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The MegaMail(tm) Reader Copyright 1990, 1991 by Kip Compton ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Documentation for Version 2.1 MegaMail(tm) is a trademark of Kip Compton. This document and the program it describes are Copyright 1990, 1991 by Kip Compton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2 Table of Contents License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Registering Your Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Special Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The MegaMail System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Note to Mouse Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Note about the "Pick Lists" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Installing the MegaMail Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Configuring Your Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Directories Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The PKZIP Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Screen Display Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Message Handling Category . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Entering Messages Category . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Quick Scan Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Miscellaneous Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The MegaMail Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Use with the MegaMail Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Use with "QWK Standard" Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Reading Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Statistics Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Viewing ANSI Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Leaving Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The Enter Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Tag Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Deleting Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Editing Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Using an External Spell Checker . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Switching Between Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Printing and Saving Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 "Reverse" Threading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 About The Personal Read Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 "Another Reader" Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Quoting Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Quick Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 BBS/Conf/Thread Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Tagged Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3 Command Line Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Repairing and Purging Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Reading Bulletins, News, and New Files . . . . . . . . . . 44 Using John Hancock with MegaMail . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Receiving Files from QMail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 DOS Hotkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Keyboard Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Appendix A : Summary of Available Commands . . . . . . . . 50 Appendix B : "Variables" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 4 License Agreement The MegaMail(tm) Reader ("The Software") is COPYRIGHT 1990, 1991 by Kip Compton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not engage in, nor permit third parties to engage in, any of the following : A) Making alterations of any kind in the software. B) ATTEMPTING TO DISASSEMBLE, DECOMPILE, OR REVERSE ENGINEER THE SOFTWARE OR THE FILES IT GENERATES IN ANY WAY. C) Granting sub-licenses, lease or other rights in the software to others. The author of the software grants you a license to use this software as long as you meet the above conditions. Any violation of the above conditions will result in the termination of your license to use this software. Upon termination of this license for any reason, you must stop using the software and destroy all copies of it in your possession immediately. In addition, the author reserves the right to cancel your license to use this software at any time for any reason that he sees fit. The author of this software is not liable for damages suffered as a result of the improper use, proper use, or inability to use this software. This type of disclaimer is prohibited by law in some states, and is therefore void in those states. 5 Registering Your Reader The MegaMail Reader is distributed as "Shareware." This means that the reader is distributed freely to whoever wants it, without charge, for a trial period. After you have used the reader for a reasonable trial period (2 to 4 weeks is normal), you should assess how much the reader is worth to you. If the reader is worth something to you and you intend to continue using it, you should register it. Registering the reader ensures that there will be continued support and new versions of the Reader. In addition, registered users of the reader are given help before unregistered users when seeking support. The MegaMail Reader costs $20 to register. A file READER.REG is included with the reader. To register your reader, print out the READER.REG file and fill it in. Send the completed form, along with a $20 check or money order made out to Kip Compton, to Kip Compton MegaMail Reader Registrations 13509 Fowke Lane Woodbridge, VA 22192 Within a few weeks, you will receive a disk mailer in the mail with your registered reader in it. The latest version of the reader will always be sent. Your new registered reader will not have the initial screen that is present on the unregistered version. About the Author The author of this program (and its documentation) is Kip Compton. Kip lives outside Washington, DC, where he attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Kip is currently a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Kip has been producing shareware and commercial software for four years. Kip is also the author of PCRelay, a very popular BBS networking software. Special Thanks While countless people have helped with the debugging of the MegaMail reader, the following people deserve special thanks for their dedication and time: Dane Beko, Jim Hanoian, Jack Howard, Leonard Hult, Bill Hunt, David Jones, Jordan Klein, Ken Manuel, Mark May, Dan Moore, Bob Moss, Andreas Scheen, Ron Simonton, Kazys Vasaitis, and Chris Waters. In particular, Ron Simonton has been responsible for much of 6 the organization of the entire beta testing cycle. Without each of these dedicated individuals, MegaMail would not be where it is today. The MegaMail System The MegaMail System allows you to download and upload mail to and from BBSs. The MegaMail Reader works with the MegaMail Door and/or .QWK compatible doors (such as QMail, MarkMail, and Tomcat!) to form a complete and powerful mail manipulation system. You can download your mail from any BBS using the a mail door and then use your reader to read and reply to that mail. Your replies are then uploaded back to the BBS using the door. Why would you want to go to the trouble of using the MegaMail System? The biggest advantage of the system is the time you will save on-line. Instead of logging on to a BBS and spending an hour reading mail, you can download your mail and upload your responses in just a few minutes. This convenience is especially desirable if you do long distance calling! In addition, MegaMail can be a blessing if you like to play on-line games -- with MegaMail, you'll have time to explore the BBS and participate in the message bases as well! Another advantage that only the MegaMail System offers is a consistent user interface. Since the MegaMail Door uses our exclusive UTI technology, it is compatible with a wide variety of BBS software. This allows you to use the MegaMail Reader with virtually any BBS you call regardless of the software that particular BBS is using. You use the same commands to read and reply to your mail on all the BBS's you call, thus saving you hours of learning time. In addition, since the MegaMail reader supports the popular ".QWK Standard", you can use it with BBS's running the Tomcat!, QMail, and MarkMail doors as well! While it is marvelous to have a consistent interface, the MegaMail Reader is also powerful, incorporating searching algorithms usually reserved only for advanced databases. These sophisticated techniques allow you to view your mail in the particular manner that you wish. If you wish, you can read the mail on a conference by conference basis, or subject by subject. You can read your personal messages first and then go back and read the rest of the mail. You can even read all of the mail from or to a particular user no matter which BBS or what conference the message was left in! 7 Another important advantage of the MegaMail reader over other readers is its ability to keep mail in the reader. With other readers, you can only read the mail in the one particular "packet" that you have in the reader. Thanks to it's sophisticated database design, you can read mail from any packet with the MegaMail Reader, making it much easier to refer back to previous messages! The MegaMail user interface is very user friendly. Instead of complex, remote BBS menus and cryptic commands, you select functions from easy to use bar menus. When entering messages, you use a full featured screen-oriented text editor instead of the usual BBS's cryptic line-oriented editor. The MegaMail Reader even has built-in mouse support for those who prefer to use a mouse! Note to Mouse Users The MegaMail reader contains a consistent mouse user interface for those of you who prefer to use a mouse. The mouse can be used to select options from either the menus or lists, and is also available while editing messages. In addition, the right mouse button functions as the Esc key, while the left mouse button functions as the ENTER key. In addition, many lists (ie, of conferences or BBSs) have "scroll bars" on the right border of the windows. These scroll bars can be used to move quickly through the lists using your mouse. A Note about the "Pick Lists" "Pick Lists" are bar-menu screens that list items such as BBSs or conferences. Whenever you are selecting an item from one of these lists, you can search for a particular item by typing the first few letters of the item you are searching for. For example, if you were searching for the "Unix" conference from a long list of conferences, you could type UNI and it would probably be found. Note that you can continue to add letters until the actual item you want is highlighted. As you type, matching letters will appear in the lower left hand corner of the listing. 8 Installing the MegaMail Reader Unzip the MegaMail reader .ZIP file into a subdirectory that you have created for your reader. It may be called anything that you wish. The ZIP file will contain the following files: MEGAREAD.EXE MEGAREAD.DOC READER.REG IMPORT.BAT EXPORT.BAT PACKING.LST (additional files may be included; see PACKING.LST for details) Other programs that you will need to use this reader: PKZIP.EXE PKUNZIP.EXE ZMODEM Communication Protocol ZMODEM is necessary because the MegaMail Door of the BBS that you will be calling only handles ZMODEM file transfers at this time. Of course, if you plan to use the reader with .QWK doors, you will need to have whatever communications protocol they are using available so that you can upload and download mail packets to the door. Configuring Your Reader Execute MEGAREAD.EXE. The first thing you will see is: +================================+ | BBS Read Utilities | +------------+---------------+-------------------+ | Repair/Purge | Required | | Edit Macro | Direc+--------------------+ | Configuration | PKZIP| Upload Directory | | Tag Lines | Scree| Download Directory | | Colors | Messa| Work Directory | | DOS Shell | Enter| PKZIP Path | +---------------| Quick| PKUNZIP Path | | Misce+--------------------+ +-------------------+ 9 The configuration options are divided into several different categories so that you can easily find the options that you are looking for. Since you don't have a configuration yet, the reader has automatically put you into the special REQUIRED category. The required category has all of the configuration options that must be configured for proper operation of the reader. All of the rest of the options are for fine-tuning the reader's operation to your own preferences. Each option is configurable for your particular setup. You may choose the option you wish to configure by moving the highlight bar, using the up and down arrow keys, to that option. Then press the ENTER key to change it. Since the reader will automatically find the path for PKZIP, PKUNZIP and your work directory, the only fields that you must configure yourself are the upload and download directories. Most of the options in the configuration are there simply to allow you to customize the reader, and you can always come back later to alter any of these options. The upload and download directories may be different directories or the same directory. The download directory specifies the directory where the reader will look in order to find the file you downloaded from the MegaMail Door on the BBS you called. The upload directory is the directory where the reader will put the file that you will upload to the MegaMail door. These directories should be configured to be the same directories that your communications program looks for a file to upload and places a downloaded file. If you're not sure what these directories are, you should probably set them both to be the subdirectory where your communications program is located. The Directories Category The directories category has all of the directory paths that the reader needs to function. These include your upload directory, download directory, and a work directory for the reader to use. To change the options, simply highlight the option that you want to change and press the enter key. You will be prompted for a new directory at the bottom of the screen. For descriptions of these categories, see above. In addition to the upload, download, and work directories, the directory category includes a Swap Directory, .QWK "Stuff" directory, and an External Editor directory. 