...

What options do I have to retrieve old messages?

The DATACOVE archiving appliance will remain available for retrieval of GroupWise messages.

Can I merge an existing Gmail account with my Casper College Google Apps account?

If you would like to merge an existing account with your Casper College Google Apps account you will have to manually import your mail from your personal Gmail account into your Google Apps account. To aid you in the process we have compiled the below documentation.

• • Mail Merge

  • Merge your Google Mail to Casper College Google Apps

    • • Note: The above instructions are provided by an outside resource. As a result, the page location and content are subject to change without notification.

  • Calendar Merge

• • • Merge your Google Calendar to Casper College Google Apps

      • Export each individual calendar to an .ics file from your Gmail account and then import in Casper College Google Apps.

• • • 1. Export Instructions

      2. Import Instructions

• • Contacts Merge

• • • Merge your Google Contacts to Casper College Google Apps

      • Export/import CSV files, but use the Google contacts format to preserve all information.

Note in some instances, existing Google accounts you may have created with your @caspercollege email address may result in what is known as a conflicting account and may require additional support.

Please reach out to our Help Desk at helpdesk@caspercollege.edu with questions or support requests.

How will my email conversations appear in Google Apps Mail?

Rather than listing each message reply as a new message in your Inbox, Google Apps Mail, by default, groups a message and its replies in a conversation, which is listed only once.

Tip: If conversations are not for you, you can turn off the feature in your Mail Settings, on the General tab, under Conversation View.

Will I be able to use Outlook (or other email programs) with Google?

Yes, just as with GroupWise, the Microsoft Outlook email client can be used with Google. A tool called Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook provides (with some limitations) synchronization to keep your email and calendar up to date across your computers and mobile devices. Or, you may also use POP or IMAP to access your email with a variety of other email programs such as Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Entourage, and more. Familiarize yourself with the differences between synchronization features to determine which setup is best for you. With POP/IMAP you will lose contacts and calendar sync features available with Google Apps Sync, as IMAP will sync only your email.

Will employees be able to have proxy access to other email accounts?

With Google’s email delegation, you may delegate access to any account to up to ten other email addresses. You can only grant read/write access. Those who have access to the account will be able to read messages, organize your messages, reply on behalf of delegated account, and edit contacts.

How will I find my mail in Google Apps?

Google Apps features the same powerful search technology used on the Web to perform accurate keyword searches of all of your email and attachments. Search by keyword, label, date range, or a host of other options. By also archiving messages, you can instantly find any message you've ever sent or received, without having to create elaborate folder structures or keep unwanted correspondence in your Inbox.

To find messages, simply type in the search box at the top of your Mail window. Or, for more refined searching, click the drop-down arrow.

Then fill in the easy-to-use search form to find exactly what you're looking for! If you are an experienced Google user, additional search tips are available for reference online.

I gave someone access to my GroupWise calendar. Can this person automatically access my Google Calendar after I switch?

Another person's access to your calendar does not carry over automatically to your Google calendar. However, you can easily re-establish access by sharing your calendar.

What level of access do others have to my calendar? Are my calendar details public?

By default, your calendar is shared with everyone at Casper College, and they can see your calendar's free/busy information only. However, you can turn off calendar sharing.

If you share your calendar with everyone at Casper College, you can specify whether they can see only free/busy information or all event details. You can also share your calendar with specific people at Casper College, and can give them one of the following levels of access:

• See free/busy information only

• See all event details

• Make changes to your calendar

• Make changes and share your calendar with others

If I want to access another persons calendar, such as my instructor, does that person need to give me permission?

Yes, if you want to access another person's calendar, that person must give you permission, by editing the settings for the calendar.

Which Google Apps will I have access to?

Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive and Sites.

Google Apps for Education includes this specific group of core apps assembled by Google for higher education customers. After the role out of these core apps in 2012, the feasibility of incorporating any new core additions and the enabling of additional Google Apps features into Casper College offerings will be explored.

