Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr05/wnav.zip/README.1ST

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 30KB | 599 lines

            NavCIS (tm) Special Edition    - README.1ST file

                              NavCIS SE
                           Beta Three v0.95

             (c) 1993 Dvorak Development and Publishing Corp.






WELCOME to Beta Three, v0.95 of NavCIS SE for Windows.  This is a public
beta, and anyone who wishes to, may participate.  However, keep in mind
that this is a beta version, and as such this version may contain unknown
bugs or anomalies.  By using this software, you release Dvorak Development
& Publishing Corporation from any and all legal responsibility for any
consequence of using NavCIS SE.

This file currently contains the complete release of the above product.
Future Beta releases will be done with delta files (in Lib 11 of the
PCVENF forum (GO NAVCIS)) from the current files so the next archive will
be smaller.  If you have previously downloaded earlier beta releases, please
erase your *.CDX files in the DATA directory to ensure that our new index
formats are used.  This will NOT result in data loss but rather enhance
the speed of the program.  If you do not have data you wish to save then
go ahead and delete all of the files in your DATA directory and the NAVCIS.CFG
file in the root NavCIS directory.  This will allow the latest release of the
BETA to gerenate these files again with a more efficient file format.  The
older version of the files is still supported so erasing the files is not
a requirement.

This README file is not intended to be the complete documentation since
we have a very experienced writer spending many hours writing the real
thing and I'm an engineer not known for writing (I try to get out of it
as much as possible <g>).  So you can view the online help that is
included in the product to help guide you along.

Page breaks are left in weird places in this file to allow room for
additions...



============================================================================
    NavCIS is a Trademark of Dvorak Development and Publishing Corp.

INSTALLING NavCIS SE for Windows in Windows
-------------------------------------------

first copy BWCC.DLL into your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.  This should
replace any older versions of the file that exist.  COMMDLG.DLL is
for Windows 3.0 users and should be copied to the same directory.

1. Start Windows (or return to it).

2. From the Program Manager, select the Group you wish to add NavCIS to,
   and maximize the Group.

3. Select the Program Manager's File, New option. Select Program Item, OK.

4. In Description, type NavCIS SE, or NavCIS SE for Windows.

5. In Command Line, type C:\NAVCIS\WNAVCIS.EXE (or whatever directory
   path you built for NavCIS).

6. For Working Directory, type C:\NAVCIS (or whatever directory path
   you built for NavCIS).

7. Press the Change Icon button, and select an icon the suits your fancy.

8. After selecting an icon, Press OK.  NavCIS should appear in the Group
   you maximized earlier.  Double click on it & verify that it works.

Technical Support
-----------------

Please use CompuServe for technical support.  Post your messages to the
NavCIS section.  Type GO NAVCIS to get there if you are doing it the old
fashioned way.  Otherwise, simply drag 'n drop the envelope icon onto the
NavCIS forum icon; this will bring up the Compose a Message editor.
Please be aware that we do not, as yet, have an entire forum, just one
section of PCVENF.  Our section number is 11.  And our library is 11.
You can post your questions to the NAVSYSOP, at 71333,11.  But don't send
it to SYSOP (since the Sysop for PCVENF does not work for Dvorak Dev.)

Updates via "delta" files
-------------------------

In order to reduce downloading costs to you, we have designed our updates
to works as "delta" files.  What is a delta file?  It is a file which
contains only the changes to a larger file (in this case, WNAVCIS.EXE).
When run through a delta file integration program, the changes within the
delta file are flawlessly copied into the larger original file at the
byte level.

In library 11 of PCVENF, there is a file called BUPDAT.EXE, it is a
self-extracting EXE file.  It is the "delta file integration program"
mentioned above.  You don't need it immediately, but may want it in order
to update this beta version as updates become available. Updates will
be posted in Lib 11.

You will see older beta 1 patch files already in the library.  All
patches for this release will start with WSE_ and have a two character
number and then .ZIP as the extension.  For example Patch 1 would be
WSE_01.ZIP.  The WNBP01.ZIP files are for a different beta program
and will not work with this release.

