NewsWerthy (C) 1994, 1995 William Werth Version 2.00 I. INTRODUCTION TO NEWSWERTHY 2 1. WHAT IS NEWSWERTHY? 2 2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 4 3. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR 4 4. REGISTERING NEWSWERTHY 4 5. DISCLAIMER 5 6. THANKS AND KUDOS 6 II. QUICK START PROCEDURE 6 III. USING NEWSWERTHY 7 1. SETTING UP THE HOST (BBS) FOR SOUP PACKETS 8 2. DOWNLOADING THE MAIL PACKET FROM THE HOST (BBS) 10 3. UPLOADING A REPLY PACKET TO THE HOST (BBS) 10 4. READING THE MESSAGES IN THE MAIL PACKET 10 5. SEARCHING MESSAGES IN THE MAIL PACKET 12 6. REPLYING TO A MESSAGE 13 7. POSTING A NEW MESSAGE TO A NEWSGROUP 15 8. SENDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE 15 9. REVIEWING & MODIFYING REPLIES OR STORED MESSAGES 15 10. SAVING MESSAGES 16 11. PRINTING MESSAGES 17 12. UQWK COMMANDS 17 13. USING THE KEYBOARD 17 14. USING THE MOUSE 19 15. CONFIGURATION 20 DIRECTORIES & UTILITIES 20 MESSAGE OPTIONS 21 DATA-BASING OPTIONS 22 PRINTER OPTIONS 23 COLORS SETUP 24 16. VIEWING A FILE 24 17. ABOUT NEWSWERTHY 24 IV. EXAMPLE USES OF NEWSWERTHY 25 1. SEVERAL PACKETS, ONE REPLY PACKET 25 2. WITH PGP 26 3. WITH LAPTOPS 26 4. WITH TAGLINE MANAGERS 26 5. WITH MULTIPLE USERS 27 5. READING THE DATA-BASE WITH THE NUMBER KEYPAD 27 V. GLOSSARY 28 VI. INDEX 30 1 I. INTRODUCTION TO NEWSWERTHY ___________________________________________________________ This section is an introduction to NewsWerthy and registration requirements. 1. WHAT IS NEWSWERTHY? ___________________________________________________________ NewsWerthy is an off-line message reader for the SOUP format. This is the format generated by uqwk, when used with the +L parameter (but not the only way to make a SOUP packet). NewsWerthy can be used as a packet reader, or as a data- basing reader. With NewsWerthy you can read one packet, or messages from several packets at a time. Your position in the packet and which messages have been read are saved, so you can return to where you left off, and continue reading messages. If you want to keep any messages, they can be saved to folders. In data-basing mode you have several options as to how messages are expired, otherwise in packet mode they are deleted when a new packet is opened. NewsWerthy has a user interface with familiar pull down menus and context sensitive help that can be accessed easily with the keyboard or mouse. It has all the features you'll need to read, reply and save messages for later reference. It has several options for reading mail, depending on your preferences. You can easily read all messages, or just a few by using its search capabilities. Features: * A data-base of all your messages or just the current packets messages can be read. * Shell to DOS anywhere (yes anywhere with Ctrl-S). * An address book for email addresses with an alias for each entry. * Edit messages using your favorite editor. * Print all or part of a message. * Replies to a message in a newsgroup can be sent by email or to the newsgroup. 2 * Replies can be re-sent if auto-saved. * Messages can be forwarded using email. * Automatically appends a signature file to your replies. * Save messages to a folder using a pick list of names up to 80 characters long (no DOS filename limit). * Append or overwrite all or part of a message to a text file. * Delete unwanted messages. * Search for a message using any combination of 1) Key words in the message text 2) Subject 3) From. * Uses "smart searching" (remembers what you last searched for in a newsgroup). * All setup is integrated into the program, including color selection. No need to use a text editor on the configuration file. * Configurable to your message reading style. * Context sensitive help is displayed when F1 is pressed. * Pull down menus, with a hint line on the bottom of the screen, for the usage of each menu item. * Supports monochrome, B/W and color monitors. * Quoted text in messages is color highlighted. * Marks read, saved or killed messages. * Sort messages on date, author, subject or no sort. * Remembers what newsgroup and what message you were last reading, to easily pick up where you left off reading. * RFC-822, RFC-1036 & SOUP compliant. * Will optionally word wrap the displayed message. * Sorts mailing lists into their own separate "news" group. * Files can be attached to replies using UUEncode, XXEncode or Base64. 3 * Attached files in a message, in any of the above three formats can be saved to a text file. * Different setups can be used for each user (see section IV of manual). 2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ___________________________________________________________ An IBM PC or compatible with DOS 3.0 or higher. The monitor can be monochrome, hercules or color. A hard drive with several megabytes free. 3. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR ___________________________________________________________ If you have any questions, comments or need technical support, feel free to contact me in one of the following ways: 1) By email at billw@eskimo.com 2) I monitor the usenet newsgroup alt.usenet.offline-reader. 3) By mail at the address listed for registration. 4) In person at (206) 258-1755, evenings 5pm to 10pm Pacific time and weekends. 4. REGISTERING NEWSWERTHY ____________________________________________________________ Why register? Registering removes the opening unregistered message. The helpful (for new users) but somewhat annoying "Are you sure you want to edit the message selected?" message, plus several others are also disabled. Registered users who provide an email address will receive notice of any significant updates. There is also a 30 day evaluation period on the data-basing feature. After 30 days and 15 uses you will be asked to register. After 60 days and 30 uses, you will only be able to read new packets in the packet mode. Registered users will be able to use the protected mode version of NewsWerthy. It is the same as the shareware version, except that it requires a '286 or better CPU and uses virtual memory. This allows very large messages and 4 newsgroups to be read, since it is not limited to conventional memory. Also if you find this program useful, you will surely want to see more features added. This can only happen if I receive your support. Many hours of work have gone into making this program, so send in the registration form and you will receive a registration number. Your registration will also be good on future updates. The registration form can be printed by pressing P at the opening screen. NewsWerthy is released as shareware. You are encouraged to make copies and distribute them for others to use. The only restriction is that the copies are in their complete and unmodified form. A list of all the files is in the README.TXT file. To continue using NewsWerthy past the evaluation period, send $25 US to the address below: William Werth 4404 Terrace Dr. #4 Everett, Wa 98203 If you don't use the registration form, be sure and include your email address and the name to register NewsWerthy under, so I can send you a registration code number. If you'd like me to send your registration code by snail mail, include your mailing address. 