10 The Swap directory is the location where the reader will place it's swap file if you have the reader configured to swap to disk when it shells out to DOS. The reader will automatically fill in this directory for you, but if you have a ram disk, you may wish to put it's root directory (or other directory) as the swap directory. To work successfully, your ram disk will need approximately 300k of free space available when you shell out. The .QWK "Stuff" directory is the directory that the reader will use to store news, welcome screens, and bulletins from "QWK Standard" mail doors. The default value for this directory is the directory QWKSTUFF directly under the directory that the reader is installed in. The External Editor directory is the directory where the reader writes out quoted text and expects to find entered text from the external editor. If you plan to use an external editor and have a RAM disk available, specifying a directory on your RAM disk will improve performance when shelling out to your external editor. The PKZIP Category The PKZIP Category allows you to define how the reader uses PKZIP and PKUNZIP. You can define the full paths to both PKZIP and PKUNZIP, and whether the reader will swap to DISK or EMS when it invokes PKZIP or PKUNZIP. The Screen Display Category Exploding windows are windows which "explode" open instead of just appearing. Noisy windows are exploding windows that make a noise as they explode. Both of these options are simply personal preference, and you may wish to try out different combinations to see what you like best. To turn these features on or off, move the bar to that option and press the enter key. When you press the enter key, the value will change. The Personal Beeper option beeps when a message addressed to you is shown. Many people like this as it "marks" messages addressed to them and aids in quickly reading through hundreds of messages without missing any addressed to them. The header line option controls whether a line is displayed between the message header and the message text. To change the option, simply highlight it and press the enter key. 11 The stats display option controls whether message base statistics are displayed on the bottom of the screen while reading mail. You can toggle this option on the fly while you are reading mail. The Message Handling Category The Messages From You are Read option allows you to have mail that you left (ie FROM YOU) marked read when it is imported. This keeps you from having to read mail that you left over again. The reader also has a "door text in message" option. Each time you use the MegaMail Door, the door sends you a listing of what it did, along with any warnings about what didn't get done. If this option is turned on, the listing from the door is placed into a regular message instead of being displayed when mail is imported into the reader. The (NEW) Mail Marked as Read option controls whether mail you enter in the reader is marked as read in the reader. Usually you will want this option on so that you don't have to read mail that you entered. The Form Feed on Printed Messages option will automatically append a form feed to each message that you print from inside the reader. This is particularly useful if you have a laser printer since they don't eject the page until a form feed is sent, and it has the effect of putting each message on its own page on a regular printer. The Read by BBS/Conf/Thread option will cause the BS/Conf/Thread Listing to pop up whenever the conference or BBS changes, thus letting you know when you are moving from conference to conference. Some people like to have this option turned on, some like it turned off -- it is purely a matter of preference. The Kill Exported Mail option will automatically kill mail after it is successfully uploaded to the BBS. This option is usually desirable since you will download the mail you exported the next time you connect with the BBS. The Protect (NEW) Mail Option automatically marks new mail that you enter in the reader as being 'Permanent,' preventing you from accidently deleting it before uploading it. This option works well with the Kill Exported Mail option and is usually desirable. 12 The Entering Messages Category The quoting prefix is the character(s) that will precede each line of quoted material. Quoting allows you to copy or cite text from prior messages when you are entering new ones. If you are not sure about this option, leave it set to the default and you can come back later and change it. You should not make your quoting prefix more than a few characters. If your quoting prefix is too long, you will lose characters at the end of each line of text you quote. If you would like to have the initials of the person who wrote the text you are quoting to be in your prefix, simply put $I (dollar-sign upper case I) where you want the initials to appear. The reader will automatically replace the $I with the initials when you quote text. The Move after Reply option controls whether the reader automatically moves to the next message after you reply to a message. This option is purely a matter of preference and you can always come back and change it later. The autoindent option controls whether the internal editor starts in autoindent mode or not. Once again, this option is purely a matter of preference, and you can change it at any time by coming back to this menu. The right margin option controls where the internal editor word-wraps messages that you enter. By default it is 67. The largest allowable value is 72, the maximum width of a message text line. It is suggested that this value be kept a few characters under 72 so that when people quote messages you enter fewer characters are lost. The external editor option allows you to define an external editor (such as QEdit or WordPerfect) for use with your reader. The editor you choose must be able to work with ASCII text files. Before shelling out to the external editor, the reader generates two files. The first file, REFER.TXT, contains the entire text of the message that you are replying to, with the quoting prefix placed at the beginning of each line. The second file, MESSAGE.TXT, is the file which you should save your message text to. (It may also contain quoted text if you are using the auto-quote feature.) An example configuration for Qedit might be "Q MESSAGE.TXT REFER.TXT". The Swap to External Editor option controls whether the reader swaps to DISK/EMS when executing the external editor. If you are using a large external editor such as WordPerfect or a editor that requires a lot of memory, you should set this option to YES. If your editor will work in less memory (for example Qedit), then you should set this option to NO 13 because the reader will be able to execute the external editor faster if it does not have to swap. The Header in REFER.TXT option controls whether the message header is included along with the text of the message that you are replying to in the REFER.TXT file. This option is purely a matter of personal preference, and you can always come back and change it. The Suppress Tag Lines option, which is only available to registered users, allows you to disable the tag line option on your reader. You may want to do this in order to use a third-party tag line generator, or you may want to do this because you do not like having the MegaMail Reader tag line on each of your messages. (This option does not effect the tag lines on messages you download -- only on the new messages that you enter and upload.) The Define Spell Checker option allows you to define an external spell checker for use with the internal editor. Before executing the spell checker, the reader generates a file MESSAGE.TXT which contains the text of the message currently being edited. After the spell checker has been run, the reader reads this text file back in and replaces the text that was being edited with it. A popular and excellent choice for an external spell checker is ShareSpell by Acropolis Software. If you are using ShareSpell, your configuration should be "SS MESSAGE.TXT". The Spell Checker Swaps option controls whether the reader swaps to DISK/EMS when executing the external spell checker. Once again, if your spell checker will run with this option set to No, you should keep it set to No because the Spell Checker will be executed faster because the reader does not have to swap to DISK/EMS. However, many spell checkers require a lot of memory, and if this is the case with yours, you should set this to YES so that your spell checker will have enough memory to run in. Quick Scan Category The Format String for the Quick Scan controls what the Quick Scan displays and how it displays it. You have complete control over what information is included in a Quick Scan and where it is displayed through the Quick Scan format String. Basically, the way it works is that the reader replaces certain "variables" with their values when it displays the quick scan lines. It leaves the rest of the format string as it is. Here are the variables: 14 $BBS = BBS message came from/is going to $CONF = Conference $NUM = Message Number $REF = Message's Reference Number $DATE = Message's Date $TIME = Message's Time $PRIV = Is the msg private? (ie, Y or N) $READ = is the msg read (ie, Y or N) $ECHO = Echo Message on Network? (ie, Y or N) $PERM = Is the msg permanent (ie, Y or N) $EXPORT = Export this message to bbs? (ie, Y or N) $IMPDATE = Imported Date of message $PREAD = Personal Read flag on msg (ie, Y or N) $FROM = Author of message $TO = Addressee of message $SUBJ = subject of message. $TAG = check mark if tagged, a space otherwise. $SYSTIME = System time (ie current time of day) $SYSDATE = System date (ie current date) All of these "variables" must be followed by a : and a length specifier. for example: $SUBJ:15 would be the first 15 characters of the subject. If you leave off a length specifier all together (ie, no : or number), the variable will be ignored. To give you an idea of how this works, here is the default Quick Scan Format String: $TAG:1$BBS:10 $CONF:10 $SUBJ:15 $FROM:20 $TO:20 Note that you can put anything you wanted in it: $BBS:10│$CONF:10│$SUBJ:15│$FROM:20│$TO:20 would give you vertical lines between the fields instead of spaces. Note that these "variables" are valid in DOS hotkeys, Tag lines, and keyboard macros as well. One limitation of the quick scan format string is that there must be a separating character (ie, a space or a vertical bar, or whatever) between the metastrings that are substituted for. Failure to have a separating character will probably cause your machine to lock up when you enter the quick scan. 15 The Anti-Skid Operation option causes the keyboard not to "skid" during the quick scan. Generally, if you have a slower machine, it is good to set this option on, but otherwise it is a good idea to leave it turned off. You can always come back and change these options by coming back to this menu. Miscellaneous Category Delete Default defines whether the default when you press Alt-K (kill a message) is "Yes" - delete or "No" - don't delete. Beginning users will probably want this default to be set at No, thereby not allowing message deletion just by pressing the Enter key and saving you from deleting a message by mistake. More advanced users will probably want this option to be yes as this allows you to more easily delete messages. This option is a matter of personal taste, and again you can change it at any time. The Auto Unread Scan option allows you to have the reader automatically scan for unread mail. If turned on, the reader will start in a scan mode showing only those messages that you have not read. (See the section on Searching for details.) This option is a matter of personal taste, and as you can change it later. The Auto Import/Export option controls whether the reader automatically manages the Importing and Exporting for you. It is highly recommended that you leave this option at YES. Use EMS when swapping controls whether the reader tries to use EMS memory instead of disk when swapping to execute a program. You should leave this option at YES unless you observe unusual behavior when you execute external programs such as your spell checker or external editor. Swapping to EMS memory is much faster than swapping to disk, so it is to your advantage to leave this option at YES. The DOS Shell Swaps controls whether the Alt-D "anywhere" DOS shell swaps to EMS/Disk. This proper setting for this option depends on a variety of things, including what you generally do in your DOS shell and how much EMS memory you have. You can always come back and change this option by coming back to this menu. The Hide Work Directory option controls whether the reader "hides" its work directory by deleting it when it is done with it or not. In general you should leave this option at Yes because it makes your directory structure a little simpler because the work directory is not there. 