We suggest you create a catalog of Library 11 using NavCIS's powerful
catalog creation capability (simply drag 'n drop the Catalog icon onto
the NavCIS forum icon, then select Library 11).  Also go to the forum
settings for the NavCIS forum (double click on the forum's icon) and
then go to the SECTIONS settings.  Here select AUTO-SCAN LIBRARIES and
then set the DAYS BETWEEN SCAN to a number between 1 and 7.  This will
ensure that you see every file uploaded to our section on CIS.  The
update will happen every X days that you specified in the DAYS BETWEEN SCAN
setting.  This auto-scan of the libraries will only scan the libraries
that are selected in the list to the left of these two settings.  This
is the LIBRARIES list and indicates all of the libs for a forum that
NavCIS knows about at the current time.

What is NavCIS?
---------------

NavCIS is developed and published by Dvorak Development and Publishing
Corp.  The SE version is a free release of the software intended to help
new CIS users get online and as a powerful demo for more advanced users.
Some users will never feel the need to upgrade to NavCIS Pro and they
will find everything in SE that they want.  Others will want the Pro
version since it contains many powerful features not available in SE.
The SE version is not a crippled product since it really does most, if
not all, the main CIS activities and certainly does more (and more
easily) than a lot of the competition.

Differences between NavCIS SE and Pro are listed below:

NavCIS Pro extras:   (note:  not all are guaranteed to be implemented)

     - Multiple views for messages.  This includes a thread tree view,
       viewing the messages in thread order, and sorting the messages
       a few different ways.

     - Full printer support.

     - Stock quotes.

     - Weather info.

     - Support for all FILE FINDERS.

     - Multiple fonts in editors.  YES this means you can send messages
       with BOLD, ITALICS, or different FONTs in a message.  We take care
       of dividing the info so that users of other products still see
       a normal message but NavCIS users receive the multiple fonts.


     - Emoticon icons in messages.  This allows you to put the picture
       of <g> in a message (or other emoticons) rather than the text.  Users
       of other products see the text but NavCIS users see the icon.

     - Searching in message reading.

     - Different views of catalogs.  You can set different orders to view
       the catalogs by.

     - Searching in catalogs.

     - Importing messages from other products.  We will make this available
       soon for Beta testers to allow them to get all of their messages
       into the product.  (this also includes catalogs and other info).

     - Upload / Download files to and from forums.  Right now you can do
       file uploads/downloads to e-mail and download from marking catalog
       entries.  Forum UL and DL will be added for Pro.  If you need to
       do them now then you can easily use interactive mode to manually
       start a file transfer.

     - Compressed messages to reduce wasted disk space.  All message text
       will be packed into compressed data files for Pro.

     - Multiple node support and an easy way to change the current
       login script (for Road Warriors).

NavCIS SE has some extra features to make life easier.  Some of these
are:

   - NavCIS has group support.  You can group the addresses in your
     address book in many different ways.  Any user can belong to
     a number of groups.  You can then send messages or files to
     a GROUP of people.

   - NavCIS allows you to send e-mail messages or files to any number
     of receipients.  NavCIS gets around the CIS limit of 50 by
     sending more than one copy of the message with the receipients
     split between the copies.  Saves you a lot of work!

   - Smart filename support for receiving e-mail files.  If the filename
     is included in the message's subject then it will be extracted
     and used.  If not then the user's lastname is used as the base
     filename.  If all else fails then an internal filename is used.

   - you can have headers auto-scanned so that they are read on the first
     pass.

   - you can have the catalog for a forum auto-update itself every set
     number of days.

   - you do not have to join a forum, it is done automatically for you
     by NavCIS.

   - you do not have to reset CIS parameters most likely.  NavCIS can
     detect if they are really bad and reset them.  If things don't work
     once connected then try doing a manual reset.

   - section information for forums is automatically grabbed the first
     time you enter the forum.  You should update the info manually from
     that point on whenever new sections are added.  Use the Update
     Forum Info checkbox in Forum Configuration.

   - you can highly configure each forum to act the way you wish it to.