5. DISCLAIMER ___________________________________________________________ This program has been thoroughly tested but due to the complex nature of today's hardware, the author, William Werth, makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation, any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. William Werth will not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user. William Werth shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by the use of this program. 5 6. THANKS AND KUDOS ___________________________________________________________ I want to thank my beta testers for making NewsWerthy what it is. Arnie, who named NewsWerthy. Also my girlfriend Juanita, who showed great patience while I worked many hours on NewsWerthy. Rachel Polanskis, who gave me the motivation to add attaching files. II. QUICK START PROCEDURE ___________________________________________________________ Be sure to read the README.TXT file for installation instructions. Once you've installed NewsWerthy you'll want to run NWERTHY.EXE. NewsWerthy is easy to use and takes a minimum of set-up. You can always hit the F1 key to get help, or wing it, since you will be warned of any non-recoverable actions. Most commands are executed with a single key press indicated by the highlighted letter in the menu or on the status line. On start up it will go straight to the configuration dialog if no previous set-up exists, otherwise Alt-c will get you to the configuration menu. If you are unsure of any directories, you can press Ctrl-S to shell to DOS. You will probably be able to use most of the defaults, but will need to set up the following: 1. Download Directory - Enter the drive and directory where the mail packet is located. A filename like ESKIMO.ZIP or ESKIMO*.ZIP can be included too. Including the filename in the registered version causes the file dialog to be skipped, and instead goes directly to unzipping the mail packet. 2. Upload Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Enter the drive and directory where your communication program expects to find files to upload. The reply packet will be placed here and will be named similar to the mail packet, except the extension will be .REP. I named my mail packet ESKIMO.ZIP which then translates to ESKIMO.REP for the reply packet. 6 Or instead, include the full pathname of the reply packet to always create the same name for the reply packet, no matter what the name of the mail packet. 3. Work Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Make this a subdirectory of where NWERTHY.EXE is stored. Something like C:\NWERTHY\ESKIMO will work fine. While reading messages, files in this directory are read, so be sure to put this one on the hard drive. Don't use a ram drive, if you want NewsWerthy to remember your last session. 3. Folders Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Make this a subdirectory of where NWERTHY.EXE is stored. Something like C:\NWERTHY\FOLDERS 4. Text Editor - Press Tab to move to this field. The editor is only needed if you plan to edit files or reply to messages. Enter the drive and directory where your editor can be found. Select an editor that can handle lines longer than 80 characters. Also error handling works best if the editor returns an error level other than 0 on failure. DOS Edit is a good editor to start out with. No matter what editor you chose, make sure you always save as a text (ASCII) file. Press Enter after any changes are made to save them or Cancel to ignore them. If you already have a SOUP packet, press F3 to unpack it. Select Yes when prompted to read it, and use the normal cursor keys, plus the space bar to view the messages. The manual can be printed by entering from the DOS prompt: COPY NWERTHY.DOC PRN (press return) The manual is formatted for 51 lines per page with a top margin of .4 inches. The margins are 1.25 inches for 60 characters per line. This should make it printable to single or continuous sheets with no changes needed. III. USING NEWSWERTHY ___________________________________________________________ NewsWerthy contains plenty of on-line, context sensitive help (press F1) and is so easy to use you'll probably never need to read most of this. But if you are new to off-line 7 mail reading, get stuck or just like reading manuals then here is what you'll need to know. 1. SETTING UP THE HOST (BBS) FOR SOUP PACKETS ___________________________________________________________ NewsWerthy is designed to work with the SOUP format, which generally means using uqwk. Uqwk generates an AREAS file and .MSG files containing the messages from the newsgroups you're subscribed to, plus your email. First verify uqwk is available on your BBS. Don't enter uqwk to test this, instead enter man uqwk, and while you're at it you might want to at least read the first paragraph or two. If uqwk is not available, contact your system operator on how to generate SOUP packets. To automate using uqwk you'll want to use something like the following script on your host system. This script file is included in the distribution, but here is a copy for your reference. All lines that start with #, except the first are optional. #!/bin/sh # Usage: soup [ upload ] # Process reply packet if requested if [ $# -gt 0 ] then if [ $1 = "upload" ] then echo start your upload of yourbbs.rep now! rz unzip -U yourbbs.rep uqwk -m -n +L -RREPLIES rm yourbbs.rep fi fi # Check for an existing packet if [ -f "yourbbs.zip" ] then echo Warning - found an unsent yourbbs.zip file! sz -u yourbbs.zip fi # Copy your newsgroups file to a backup directory as a # precaution cp .newsrc backup 8 # Collect your unread mail and news in SOUP format # change -B8000 to -B0 for no limit on packet size uqwk +m +n -z +L -B8000 # Zip it up, and delete files if successful zip -m yourbbs AREAS *.MSG # Download it to your PC sz -u yourbbs.zip The above file (soup) must be first transferred to your BBS using the UNIX upload command rz at the UNIX prompt. Now you'll need to make the script executable and also make the backup directory. To do this, enter the following at the UNIX command prompt: chmod u+x soup mkdir backup You may also want to change all "yourbbs" entries to the name of your BBS. If you have any problems getting the above to work, what follows is further explanation of the script to help in locating the trouble. If a particular command works differently on your system, check the manual, for example "man zip". All lines starting in #, except the first are comments. Here are the commands used for replies: rz - Starts the upload of the YOURBBS.REP using the zmodem protocol. If your communication package doesn't support zmodem, change this to something like rx. unzip -U yourbbs.rep - The -U switch forces the files in the archive to be uncompressed to uppercase, this may the default, but is included just to be sure. uqwk -m -n +L -RREPLIES - The +L indicates SOUP format, the -R contains the name of the file which points to the messages files (R0.MSG, etc.). The -m and -n ensure no mail or news is lost. rm yourbbs.rep - Deletes the reply packet. Here are the commands used for collecting news and mail: uqwk +m +n -z +L -B8000 - The +m and +n, indicate include mail and news. The -z is there just in case someone has set 9 the environment variable for Zipnews format on your host (-z turns it off). zip -m yourbbs AREAS *.MSG - The -m deletes the AREAS and *.MSG files once successfully compressed into the packet. sz -u yourbbs.zip - The -u unlinks (deletes) the packet once successfully sent. 2. DOWNLOADING THE MAIL PACKET FROM THE HOST (BBS) ___________________________________________________________ Log onto your BBS and go to a UNIX command prompt. Then run the above SOUP UNIX script from the command line like so: soup download If your communications program has auto zmodem disabled you will need to start zmodem manually. The commands from the script can also be entered one at a time to get the same effect (skip the if then lines). 3. UPLOADING A REPLY PACKET TO THE HOST (BBS) ___________________________________________________________ Log onto your BBS and go to a UNIX command prompt. Then run the above UNIX script from the command line like so: soup upload If for some reason you encounter an error and your news is lost before you get a chance to read it, simply enter the following at the UNIX command prompt, to restore your news: cp backup\.newsrc . Then repeat the download process. Although this restores the news pointers, any email that was collected, will be lost. 4. READING THE MESSAGES IN THE MAIL PACKET ___________________________________________________________ After hitting a random function key (if unregistered), you have two ways to get started. You can use either the menus at the top or the function keys at the bottom of the screen. Besides the initial setup or odd command, the function keys will be almost all you'll ever need. To prepare a packet for reading, select New Packet (F3). Select the packet using the dialog and press Enter to uncompress your mail and generate the necessary indexes. 10 Next, to read your news and mail, select Read News (F4). Pressing the space bar will allow you to read your mail sequentially from start to finish. If you read most messages, you may want to select the "Esc to Index" option from the Message Options dialog under the setup menu. Otherwise use the "Standard" option and read the section on USING THE KEYBOARD to select and read those you're interested in. If you press the space bar to read a newsgroup, only unread messages are shown. To see read, plus killed messages, press the Enter key to read a newsgroup. NewsWerthy automatically puts mail from mailing lists into separate "news" groups. It does this by reading the message headers To:, Cc:, Sender: and Originator lines. This may not work 100% consistently, because mailing lists aren't 100% consistent. To help NewsWerthy be much more accurate in separating your personal mail, be sure to enter your email address in the Reply-To picklist (the Cc: line is checked from this). To make the mailing lists more accurate, add it's email address to the address book and check the mailing list box. Your email is also put into a group called "all", if you prefer to read it all together. One way to limit the messages you read is to generate kill files by selecting Kill while reading the message. This brings up a dialog that lets you choose between killing all messages that match that subject or all messages from that author. Wildcards can be used and are explained in the on- line help. Kill files can only be used if you reading messages in the data-basing mode. The message list defaults to a sort on the subject. This can be changed temporarily to sorting on the date, author or no sort as an aid in finding a message. A sort on none will display the messages in the order they were saved to the file, with the newest first. To change the sort, select Sort Messages from the status line of the messages list. Messages are flagged read after you view them. This is indicated by "READ" in the upper right of the message and an asterisk at the beginning of each message list entry. Read messages will be skipped if you're using the space bar, otherwise use the Enter key to read messages marked with an asterisk. The - and + keys can be used to go to a read message. To mark all messages as read or unread in a newsgroup, select the appropriate command from the Newsgroups list (the first list displayed after selecting Read Mail). 11 If you come across a message that looks like gibberish, try pressing Alt-R, to ROT-13, the message. Hitting ALT-R twice restores a message back to its original state. If error messages occur while reading messages, the index or book mark files may have become corrupt or deleted. Select Restore Indexes from the News Incoming menu to generate new indexes (*.IDX) and book marks (*.BKM) from the message (*.MSG) files. You'll need to enter the filename of the packet if not present in the input line that appears. The name and extension is all that is required. 5. SEARCHING MESSAGES IN THE MAIL PACKET ___________________________________________________________ You can select the messages you read by selecting Find from the message list. This brings up a dialog that lets you search messages three ways. A search can find any matches in the text, subject or author of the message. These can be used separately or in combination, with the messages that match appearing in a message list. More than one phrase can be entered on an input line, by separating them with semicolons (;). All searches are case insensitive (matches either upper or lower case). When you use the find dialog, you may notice that some of the input fields are already filled in. This is what I call "smart searching". If you usually search a newsgroup for the same text, NewsWerthy will remember this, and fill in the field for you. In order for this to work, you need to do two things: 1) Add the search string to the appropriate picklist (open the picklist by pressing the down arrow key, then press "Alt-A" to add it). 2) Select the search string from the picklist and press Enter to start your search. If there is no previous search string for the newsgroup, NewsWerthy will fill in the fields with whatever was used last. Messages can be searched on the text portion of the message. As an example, if you enter "10 speed;15 speed" (don't enter quotes) then any message with either the phrase "10 speed" or "15 speed" in it or in the subject will appear in the Matches in message list. When you read the messages, the line where the match occurred will be highlighted (only the first match is highlighted). Messages can be searched on the message Subject or From line. Messages that match anywhere in these lines will appear in the Matches in message list. If a message doesn't contain a From line, the To or Newsgroups line will be searched instead. 