16 The Text File Viewer option allows you to specify an external program (such as LIST) for viewing bulletins, news files, and welcome screens from "QWK Standard" mail doors. The default value for this option is blank, which causes the reader to use its own internal text file viewer. The Text File Viewer Swaps option allows you to control whether the reader swaps itself to disk or EMS memory when it shells out to the external Text File Viewer. For optimal performance, you should leave this option set to "No" unless your external text filer viewer runs out of memory when you shell to it. The Keep .QWK Contents option allows you to control whether the reader keeps the "contents" (news, welcome screens, bulletins, etc) of the .QWK packet for viewing. If you don't plan to ever read bulletins, news files, or welcome screens, you can set this option to "No" to save time and disk space. The Generate Empty .REPs option controls whether the automatic import/export system generates empty .REP files. Normally, you would not want the reader to generate a .REP file if there were no messages to be uploaded. However, if you are writing scripts or batch files that assume that there is a .REP file, you can set this option to "Yes" so that there is always a .REP file, even if it is empty. The Ask if U/Led .REPs option controls whether, on startup, the reader asks if you have uploaded .REPs that remain in the upload directory. If the automatic import/export system sees a .QWK file from the BBS, it assumes that you uploaded the .REP file for that BBS. This option controls the reader's behavior if there is a .REP file but no .QWK file. If this option is set to "Yes", then the reader asks you if you uploaded the .REP file. If this option is set to "No", the reader assumes that, since there is no .QWK file, you did not upload the .REP file. It is suggested that you leave this option turned on (ie Yes). 17 The MegaMail Cycle The MegaMail system consists of two programs: the MegaMail Door (or any "QWK Standard" mail door) and the MegaMail Reader. The mail door runs on BBS systems and actually gets the mail from the BBS's message bases and places the new mail into the BBS's message bases. The MegaMail Reader runs on the user's machine and allows the user to read the mail that has been downloaded from the mail door: BBSID.DL or BBSID.QWK Messages and Conference Information +----------+ ===>===>====>===>====>====>===> +----------+ | Mail | | MegaMail | | Door | The MegaMail Cycle | Reader | | | | | +----------+ <====<===<===<====<====<====== +----------+ (BBS) New Mail and Conference Selections (User) BBSID.UL or BBSID.REP Procedures for using the MegaMail Reader with the MegaMail Door and with "QWK Standard" doors are slightly different. Below, there are two sections, one for using the reader with the MegaMail door, and one for using the reader with "QWK Standard" doors such as MarkMail, QMail, or Tomcat! Use with the MegaMail Door Each BBS that is running the MegaMail door has a "BBSID." A BBSID consists of letters and numbers, and may be up to 8 characters long. To find out what the BBS ID of the bbs(s) that you wish to use MegaMail with, ask the sysop or open the door. The door will show you what the BBSID of the BBS is and then expect you to upload a BBSID.UL file. If you do not have a BBSID.UL file, you should press Control-X until you are returned to the BBS. Once you know the BBSID of the board you will be calling, you should run the reader and add the BBSID to the reader. This is done by selecting BBS from the main menu: +--------------------------------+ | BBS Read Utilities | +--------------------------------+ 18 You will be presented with a pull-down menu: +--------------------------------+ | BBS Read Utilities | +-+----------------------+-------+ | Conferences | | News/Bulletins/Files | | Reset | | Export | | Import | | Add | | Delete | | Exit | +----------------------+ As you might expect, you want to select Add from the menu. You will then be prompted for the ID of the BBS to add. Type in the BBS that you want to add to the reader. Then, leave the reader by hitting Escape and the reader should automatically make a new ".UL" file for you. The reader and door work with two different types of files. The first type of file, a ".UL" file, is the file that the reader makes and you upload to the door. (UL stands for UpLoad.) ".DL" files are the files that the door generates that you download (DL stands for DownLoad). Assuming that you leave the automatic import/export option turned on (the default), the reader will automatically take care of your .DL and .UL files for you. All you have to do is upload the .UL file to the door and download the .DL file from the door. It is STRONGLY recommended that you leave the automatic import/export option turned on. The process of generating a .UL file to send to the BBS is called "Exporting" from the reader, and the process of reading the .DL file into the reader is called "Importing." Now that you have a .UL file to upload to the door, you should call the BBS and open the door. After you open the door, it will prompt you to upload your BBSID.UL file using Zmodem. You should then upload your BBSID.UL file. After you have uploaded your .UL file, the door will pause briefly, say "Warning : No Instructions for Mail Extraction Received," and generate a .DL file for you to download. You will then be prompted to download the .DL file using Zmodem. If your communications program has automatic Zmodem download, it should start downloading your .DL file automatically; if not, you will have to initiate a Zmodem download. 19 After you have downloaded the .DL file, you should log off of the BBS and run the reader. The reader will automatically "import" the .DL file that you have just downloaded. Congratulations! You have just completed your first MegaMail transfer. You uploaded an empty .UL file to the BBS and downloaded an empty .DL file from the BBS. Your reader is now initialized to work with the BBS -- it has all of the conference information so that you can now select mail to actually download and read. Your first MegaMail transfer with a BBS will always be "empty"; this is because your reader does not know about the conferences that the BBS has until it has gotten at least one .DL file from it. To select what mail you want to download the next time you call, go to the main menu and select BBS. You will be presented with a pull-down menu: +--------------------------------+ | BBS Read Utilities | +-+----------------------+-------+ | Conferences | | News/Bulletins/Files | | Reset | | Export | | Import | | Add | | Delete | | Exit | +----------------------+ 20 This time, you want to select Conferences. The Conferences option allows you to control which conferences you receive mail from and how the door selects the mail that you receive. When you select conferences, you will be presented with a listing of all of the BBS's in your reader. Pick the one that you wish to change. Then, a listing with all of the conferences from that BBS will appear: +-Select Conferences To Change, Press Esc When Done--+ |4 DOS : No Mail | |Batch : No Mail | |Common Net-Nati : No Mail | |DESQview : No Mail | |Finance : No Mail | |For Sale : No Mail | |GAP : No Mail | |Ham Radio : No Mail | |Hard Disks : No Mail | |Jobs : No Mail | |MAIN : No Mail | |MegaMail : No Mail | |New Users : No Mail | |PKware : No Mail | +----------------------------------------------------+ Next to each conference will be the mail selection that is currently in effect. In this case, since it is the first time that the conference list has even been looked at, all of the conferences say "No Mail," meaning that no mail will be extracted for download by the door. To change the mail selection for a conference, move the highlight bar to the conference and press return. You will be presented with a list of mail extraction options: +---------------MegaMail----------------+ |No Mail | |All New Mail | |Your New Mail | |Last x Messages. | |Your Mail from Last x Messages. | +---------------------------------------+ The first option, No Mail, means that the door does not give you any mail in that conference. The All New Mail option gives you all of the new mail in the conference. This is the recommended setting for normal operation in the conferences that you read mail in. The third option, Your New Mail, gives you only the messages that are addressed to you from the new mail. The Last x Messages option allows you to grab a set amount of mail from the conference, starting with the most recent messages. The Your Mail from 21 Last x messages allows you to grab your mail out of a set number of messages, starting with the most recent message. The normal setting for conferences that you want to read is All New Mail. If the conference is particularly busy, or you only want to "watch" for mail that is addressed to you in the conference, you can use the "Your New Mail" option. Of course, for conferences that you do not wish to receive any mail in, you should use the No Mail option. On your first call, you don't want to ask for "All New Mail" in too many conferences because you will get too much mail. After you select your mail selection method, you will be asked if you want to update your last read pointer: +-----------Edit MegaMail Conference Mail Request----------- | | | | | Update Last Read Pointer in this Conference? Y | | | | | | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Your last read pointer is maintained by the MegaMail door and the BBS. Normally, you will want to update your last read pointer so that you will not download the same mail over and over. You can change your conference mail preferences at any time by coming to this menu and editing them just as we have just done. The reader normally maintains your conference mail requests from call to call; there is no reason to change them if you wish to use the same mail selection request as your last call. Once you have defined which conferences you want mail in, you are ready to call the BBS back. This time, you will upload a .UL file, and, assuming you asked for some mail, the door will extract messages from the BBS and put them in a .DL file for you to download. The next time you run the reader, it will automatically "import" the .DL packet and put the mail in the reader for you to read. Use with "QWK Standard" Doors Beginning with version 2.1, the MegaMail Reader is capable of working with "QWK Standard" doors as well as MegaMail doors. As of the writing of this document, MarkMail, QMail, and TomCat! are what is meant by "QWK Standard" doors; other 22 doors that are written to comply with this "standard" should work with the MegaMail Reader as well. Using the reader with these doors is as easy as using it with the MegaMail door. Once you have initiated mail transfers with the door, the reader will automatically handle your .QWK (the analog of .DL files from MegaMail) and your .REP (the analog of .UL files from MegaMail) automatically. One major difference between "QWK Standard" Doors and the MegaMail door is that the MegaMail door was designed specifically with off-line conference management in mind, while the "QWK Standard" doors were not. As a result, the "QWK Standard" doors have limited off-line conference management, since, in most if not all cases, it was added as an afterthought. This means that it will be much easier to use these doors if you configure your conferences in the door while on-line instead of selecting them off-line in the reader. To start transferring mail with a "QWK Standard" door, simply call the bulletin board, enter the door you wish to use (ie, MarkMail, QMail, or TomCat!), and request mail to be downloaded. The various doors have different methods of doing this, but generally you should be looking for options such as "Select Mail" or "Download Mail". Once you are successful in telling the door to send you mail, you will download a file called "IDCODE.QWK", where IDCODE is the "idcode" of the bulletin board. The next time you run the MegaMail reader, it will find the "IDCODE.QWK" file in your download directory and automatically add "IDCODE" to your reader and import the mail in "IDCODE.QWK." Of course, if you do not have automatic import/export turned on in your reader configuration (see the section on configuration above), the reader will not do this automatically for you, and you will need to manually Add the BBS and import it. Assuming that you have the automatic import/export turned on, the reader will also automatically create a "IDCODE.REP" file for you to upload to the BBS if necessary. When you call the BBS to get more mail, you should always upload the .REP file if the reader has created one. If you do not, you can confuse the automatic import/export logic in the reader and cause some of your replies to be lost. To facilitate using communications "scripts" to do this, there is a configuration option in the reader that will cause it to always generate a .REP file, making an empty one if necessary. If you upload a .REP file but do not download a .QWK file, you should use the Reset option from the BBS menu in the reader. The Reset option will clear the export status of the BBS so that the messages that you uploaded will not be uploaded again next time. 23 Once mail from a .QWK door is in your reader, you can handle it just as if it was from a MegaMail door. There is no difference, it should be completely transparent to you that the mail came from a .QWK door instead of a MegaMail Door. Reading Mail When you select the Read option from the Main Menu, you will be shown the BBS/Conf/Thread listing, assuming that you have the Read by BBS/Conf/Thread option turned on (the default): +--BBS/Conf/Thread Listing New Your New Export Yours Total-+ |CONNECT 0 0 0 796 1821 | | MAIN BOARD 0 0 