Which Google Apps can I start using before G-day?

Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive and Sites.

Gmail and Calendar may be used sparingly to become familiar with the interface and features. Just remember that data from GroupWise has not yet been migrated and is forthcoming. Chat, Drive and Sites can be utilized fully.

What is Google's commitment to privacy?

We know that security and privacy are important concerns for members of the College Community.

1. Google contractually guarantees that they have no ownership rights to any data processed and stored by Google Apps for Education.

2. Google scans and indexes email to provide spam filtering, virus protection and extensive email search capabilities, but these processes are fully automated and do not involve any human access to email messages.

3. The methods used by Google to protect data processed and stored by Google Apps for Education have been reviewed by external security experts and certified to meet industry-standard practices.

4. Google complies with applicable US privacy law, and meets the requirements for protecting student records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Read more on Google's website.

Will I be able to use Casper College Google Apps with a mobile device?

Yes. On many mobile devices, you can use Google Sync to enable real-time synchronization of mail, calendar, and contacts between your mobile devices and Casper College Google Apps. Alternatively, you can use POP or IMAP to access your email from your mobile device. Lastly, Google provides mobile applications for many devices.

How do I erase several years of my Groupwise calendar?

The best way to do this is to change the calendar view to "Details" so you can use the Windows multiple select functions to select the items you wish to delete. In Details view, the appointments should be listed with the oldest at the top. First, change the calendar to Details view, open the calendar and click View > Display Settings > Details To delete multiple appointments all at once, select them with any of the following Windows methods ... * To select multiple contiguous items, click on the first item to highlight it, then hold down the Shift key and click on the last contiguous item and this will select everything inbetween them. * To select multiple non-contiguous items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on each item you wish to have selected. * If you want to delete an entire calendar, right-click the calendar name and select Delete. To return to a calendar view, click View > Display Settings > as Calendar

I'm concerned about some of Google's corporate practices. Are ideological concerns second to considerations of practicality and budget?

Casper College takes seriously student, faculty, and staff interests in advocating for individual rights and freedom of expression. While ideological concerns are not second to practicality and budget, the College enters into relationships with vendors after carefully considering a number of factors, including cost, quality of product, customer service, and corporate profile. We recognize that many members of our community are alert to the character of corporate citizenship any of our vendors may present, but imposing a purely ideological screen over each relationship would be impossible.

Has the College adequately explored public interest, open source, free software, or in-house alternatives?

The College plans to use a commercial outsourced solution for a few reasons. Email is one of the most resource intensive applications for an Information Technology department to administer. Regardless of the software used, there are significant ancillary costs to running an email system including server hardware, enterprise storage, backup software and hardware, and data center costs for maintaining this equipment. It would be almost impossible to offer the same level of storage or the rich and collaborative feature sets available through Google and Microsoft—such as full-featured calendaring; document creation, management, and sharing; mobile accessibility; and web site creation—with an in-house solution.

Will you be able to keep my frequent contact list and bring it over when we switch to gmail?

For as long as you have been using GroupWise, your “Frequent Contacts” list has been storing every email addresses of those you have corresponded with. All of these contacts will be migrated to Google Apps and it is likely that many of them are no longer needed. Delete unwanted contacts from your GroupWise account prior to the migration. If you are unable to do so, you can clean up your contacts in your Google account once your migration is complete.

What about the files in my GroupWise "Documents" folder?

Files saved in the GroupWise Document Management System will not be migrated to Google Apps. Users will need to selectively save the files in the GroupWise "Documents" folder to their computer and from there they may continue to store these documents on the computer or optionally upload to Google Docs/Drive.

What happens if, after G-day, I open GroupWise and send a message to another college employee?

That would be a message internal to the GroupWise system. Your message will be delivered to the recipients local GroupWise mailbox. Depending on whether or not they have auto-forwarding configured or are still checking their GroupWise mailbox, they may never get the message. Best practice is not to use GroupWise anymore except for historical item retrieval.