12 Text in a single message can be searched by pressing "X" for Text search, from the message viewing screen. This operates similar to the Find command. The line that contains a match is highlighted in the center of the screen. This is useful for finding something in the middle of a long message such as a FAQ. Additional occurrences of the search phrase can be found by hitting the "+" key. 6. REPLYING TO A MESSAGE ___________________________________________________________ While reading a message, select Reply, which will bring up a dialog. Select Mail to send a private message, News to reply in the newsgroup, Forward to send the message by email to a friend or Mailing List (if an email message) to send a message to a mailing list (the email address in the To: line). Select Re-send Mail only from the auto-saved.replies folder to add that message to the reply packet. The default is to quote the message for all of the above, but Don't Quote can be selected to start from scratch. To send a new message use Post New Msg from the message list, or Send News or Send Mail from the Mail Outgoing menu, not the Don't Quote option. When a message is forwarded, a dialog lets you indicate who you want to send it to. A few extra header lines are added to indicate who the message was originally from. It is then quoted and loaded into your editor. This gives you a chance to delete a portion or add a note for the recipient. Read RFC1036 for detailed information on the message headers, otherwise read on. Only the Newsgroups and Subject are required, and should be entered in the Message Reply Options dialog as follows: To - This is the email address of the recipient of the email message. An alias from the address book can be entered here. An entry from the address book can be selected by pressing the down arrow key. Each alias in the address book must be unique and not contain an "@" character, but can contain spaces. The email address is substituted for the alias when the message is sent. Multiple email addresses and/or aliases can be entered on the email address line. The only limits being that not more than 255 characters can be entered and it can't expand to more than 1023 characters. Separate each address/alias with a single comma and a space (, ). 13 Cc - This is used to send a Carbon Copy to 1 or more email recipients. The easiest way to send email to group of people is as follows: Define an alias in the address book that expands to all the email addresses in the group. Then enter just the alias on this line. Bcc - Virtually the same as Cc, except that this line may not appear in the header of each of the recipients messages. Newsgroups - The Newsgroup is filled in for you automatically. To post to a different newsgroup, select one from the pick list by pressing the down arrow key or enter it in. To cross-post the message to several newsgroups, separate each with a comma (,) and no spaces. Replying to a cross-posted message will maintain the original distribution unless you edit this line. Subject - NewsWerthy will add Re: to the current subject for you. Followup-To - This is used to indicate a different newsgroup for replies to be sent to. Keywords - A few well selected keywords identifying the message can be entered. Summary - A brief summary of the message. Reply-To - To indicate an email address to send replies to. Organization - To indicate the organization you belong to. Extra Header - To add any headers lines not listed above. You'll need to enter the name of the header ending with a colon (:), a space, and the contents of the header line. When adding a non-standard header line, start it with X-. To attach a file to your message select Attach File (Alt-F). Then select which encoding method you want to use. UUEncoding is probably the most universal format, but XXEncoding is more likely to make it to the recipient of the message un-altered. Choose Base64 if the recipient of the message uses a reader that supports MIME. Large files will be split into multiple messages of 850 lines each or about 38k. There is a limit of 99 messages per attached file (about a 4 meg file). I don't recommend adding a signature to your message when using this option. NewsWerthy handles this fine, but other decoders may not be able to re-create the file, unless it is removed. 14 The editor you've entered in the Directories Setup is used to enter the message. Save the file as a text (ASCII) file and exit from your editor once you're done. Signatures can automatically be appended to your messages. Simply use your editor to enter into a file the text you want appended to the end of each reply. Name this file NWERTHY.SIG and store it in the work directory. When you're finished reading your messages, any replies you've entered are compressed and stored in the Upload Directory. If you've selected Auto-Save Reply the message is also stored in the auto-saved.replies folder. 7. POSTING A NEW MESSAGE TO A NEWSGROUP ___________________________________________________________ Posting a new message is nearly the same as replying to a message. The main differences are as follows: To post a message to a newsgroup, select Post New Msg from the messages list. You'll need to enter a subject. Choose a descriptive topic, something like Help me, isn't likely to generate a lot of interest. You can also post a new message to a newsgroup by selecting Send News from the Mail Outgoing menu. 8. SENDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE ___________________________________________________________ To enter an email message, select Send Mail (F7) from the menu screen, enter an email address to send the message to (or pick one from the picklist) and proceed the same as for Post New Msg. 9. REVIEWING & MODIFYING REPLIES OR STORED MESSAGES ___________________________________________________________ Select Review Replies (F8) from the menu screen to read your replies. Select Read Stored (F6) from the menu screen to read messages saved to folders. While at the message list or message viewing screen, a message can be deleted or edited. A reply can also be edited by pressing R (Reply). When editing a reply, be careful what changes you make to the message header. A temporary file with an odd name ending in something like .AAA is created to 15 edit the message. Select save and exit from your editor when done. Once you delete a message, its gone forever, so make backups if you can't afford to make mistakes. Replying to a reply, allows you to change any of the headers using the same dialog that you originally created it with. There are some restrictions though. The To line will be truncated to 255 characters, but can be re-entered, if this happens. The Extra Header line will