Cisco Unity Connection User Guide, Release 1.x - Changing Message Playback Settings [Cisco Unity Connection]

Table Of Contents

Changing Message Playback Settings

What You Hear When You Check Messages

Enabling the Message Type Menu

Changing Message Playback Order

Changing What Cisco Unity Connection Plays Before and After a Message

Changing Message Playback Settings

Message playback settings control what you hear when you check messages by phone. You can use message playback settings in conjunction with phone menu settings to customize many aspects of the Cisco Unity Connection conversation. You use the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool to change your message playback settings

This chapter contains the following sections:

•What You Hear When You Check Messages

•Enabling the Message Type Menu

•Changing Message Playback Order

•Changing What Cisco Unity Connection Plays Before and After a Message

What You Hear When You Check Messages

When you log on by phone, Cisco Unity Connection plays your recorded name and then tells you how many new and saved messages you have. After your message counts, Connection plays the Main menu.

Once you choose to play either your new or old messages, Connection plays them in the order you specify in the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool—first ordered by message type and urgency, then by the time the message was sent. Alternatively, if you are using the touchtone-key input style and have enabled the Message Type menu, Connection allows you to choose which messages you want to hear by type.

By default, Connection plays information about a message and the sender before and after playing the message. What you hear about a message and the sender depends on whether the message was left by another user or by an unidentified caller:

Connection user

Connection plays the message number, time stamp, and recorded name and/or extension of the user who left the message.

Unidentified caller

Connection plays the message number and time stamp.

Connection may also play the phone number of the caller, if the number is available and if the system is set up to do so.

You use the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool to specify what information Connection plays about a message and the message sender before and after playing messages.

Enabling the Message Type Menu

If you are using touchtone keys, you can choose to have Cisco Unity Connection play the Message Type menu before it plays your new and saved messages so that you can choose which messages you want to hear by type.

To hear the Message Type menu, it must be enabled. Table 20-1 lists the menu options available.

Note Connection does not allow you to specify what messages you do not want to hear when you check messages by phone.

Table 20-1 Cisco Unity Connection Message Type Menu Options

Action

Key

Voice messages

1

E-mails¹

2

Receipts²

4

All messages

#

¹Connection plays e-mails only for users who also have the text-to-speech option.

²You may not receive all types of receipts. Ask your Connection administrator.

For each type of message that you chose to hear, Connection plays the messages in the order that you specify in the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool.

The Message Type menu can be handy when you want to check for a certain message type by phone, and not check any others. For example, you may want to use the Message Type menu if you do not want to hear your receipts by phone because you like to manage them from your desktop instead.

When the Message Type menu is disabled, you will not hear it. Instead, Connection plays your messages according to the order that you specify.

To Enable the Message Type Menu in the Cisco Unity Assistant Web Tool

Step 1 On the Cisco PCA Home page, click the Cisco Unity Assistant link.

Step 2 In the Cisco Unity Assistant, on the Preferences menu, click Message Playback.

Step 3 On the Message Playback Preferences, page, check the Message Type Menu check box.

Step 4 Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Save.

Changing Message Playback Order

You can customize the order in which your new, saved, and deleted messages are played. For new and saved messages, you use playback settings to sort by message type (for example, voice or e-mail) and by urgency. In this way, you can specify that Cisco Unity Connection plays urgent voice messages first, followed by normal voice messages.

By default, new and saved messages are sorted by type in the following order:

•Urgent voice messages

•Normal voice messages

•Urgent e-mails

•Normal e-mails

•Receipts and notices

Note that except for receipts, messages are sorted so that Connection plays urgent messages for each message type first. (Receipts are sorted only by the time that they were sent.)

For each message type, Connection plays the messages according to the time a message was sent, so that either the newest or oldest messages are played first. Because deleted messages are not sorted by type, you can indicate only whether Connection plays newest or oldest messages first.

Note You cannot change the playback order for Message Locator. When Connection finds messages based on the criteria that you enter, they are presented to you in order of oldest to newest messages.

Table 20-2 lists the default order for new, saved, and deleted messages, regardless of message type.

Table 20-2 Message Playback Order

Message State

Default Order

New

Oldest message first

Saved

Newest message first

Deleted

Newest message first

Table 20-3 illustrates how message playback order works. The example shows the order in which Connection plays messages when you listen to messages on a Thursday afternoon, based on the default order settings.