0 230 457 | | MEGAMAIL DOOR 0 0 0 3 3 | | SUPPORT 0 0 0 132 254 | | TESTERS 0 0 0 431 1107 | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ (Note that your display may vary depending on what mail you have in your reader.) The BBS/Conf/Thread listing is a very powerful feature of the MegaMail Reader. We will not cover all of its features here, but only enough for you to get started. See the section below on the BBS/Conf/Thread Listing for details of the many features of this powerful display. You can access this display while reading mail by pressing Alt-L. In addition, if you have the Read by BBS/Conf/Thread option turned on (the default), the listing will come up whenever you move into a new conference or BBS so that you will be aware that you are moving to a new conference and also to give you a chance to select a different conference to read next. The BBS/Conf/Thread listing shows all of the BBS's, Conferences, and, optionally, "threads" (subjects) in your reader, along with pertinent statistics about each. Each Conference is indented under its BBS, and each thread is indented under its conference. You can toggle the display of threads by pressing Alt-L while in this listing. Next to each item on the listing is important statistics about that item. Each column of statistics is labeled on the top border of the window. The first column, "New", is the number of New messages, or messages that you have not read in that category. The second column, "Your New", is the number of messages in that category that are addressed to you that you have not read. The third column, "Export", is the number of messages in that category that are waiting 24 to be uploaded to the BBS. The fourth column, Yours, is the total number (read AND unread) of messages addressed to you in that category. The fifth and final column is the total number of messages in that category. You will notice that there is a "selection bar" on the listing. By moving this selection bar (with the arrow keys or your mouse) and pressing enter, you can control which messages you will read in the reader. For instance, in the above example, if you wanted to read the messages in the Testers conference, you would move the selection bar to Testers and press return. That's all we're going to cover right now. For detailed information about all of the features of the BBS/Conf/Thread Listing, see the section below called "The BBS/Conf/Thread Listing." After you leave the BBS/Conf/Thread listing, you will be presented with your first message: BBS: CONNECT Conference: Support Imported: 7/29/1990 To: NEW MEGAMAIL USERS Number: 123 Date: 7/29/1990 From: KIP COMPTON Reference: 0 Time: 8:23 pm Subj: WELCOME! Private: N Read: N Echo Flag: Y Permanent: Y Level: 1 Export: N Personal Read: Y Welcome to the world of easy and fast message reading with the MegaMail system! The time you spend learning how to use the MegaMail reader will more than pay for itself in drastically reduced online time and more efficient mail answering once you are off-line. Thanks for trying my product, Kip -> MegaMail v2.00 #1:Sleep?? What's That??!? Entire Base This BBS This Conference This Subject Tagged Total 1822/1822 1822/1822 255/255 1/1 0/0 Yours 796/796 796/796 132/132 0/0 0/0 As you can see, the screen is divided into three "windows." The top window contains the message header. The middle window contains the actual text of the message, and the bottom window contains statistics about the mail in your reader. (Note that the bottom window is completely configurable and may not be present if you have turned off the statistics at the bottom of the screen. You can toggle 25 the statistics display on and off while reading mail by pressing Alt-B.) It is important to understand all of the fields in the message header because they are used often. The message header contains such important information as who wrote the message, who the message is sent to, and what the subject of the message is. Here is a summary of the fields in the message header: BBS : This field is the ID of the BBS from which this message was downloaded. Conference : This field is the name of the conference or message area from which this particular message was downloaded. Imported : This field is the date on which this message was "imported" into the reader. To : This field contains the name of the person to whom the message is addressed. It will contain "YOU" if the message is addressed to you. From : This field contains the name of the person who wrote the message. Subj : This field contains the "subject" of the message. Number : This field contains the number of the message on the BBS. New messages that you leave in the reader will have "(NEW)" listed as their message numbers. Reference : This field contains the number of the message that this message is in reference to. If this message is not in reference to another message, this field will contain a 0. Private : This field indicates the security of the message, either PUBLIC or PRIVATE. PUBLIC messages are intended to be read by everyone, while PRIVATE messages are intended to be read only by the person to whom the message is addressed, the person who wrote the message, and any SysOps who are allowed to read the mail. You should note that there is no guarantee that PRIVATE mail will not be read by others. 26 Date : This field contains the date on which the message was written. Time : This field contains the time at which the message was written. Read : This field contains the read field from the BBS. If the person has read the message, it will say "Y". If the message has not been read, it will say "N." Echo Flag: This flag, which is supported by some BBS software, indicates whether a message should be "echoed" out onto a BBS network. For this option to work, the BBS must be running version 1.10 or later of the MegaMail Door, and, in addition, it must be running a UTI that supports the echo flag. You should not post a message that you definitely don't want echoed using the reader until you are sure that the echo flag is working properly on that particular BBS. Permanent : This special field controls whether a message can be killed or not. If the message is marked as permanent, the message cannot not be killed or purged until the permanent flag is turned off. It enables you to protect important messages from being deleted by mistake. Level : Level that the reader is currently accessing. As you open "another" readers, the level will increase by one for each reader you have open. (See below for more details) Export : This field controls whether a message will be exported the next time you export the bbs in the BBS field of the message. Personal Read: This field indicates whether YOU have read this message or not. This is a very powerful field, because it allows you to search for mail that you have not yet read. Note that if you have a mouse and your mouse driver is loaded, the reader will put left, right, up, and down arrows in the header to the right of the Read: and Personal Read: flags. Moving the mouse pointer to these "buttons" and pressing the left mouse button is just like hitting the right arrow, left arrow, page down, or page up. Thus, it is 27 easy to read your mail completely with your mouse if you wish to do so. The Statistics Display At the bottom of the screen, there is a statistics grid designed to give you easy access to important statistics about the mail you have in your reader. The statistics are arranged in two horizontal rows. The top row of the statistics pertain to all of the messages in the base, while the second horizontal row pertains only to messages that are addressed to YOU. There are several vertical columns of statistics as well, and they are labeled clearly on the screen. Each statistic is in the form of ###/###. The number before the slash is the number of messages in that category that you have not read, while the number after the slash is the total number of messages in that category. The statistics, while very helpful, do take up 3 lines on the screen that could otherwise be used for displaying message text. Because of this, you can toggle the statistics on and off while reading mail by pressing Alt-B. Help Menus The MegaMail Reader has some online help available. This online help is not designed to be a substitute for this manual, but as a set of "training wheels" to get you on your way. There are help menus available while reading mail, in the Quick Scan, in the Alt-L listing, and in the internal editor. To display a help menu, press F1, or press both buttons on your mouse at the same time. If you pull up the help menu while in the BBS/Conf/Thread listing, you will see: +BBS/Conf/Thread Listing New Your New Export Yours Total+ +---------------------------+ 1 0 0 802 1831 | | Toggle Subjects (Alt-L) | 0 0 0 230 457 | | Quick Scan (Alt-Q) | 0 0 0 7 7 | | Toggle Tagged Stat(Space) | 0 0 0 132 255 | | Clear Tags (Alt-C) | 1 0 0 433 1112 | | Tag All (Alt-T) |----------------------------------+ | Save Tagged (Alt-S) | | Kill Tagged (Alt-K) | | Permanent Tagged (Alt-P) | | Prsnal Read Tagged(Alt-R) | | Read Tagged Mail (R) | | Exit the Reader (Alt-X) | +---------------------------+ 28 The help menus display all of the major options available from the section of the reader you are in. Next to each option is the key you would press to activate that option directly from within the reader. At the bottom on the screen is a one-line description of the option currently highlighted. You can also access the option directly from within the help menu by typing the highlighted letter for the option you wish to activate, or, of course, selecting it with the Enter key or your mouse. The help menus are large and hide most of the underlying screen, and they take a key stroke to activate. They are not designed to be the principal method of accessing the reader commands. They are designed as a type of "training wheels" to help give you an easier start with the reader. As you use the reader, you will find that you start remembering the keystrokes that go with the commands you most often use. Once you know the keystrokes that go with a particular command, you will have no need for the help menu. But it is always available for those commands that you may only occasionally use or for those that you have forgotten. You will notice that there is a help line on the bottom of the screen. Whenever the helper menu is activated, the bottom line of the screen contains a short description of the highlighted command. As you move the highlight bar up and down, the help line changes to match the item that you have highlighted. Viewing ANSI Messages Some messages have "ANSI Graphics" in them. If you get a message that looks garbled and think that it may be an ANSI message, just press the A key. The reader will redisplay the message using its built-in ANSI interpretation. Press any key to return to normal operation of the reader. Leaving Messages There are two ways you can leave a message using the reader : Reply and Enter. The reply function (Alt-R) is specifically designed for replying to a message. When you press Alt-R, a message header is placed on top of the screen with all of the fields filled in for you. You have a chance to change any of the fields you want to change by using the Tab, Shift Tab, Up and Down Arrow keys to move around the various fields and then Control-Enter (Ctrl-Enter) or Page Down (PgDn) to save. You are then placed in an editor (either the built-in internal editor or your defined external editor) to actually enter your message text. 29 If you use the Enter function (Alt-E), the procedure is a bit longer. When you press Alt-E, you will be presented with a partially-filled in header. You will need to fill in the To and Subject fields. You may also edit any other fields in the header by moving around with the Tab, Shift- Tab, up, and down arrow keys. When you are done editing the header, press Control-Enter or Page Down. You are then placed in an editor (either the built-in internal editor or your defined external editor) to actually enter your message text. If you are using the internal editor, most Wordstar commands are available while entering your message text. If you are unfamiliar with the Wordstar commands, see appendix A for a listing of these commands. Note that while entering messages in the internal editor, you can use the Alt-O key to "re-edit" the header on the message that you are entering. If you are using an external editor, you will be given a chance to re-edit the header of your message when you return to the reader. The Enter Key When you are reading mail, the enter key is a "smart" key. If you have any text blocked off and you press enter, you are automatically placed in a reply with the marked off text as quoted material. If you do not have any text marked off, the reader goes to the next message that matches the current search specification. Blocking off the text you wish to quote with the F7 and F8 keys and then pressing the enter key is the fastest and easiest way to reply to a message. Tag Lines A tag line is appended to the end of each message you leave using the reader. Part of the tag line is not configurable by you (the part that says "MegaMail"), but you can specify what you want to appear in the rest of the tag line. Usually, people put little phrases that they like or messages in their tag lines. Sometimes sysops like to put the name and number of their BBS in their tag line. You're free to put anything you want in your tag line. The reader allows you to specify up to 50 tag lines. You can also specify how you want the reader to decide which tag line to put on the bottom of your messages. You can have a 30 specific tag line placed at the bottom of all of your messages, or you