only be automatically added to the dialog if it is present in the picklist. If you have added any header lines by manually editing the message, they will be lost. 10. SAVING MESSAGES ___________________________________________________________ Selecting Save while viewing a message brings up a dialog. The default is to save to a SOUP format (binary mail) folder. If the current newsgroup name matches one in the newsgroup pick list, it is displayed, otherwise whatever was entered previously is used. The default can be used or one can be selected from the pick list. If you'd rather append or overwrite all or part of the message to a DOS text file, select Save to Text File. Use the dialog to select or enter a DOS filename for saving. Select the OK button to append or the Replace button to overwrite the selected file. To save only a portion of a message to a DOS text file, highlight it using Top (mark top) and Bot (mark bottom), then save as described above. You can press Alt-T from the message to go directly to Save to File dialog. If the message contains an attached file, it can be saved to a file by selecting Save Attached File (Alt-A). The dialog that then appears works the same as the one to save to a text file. NewsWerthy supports the 3 most popular formats for DOS PC's, which are UUEncode, XXEncode and Base64. Base64 is part of MIME, and the only support for MIME found in NewsWerthy. If the attached file spans multiple messages, simply save them in order, appending them to the same file, to recreate the binary file. 16 11. PRINTING MESSAGES ___________________________________________________________ Select print, to print the current message to your printer. If your printer is off-line, you'll be prompted until you either turn it on or select cancel. To print only a portion of a message, highlight it using Mark Top and Bottom, then select print. If you want the last page printed to eject, select this option from the Setup menu, in the Printer Options dialog. 12. UQWK COMMANDS ___________________________________________________________ Uqwk provides commands to unsubscribe, subscribe, catchup or list newsgroups. A shell command can also be run, with the output from standard output mailed back to you. Normally you would enter an email message to uqwk. To simplify sending commands to uqwk, select Uqwk Cmds from the newsgroup list. Use this dialog as many times as you like. Some other readers are limited to only one message to uqwk. NewsWerthy avoids this limitation by saving your commands and then entering them in one message, and placing this at the end of the reply files. The current newsgroup is saved one key away in the Uqwk dialog. To unsubscribe to a newsgroup select Uqwk Cmds, Press down arrow and press Enter twice. That's all there is to it. 13. USING THE KEYBOARD ___________________________________________________________ The following keys can be used in dialog boxes. Esc - Exit this screen and go back to the previous screen (exits program when menu is displayed). Cancels any changes made. Enter, - Enters any changes made or chooses the selected button, same as selecting a button with the mouse. Tab - Go to next option Shift-Tab - Go to previous option. 17 Down arrow - Opens up a history or pick list if available. Hot Key - Press the letter that is highlighted of the item desired. If the cursor is presently in an input box, press and hold the Alt key, then the highlighted letter. Supports some word star control key combinations one of which is: Ctrl-y - Delete line. The following keys are used when viewing a message or list. Esc, Del - Displays the message list if viewing a message, or the newsgroup list if viewing the messages list. Enter - Go to next message unread message or selects the message from a list. Tab - Go to next subject. - - Go back one message. + - Go forward one message (even if read). , Ins - Next page or next unread message if at end of message. Page Down - Next page, stops at the end of the message. Page Up - Previous page, stops at the first line of the message header if reading a message. Ctrl-Page Down - Goes to the last line in the message or list. Ctrl-Page Up - Goes to the first line in the message. header or list. Home - Goes to the start of the message or the first line displayed in a list (not necessarily the first line in the list). End - Goes to the end of the message or the last line displayed in a list (not necessarily the end of the list). 18 Arrows - Arrows scroll text up and down, right and left. Ctrl-arrows - Right and left arrows in combination with the control key, goes to the end of the line or the start of the line. Note that by turning off the Num Lock on your keyboard, messages can be read using only the keys on the keypad. The Ins key is used to go to the next message instead of the space bar, and the Del key instead of the Esc key using this method. Pick lists are used to save information on disk, such as newsgroup names, email addresses, search phrases and such. They can be accessed by selecting an input line, then pressing the down arrow. If its a pick list (instead of a history list), you'll see several commands on the hint line. These are as follows: Add - Press Alt-A to add an item to the pick list. Duplicates aren't allowed. Edit - Press Alt-E to Edit an item in the pick list. Delete - Press Alt-D to delete an item from the pick list. 14. USING THE MOUSE ___________________________________________________________ I won't go into too much detail, but here is how to use the mouse with NewsWerthy: The message or a list can be scrolled by clicking on the up or down arrow on the scroll bar to the right of the window. Hold the mouse button down while pointing at the position icon and slide it up or down to change position in the window. Clicking above or below the position icon, scrolls up or down a page at a time. Windows can be closed by clicking on the close icon in the upper left corner. Buttons and other objects are selected by a single click on them with the mouse pointer. An item in a list may open a new window if double-clicked. For example, in the message list, double-click on a subject to read that message. Double-clicking has the same effect as pressing the Enter key. 19 Pressing the right mouse button with the pointer in the center portion of the window, has the same effect as pressing the Esc key. Double-clicking with the left mouse button on the message text is the same as pressing the Enter key. Clicking on any item in the status line (the bottom line) has the same effect as pressing the hot key. 15. CONFIGURATION ___________________________________________________________ Should you need to verify or create directories, you can press Ctrl-S for a Dos Shell. Alt-c will get you to the configuration menu from the menu screen. The Directories & Utilities dialog contains the following: 1. Download Directory - Enter the drive and directory where the mail packet is located. A filename like ESKIMO.ZIP or ESKIMO*.ZIP can be included too. Including the filename in the registered version causes the file dialog to be skipped, and instead goes directly to unzipping the mail packet. 