1. What is a group?
A group is any number of people who want to share information (files, photos, videos) and keep in
touch. Your group may be:
- A work team
- Your family
- Your football club
- A charity volunteer network
- An interest group
- Your school
- Your friends
Groups can be private or public.
Private groups are only open to members who you invite to join. Examples might be a family group,
a group of friends or a work group.
Public groups are open to any member of the public who wishes to join. Examples are an interest
group such as a campaign group or a bird-watching group.
2. How do I set up a group?
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Once you have registered with Conexall, you will be given a Group Home Page. Each time you
subsequently log–in, your own home page will open. It will show you which groups you are a
member of.
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Click on Create Group on the left hand side and choose a name for your group.
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Add your members' contact details or import them from your email address book (see
creating a CSV file).
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Click on Routing Preference to set the default routing for the group (individual members can
change their routing preference once they are signed into Conexall.
3. Can I be a member of more than one group?
Yes. You can set up or join as many groups as you like. Your Group page, which appears when you
log–in, will show the groups you belong to.
4. How do I find groups I might want to join?
You can search for groups by entering a key word in the searchbox, which is found on the Home Page
and on your own group page. An email will be sent to the group administrator who will accept or deny
your request to join. Only publicly listed groups are searchable. To request to join a private group, you
must know contact the group administrator directly.
5. What if someone wants me to join their group?
You will be sent a message, usually by email, requesting you to join a group. You can accept or deny
this request.
6. How can I leave a group?
You can leave any of the groups of which you are a member. To leave a group, click the arrow next to
that group in your group list (beneath the search box on the left menu), then click leave group. You
will be prompted to confirm that you no longer want to be a member of this group.
7. Can a group be deleted?
Yes it can but only by the Group administrator. This is the person who the group has agreed to manage
the group. (See - what is a Group Administrator?)
8. What is a routing preference?
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This is how you choose to receive your messages from the group. Email may not always be the most
convenient. For example, if you are a mobile member of a work team, you may prefer to receive text
messages. If you are part of a family group, your granny may not use email or text messaging so will
prefer to get her messages by voicemail on her landline telephone.
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The routing preference also means that, if the first message such as email fails for whatever
reason – say the person has changed his or her email address, the message will then be
sent to the second preference, say text message. If this fails, then it will be sent by the
third preference – voicemail to mobile or landline phone.
9. How do I change my routing preference?
In your group page, click on Routing Preference (edit), on the left hand side. Then drag and drop
the email, text and phone items into the boxes showing first, second and third routing preference.
10. Why do I need to enter date of birth when I register?
This is a requirement of the Data Protection Legislation. Your date of birth will not be divulged
to anyone visiting the Conexall website. We do not, at any time, pass on any personal details,
such as your date of birth or email address to any third parties
11. Who can see my contact details?
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Groups are totally private so no–one outside your group can see your details, share your group messages
or see any of the shared photos, files etc.
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Some groups are open so that all members have access to contact details for all other members.
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Some groups, such as a large members' club, only allow members' contact details to be accessed
by the group administrator.
It's up to you to choose how you set up your group.
12. How do I send messages to the group?
There are several different ways you can send messages to the group.
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Email.
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Text.
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Voice message by mobile or landline phone.
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Via the Conversation Board on the group webpage.
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Via the Announcements Board on the group webpage .
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email: Each group is identified by a Conexall address
[e.g. swiftbookclub@conexall.com] From your own email simply insert this address into your
'To' box. In the 'Subject' box enter your personal PIN Number, in the form
PIN12345 and send the email.
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Text: In the 'To' box, enter the Conexall text number (07786 200 515)
followed by the group PIN. Enter the message and send.
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Voice message: Dial the Conexall Big number (07786 521 7322) and, when prompted,
key in the group PIN number. Speak your message for the group into the phone. Hang up when
you've finished
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Conversation Board: Log–in to Conexall. This will open your Group page.
If you are a member of more than one group, select the group you want to message. Type your message
in the box and press send. All group members can then read this message
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Announcement: You may want to announce that you have added some new photos or files,
which you can do through the Announcement Board. Log–in to your group page the same way as for
the Conversation board. Click on 'Add' in the Announcement box. Type your message and send.
13. How do I receive messages from other group members?
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You will receive messages sent by group members, according to your routing preference. Normally you
will receive the message by email as well.
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You can send and receive private messages – which can only be viewed by the sender and the
recipient – via your private messages page.
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A communications log on the group page contains all the communications ever made between everyone
in that group. (This does not include private messages sent between group members.)
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On your user start page, each time you log in, you will see a list of 'Announcements'
for your groups and all the 'Requests' and 'Events' for your groups.
14. What is a Poll?
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Adding a Poll to a topic on the Message Board allows group members to vote on a question relating
to that topic.
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When you are adding a new topic to the Message Board, you can add a poll to it so that you can
gauge the opinions of the group. Setting up a Poll involves writing the poll question itself
and two or more possible answers. Group members who want to vote then selects one of the answers.
At any time you can view the results of the poll so far. Each group member is limited to one vote
on any particular poll.