can have the reader automatically cycle through all of your tag lines. You can edit your tag line options by pressing Alt-T when reading or entering messages. You can also edit them by selecting "Tag Lines" from the Utilities menu. When you press Alt-T or select Tag Lines from the utilities menu, you will see a screen with your tag lines (if any) on it: +-----------------Edit Tag Lines-----------------------+ |Using Tag Line #1 | |Tag #1 Sleep?? What's That??!? | |Tag #2 | |Tag #3 | |Tag #4 | |Tag #5 | |Tag #6 | |Tag #7 | |Tag #8 | |Tag #9 | |Tag #10 | |Tag #11 | |Tag #12 | |Tag #13 | |Tag #14 | |Tag #15 | +------------------------------------------------------+ There are slots for up to 50 tag lines, and one slot to specify which tag line to use. To edit a tag line, move the highlight bar to the tag line you want to edit and press enter. To tell the reader which tag line to use, move to the top line in the list of tag lines (The one that says "Using Tag Line #1" in the screen above) and press enter. You will then be prompted for the number (1-50) of the tag line you wish to have at the end of each of your messages. If you enter a 0 here, the reader will automatically cycle through all of the tag lines that you have defined. Although the reader's built-in tag line system is pretty sophisticated, it is nothing when compared with the abilities of John Hancock. John Hancock is a program provided by The Silicon Frog. It provides very fancy and sophisticated tag line manipulation. The MegaMail reader supports the use of John Hancock; see the section on John 31 Hancock later in the documentation. If you like tag lines, you'll love John Hancock -- look for it on your local BBS! If you have registered your reader, you can disable the reader's tag line by turning it off in your configuration. See the Configuration section for details. Deleting Messages You can delete or "kill" a message from your reader by pressing the Alt-K key. You will then be asked if you want to kill the message. When you kill a message in the reader, it does not kill the message on the BBS -- it just kills it in the reader. Also note that if you want to kill a large group of messages, you can use the Purge/Repair option or the kill tagged messages function in the Quick Scan and BBS/Conf/Thread Listing. See the section on tagged messages for details. Note that you cannot kill a "permanent" message. You must turn the permanent flag off on the message before you can kill it. To do this when you are reading mail, you can press the Alt-P key. The Alt-P key toggles the permanent flag on and off. Editing Messages When you are reading mail, you can edit the message displayed on the screen by pressing Alt-O. You will be put into a text-editing mode automatically, just as if you were entering the text of the message. If you want to edit the header of the message in addition to the text, you can do so by pressing Alt-O again if you are using the internal editor. If you are using an external editor, you will be given a chance to edit the header when you return to the reader. Using an External Spell Checker The internal editor in the reader supports the use of an external spell checker. To use this function, you must have first defined your spell checker in your configuration. See the Configuration section for details. To access your spell checker while entering and editing a message, press Alt-S. Your message will be saved to disk (in the file MESSAGE.TXT), and your spell checker will be invoked as you have defined in your configuration. When your spell checker is done, the reader will automatically 32 read back in the text from the disk (from the file MESSAGE.TXT) and replace your old text in the internal editor. Switching Between Editors The reader is designed to make it easy to switch between the internal editor and your external editor. While reading mail, you can toggle the editor selection by pressing Alt-I. In addition, you can switch editors on the fly. If you are in the internal editor and wish to switch to the external editor, simply press Alt-E. You will automatically be placed in your external editor. If you are in your external editor and want to switch to the reader's internal editor, save your message and exit your editor. You will then be presented with a menu. Select Internal Editor from the menu and you will be placed in the reader's internal editor with your message text intact. Printing and Saving Messages The Reader has a function specifically designed to help you record important messages. When you press Alt-S, you are prompted for the name of a DOS file or a device to save the current message to. If you want to print the message, you should specify PRN as the file to save the message to. The Alt-S function will write out the entire message, along with its header. Note that if the file already exists, the Alt-S function will APPEND the new text to the file, along with a line to separate the messages. This makes it very easy to keep a file of important messages for future reference. If you just want to write out the message text, without its header, you can block the text using the block begin and block end commands (F7 and F8, respectively), and then use the block write command (Control-K,W) to write the text out to a file or to the printer. The block write command works both when you are entering a message and when you are reading messages. "Reverse" Threading The reader has a function designed for those times when you receive a message and are not sure what the person is talking about! When you press Alt-W, the reader will immediately show you the message to which the current message is in reference to. The Alt-W function works both 33 while you are reading messages and when you are entering new ones. When you are done looking at the message, press Esc to return to the original message. You can press Alt-W as many times as is necessary -- this allows you to read a thread "backwards" to its origin. This function is also handy when you are replying to a message. Pressing Alt-W when replying to a message in the internal editor will show you the message to which you are replying -- great for making sure your reply addresses the entire message! Zooming The reader has a "Zoom" function that allows you to "zoom in" on the message text. This function is toggled by pressing the Alt-Z key. When you are "zoomed" in, the header of the message is not displayed, so that the entire screen can be used for the text of the message. The reader will remain in "zoom" mode until you press Alt-Z again. About The Personal Read Flags As you read the messages in your reader, the reader will keep a running account of the messages that you have gone through during that session. When you press the <ESC> to quit you will be prompted as to whether you want to "Update Personal Read Flags? ". You will see: +=================================+ | Update Personal Read Flags? Y | +=================================+ If you press ENTER and accept the "Y", the reader will mark all the messages that you have read during this session with a "Y" in the Personal Read field. Like all of the other fields, this field can be used in a search. This function allows you to read only those messages that you have not yet read in the reader. "Another Reader" Function Another Reader is exactly what it says. When you press Alt- A when reading mail or entering a new message, "another reader" appears. This "new" reader is completely independent. All functions, including leaving new messages, quick scanning, and searching, are active. 34 One of the advantages of the Alt-A command is that it allows you to quote or copy a message from one user to another user, even across different conferences or BBSes. It is as if you were starting into the reader afresh. You can search for other messages or topics without losing your original position in the message base. When you press Alt-A, the "Level" number in the upper right corner will rise. To return to level 1, or your original reading position, press the ESC key until you have returned to level 1. Quoting Functions You may quote from a message before you actually enter the reply mode as well after you begin your reply. To quote before you enter the reply mode, move the cursor, using the up and down arrow keys or your mouse, to the line you wish to start quoting and press F7. Then, move the cursor to the end of the section you wish to quote and press F8. Note that the beginning of a block always defaults to the first line, so that all you really need do if you want to start from the first line of a message is move down the number of lines you wish to quote and press F8. Once you have blocked off your quote, press enter. You can only quote whole lines although you can edit the quoted section to shorten a line while you are in reply mode. Getting More Quoted Text Internal Editor If, while replying to a message, you decide to quote from the message you are replying to, press Alt-W. You will be shown the entire original message. Block off your quote in the same manner as described above. When are you finished press enter to return to your reply. You may also have multiple quotes from different messages than the one you are replying to directly by pressing Alt-A to generate "another reader." While in the Alt-A mode you can use all of the normal reader functions. When you have located the message and blocked off your quote, Esc to return to your original reply and use the Alt-Q key to bring in your text. Note that if you want to quote someone without putting your quoting prefix in, you can use the Control-K,C block copy command. You can also use the Control-K,W command to write out a section of marked text, or, if you are entering message text, you can use the Control- 35 K,R block read command to read in text from a text file on your disk into your message. External Editor When the reader executes your external editor, it saves the text of the message that you are replying to the file REFER.TXT. Using your editor, you can then block copy the text that you wish to quote from the REFER.TXT file to the MESSAGE.TXT file. Note that if you block off the text and hit return to begin your reply, the quoted text will be placed directly into your message for you. There are two attributes about quoted text which you have control over. The first attribute is whether the reader places a box around the quoted text or not. This option is only available if you are using the reader's internal editor. To toggle this option on and off, press control- O,control-B while reading mail or editing text in the internal editor. The other attribute that you have control over is whether the reader truncates or wordwraps the quoted text. This option is toggled by pressing Control-O,Control-Q while reading mail or editing text in the internal editor. This option is in effect for both external and internal editors. Quick Scan The Quick Scan allows you to view the messages in the reader in a concise manner, fitting many messages on the screen at a time. To do this, each message is represented by a single line of text. The contents of the line of text is fully configurable. For details, see the Quick Scan Format String in the Configuration section. To invoke the quick scan while reading mail or in the BBS/Conf/Thread listing, press Alt-Q. You will be presented with a screen of messages. You can move the highlight bar among the messages using the arrow keys, your mouse, or the PgDn and PgUp keys. To read a specific message, simply move the highlight bar to the message you wish to view and press the enter key. You can control which messages are displayed in the quick scan by pressing Alt-Q again once you are in the quick scan. You will be presented with a list of options for limiting the mail that is displayed in the quick scan. A particularly useful one is the Export option, which allows 36 you to see all of the messages that are waiting to be exported from your reader. In addition, the quick scan function supports tagging of messages. See the section on Tagged Messages for details of this powerful feature. BBS/Conf/Thread Listing The BBS/Conf/Thread listing allows you to view the mail in your reader on a topical or categorical basis. It gives you a quick summary of all of the mail in your reader, along with vital statistics which should help you decide which mail to read first, etc. To access the BBS/Conf/Thread listing while reading mail or from the quick scan, press Alt-L. You will be presented with a list of all of the BBS's, Conferences, and, optionally, Threads in the reader. You can move the highlight bar through these options using the arrow keys, your mouse, or the PgDn and PgUp keys. To read a specific item, just move the highlight bar to that item and press enter. The BBS/Conf/Thread listing can optionally include Threads in its listing in addition to BBS's and Conferences. To toggle this option on and off, press Alt-L again once you are inside the BBS/Conf/Thread listing. The BBS/Conf/Thread listing supports tagged messages. For complete information on this powerful feature, see the section on tagged messages below. Tagged Messages The reader allows you to work with more than one message at a time by "tagging" messages. Each message in the reader is tagged or untagged, similar to a file in many DOS shells. By tagging messages, you can deal with many messages (namely all of the ones that are tagged) at a time. There are several ways that you can tag messages. While in the Quick Scan or the BBS/Conf/Thread listing, you can press the space bar to toggle the tagged status of the currently highlighted item. While reading mail, you can press the space bar to toggle the tagged status of the currently displayed message. In the lower right corner of the message header, "Tagged" will appear when the message is tagged and disappear when it is not tagged. 