2. Upload Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Enter the drive and directory where your communication program expects to find files to upload. The reply packet will be placed here and will be named similar to the mail packet, except the extension will be .REP. I named my mail packet ESKIMO.ZIP which then translates to ESKIMO.REP for the reply packet. Or instead, include the full pathname of the reply packet to always create the same name for the reply packet, no matter what the name of the mail packet. 3. Work Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Make this a subdirectory of where NWERTHY.EXE is stored. Something like C:\NWERTHY\ESKIMO will work fine. While reading messages, files in this directory are read, so be sure to put this one on the hard drive. Don't use a ram drive, if you want NewsWerthy to remember your last session. This directory will be created if it doesn't already exist. 20 3. Folders Directory - Press Tab to move to this field. Make this a subdirectory of where NWERTHY.EXE is stored. Something like C:\NWERTHY\FOLDERS 4. Text Editor - Press Tab to move to this field. The editor is only needed if you plan to edit files or reply to messages. Enter the drive and directory where your editor can be found. Select an editor that can handle lines longer than 80 characters. Also error handling works best if the editor returns an error level other than 0 on failure. No matter what editor you chose, make sure you always save as a text (ASCII) file. The Message Options dialog contains the following: 1. News Quote or Mail Quote Format - The first line of the quoted text can contain information from the quoted message's header, such as the name of the author or the message Id. The newsgroup name can also be included. The following variables can be used: %A Address (Email) %D Date %F Full address %G Groupname %M Message Id %N Name of author Examples: On %D in %G you wrote: In %M, %F wrote: The above would expand to: On 26 Aug 1994 08:30:00 -0800 in alt.usenet.offline- reader you wrote: In <2megq8$452@agate.berkley.edu>, William Werth (billw@eskimo.com) wrote: Note: %M is not present in an email message 2. Quoting Characters(s) - When replying to a message, the text of the message can be quoted. Up to two characters can be added to the beginning of each quoted line. To add a space use the underscore (_). For example ">_" would add a ">" character and a space at the start of each quoted line. 21 3. Word Wrap - Select this option to avoid having to scroll horizontally, to read lines longer then 78 characters. They will wrap around to the next line instead. This also will expand tabs to 8 spaces instead of one space. 4. Quote with Initials - When replying to a message, the text of the message can be quoted. In addition to the two characters that can be added to the beginning of each quoted line, the authors initials can be added. 5. Message Reading Style - There are two ways to read messages. The first "Standard" displays a message, then returns to the message list, where you can select the next message to view. You'll probably prefer this if you are reading only a few of the messages. The second "Esc to Index" displays a message, then goes to the next unread message. Esc must be pressed to see the message list. You'll probably prefer this if you are reading most of the messages. 6. Message Threading Style - Message subjects (along with number of lines and the author) are displayed in a selection list. There are two ways to sort the subject and three ways to display it. The first sorting method puts all subjects starting with "Re:" with other messages starting with R (this is the "Normal" sort). The second method ignores the "Re:", and sorts on the text that follows, grouping replies with the original message (this is the "Don't sort on Re:" sort). The second display method shows subjects without the "Re:" (this is the "Don't display Re:" sort). The third display method displays the subjects without the "Re:", and one ">" appended in front of the subject for each reference, in the References: line (this is the "Indicate thread depth" sort). A maximum of ten ">" will be added. This gives an indication of how long the thread has been active. If it is an email message instead of in a newsgroup, the subject with the "Re:" will be displayed for this last option. The Data-basing Options dialog contains the following: 1. Expiration Options - There are four different ways to expire a message. When a new packet is opened, expired messages are deleted. These options can be applied to an individual newsgroup or from the Setup menu to apply to all newsgroups. 22 Expire All Messages - This expires all messages in a newsgroup. If selected from the Setup menu, this puts NewsWerthy in packet mode (non-data-basing mode). Expire Old Messages - This expires all messages older than the "Expire Old Messages (Days)" amount. Expire Read Messages - This expires all read messages. Expire Killed Messages - This expires all messages marked killed by matching entries in a kill file. Save Read Messages - This saves read messages to the folder named in "Save Read Messages to Folder" entry. Saved messages are not deleted, and will not be saved, if they have been previously saved. 2. Expire Old Messages (Days) - Any messages older than this number of days will be expired if "Expire Old Messages" is also selected. 3. Max. Messages in Newsgroup - When the number of messages in a newsgroup exceeds this amount, the oldest messages will be expired. New messages are then added, so the actual number of messages in a newsgroup can exceed this amount. The above options are also displayed at the top of the screen for the current newsgroup while reading messages. The options takes affect if set in the individual newsgroup or in the Setup menu for all newsgroups. 4. Save Read Messages to Folder - Select a folder from the picklist, where you want all read messages to be saved. The messages will only be saved if "Save Read Messages" is also selected. The message is not saved until a new packet is opened. The Printer Options dialog contains the following: 1. Lines to print per page - This is the number of line to print per page for long messages. A printer that prints using continuous feed paper usually prints 66 lines per page. Subtract the number of lines you want for the top and bottom margin and enter that number for this setting. If you prefer no page breaks, set this to 0. 2. Top Margin - The number of blank lines to print at the top of every page. 23 3. Eject Last Page - Select this to have the last page of the message ejected when printed. The Colors Setup dialog - Colors can be easily changed using the mouse, or through a combination of the tab and arrow keys. Try changing only one color at a time and then see its effect. Some changes effect only one screen, but most change a similar type of object across all screens. There is also usually more than one place where a color can be changed in the Colors dialog. Of course this is only an option if you have a color monitor. 