Using Help
----------

To make NavCIS SE for Windows as easy to use as possible, we've included
a context sensitive help system.  Let me explain it, for it works a
little differently than most Windows programs.  If you are pointing at a
toolbar, drag 'n drop, or forum icon, press on the right-hand mouse
button for help.  If a dialogue box is being displayed, press <F1> for
context sensitive help.  Often, there is a Help button that can be
clicked on too.

--- BUG REPORTS ------------------------------------------------------

Your help in the Beta program will enhance our testing capabilities and
ensure that the final product you will be using will be as bug free
as possible.  Please keep the "you could add this feature" to a
minimum since features are locked for version 1 and we need to be
able to get to the real bugs quickly without reading a lot of wish-lists.
I'm not saying we do not want the wish list, WE DO, but just not at this
moment when we have a lot going on.  When the product is out of Beta and
we start on future versions then we will have more time to review feature
requests.

Any bugs should be reported to NavSysOp 71333,12 (me) on Compuserve.  This
entry should appear in your address book as a default.  You can also post
questions concerning PRO to M. Ceranski 71333,11.  He will gladly answer
any information requests, sales information, and other questions including
bug reports.

--- GETTING STARTED ---------------------------------------------------

When the program comes up you will see a main menu, a toolbar, 2 pre-
created forums (left side of screen) and the drag'n drop icons (far right).

The forums are represented as mail-boxes (default) or as in-out boxes
(Configuration, Options).  You will see these icons animate to represent
the status of the forum. Envelopes sticking out off the mailbox indicate
waiting messages to be read.  A clipboard represents thread headers to be
reviewed. A clipboard with a check mark indicates headers to be read. An
up-flag indicates mail to be sent to CIS. A small up/down arrow will
appear in the upper left to indicate a file transfer or that new catalog
information has been received.  You will get the hang of these very
quickly.

Now, Ignore what you see for a moment and go straight to the configuration
menu and select Hardware (or the modem on the toolbar).  Set your
modem port, replace the 800 number with your local CIS number (or you
will be charged an extra surcharge), and alter the init strings to
match your modem settings.  You do not need to worry about adding
carriage returns or anything to the modem strings since that is automatic.
If your COM port has weird IRQ and BASE ADDRESS settings then check the
SPECIAL box and fill in the other info.  If you are in Windows then go
to the control panel to set special port settings.

Now go to the configuration menu and select GLOBAL SETTINGS or press
the globe on the toolbar.  Here you need to fill in your name, ID, and
password (which is encrypted in the data files).

A quick interjection:  The first time NavCIS enters a forum it will grab
section & library name information for the forum but nothing else.  You
need to then go to the forum settings and make sure that the sections
that you are interested in are active and others are not.  The new section
list downloaded from CIS is setup based on the NEW SECTIONS ACTIVE setting
for each forum.  This setting will either make new sections active or
not for the forum.

That is it for basic configuration.  Now we need to explain a few other
details to make sure that you can get online quickly.

--- LOGIN SCRIPTS ---------------------------------------------------

For logging into different CIS networks you may need to alter the LOGIN.SCR
file that NavCIS uses.  You can either copy one of the alternate script
files that we provide over the top of LOGIN.SCR or modify LOGIN.SCR to your
needs.  The CISLOG1.SCR is the same as LOGIN.SCR initially.  Other script
files included are:

   CISLOG1.SCR    logon to CIS network that allows ^C (default)
   CISLOG2.SCR    logon to CIS network that doesn't respond to ^C
   DATAPAC.SCR    logon to CIS through a DATAPAC network
   INFONET.SCR    logon to CIS through an INFONET network
   TELENET.SCR    logon to CIS through a TELENET network
   TYMNET.SCR     logon to CIS through a TYMNET network

Information can be obtained from CIS for how to deal with various networks.
This information is located in either the GO PHONEs menu or Compuserve
support area.  If you have questions about script programming then please
leave me a message.  A text file should be uploaded into our library
soon with a brief description of the script commands (its really pretty
simple stuff).

NavCIS Pro will make this easier by allowing multiple nodes to be set and
letting you set a login script through global settings.

