• Include all users on a Server: Every user whose mail database resides on the named server will receive the message. Multiple servers may be selected.

• Include all users in Group(s): Every user in every selected group will receive the message. Groups are selected only from the public NAB; groups in the local client address book cannot be used. GroupCast will send messages to any NAB group, even those groups designated as "Access Control List only." This provides a simple means to keep general Notes users from sending mailings to large groups in the NAB. Just designate the groups "Access Control List only," and Notes won't allow mail to be sent to them, but GroupCast will.

• Include all users with OU(s): You can select the OUs (Organizational Units) or Os (Organizations) to receive messages. This option is the most efficient way to send a message to everyone in a large organization. This option is not useful, however, in companies where a flat (non-hierarchical) Notes naming structure is used.

• Include all users in a specific view: This is a powerful but complex option which will be confusing to all but experienced Notes programmers and administrators. You can select a specific view in a specific database on a designated server from which documents containing distribution names will be selected. You must designate the name of the field in that document from which the recipient's name is to be extracted. If filtering of documents is necessary, special views must be built. Both the view name and field name are case-sensitive, which makes using this option all the more difficult.

Group Profiles also allow you specify that messages are to be sent in batches, which can be set anywhere from 50 to 500 messages in a batch. According to a conversation I had with Connectria, there's a timed pause between batches, but there's no documentation on the subject, and the effect of the pause, if any, is not obvious. Connectria's Web site claims that GroupCast allows you to limit the number of messages sent per minute. Sending messages in batches may be an attempt to achieve that goal, but it wasn't clear to me how it would work.

Once User Access documents and Group Profiles are created, messages may be sent. An authorized user creates a message within GroupCast in a manner similar to creating any email. You select a User Access profile from a drop-down list, thus establishing the name under which the message will be sent. In addition, if desired, you may select a mood icon.

The distribution is selected from a drop-down list of the previously-created Group Profiles, and a subject is entered. The body of the message is a richtext field and may contain anything that would go into the body of a standard email message. This includes formatting, imbedded objects, and attachments. When everything is filled out, the message may be sent immediately, or it may be saved for later editing and subsequent sending.