16. VIEWING A FILE ___________________________________________________________ To view a text file select View File (F5) from the File Menu. Use the dialog to select a file. See USING THE KEYBOARD for the keys to use (same as those for a list). 17. ABOUT NEWSWERTHY ___________________________________________________________ The replies to messages you enter are stored in several files ending with a .MSG extension. Replies to newsgroups are in R0.MSG. Mail replies are in R1.MSG. UQWK commands are in R2.MSG. Information for UQWK (or whatever you're using to process the SOUP reply packet) about the above files is stored in a REPLIES file. These are all zipped up automatically and stored in the upload directory under a file named the same as the SOUP packet, but ending in a .REP extension. If you were to manually create this rep packet you would enter: PKZIP YOURBBS.REP R?.MSG REPLIES at the DOS prompt. If the reply packet already existed you would add the -u switch to the above. Replies are deleted when a new packet is uncompressed. When an external program is run or the DOS shell is used, all but a few kilobytes of the executable is saved temporarily to either EMS, XMS or to disk, leaving more memory for a DOS shell or an external program like PKZIP. To make swapping more efficient (when there is no EMS or XMS memory) be sure to have either TEMP or TMP defined in you autoexec.bat file. These environmental variables are used for the swap file, and also for any temporary files created for editing a message. You will notice some files in your work directory with the extension .PL4, .PL5, .BKM, .DAT, .MSG and .IDX. Those 24 ending in .PL4 and .PL5 are used to keep track of the kill files. Those ending in .BKM are used to keep track of which messages have been read. Those ending in .IDX contain the index information. Those ending in .DAT contain information about the newsgroups in the AREAS file. Those ending in .MSG are created by uqwk. Those ending with .PL and a number contain the pick lists. Once you've registered NewsWerthy, the file NWERTHY.KEY is generated. Don't delete this, else you'll have to enter your registration data again. You will notice that NewsWerthy doesn't put any .BAK files (backup files) in your work directory. This saves space and time but the trade-off is that if a disk error should occur while deleting or editing a message, the data could become corrupt or lost in that file. If you have critical information saved, I highly recommend that you make backups before editing or deleting any messages. The length of messages NewsWerthy can read is limited by the amount of free conventional memory in the shareware version. If a message is too long to fit in memory, you'll be given the option to save it to a file. IV. EXAMPLE USES OF NEWSWERTHY ___________________________________________________________ In this section, I'll give examples of specific applications of using NewsWerthy. If you would like to contribute to this section, send me email about how you use NewsWerthy. 1. SEVERAL PACKETS, ONE REPLY PACKET ___________________________________________________________ You may want to read several packets, generate replies, and then upload a single reply packet. There are at least two possible ways to do this: 1) If the news packets all have the same name, just reply no when prompted to delete the reply packet, and you can keep adding to it. 2) If the news packets have different names, you will need to enter the full pathname of the reply packet for the Upload Directory, in the Directories & Utilities setup dialog. This will cause all replies to be added to this one reply packet. 25 2. WITH PGP ___________________________________________________________ Their are several ways to use PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) with NewsWerthy: 1) I've included a batch file donated by a NewsWerthy user (it requires DOS 6.0 or better to run). I've called this pgpshell.bat. You'll want to edit it to include the name of your editor. In setup enter the pathname of this batch file for the Text Editor. When a message is edited the batch file will offer you a choice as to what you want done to the message. Then it calls your editor and you enter your message. And finally, the batch file executes the proper pgp commands to perform the desired function. If your not using PGS shell with PGP, you'll need to modify the batch file further. Last I checked, PGS was available in the security directory of SimTel as pgs099g.zip. 2) Another option is to use AutoPGP. This is another shell for PGP that allows you to add commands (directives) to your replies and then modifies them according to those commands. AutoPGP is available at SimTel in the off-line directory as apgp212.zip. The next version of AutoPGP should be setup to automatically configure itself for use with NewsWerthy. 3. WITH LAPTOPS ___________________________________________________________ Many laptops have what is called a grey scale display. This looks similar to monochrome, but NewsWerthy will detect this as a color display. To make NewsWerthy detect this as a black & white display, for easier viewing, use DOS's mode command. There are two ways to do this. Either run the command "mode bw80" just before running NewsWerthy, or put this command in a batch file along with the command to start NewsWerthy, and run the batch file. 4. WITH TAGLINE MANAGERS ___________________________________________________________ There are several of these available at Simtel ftp sites. 26 One which is easy to use is SigMX 3.30. It lets you pick from a list of taglines to use, and you can change the signature file by entering its filename. This is found in the SimTel/msdos/offline directory as SMX330.ZIP. The error checking for finding files it uses is poor, but other than that it works good. Make sure you indicate the correct location of the signature file. I don't recommend you use the same signature file used with NewsWerthy (NWERTHY.SIG). You'll want to make one that is formatted with shorter lines since SigMX puts the sig on the left side and a tagline on the right. You can copy SigMX's files into the same directory as NewsWerthy if you like. 5. WITH MULTIPLE USERS ___________________________________________________________ This feature is currently only available in the protected mode version. NewsWerthy defaults to saving its setup information in a configuration file named NWERTHY.CFG. To use other setups, start NewsWerthy like so: NWERTHY SETUP2.CFG If you only want to make a few changes, copy the default configuration file to the new file, then start NewsWerthy as shown above, and make the changes. To use NewsWerthy with