15. What is a conference call?
This is when you speak to two or more people at the same time on the same telephone call. With
Conexall, there is no need to book the conference call. Unlike other conference call systems, which
require people to call in, Conexall is a call out system. You can make the call to the whole group
and whoever is available will answer and you can talk to them all at once. The only limit is that a
conference call is restricted to 8 people. So, if your group is larger than 8 people, the first 8
people to answer will be included in the call. Alternatively you can select up to 8 people from your
group to join your conference call.
16. How do I make a conference call?
You dial the Conexall conference number (0871 521 7321) and enter your group PIN.
Conexall informs you whether the conference has been successful or not. If successful you and your
group members are added to the conference. When you have finished your conversation, each group
member hangs up.
17. How do I receive messages from a group?
You set your routing preference when you are logged into your group page. The group may have a
default routing preference – say email, then text, then phone. You can change the default
setting for receiving messages from the group. Simply click on 'edit routing Preference'
then drag and drop the icons in the order you would like the messages to be sent to you. Perhaps
you prefer text messages if you are on the move a lot of the time. Most groups will also send email
by default.
18. How do I share documents, photos and videos with the group?
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Go to your group page and, where it says New Files click on Add. Then browse through your folders
and upload the document, photos or videos you want to add. You may then like to add a message to
the Announcement board, telling the group members that you've just added these new files.
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you can also download files from the group page.
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Or you can attach a comment to a particular file.
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If you send an attachment with an email to a group [groupname@conexall.com]
19. Can I access old files?
Yes. There is an archive of all files that have been added to the group page. Click on Files on the
top navigation Bar in your Group page
20. How do I add something to the events calendar?
In the calendar module, click on Add. A diary entry box appears for you to add in your event. Some
groups, such as a large club or association, may have a single main administrator, in which case,
only the administrator can add events for the group.
21. What happens if a group member does not have internet access?
People can be a member of a group and make use of the integrated communication system, without having
to access the internet. For example, if you have a family group, your granny may not have a computer
but she can still receive your email or text messages as voicemails on her phone. Or she may want to
take part in instantaneous family conference calls or even send you messages from her phone. Simply
enter her contact details into your group on the Conexall website and set her routing preference to
phone first.
22. How long should my messages be?
Messages should be kept fairly short. Although you may send a message by email, it may be routed as an
SMS text message or as a voicemail message, depending on your group members' routing preferences.
So we recommend you restrict messages to about the same length as a text message – no more than
168 characters. Messages longer than this will be truncated.
23. Can I use the system if I'm not in the UK?
Yes. If you use the instant conference call or if you initiate a message by SMS text or voice call,
you will be dialling into a UK number, which would ordinarily cost more. However, we will be adding
local numbers for other countries in due course.
24. How much does the system cost me to use?
Conexall is free to join. Currently, while we are testing the system, it is also free to use. If you
use the instant conference call or if you initiate or route create/join group and follow instructions a
message by SMS text or voice call, you will be dialling into a UK number and the cost of these phone
calls will be allocated to you, or your group, once we implement a billing system, after the initial
testing stage. These will be charged at standard call rates, though we hope to negotiate cheaper rates
with mobile and fixed line telecom suppliers, to benefit our users.
25. Can I remove my details from Conexall
Yes. Go to here and click on Remove my account.
This will remove your account but does not notify other group members.
26. Is Conexall safe and secure
Yes, only people who are members of your group can view your contact details and only if your Group
Administrator has set up group to allow this information to be shared.
27. What is a Group Administrator?
Each group should elect a person to manage or administrate the Group. This person will receive emails
from people who request to join the group. This person is also responsible for adding new members to
the groups. The group may change the administrator whenever they choose.
28. Importing contacts from your email address book
Conexall supports importing contacts from a Microsoft Outlook CSV (Comma Separated Value) file. This
allows you to create multiple non-site members to a group without having to manually enter the details
for each user via the Add Member page.
- Ensure you are in the correct group, then click ‘Members’ in the top menu bar
- From the Members List page, left click ‘Import members from Outlook
- You should now be on the main CSV importer page
- Left Click the ‘Select ‘ button, browse to the Outlook CSV file you would like to import and click Open
- Left click ‘Upload’ to upload the contacts in preparation for adding to the group – please note that this will not add the contacts to the group. It will list their details on the page
- Review the list of contacts to be added. You can remove contacts from the list or edit their details suing the buttons provided
- Once you are happy that the details for your contacts are correct, click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page to add all the contacts in the list to your group
- A green information message will be displayed above the top menu informing you that your contacts have been added successfully. If the message informs you that there was
a problem with the contacts, please check through the list for any red fields and adjust the information in them accordingly.
Note: Each contact must have a valid email address, mobile and landline phone number. I phone of your contacts only has one phone number, you can use it in both the landline and mobile fields. A red star adjacent to a detail indicates that it is invalid. You do not have to specify a physical address for any contact.
29. How do I change my contact details?
You may want to enter different phone numbers or email addresses for different groups. Click the blue arrow beside the Group Name
on the LH sidebar and select ‘Contact Details’.
To change your default contact details, click ‘Default Contact Details’ in the LH sidebar. This will not change your default contact details.