37 In addition, when you are in the quick scan, you can tag or untag messages based on example. To do this, press Alt-F. You will asked whether you wish to tag by example or untag by example, and then you will be given an example to fill in. Once messages are tagged, there are many things you can do with them. All of the following commands work both in the Quick Scan and in the BBS/Conf/Thread listing: Alt-C "Clear" all tags. (Make all messages untagged) Alt-T Tag all messages. (Make all messages tagged) Alt-S Save/Print Tagged Messages Alt-K Kill Tagged Messages Alt-P Change the Permanent flag on all tagged messages. Alt-R Change the Personal Read flag on all tagged messages. R Read tagged messages only. Searching The Alt-F option allows you to set the search specification. The search specification defines which messages will be shown to you and which will not. You may search based on any field or combination of fields in the header. For example, you may search for a user name, your own name, or a particular subject. You are shown only messages that match the current search specification. Pressing the ALT-F key will show you the following screen: BBS: Conference: Imported: 1/01/1600 To: Number: Date: 1/01/1600 From: Reference: Time: 12:00 am Subj: Private: Read: Echo Flag: Permanent: Level: 1 Export: Personal Read: This message header is called a search "example." It is an example or template of the messages that you want to read. When the reader displays the "next" message (ie., when you press the right arrow), it actually searches for not the just the next numerical message but the next message that matches your example. A message is considered to "match" your example if every field that is NOT blank in your example exactly matches the corresponding fields in the message. The initial example 38 (assuming that you do not have the automatic "unread" mail mode on) is completely blank. (NOTE: 01/01/1600 is considered a "blank" date and 12:00 am is considered a "blank" time.) To move in the header, use your Tab key to go to the next field, Shift-Tab key to go to the previous field, down arrow to go to the next field under the one you are editing, and the up arrow to go to the field directly above the one you are editing. When you are done filling in the example, you should press Ctrl-Enter or PageDown. For a complete listing of all the keys you can use when entering a message header, see Appendix A. All of the fields are exactly as described above for message headers. Note that you can search based on all fields except the "Level" field. The Level field will always have the "level" you are at in terms of readers (see the section on the "another reader" function for details) The fewer fields you fill in when you are searching for a particular message, the more messages you will see, and the better your chances of finding the message(s) you are searching for. The ALT-F command is not forgiving and will search for the parameters that you specified EXACTLY. The more fields you fill, the more likely for an exact hit but also the more likely to have made an error and to miss the message you are seeking. (Of course, if you enter too little, you will have many messages to look through to find the one you were looking for.) If your search fails, press ALT-F again to change your search spec. As you TAB through the fields, if you want to BLANK out (erase) a previously entered field, press CTRL-Y. There are several commands that relate to the search example and the Alt-F command. Pressing Alt-C while reading mail will clear the entire example, thus showing ALL messages. Alt-U will first clear the example and then change the Personal Read flag to "N", thus causing only those messages that you have not yet read to be displayed. The Alt-Y key will simply set the "TO" field to YOU, thus showing you only those messages that are addressed to you. Certain special searches are recognized and indicated by a special character in the lower right hand corner of the display near the memory left display. These letters are: T - Tagged Mail Only N - uNread Mail 39 Y - Your Mail Only Command Line Parameters You can manage your reader through the use of command line parameters. This allows you to use your reader and obtain your mail via a set of batch files. Valid Command Line Parameters: /NOMOUSE Disables mouse support. /MONO Forces Monochrome operation. /MACROFILE Specifies alternate macro file (default is MEGAREAD.MAC) Correct syntax: /MACROFILE FILENAME. There is no need to create the new file; the reader will do so the first time it works with it. /HOTKEYFILE Specifies alternate hot key file (default is MEGAREAD.HKY) Correct syntax: /HOTKEYFILE FILENAME. There is no need to create the new file; the reader will do so the first time it works with it. /BASENAME Specifies alternate message base file name. Cannot contain an extension. Default is MESSAGES. Proper syntax /BASENAME FILENAME Ie., /BASENAME MYMAIL. There is no need to create the new mail file; the reader will do so the first time it works with it. /CONFIGFILE Specifies an alternate configuration file. The default is CONFIG.MGA. Proper syntax: /CONFIGFILE FILENAME /NOEMS Disables the reader's use of EMS memory. /EXPORT BBSID Export mail from BBSID & return to DOS. /IMPORT BBSID Import mail from BBSID & return to DOS. /PACK XXX Pack and remove all messages imported XXX days ago. (use /PACK 999 to just "purify" and delete none) 40 /BIOSSCROLL Turns off the reader's "smooth scrolling" routines for CGAs. If you have a CGA card, using this parameter will speed up the scrolling of text in the reader, but the scrolling will be less attractive. /NOSNOW Turns off the reader's checking for snow. Will drastically speed up screen writes on CGAs, but may result in "snow" on the screen. /COLORFILE Specifies the file to use to store information about the colors you are using inside the reader. Syntax is /COLORFILE Filename where filename is the name of the file to use. The default is COLORS.MGA. /50 or /43 These command line options will cause the reader to go into 43 line mode if you have an EGA or 50 line mode if you have a VGA. This allows you to see much more of a message on the screen at one time. They have no effect if you do not have an EGA or VGA. /NOZIP Causes the reader to skip the PKZIP and PKUNZIP steps when importing and exporting mail. See the section below. /BUFSIZE # Allows you to set the buffer size used when importing and exporting. The buffer size is specified in bytes. The default buffer size is 4096 bytes. Different sized buffers tend to give the best performance on different machines. Larger buffers may give you better performance, but they will cost you memory. For example, if you wanted to use an 8k buffer, you would put this on the command line : /BUFSIZE 8192 /NOIMPORT This command line option will disable automatic importing for this session only. Useful if you want to run the reader but for some reason do not want to import the packets you have waiting. 41 An example: a batch file that would do a complete MegaMail cycle and pack the messages at the end, removing messages 10 days or older: cd \megamail megaread /export connect cd\telix telix {run a script} cd \megamail megaread /import connect /pack 10 Note that while the order of most command line parameters doesn't matter, if more than one "batch" command line parameters are to be specified, the actions are taken in the order that they appear on the command line. The /NOZIP Command Line Parameter The /NOZIP command line parameter causes the reader to skip the PKUNZIP and PKZIP steps when importing and exporting. This is desirable if you are running under tight memory restrictions. When using this option and importing, you must first unzip the .DL file you downloaded into the reader's work directory. Then you may run the reader and import it. When exporting, you must export in the reader and then use pkzip to put the files into the .UL file. If you're using this option, you may want to make two batch files that import and export a given node: IMPORT.BAT: c: cd \mega\work pkunzip c:\downloaddir\%1.DL cd .. megaread /nozip /import %1 EXPORT.BAT: C: cd \mega megaread /nozip /export %1 cd work pkzip -m c:\uploaddir\%1.UL These batch files are provided in the MegaMail package for you. All you should need to change is the uploaddir and downloaddir, and possibly the c:'s (should be the drive in which you have your megamail reader subdirectory) and the cd \mega's (should be the directory where your MegaMail reader lives.) 42 If you are operating the "QWK Standard" packets and the /NOZIP option, you should turn off the "Keep .QWK Contents" option by going to the miscellaneous configuration menu and selecting "No" for "Keep .QWK Contents." This is because the reader shells to PKZIP to ZIP up the bulletins, news files, and welcome screen that are in the .QWK packet after it imports it. Repairing and Purging Mail The Repair/Purge option, located on the Utilities menu, is used to manage mail already in your reader. There are two situations in which you would need to use this function. The first, and most common, is to keep the amount of mail in your reader from becoming large and unmanageable. Unless you use this option, mail is never really deleted from your reader. When you repair/purge your message base, messages that have been killed are actually physically removed from your message base. In addition, the Repair/Purge Mail File option has two ways of removing mail from your reader. The first way is based on the date on which the messages were IMPORTED into your reader and the second is by example (see below). When you select the Repair/Purge option from the Utilities menu, the first question you will be asked is whether you want to remove any mail from your reader at all. +----------------Maintain Reader Message Base-------------------+ | | | Remove any mail from the message base when packing? Y | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ You should respond "Y" if you want to remove mail from the reader. (Note that even if you press "N" here, previously killed mail will be removed from the reader.) If you answer "Y", you will then be asked if you wish to remove mail based on date. You should answer "Y" to remove mail by date. You will then be asked the number of days old a message has to be for it to be deleted. The date used for this process is the date when the message was imported into your reader, NOT the day that the message was left. This prevents "old" BBS mail, that is new to your reader, from being deleted. 43 You should answer this question with the maximum number of days you want mail to be kept in your reader. Purging can take a long time, depending on the quantity of mail you have in your reader and the speed of your computer. Note that this option can be invoked from the command line. This allows you to pack your reader's message base automatically in an "event" or perhaps once a day in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The second way of removing mail from your reader is by example. This is similar to searching, where any messages that match the example you give, are purged from the message base. This option is useful if you want to remove a group of messages. For example, if you wished to remove all messages that were in the conference "sysop" from your reader, you could do so by purging with an example that matched all messages with "sysop" in the conference field. To use this option, choose the Repair/Purge option from the Utilities menu and answer "Y" when the reader asks you if you want to remove any mail from the message base when packing. Then, type "N" when the reader asks you if you want to remove mail by date. When you are asked if you wish to purge by example, answer "Y". When you press ENTER, you will be greeted by a "blank" example, just as in the Alt-F function. Now, since we want to remove all mail that has "sysop" as the conference, we move over to the Conference: field and type "sysop". To signal that you are done editing the example, press Ctrl-ENTER or PageDown, and the reader will begin packing the message base, removing all mail that matches the example. The other reason that you might want to run the Repair/Purge option is to actually repair a message base. If you exit the reader abnormally, your message base might become "corrupted." This is due to advanced routines used to manage your messages once they are inside the reader which maintains a fair amount of information in memory. This has the advantage of greatly speeding your reader up, but if the reader does not exit normally, the information is never written back out to disk. If you get an error when you attempt to read, import, or export mail, the first thing to do is Repair/Purge your message base. It doesn't matter if you actually remove any mail from the message base when you use the Repair/Purge function. The Repair/Purge option will automatically rebuild your message base, fixing any errors in it. 44 Reading Bulletins, News, and New Files "QWK Standard" doors allow you to download system news, bulletins, and lists of new files available for download. The MegaMail reader facilitates reading these items through the News/Bulletins/Files option off of the BBS menu. Note that for this option to work, you must have told the door that you are using to send you these items, and you must have the "Keep .QWK Contents" option under Miscellaneous in your configuration set to Yes. Upon selecting News/Bulletins/Files, you will be presented with a listing of all of the .QWK boards that have news, bulletins, and/or new files listings available. Each BBS will be accompanied by the date on which the files were last updated. Select the BBS that you wish to view files from. After uncompressing the information from the bulletin board that you requested, you will be presented with a menu of the files available for viewing. For example : +---------------------Select Item to View-----------------+ | 8/26/1990 2K New Files | | 8/26/1990 1K (MM-MENU) | | 8/26/1990 2K Welcome Screen | | 8/26/1990 26K Main Board Bulletin 5 | | 8/26/1990 22K Main Board Bulletin 6 | | 8/26/1990 1K Main Board Bulletin 13 | | 8/26/1990 3K Main Board Bulletin 14 | | 8/26/1990 0K Main Board Bulletin 15 | | 8/26/1990 6K Main Board Bulletin 20 | +---------------------------------------------------------+ The reader analyzes each filename that has been downloaded from the board and presents it as a description of what the file is. If the reader does not know what the file is (for example MM-MENU in the above example), it displays the name of the file in parentheses. Before each filename or description, the date and size (in K) of the file is printed. To view a file, simply move the highlight bar to the filename or description that you want to view. When you press (enter), the file will be displayed to you using either the internal file viewer, or the external file viewer that you defined in your configuration. (See the section on configuration for details.) If you are using the internal file viewer, you can press A to view the file with ANSI graphics enabled. 