multiple users, simply create a configuration file for each, and then each user starts NewsWerthy with the appropriate configuration file. Make sure that each user has a different work directory in their setup information. This feature can be used whenever you need to have a different setup, such as reading news from several BBS's where you'll need a separate work directory for each. 5. READING THE DATA-BASE WITH THE NUMBER KEYPAD ___________________________________________________________ You can read and navigate through a packet with the number pad almost exclusively. All the normal navigation keys are there, plus I've assigned the function of the space bar to the Ins key, the Del key acts like the Esc key, and the * key is the same as All Read. 27 If you read a lot of messages, you may find this useful to avoid strain on your hand. The order of the newsgroups can be changed by pressing Shift and the up or down arrow key. If I only read a newsgroup occasionally, and don't want to save any messages, I'll use the "Expire All Messages" expiration option. When I'm done reading messages in the group I'll press Del to exit from it. If I want to save old messages, but don't read all the messages in the newsgroup, I'll use the "Expire Old Messages" expiration option. When I'm done reading messages in the group I'll press * to exit from it, marking all messages as read. If I want to be sure to read all messages in a newsgroup, but don't want to save them once read, I'll use the "Expire Read Messages" expiration option. When I'm done reading messages in the group I'll press Del to exit from it. If I'm reading my personal mail, I'll use the "Save Read Messages" expiration option. This way I'll save all messages sent to me. If the is a junk letter to me, I'll delete it so it won't be saved to a folder. If I want to save it in a different folder, I'll save it after reading it, so it won't be saved to the folder setup in the Data-basing Options dialog. V. GLOSSARY ___________________________________________________________ ASCII text file - A file made up of only ASCII text characters that represent numbers, letters, spaces, line feeds and the like. The file name will generally end with the .TXT extension (but could be anything). Base64 - Part of the MIME format. This is just one of many formats it supports to transfer information without using any 8-Bit characters. Bulletin Board - Also known as a BBS. A PC running a program that allows other computers to connect through the phone line. Once connected, a person can access messages, files, games, etc. This may also be referred to as the host system. 28 Downloading - Copying a file from a Bulletin Board to your PC. Hot key - Normally this is either a highlighted letter or the first letter of a selection that will cause that option to be selected (hitting the return key is not required). MIME - This stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The only support for MIME in NewsWerthy is attached files using Base64. Off-line - No connection between your PC and a Bulletin Board, the opposite of on-line. Off-line mail reader - Allows reading of messages from a Bulletin Board while not connected to the Bulletin Board. On-line - Your PC connected to a Bulletin Board via your modem and communications software running on your PC. Pathname - The drive, directory and filename of where a file can be found. PC - Personal Computer, typically an IBM compatible or other popular type. QWK format - An off-line mail format that is incompatible with the SOUP format. This format contains CONTROL.DAT, MESSAGES.DAT, *.IDX files, plus several other files. NewsWerthy can't read messages in this format. Shareware - Try before you buy software, generally you have 30 days to try it out before sending your money or discontinue using your copy. You are encouraged to share it with friends and associates, provided that copies are distributed in their complete and unmodified form, and no amount is charged for the program, except to cover distribution costs. Shell to DOS - A temporary exit to the DOS prompt to run a program or a DOS command. Return to the previous program by entering exit. Uploading - Copying a file from your PC to a Bulletin Board. 29 VI. INDEX Finding text in message 12 + Msg 11 Folders directory 7, 21 - Msg 11 Grey scale display 26 Address book 13 Help 6 Alias 13 Hot Key 18, 29 ASCII text file 28 Introduction 2 Attach File 14 Keyboard usage 17 Auto-Save Reply 15 Keys 17 Backup files 25 Kill 11 Base64 14, 28 Mail packet Bot 16 creating 8 Bulletin board 28 download directory 6, 20 Colors 24 downloading 10 Configuration 20 Mailing lists 11 CONTROL.DAT 29 Mark as Read 11 Cross-post 14 Mark as Unread 11 Data-basing Options 22, 28 Mark Bottom 17 Delete Message 15 Mark Top 17 Directories Message download 6, 20 attaching a file 14 folders 7, 21 deleting 15 upload 6, 20 editing 15 work 7, 20 finding text in 12, 13 Disclaimer 5 posting 15 DOS shell 29 printing 17 Download directory 6, 20 quote formats 21 Downloading a file 28 read flag 11 Downloading mail packet 10 reading 11, 18 Edit Message 15 replying 13 Editor 7, 21 saving 16 Email searching 12 reading 10 sorting 11 sending 15 Message Header Entering an email message 15 Bcc(Blind Carbon Copy) 14 Environment variable Cc(Carbon Copy) 14 TEMP 24 Extra Header 14 TMP 24 Followup-To 14 Expiration Options 22 Keywords 14 Expire All Messages 23 Newsgroup 14 Expire Killed Messages 23 Organization 14 Expire Old Messages 23 Reply-To 14 Expire Read Messages 23 Subject 14 Save Read Messages 23 Summary 14 F1 key 6 To 13 Features 2 Message reading style 22 File extensions Message threading style 22 .BKM 25 MESSAGES.DAT 29 .DAT 25 MIME 29 .IDX 25 Mode command 26 .MSG 24 Mouse 19 .PL 25 right button 20 .REP 24 30 Multiple users 27 New Packet 10 Shareware 29 Newsgroup Shell to DOS 29 catchup 17 Signature file 15 listing 17 Smart searching 12 subscribing 17 Sort Messages 11 unsubscribing 17 SOUP script 8 NWERTHY.KEY 25 System Requirements 4 Offline 29 Tabs 22 Offline mail reader 29 Taglines 27 Online 29 Technical support 4 Packet mode 2, 23 TEMP 24 Pathname 29 TMP 24 Pc 29 Top 16 PGP 26 Upload directory 6, 20 Pick list 19, 25 Uploading a file 29 Posting to newsgroup 15 Uploading a reply packet 10 Print message 17 Uqwk 8 Printer Uqwk commands 17 eject page 24 UUEncoding 14 lines per page 23 View File (F5) 24 top margin 23 Word star control keys 18 Printing the manual 7 Word Wrap 22 Printing the registration Work directory 7, 20 form 5 XXEncoding 14 Quote formats 21 QWK format 29 Read News (F4) 11 Read Stored (F6) 15 Reading a message 18 Reading messages 11 errors 12 Reading style 22 Registering NewsWerthy 4 Replies reviewing 15 Reply packet creating 24 upload directory 6, 20 uploading 10 Reply to message 13 Restore Indexes 12 Review Replies (F8) 15 RFC1036 13 ROT-13 12 Save Attached File 16 Save message 16 Save to Text File 16 Search for text in messages 12 Send Mail (F7) 15 Set-up 6 multiple 27 31