Since you are about ready to go online here is a quick description
of the ONLINE MENU options...

--- ONLINE MENU -------------------------------------------------------

  NEW  - goes onto CIS and grabs new stuff just like other navigators.
         NavCIS SE will auto detect if CIS settings are bad and will
         correct them so a RESET CIS is not necessary, unless things
         don't seem to work.  The NEW button on the toolbar is the
         same as this menu item.

  ACTIONS - goes and handles the marked headers, send replies, e-mail,
            downloads files, etc. The movie Action icon on the toolbar
            is the same as this one.

  INTERACTIVE - lets you do the work and gives you a larger window to
                do it in.  If you start a download then NavCIS will
                automatically pick up and do the transfer for you.  Just
                select B+ as the protocol.

  RESET CIS - shouldn't be needed since it is auto-done for you but if
              things seem wacky then do it.  It takes a little bit
              but doesn't cost since it is in the free areas of CIS.
              If you ever see CIS ask for a <ENTER> in the middle of
              reading messages then a parameter is not set correctly
              and you should run this command once.

  For NEW and ACTIONS the NavCIS core engine will look at which forums
  you have ACTIVE (just single click on a forum to toggle this status.
  To remove an icon from the screen and turn a forum off you can do this
  from the forum configuration screen).  If no forums are selected then
  all are acted upon.  If one or more are selected then just that
  subset is acted upon.  This includes any pre-online stuff the engine
  does such as convert marked headers into online actions or delete
  headers and such...

--- FORUMS ---------------------------------------------------------------

  When you have a new forum, such as the two created for you at startup,
  NavCIS will automatically join the forum and automatically grab any
  section information it feels it needs. So the first time into a forum
  will just do this stuff and not grab and headers or do anything else.
  This gives you a chance to modify the settings in case you don't want
  the hundreds of headers from all of the sections that might be
  waiting...

  To modify the settings for a forum you can double click on the
  forum's icon and press the settings button or you can go to
  the configuration menu and select 'Forums' then put the cursor on
  a forum and hit 'forum settings'.  (I hope this is right, I'm
  doing this from memory).  Now that you have the settings up you
  can alter the basic ones like giving yourself a special name (called
  an Alias) for this one forum (if you don't then the one that you
  entered earlier in the GLOBAL SETTINGS is used for the forum).  Whenever
  you change this name then NavCIS will automatically update it in the
  forum to match.  If the forum doesn't allow name changes then NavCIS
  will just give up politely.

  If you haven't gone on-line at least once to get the forum information
  then you cannot select the SECTIONS button (well you can in the NAVCIS
  forum since it has a predefined section).  Here you can fill in the
  auto-scan keywords for the headers and tell NavCIS to either read
  all threads that have matching headers with the keywords, mark them,
  or just highlight them so I know they are there when I go mark headers.
  You can also tell NavCIS to read all new messages in the forum no
  matter what.  This option skips reading headers altogether since
  it is redundant.

  Here you can also select which sections are active (the others are
  ignored as if they do not even exist) and you can tell NavCIS to
  read all new messages from specific sections bypassing the headers
  for that section.  This is useful for the Dvorak section of PCVENF
  (NAVCIS).

  The library sections are the default ones that will come up when
  you do a catalog search and they are the ones that an automatic
  update of the catalog are performed upon.

  The auto-read threshold is a value that says "if you are going to
  auto-read a message since it matched one of my keywords, do not read
  any that have more than this number of replies since I want a decently
  small CIS bill at the end of the month!"

  From this screen you can select the MESSAGES sub-config area
  for forums.  This allows you to fill in a few other flags and such
  about a forum.  Hopefully you can figure this stuff out, if not then
  post us a message and we will gladly help out.  Also try the help
  if you get stuck.

  To ADD or DELETE forums just go to the CONFIGURATION menu and select
  FORUM SETTINGS (or whatever it is) and you have all of the buttons
  you need right there.  This includes a FORUM DEFAULTs button which
  is the template used for creating new forums.  To create new forums
  you can also DRAG the mail-box dragn'drop icon off of the vertical
  bar (the far right thing with 4 rectangular icons on it) and onto
  the empty area by the other forums.