45 Using John Hancock with MegaMail John Hancock is a utility available as shareware from The Silicon Frog that allows you to store and manipulate tag lines. It allows you to do many fancy manipulations on your tag lines, and, is in general simply a lot of fun. To use John Hancock with MegaMail, you must set up John Hancock as per the instructions that come with John Hancock. Then, simply add a DOS "hotkey" that calls John Hancock. The reader will automatically detect that it was John Hancock that was run in the hotkey and get the new tag line from John Hancock. To create a hotkey for John Hancock, press Alt-H (for Hotkey) and then press the insert key (for adding a hotkey). You will then be prompted for the "Trigger Keystroke." This is the key that you will press to activate John Hancock. I use Alt-J. You will then be asked for the DOS command line for the hotkey. If you are running under tight memory conditions, you should put a * as the first character of the DOS command line; this will tell the reader to swap to DISK or EMS memory before running John Hancock. Then, type JH and hit enter. You should then see the hotkey added to the list of hotkeys in your reader. You can try it now; press the trigger keystroke that you selected and John Hancock should pop up. Each time that you pop up John Hancock using your DOS Hotkey, the reader reads the tag line that you select. The reader will continue using that tag line until you invoke John Hancock and select another tag. If you want to go back to using the internal tag line engine, Press Alt-T to bring up the tag line menu, and the reader will start getting tag lines internally again. Receiving Files from QMail The QMail 4 door provides the ability to receive files in your .QWK packet. This option is compatible with the MegaMail reader assuming that you have the "Keep .QWK Packet Contents" option turned on. If you have the "Keep .QWK Packet Contents" option set to Yes, all you need to do to get the file that was sent to you in your .QWK packet is to extract the file from the file IDCODE.ZIP in your "QWKSTUFF" directory. (The "QWKSTUFF" directory is configurable from the Directories option off of the configuration menu; it defaults to a directory under the default directory for the reader called QWKSTUFF.) If you do not have the "Keep .QWK Packet Contents" option turned on, you must extract any files that the QMail 4 door sends you BEFORE importing the 46 packet, since the reader will delete the .QWK packet after importing it. Colors Virtually all of the colors used in the MegaMail Reader are configurable by the user. To configure your colors, select "Colors" from the Utilities menu. You will then be presented with a choice between choosing default color sets or fine-tuning individual colors. It is recommended that you try the predefined color sets before trying to fine tune your colors. This is because there are approximately 130 colors that can be configured in the reader, and it can be a tedious process to fine-tune everything perfectly. If you select "Default Color Sets," you will be presented with a list of predefined color sets, including the default color set (ie the one use when no COLORS.MGA file is found). By moving the highlight bar and selecting one of these, you can change all 130 colors at once to a predefined color scheme. If you select "Individual Colors," you will be presented with a scrolling list of all 130 colors. To change a color, move the highlight bar to that color and press return. You will then be presented with a table of all available colors. There will be a white box around the current color for that item, and you can move the white box using your arrow keys or your mouse. When you have moved the cursor to the new color, press (enter). Pressing Esc will leave the color like it was before. Note that you can toggle the intensity of the background color by pressing B while on this table. After you have selected individual colors that suit you, it is a good idea to copy your COLORS.MGA file to a backup file. COLORS.MGA files can constitute a lot of work, and keeping a backup COLORS.MGA file protects you from losing yours. DOS Hotkeys The reader's DOS Hotkeys function allows you to execute programs from the reader with a single keystroke. This type of function can be very helpful for executing frequently used programs directly from the reader. To access the hotkey function, press Alt-H from anywhere in the reader. You will be presented with a listing of any defined hotkeys on it. 47 To add a hotkey, press the Insert key. You will be prompted for a "Trigger Keystroke" -- the keystroke that you want to be associated with executing the program. You will then be prompted for the DOS command to execute when that keystroke is pressed. If you want the reader to be swapped to EMS or DISK when executing your program, precede your DOS command with a "*". (For example, *WP might be used to execute WordPerfect with swapping enabled.) If you want the reader to leave the screen instead of clearing it before executing the program, put "STAY:" at the beginning of the DOS command. Note that if you wish to put both a "*" and a "STAY:", the "*" must come first. The "STAY:" option is useful for programs that read the screen. To Delete a hotkey, move the highlight bar to the hotkey that you want to delete and press the Del key. To edit a hotkey, move the highlight bar to the hotkey that you want to edit and press the enter key. You will be prompted for the trigger keystroke and then for the DOS command, just as if you were adding the hotkey. Your hotkey assignments are stored in the file MEGAREAD.HKY. You can use an alternate file to store the hotkey data; see the section on command line arguments for details. Keyboard Macros The reader has powerful keyboard macro facilities built in. From virtually anywhere in the reader, you can define a macro or play one back. Also included is a powerful macro editor that allows you to edit macros that you have defined. The macro facility is so powerful that you can use it to remap your entire keyboard in the reader. To define a macro, you simply press Control-F10. A small window pops up informing you that "macro recording" has been turned on. Until you press Control-F10 again, all keys that you press will be recorded. You then perform the task you want the macro to perform for you later. When you are done pressing the keys for the task, press Control-F10 again. You will be prompted for the key to assign this macro. After you define a macro, whenever you press the key you just assigned to the macro, the keys you pressed will be played back. Note that to delete a macro, you record an "empty" macro on top of it -- Just hit Control-F10 two times in a row and then press the key associated with the macro that you want to delete. The following information on macros is more advanced and may not be of interest to more casual users. 48 Redefining your Keyboard using Macros You can use the reader's keyboard macro facility to remap your keyboard. Let's say that you didn't like the normal begin block and end block keystrokes. You decided that you would like Alt-B to Begin a block of text and Alt-E to End a block of text. But, Alt-E is already assigned to Enter a message. So, you want to redefine Alt-M to be Enter a Message. To do this, simply set up three macros : One for Begin a block, one for End a block, and one for Entering a message. The first macro, Begin a block, is fairly simple. Define a macro, Alt-B, with just the keystroke F7 in it. The second macro is also simple. Define a macro, Alt-E, with just the keystroke F8 in it. (The Alt-E that you define will take precedence over the built-in Alt-E that used to mean Enter a message.) Now, you must define a macro for leaving a message. This is necessary because when you press Alt-E now, your new macro will be played back instead of the reader going into "enter a new message" mode. Define a macro with the keystroke Alt- E in it and assign it to Alt-M. This setup works because macros are not played back when they are part of another macro. If this were not true then instead of entering a message with your Alt-M macro it would end a block. This property of the macros allows you to completely redefine your keyboard as you like, using the same methods described here. The only key that you can't be redefined is Control-F10. This is for safety; as long as you can hit Control-F10, you can eliminate macros (just record an "empty" macro (hit Control-F10 twice in a row) and assign it to the same key as the macro you want to eliminate). Another feature of the macro engine that is useful when redefining your keyboard is the ability to specify the macro filename on the command line. For exact syntax, see the section on command line parameters. In short, this capability allows you to have several different sets of macros that you can choose from when you run the reader. The Macro Editor The reader also has a built-in macro editor. You can edit previously defined macros with the macro editor, or you can create new ones. Go the Utilities menu and select "Edit Macro." You will then be prompted for the keystroke assigned to the macro that you wish to edit. When you press 49 the key, a window will open up with the contents of the macro inside it. It should be noted that you should never really need to use the macro editor. If you want to alter a macro, it may be easier to simply record it again and assign it to the same key. The macro editor can, however, be useful for seeing what keys a macro consists of or when making slight alterations to a long macro. Several commands are operational inside the macro editor: Enter Quit editing and save changes Esc Quit editing and abort changes. Left Arrow Move Cursor Left Right Arrow Move Cursor Right Up Arrow Move Cursor Up Down Arrow Move cursor Down Ins Toggle insert mode on and off Del Delete key at cursor The macro editor operates in two modes : Command and Literal (the current mode is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the macro editor window.) In command mode, the keys above perform their respective functions. In Literal mode, pressing the down-arrow puts a down-arrow into your macro. The scroll lock key always toggles Literal and Command mode. 50 Appendix A : Summary of Available Commands While Reading Mail : Right Arrow Next message matching current search specification. See above for information on search specifications. Left Arrow Previous message matching current search specification. See above for information on search specifications. Alt-R Reply to the current message. Alt-E Enter a new message Alt-S Save/Print Current Message Alt-K Kill Current Message Alt-C Clear the current Search Example. Alt-U Read Unread Mail only Alt-Q Invoke the Quick Scan Alt-Y Read Your Mail Only Alt-X Leave the reader completely and quickly. F1, Both Buttons Help Menu Alt-T Edit Tag Lines Home Go to the beginning of the base End Go to the end of the message base Alt-O Edit the current Message. Enter If Block marked: Reply to current message with marked text as quoted. If no block marked, move to the next message. Alt-L Invoke BBS/Conf/Thread Listing Alt-P Toggle the Permanent flag on the Current Message 51 Space Bar Toggle the tagged status of the current message. Alt-I Toggle between the internal and external editor, if defined. Alt-B Toggle the Statistics Display at the bottom of the screen off and on. Alt-F Set current search specification. See above for information on search specification. Alt-A Another - gives you "another" reader. See section on "Another Reader" Alt-W What?!? - Shows you the message that the current message is referring to. See section on Reverse Threading. Alt-D DOS shell - Shell to dos from anywhere. Alt-H DOS Hotkeys Utility. Commands for Scrolling Through Message Text (Both Entering and Reading Mail) <Up Arrow> Cursor up one line. <Down Arrow> Cursor down one line. <Ctrl W> Scroll display up one line. <Ctrl Z> Scroll display down one line. <PgUp> Scroll display up one page. <PgDn> Scroll display down one page. <Ctrl Home> Move cursor to top of display. <Ctrl End> Move cursor to bottom of display. <Ctrl PgUp> Move cursor to beginning of message. <Ctrl PgDn> Move cursor to end of message. <Click Left> Move cursor to the position indicated by the mouse cursor. 