Table 20-3 Example of How Message Playback Order Works

New Messages

Saved Messages

Deleted Messages¹

1. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

2. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 2:13 p.m.

3. Normal voice message sent Wednesday at noon.

4. Normal voice message sent Thursday at 8:30 a.m.

5. Urgent e-mail message sent Wednesday at 4:10 p.m.

1. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 2:13 p.m.

2. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

3. Normal voice message sent Thursday 8:30 a.m.

4. Normal voice message sent Wednesday at noon.

5. Urgent e-mail message sent Wednesday at 4:10 p.m.

1. Normal voice message sent Thursday 8:30 a.m.

2. Urgent e-mail message sent Wednesday at 4:10 p.m.

3. Normal voice message sent Wednesday at noon.

4. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 2:13 p.m.

5. Urgent voice message sent Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

¹You may not be able to play deleted messages by phone. Ask your Connection administrator.

You can set the order in which Connection plays your messages only in the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool, not by phone.

To Change Message Playback Order in the Cisco Unity Assistant Web Tool

Step 1 On the Cisco PCA Home page, click the Cisco Unity Assistant link.

Step 2 In the Cisco Unity Assistant, on the Preferences menu, click Message Playback.

Step 3 On the Message Playback Preferences page, in the New Message Play Order section, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to put the list of message types in the order in which you want them played.

Step 4 In the Then By list, click Newest First or Oldest First to specify the message order for all new messages. (Note that this does not allow you to have a particular message type played.)

Step 5 In the Saved Message Play Order section, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to put the list of message types in the order in which you want them played.

Step 6 In the Then By list, click Newest First or Oldest First to specify the message order for all saved messages.

Step 7 In the Deleted Message Play Order section, click Newest First or Oldest First to specify the message order for all deleted messages.

Step 8 Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Save.

Changing What Cisco Unity Connection Plays Before and After a Message

Message properties are pieces of information about a message that Cisco Unity Connection can play before and after a message.

By default, Connection plays the following message properties:

Sender's Information

Before playing the message, Connection plays the recorded name of the user who sent a message, if available. Connection may also play either the phone number of an unidentified caller, if available, or the extension of the user who sent the message.

Message Number

Before playing the message, Connection announces the sequential number of a message. (For example, "Message 1, a voice message...Message 2, a voice message...")

Tip Although you can turn off message counts in the Cisco Unity Assistant, it is handy to know how many messages you have. This is especially true for saved messages as you can skip ahead or back to a particular saved message by entering the message number.

Time the Message
Was Sent

This is the time stamp. Connection announces the day, date, and time that a message was sent. You can specify that Connection play this information before and/or after playing the message.

You can specify in the Cisco Unity Assistant web tool whether you want Connection to play all, none, or a combination of these message properties.

If you choose to hear message properties after listening to a message, Connection plays the following properties:

Message Type

Connection plays whether the message is new, saved, or deleted. If applicable, Connection will also play whether the message is private or urgent.

Sender's Information

Connection plays the recorded name of the user who sent a message, if available. Connection may also play either the phone number of an unidentified caller, if available, or the extension of the user who sent the message.

Time the Message
Was Sent

This is the time stamp. Connection announces the day, date, and time that a message was sent.

For receipts, the information that Connection plays differs slightly. Whether Connection plays the time stamp and reason for a receipt before or after the list of recipient(s), depends on how many recipients are associated with the receipt:

One recipient

Time stamp and reason are played after the recipient name.

More than one recipient

Time stamp and reason are played before the recipient list.

To Change What Cisco Unity Connection Plays Before and After a Message in the Cisco Unity Assistant Web Tool

Step 1 On the Cisco PCA Home page, click the Cisco Unity Assistant link.

Step 2 In the Cisco Unity Assistant, on the Preferences menu, click Message Playback.

Step 3 On the Message Playback Preferences page, scroll down to the Before Playing Each Message Play section, and check or uncheck any or all of the following three check boxes to specify what information Connection plays before each message:

•Sender's Information

•Message Number

•Time the Message Was Sent

Step 4 In the After Playing Each Message Play section, check or uncheck the Time the Message Was Sent check box to specify whether Connection plays the message time stamp after playing each message.

Step 5 Click Save.