Voice Mail

The Northern Telecom Voice Mail system provides voice mail on most office telephones and on all apartment telephones with full service. Voice mail operates like an answering machine, allowing callers to leave a message for you while you are away from your phone. You can pick up your messages from any touch tone telephone on campus or off campus. Since voice mail is used to notify you about fax and parcel deliveries, you should learn to use this tool.

These instructions are broken into two parts. The first part provides simple instructions for listening to your voice mail. The second part begins with an overview of voice mail capabilities and then proceeds into more specific features. First time users should read part one and try it out. More experienced users may find part two helpful.

Part 1. Simple instructions for listening to voice mail

You know you have voice mail when the red light on the upper right corner of your telephone is lit. The office and apartment telephones are slightly different, but the light is distinctive and conspicuous when lit.

To listen to your voice mail messages:

From any telephone, access Voice Mail by calling 8010. From an office phone, you may simply press the "message" button. From outside the Institute, you may dial (609) 734-8010 from a touch tone phone.
When you hear the voice, dial your own extension and the # (pound) key, followed by your password and the # key again. Your password is initially either "1939" or the 4-digit extension number.
To play each message, dial 2.
After you have listened to a message, you may delete it by dialing 76. It is a good idea to delete messages after you have heard them because too many messages clog and slow down the system.
To rewind within a message, dial 1. To fast forward, dial 3.
To hear the previous message, press 4. To hear the next message, press 6.
To hear a particular message, dial 86 and then the number of the message, followed by the # key.
To exit or log off from Voice Mail, dial 83, or just hang up.

Part 2. Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about voice mail

The Voice Mail system is a full featured voice mail system intended for use in medium to very large installations. As such, it has many capabilities that you may never use. Other features will become useful to you as you become more familiar with the system. What follows here is based heavily on the Voice Mail Voice Messaging User Guide from Northern Telecom, but edited to apply to the Institute's implementation.

Voice Mail is an electronic voice messaging system that gives you a convenient and dependable way to communicate with people inside the Institute. Voice Mail gives you confidence that all your incoming and outgoing messages will be handled pleasantly and efficiently. Voice Mail answers your calls when you are busy or away from your phone, and also allows you to

compose, edit and send messages
forward and reply to messages
create lists of names for sending messages
dial by name instead of by mailbox number
set a date and time for message delivery

To use Voice Mail, you must first log into the system and then use menus to navigate its capabilities. When you are done, you log out or just hang up. Each of the topics below describes an aspect of that menu.

You must always log in to Voice Mail before using it.
You may play and delete your messages.
Recording your name for callers allows you to be identified.
Recording external, internal, and temporary greetings also helps identify you.
You may reply to a message, call the sender or forward the message.
Callers may press zero to reach an assistant or colleague.
You may simply leave a message or messages may be composed and edited.
Messages may be tagged as private, requiring acknowledgment or for delivery at a specific date and time.

The best way to learn about these features is to use them. Please read the topics and try them out with someone else, exchanging messages on a trial basis to learn the system. If you have difficulties, try the FAQ page or contact .