# $ K Usenet News

The Usenet News, or Netnews, system is a kind of distributed bulletin board system run on thousands of computers world-wide.  Users of Usenet News exchange views and information by writing articles, which are then transmitted automatically amoungst the computers in the network.  Once posted, an article can by read by others days, hours, or even minutes later, depending upon their computer's type of network link to Usenet.

Articles are organized by topic area into newsgroups, of which there are currently over 1000.  
# $ K Overview of WinVN

WinVN is a Microsoft Windows-based news reader.  Like other news readers, it can be used to select, view, and write Usenet Newsarticles.  WinVN can also be used to send (but not receive) electronic mail messages.

WinVN offers a more visual approach to Usenet News than most other news readers.  WinVN allows you to easily navigate amoungst newsgroups and articles via its point-and-click interface.

In normal operation, WinVN displays three types of windows:  the main window, which displays a list of all newsgroups; one or more group windows, each of which displays a list of the articles in a newsgroup; and one or more article windows, which each displays an article.  Double-clicking on a newsgroup or article name causes that item to be displayed in a separate window.

When you want to write an article, WinVN displays a posting window for that purpose.  See Posting an Article.  Similarly, when you want to write an electronic mail message, WinVN displays a mail window to accept your text.  See Mailing a Message.

WinVN offers a number of configuration options; see Options Menu Commands.

# $ K History of WinVN

WinVN was written at home as an own-time project by an individual associated with Michigan State University.  The program and its source code have been placed in the public domain.  Because WinVN has been entered into a programming contest, the author (and other details) must remain anonymous until the judging for the contest is complete.  

Meanwhile, you can correspond with the author of WinVN at the email address winvn@clvax1.cl.msu.edu.