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!Help
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1997-07-17
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7KB
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150 lines
Name : NewsScan
Purpose : A tool to allow you to edit Voyager's outgoing news postings.
Author : Richard Goodwin
Status : Freeware
Version : 1.00 (July 1997)
This application, along with the files contained within, © Richard Goodwin
1997. This application may be freely distributed by any means AS LONG AS:
* all files remain intact (the options file may be changed)
* no unreasonable charge is made.
Interactive !Help support included.
Disclaimer:
~~~~~~~~~~~
If it goes wrong, tough.
If it goes right and deletes something you really would rather it hadn't, tough.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. This software allows you to change news postings.
a. No line should really be longer than 80 characters. Most Acorn news
software can handle lines of longer than 80 characters, but PC people
might get VERY shirty. USe !Edit's 'Format' command (press F6) if in
doubt.
b. This software should not be used for faking addresses.
2. If you don't like the abbreviations used in the program, you can bring up a
menu, click on "Choices..." and change options. Click "Okay" to set, and
"Save" to set them perminantly.
3. No, it doesn't do incoming news, or any email stuff.
PostScan does outgoing emails though, so get that as well!
Using NewsScan:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once loaded NewsScan will immediately scan for mail in Voyager's outgoing news
box (if found), and a window will pop open to display what has been located.
For a healthy message there will be a line looking something like this:
_______________________________________________________________________
| Subject: | Groups: | Date: | Size: |
|-----------------------------------+-----------------+---------+-------|
| Mars pictures at www.argonet.co.uk/ A.A.Assist 17-07-97 750 |
Note that the Groups section has bits missing from the address - this is
supposed to happen! So that I can get as much information on screen as
I can various abbreviations can be used. IF you don't like this, press the middle mouse button, select the "Choices..." menu option and a window will
appear which allows you to change the amount of abbreviation that takes place.
You can then select a posting from the list by clicking once with the left mouse
button on any part of the display for that message, and de-select it either by
selecting another posting or by clicking on it with the right mouse button.
Double-clicking with the left mouse button will load that message into your
favourite text editor so that you can re-edit it before it gets sent.
If you select a message then you can do various things to it using the buttons
on the bar above the list of messages.
AutoScan: With this ticked, NewsScan will look for changed every 2 seconds and
update accordingly. IF you don't like this, untick it and use the "Update"
button to change the listing manually.
The "writing hand" icon will load the currently selected message into your text
editor. This should work for !Edit, !StrongED and !Zap, even if they're not
loaded at the time. However, if the file is not settyped properly to &FFF (a
plain text file) it won't work - see the section on the Info Window for more
detailed information.
The big blue and white "i" button opens up the info window - this gives more
detailed information on the selected email, and allows you to do some more
advanced operations on it.
The next icon, which looks like a bin, will delete the selected message.
If the file cannot be removed from the OutGoing directory then no error
will pop up, but the message will still be listed in the main window.
This might be because it wasn't created correctly and is still "open", so
reset your machine and try again.
The "post box" will kick the news sender into life IF YOU ARE ONLINE.
Don't do this is news is already sending, or you will send two copies of
everything!
The next icon looks like a directory, and opens up the outgoing news
directory for you to examine.
The icon that looks like a magnifying glass will re-scan the outgoing mail
directory. Handy if you've made some changes and want to update the list.
At the right hand side of the tool bar are three icons which control which part
of the news list you're looking at; the main window will only display ten
messages at a time, so you use the "PREV" and "NEXT" buttons to flip between
pages. The icon in the middle displays which messages are currently being
displayed, and how many there are in total.
The Info Window:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This shows a lot more information on the currently selected message, and allows
you to do a few more things with it.
From the top, you should get a display which tells you:
* the name of the file containing your message (usually something like
"!Voyager....26000298"). At the bottom of the window there's a "View message"
button, click on this to load it into your text editor.
* the date the message was "sent" (i.e. when you clicked on the "Post" icon in
the news program)
* The filetype - news postings should be type &FFF, which is the serial number
given to plain text files. If not, you can use the "Set filetype" button to
make it appear as a text file.
* the subject you've entered for that message
* which group(s) the message is being sent to, abbreviated (or not, depending
on your options) as in the main listing.
* the "Followup" section shows where replies are supposed to be sent; if this
says "Not set" then replies to your message will go to the same group(s) you
are sending to, but you can, for instance, send something to
"argonet.acorn.binaries" and then set he followup so anyone replying to your
message will be posting to "argonet.acorn.misc" (in fact, postings to
a.a.binaries /must/ have the followup set to another group!)
If this window shows that the file has information missing then the news posting
is probably corrupted. You should try editing or deleting this file before next
logging on.
Underneath the information are a number of buttons:
* View message - load the message into your text editor
* Set filetype - make the selected email appear as a text file, although if
it's not already then there could be trouble...
* Delete whole message - same as the other delete button, it deletes the news
posting.
* Cancel - just closes the info window. It's bigger than that titchy close icon
though! :)
History:
~~~~~~~~
1.00 (17 Jul 97) - first release version.
With thanks to Vince Hudd (SoftRock) for his code fragments!
Note: this program is, by popular demand, based on version 1.04 of PostScan,
which does the same job but for email postings.
Contacting me:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've tried to make this program as bomb-proof as possible - it'll even work
with directories and ArtWorks files dumped in the outgoing directory! - but of
course no program is infallible. You can contact me at the address below.
This program is unsupported (i.e. don't go ringing Argo technical if it goes
wrong!), but if you have any suggestions, observations or bug reports you can
email me at:
rich.goodwin@argonet.co.uk
Richard Goodwin.