  You will find that dragging these other special icons off of the bar
  produce other results.  See below...

  When you add a forum you can select the name from a list. The list
  of forums is over 800 (use the Browse button).  Forums with a "$"
  indicate highly interactive special forums that have a charge over
  and above standard CompuServe fees.  Forums descriptions that have
  a "+" at the end indicate forums that are not included in the Basic
  Services fee package offered by CompuServe.

--- DRAG 'N DROP ICONS --------------------------------------------------

  This thing (on the right side of the screen with a letter, a mail-box,
  a catalog icon, and a package on it) is what you can use to quickly
  compose messages, create new forums, do catalog searches and
  upload/download files (SE only supports e-mail uploads/downloads).

  Just grab one of these guys and drag it to a forum.  If you drag the
  letter then you enter the COMPOSE SCREEN, if you drag the mail-box
  onto the open desktop then you create a forum, if you drag the
  catalog icon onto a forum, the Catalog Creation dialogue box will
  appear for that forum.  The package icon is used to invoke a file
  upload via e-mail.  You can e-mail text or binary files. They can
  be mailed to single users, groups, or CC'd.

--- COMPOSE MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------

  This screen allows you to enter all of the normal info for writing
  a message.  It is also similar to the reply window.  You can use
  the combo-box to select a user from the address book if you want.
  You can also hit the CC button to send a bunch of copies to other
  people.  You can only send to a GROUP of people in the TO: field
  in MAIL.  If you want to send to other people from a FORUM then
  use the CC button and they will get an E-MAIL copy of the message
  with a header saying the original was sent to so-and-so in forum
  geek section X.  You'll figure that one out.  BTW, the list of
  addresses that you can choose from will list groups with a * in
  front of the name.  Just hit OK TO SEND to send the message.  This
  button should be a nice bright color to make it easy to find.

  You can get to compose by hitting the toolbar icon that has the paper
  with the pen writing on it or from the ACTIONS menu (I think) which
  has a compose option.

  A special note about NavCIS.  You can send messages to any number of
  people.  There is no limit except how many will fit in memory.  So
  you can send one message to 200 people and NavCIS does it nicely.
  GROUPs can only contain 50 people each so that NavCIS can split
  the list of receipients into segments small enough for CIS to accept.
  So the list of 200 people could be split into groups and individual
  users over 5 copies of the message or however it works out.

--- ADDRESS STUFF --------------------------------------------------------

  You can go to CONFIGURATION menu and select ADDRESS BOOK to enter those
  favorite addresses you send messages to.  This screen has a bunch
  of buttons across the top and then a list-box containing the current
  addresses available.  You can double click (I think) on an address to
  edit it or place the cursor on it with a single click and hit EDIT.
  ADD does what is says and so does REMOVE.  When you EDIT or ADD an
  address you can enter the SORT key which is the information that NavCIS
  uses to alphabetize the addresses.  This gives you the ability to have
  them sorted however you want.  For example, if you place the last name
  of each user in this field then they will be sorted by their last name.
  If you place any text you want in this field then they will be sorted
  by this text of yours.  The BETA will auto-copy the users name from
  above in the window last-name first so that you do not have to do any
  work if that is how you like them sorted.

  To IMPORT a pre-existing list of CompuServe users:
  --------------------------------------------------
  Go to the Configuration menu on the main NavCIS screen, and select
  Import Address Book. A browse window will appear. Select a valid file
  to import addresses (for instance, for Tapcis, the file is called
  USERID.CIS, for CIM and WinCIM it is ADDRBOOK.DAT). NavCIS can import
  files from TapCIS (5.4 or newer), OzCIS, CIM, or WinCIM.  It identifies
  the file type for you so it is easy to do.  It may take a moment to
  do the work for importing and it doesn't tell you what is happening
  (currently) so just watch the disk light to feel comfortable that
  something is really happening.  There will be a status box displayed
  by Beta.  It does tell you when it is done and if it could recognize
  and import the file.  If your file fails to import then let us know
  since it may contain something we haven't seen in our testing of
  importing.