52 Alt-Z "Zooms" the text window - removes header from screen. Press Alt-Z again to return to "normal" mode. Block Commands Active when Reading and Entering Messages: (See below for other block commands for entering message text) Control K,B or F7 Begin Block (for writing, copying, or quoting) Control K,K or F8 End Block (for writing, copying, or quoting) Control K,H Hide Block Control K,W Write Block (writes current block to user- specified file name) Commands Active while entering message (replies or new messages) Esc Exit message entry, saving if desired. Alt-A Another - gives you "another" reader. See section on "another reader" function. Alt-W What?!? - Shows you the message that the current message is referring to. Alt-D DOS shell - Shell to dos from anywhere. Alt-Q Quote message text. See section on quoting. Alt-R Global Reformat of the Message Text Alt-O "Oops!" -- allows you to re-edit the message header. F1, Both Buttons Help Menu. Alt-T Edit Tag Lines Alt-E Switch to External Editor, if defined. Alt-Z Toggle Zoomed Mode Alt-S Invoke external spell checker, if defined. 53 Control K,C Copy Block (works just like in your word processor) Control K,V Move Block (works just like in your word processor) Control K,H Hide Block (works just like in your word processor) Control K,R Read Block (reads in a block from a user- specified file) Available only when entering message text. Control K,Y Delete Block. Available only when entering message text. <Left Arrow> Cursor left one character. <Right Arrow> Cursor right one character. <Home> Cursor to beginning of line. <End> Cursor to end of line. <Del> Delete character at cursor. <Backspace> Delete character to left of cursor. If the cursor is at the beginning of a line, the line will be joined with the previous line. <Ctrl Y> Delete current line. <Ctrl Q><Y> Delete from cursor to end of line <Ctrl T> Delete word to right of cursor. If the cursor is at end of a line, the following line is joined with the current line. <Enter> Start a new line. <Tab> Move the cursor to the next tab stop. If insert mode is on, any text to the right of the cursor is moved to the right of the tab stop. <Ins> Toggle insert mode on and off. A "fat" cursor indicates insert mode; a "thin" cursor indicates overtype mode. 54 <Ctrl O><I> Toggle auto-indent mode on or off. In auto- indent mode, pressing <Enter> while in insert mode will cause the new line inserted to have the same indentation level as the previous line. Auto-indent mode also affects the way that text is formatted when word wrap occurs -- the new line will have the same indentation level as the previous line -- and hence the behavior of the reformatting commands (<Ctrl B> and <Alt R>). <Ctrl O><W> Toggle word wrap on and off. When word wrap is on, any attempt to insert or append text beyond the right margin will cause a new line to be inserted following the current line and all words that are at least partially beyond the right margin to be moved to the new line. <Ctrl B> Reformat the current paragraph. <Alt R> Reformat the entire file. Use this command with caution. <Ctrl Q><L> Restore original contents of the current line. <Esc> or <Click Right> Quit editing. Commands Active while editing a Header Tab Move to next field. Shift-Tab Move to previous field Control Enter, PgDn Done Editing Esc Abort Operation Del Delete Character Under Cursor Backspace Delete Character Left of Cursor Ins Insert Mode On/Off Control-Y Clear Current Field Down Arrow Move to Next Field below current field Up Arrow Move to Next Field Above current field 55 Commands Active During Quick Scan Down Arrow Move down one item Up Arrow Move up one item PgUp Move up by one page of items. PgDn Move down by one page of items. Enter Read the currently highlighted item. Space Bar Toggle the tagged status of the current item Alt-C Clear all tags. (Make all messages UNTAGGED) Alt-T Set all tags. (Make all messages TAGGED) Alt-F Tag or Untag messages by Example. Alt-S Save/Print all tagged items. Alt-K Kill all Tagged items. Alt-P Change the Permanent flag on all tagged messages. Alt-R Change the Personal Read flag on all tagged messages. R Read all tagged messages. Alt-L Invoke the BBS/Conf/Thread Listing. Alt-X Leave the reader completely and quickly. Alt-Q Change the mail selection criteria. F1, Both buttons Help Menu Commands active in the BBS/Conf/Thread Listing Down Arrow Move down one item Up Arrow Move up one item PgUp Move up by one page of items. PgDn Move down by one page of items. 56 Enter Read the currently highlighted item. Space Bar Toggle the tagged status of the current item Alt-L Toggle the inclusion of subjects (threads) in the listing. Alt-Q Invoke the Quick Scan. Alt-C Clear all Tags (Make all messages UNTAGGED) Alt-T Set all Tags (Make all messages TAGGED) Alt-S Save/Print all Tagged Items Alt-K Kill All Tagged Items Alt-P Change the Permanent flag of all Items. Alt-R Change the Personal Read flag of all Items. R Read all Tagged Items Alt-X Exit the reader completely and quickly F1, both buttons Help Menu 57 Appendix B : "Variables" The MegaMail reader provides several very powerful "variables" that are substituted with variable information during reader operation. These "variables" are available in the Quick Scan format string, DOS Hotkeys, Tag Lines, and Keyboard macros. The variables are as follows: $BBS = BBS message came from/is going to $CONF = Conference $NUM = Message Number $REF = Message's Reference Number $DATE = Message's Date $TIME = Message's Time $PRIV = Is the msg private? (ie, Y or N) $READ = Is the msg read (ie, Y or N) $ECHO = Echo Message on Network? (ie, Y or N) $PERM = Is the msg permanent (ie, Y or N) $EXPORT = Export this message to bbs? (ie, Y or N) $IMPDATE = Imported Date of message $PREAD = Personal Read flag on msg (ie, Y or N) $FROM = Author of message $TO = Addressee of message $SUBJ = subject of message. $TAG = check mark if tagged, a space otherwise. $SYSTIME = System time (ie current time of day) $SYSDATE = System date (ie current date) These variables are replaced with their respective information from the last message read. Note that all variables must be followed by a : and a length specifier; see the section on the Quick Scan format string in the configuration section for details. One caveat to using these variables in keyboard macros: since keyboard macros record EVERY keystroke made, you cannot make any mistakes while typing the names of these variables. For example, if you type $SYY<backspace>STIME, it will not be found and replaced by the reader because the backspace keystroke is imbedded in the variable's name. If you make a mistake while entering a macro, you can either re-record the macro, or use the macro editor to fix your mistake. 58 Index .DL . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Another Reader . . . . . . 33 .DL packet . . . . . . . . 21 ANSI . . . . . . . . . . . 28 ".DL" file . . . . . . . . 18 Anti-Skid Operation . . . . 15 ".UL" file . . . . . . . . 18 Auto Import/Export . . . . 15 "explode" . . . . . . . . . 10 Auto Unread Scan . . . . . 15 "Reverse" Threading . . . . 32 Autoindent . . . . . . . . 12 "Shareware." . . . . . . . 5 Automatic import/export . . 18 "Unix" . . . . . . . . . . 7 BBS . . . . . . . . . . 6, 25 "variables" . . . . . . . . 13 BBS software . . . . . . . 6 (NEW) Mail Marked as BBS's . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Read . . . . . . 11 BBS/Conf/Thread listing 23, 36 $BBS . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 BBSID . . . . . . . . . . . 17 $CONF . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 BBSID.DL . . . . . . . . . 17 $DATE . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 BBSID.UL . . . . . . . 17, 18 $ECHO . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Check . . . . . . . . . . . 5 $EXPORT . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Colors . . . . . . . . . . 46 $FROM . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 COLORS.MGA . . . . . . . . 46 $IMPDATE . . . . . . . 14, 57 Command Line Parameters . . 39 $NUM . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Conference . . . . . . . . 25 $PREAD . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Conferences . . . . . . . . 20 $PRIV . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Date . . . . . . . . . . . 26 $READ . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Default color sets . . . . 46 $REF . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Define Spell Checker . . . 13 $SUBJ . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Delete Default . . . . . . 15 $TAG . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Deleting Messages . . . . . 31 $TIME . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Directories . . . . . . . . 9 $TO . . . . . . . . . . 14, 57 Door . . . . . . . . . 6, 17 /43 . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Door text in message . . . 11 /50 . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 DOS Hotkeys . . . . . . . . 46 /BASENAME . . . . . . . . . 39 DOS Shell Swaps . . . . . . 15 /BIOSSCROLL . . . . . . . . 40 Download . . . . . . . . 6, 9 /BUFSIZE . . . . . . . . . 40 Downloaded . . . . . . . . 17 /COLORFILE . . . . . . . . 40 Echo Flag . . . . . . . . . 26 /CONFIGFILE . . . . . . . . 39 Editing Messages . . . . . 31 /EXPORT . . . . . . . . . . 39 Enter . . . . . . . . . . . 28 /HOTKEYFILE . . . . . . . . 39 Enter Key . . . . . . . . . 29 /IMPORT . . . . . . . . . . 39 Entering Messages . . . . . 12 /MACROFILE . . . . . . . . 39 Example . . . . . . . . . . 37 /MONO . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Exploding windows . . . . . 10 /NOEMS . . . . . . . . . . 39 Export . . . . . . . . . . 26 /NOMOUSE . . . . . . . . . 39 EXPORT.BAT . . . . . . 8, 41 /NOSNOW . . . . . . . . . . 40 Exporting . . . . . . . 15, 18 /NOZIP . . . . . . . . 40, 41 Exporting. . . . . . . . . 41 /PACK . . . . . . . . . . . 39 External editor . . . . . . 12 |MegaMail . . . . . . . . . 20 External Spell Checker . . 31 Add . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Form Feed on Printed Advantage . . . . . . . . . 6 Messages . . . . 11 All New Mail . . . . . 20, 21 Format String . . . . . . . 13 Alt-L . . . . . . . . . . . 23 From . . . . . . . . . . . 25 59 Games . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Protect (NEW) Mail . . . . 11 Header in REFER.TXT . . . . 13 Protocol . . . . . . . . . 8 Header line . . . . . . . . 10 QEdit . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Header. . . . . . . . . . . 24 QEdit), . . . . . . . . . . 12 Help Menus . . . . . . . . 27 Quick Scan . . . . 13, 35, 36 Hide Work Directory . . . . 15 Quoting . . . . . . . . . . 34 Import . . . . . . . . 19, 21 Quoting prefix . . . . . . 12 IMPORT.BAT . . . . . . 8, 41 Read . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Imported . . . . . . . . . 25 Read by BBS/Conf/Thread . . 11 Importing . . . . . 15, 18, 41 Reader. . . . . . . . . . . 17 Keyboard Macros . . . . . . 47 READER.REG . . . . . . . . 8 Kill . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Redefining your Keyboard . 48 Kill Exported Mail . . . . 11 REFER.TXT . . . . . . . 12, 13 Last Read Pointer . . . . . 21 Reference . . . . . . . . . 25 Last x Messages . . . . . . 20 Register . . . . . . . . . 5 Leaving Messages . . . . . 28 Registered . . . . . . 13, 31 Level . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Registering . . . . . . . . 5 License Agreement . . . . . 4 Repairing and Purging Macro editor . . . . . 47, 48 Mail . . . . . . 42 MegaMail Door . . . . . 6, 17 Reply . . . . . . . . . . . 28 MegaMail Reader . . . . . . 17 REQUIRED . . . . . . . . . 9 MegaMail(tm) . . . . . . . 1 Right margin . . . . . . . 12 MEGAREAD.DOC . . . . . . . 8 Screen Display Category . . 10 MEGAREAD.EXE . . . . . . . 8 Scroll bars . . . . . . . . 7 MEGAREAD.HKY. . . . . . . . 47 Search specification . . . 37 Message Handling . . . . . 11 Searching . . . . . . . . . 37 Message header . . . . . . 24 ShareSpell . . . . . . . . 13 MESSAGE.TXT . . . . . . 12, 13 Spell Checker . . . . . 13, 31 Messages From You are Statistics Display . . . . 27 Read . . . . . . 11 Subj . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . 15 Suppress Tag Lines . . . . 13 Money order . . . . . . . . 5 Swap to External Editor . . 12 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Swap to Spell Checker . . . 13 Move after Reply . . . . . 12 Swapped . . . . . . . . . . 47 No Mail . . . . . . . . 20, 21 Switching Between Noisy windows . . . . . . . 10 Editors . . . . . 32 Number . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tag Lines . . . . . . . . . 29 PACKING.LST . . . . . . . . 8 Tagged Messages . . . . . . 36 Permanent . . . . . . . 26, 31 Threading . . . . . . . . . 32 Personal Beeper . . . . . . 10 Threads . . . . . . . . . . 23 Personal Read . . . . . . . 26 Time . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Personal Read Flags . . . . 33 To . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Pick Lists . . . . . . . . 7 Trademark . . . . . . . . . 1 PKUNZIP . . . . . . . . 9, 41 Trigger Keystroke . . . . . 47 PKUNZIP. . . . . . . . . . 10 Upload . . . . . . . . . 6, 9 PKUNZIP.EXE . . . . . . . . 8 Use EMS when swapping . . . 15 PKZIP . . . . . . . . . 10, 41 UTI technology . . . . . . 6 PKZIP.EXE . . . . . . . . . 8 WordPerfect . . . . . . 12, 47 PKZIP, . . . . . . . . . . 9 Work directory . . . . . . 9 Printing and Saving Your Mail from Last x Messages . . . . 32 messages . . . . 20 Private . . . . . . . . . . 25 Your New Mail . . . . . 20, 21 60 ZMODEM . . . . . . . . . . 8 ZModem. . . . . . . . . . . 18 Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Zooming . . . . . . . . . . 33