  From the address book screen you can hit GROUP and get a list of
  groups.  Any user can belong to 0, 1, or more groups.  Just select
  ADD to create a new group, type the name at the top, then double
  click on all of the users you want added to the group.  To remove
  one just go to the other side of the window where they have been
  added to and double click to knock them out of the group.

--- AFTER A NEW, WHAT DO I DO? --------------------------------------------

  So you did a New?  Look at the icons to see what forums have stuff
  for you to examine and double click on a forum you want to deal with.
  You will get a screen that has buttons indicating the number of new
  messages since the last time you viewed new messages, another that
  will take you to CURRENT messages (those that aren't new but are
  less than about a month old) or SEARCH messages for something specific
  (this is a Pro feature).

  The messages you receive will be kept until they are as old as the
  MAX DAYS TO HOLD MSGS setting in the forum settings.  Each forum
  can be different.  When a message gets this old it is deleted unless
  the KEEP flag is set.  It will never be deleted as long as this flag
  is set (as far as we know <g>).  You can also specifically ask for
  a message to be deleted by toggling the DELETE flag when reading
  the message.  These messages are deleted when exitting the program.
  The engine performs shutdown routines and if they are long then
  deletion may be skipped until the next exit so that you do not
  have as long to wait.

  You also have a HEADERS button which indicates the number of new
  headers since you last viewed them.  They aren't erased until
  you view them and then do a NEW.  Also they are not erased if the forum
  isn't active at the time of a NEW.  If you go to this screen you
  can select headers to have read on-line.  You can edit this list by
  coming back to this screen as many times as you want until you do a NEW
  or ACTION.  At this point the marked headers are turned into actions
  and you have to do something different to alter them.  If you did a NEW
  then the header list is removed (if you have viewed it).  If you do an
  ACTION then you can go and mark more headers but the headers you already
  marked will have a READ icon next to them meaning they have already
  been read or an action is pending to read that thread.  See the section
  on editing actions before they are done below...

  If you read messages then you can hit the reply button to reply and
  you can still switch between the windows so you can move the top
  original reading window between messages and so on.

--- OUTGOING ACTIONS ------------------------------------------------

  When you do something that results in an outgoing action, you can still
  edit the action or delete it before it is done.  Just double click on
  a forum icon or select the FORUMS option from the main menu (it will
  give you a list of forums, you should choose one) and you will see
  a list of outgoing actions in the Outgoing Activities window.
  Double click on one you want to edit.  To quickly delete an outgoing
  action, highlight it and press the <Del> key.

  When you select the action you will get a screen that shows info on
  the action.  Most actions you can EDIT (hit the EDIT button) or DELETE
  (the DELETE BUTTON) at this point. A marked header cannot be edited,
  it can only be deleted which basically unmarks the header.  When you
  edit an action you can change a lot of the info including the forum
  and section it was sent to.

--- MISC STUFF -----------------------------------------------------------

- FILE transfers seem to work fine.  If you want to do forum uploads
  or downloads manually then just go INTERACTIVE and get to the lib,
  browse for the file, select DOWNLOAD, then B+ protocol, then enter
  the filename for your computer and NavCIS will sense the transfer and
  do the rest.

  If you include the native filename on the subject line,
  NavCIS will send it, and another NavCIS user can receive it,
  with its native filename intact.

- The ABOUT menu option under the FILE menu will display
  the exact version of NavCIS SE you are using (this is changed by
  delta file updates when they update the WNAVCIS.EXE file) and
  Free System Resources.

THAT'S IT FOR NOW!!  Post any questions you have in GO NAVCIS section
11 and one of us will answer quickly...


See you in cyberspace! (not my term, but my bosses <g>)

  --Jayson Minard (NavSysOp) 71333,12




============================================================================
    NavCIS is a Trademark of Dvorak Development and Publishing Corp.

    Dvorak Development and Publishing Corp.        phone [phone]
    P.O. Box 18362                                 fax   [phone]
    Boulder, Colorado 80308