HELP CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WHAT DO YOU NEED

INSTALLATION

HOW TO USE ECTOOL?

REGISTRATION

WARRANTY


INTRODUCTION

This utility was born to help email chess players to manage the games in play, to avoid  losing their game record, or forget to send their moves. (As I do frequently :))

I'm open to all suggestions of the email chess community. I promise I will try to implement most of them (If it is possible that I can do it).

In a few words, ECTOOL allows you to easily record your games, send your moves by email (SMPT), review your queued mail, send carbon copies to Tournament Directors or Archivist, send mail to anybody like another mailer, export your games to PGN format, save to text files with optional to: header, you will be able to send a ASCCII diagram in your messages, the time registers and so on.

At that moment the program does not make an exhaustive legal computation of your moves, but it is enough to record them. Remember : THIS IS NOT A CHESS GAME, NOR A CHESS TEACHER PROGRAM, it is only a single database that allows you to send by email your game records.

You can get the last version at:

http://www.redestb/personal/avalverde


WHAT DO YOU NEED

ECTOOL is a 16 bit program that runs fine both under  WIN 3.X and Windows 95 and NT.

You dont need any extra runtime or database engine.

Youll need a Winsock stack installed, like Trumpet Winsock or Phone Net Access for Win 95


INSTALLATION

Simply unzip the file ECTOOLXX.ZIP in the directory you choose. The program does not copy any file to your windows or system directory and neither modify your system settings.

Begin with the menu option FILE > CONFIGURATION, and the following dialog wiil be open :

The field definition is as follows:

USER NAME : Your war name

EMAIL ADDRESS: Your electronic mail address

SMTP SERVER: Your mail host name

SIGNATURE FILE : This is a text file that the program will add at the end of your messages

IECG KEY : (Optional) This is the key IECG gives you as a member

SEND DOMAIN NAME : Disable this option if you have problems with connections

DISPLAY COORDINATES: Check if you want see the board coordinates

When you finish introducing data, click <Save> to save the changes. If you want to discard all the changes made then click <Cancel>


HOW TO USE ECTOOL?

ECTOOL is so easy to use. We can navigate over menues :

Files

Mail

Utilities

Help


REGISTRATION

This program is released under the SHAREWARE concept. My first intention was to make it FREE, but I have had to pay for different components, and I don't want to make money, but neither to lose it. Anyway, the registration will be valid for ALL  the future versions of ECTOOL, if any.

To register, please send only $15 USA (2000 pts for Spanish orders) in a check payable to ANDRES VALVERDE TORESANO, to the mail address :

     Andres Valverde Toresano

     Pz. Ibiza 1,8º A

     04005. ALMERIA. SPAIN

Don't forget to note your email address!

I will send you by email the registration key, and the lastest version if you want.


WARRANTY

This program is released "as is", there is no warranty of any type. Use it at your own risk.

Andres Valverde

avalverde@redestb.es

www.redestb.es/personal/avalverde

2:345/108.5@FidoNet

ALMERIA, 3.November.1996


FILES

CONFIG : Read instalation section

OPEN GAME : Open the game selection dialog

SAVE GAME : Save the game to disk with its current name

SAVE GAME AS : To save the game to disk with another file name. It opens the dialog:

DELETE GAME : To erase the game from disk

NEW GAME : To begin a new game with the temporal name : DEFAULT.ECT. You can save it after recording with another name.

RESET GAME : Restore the initial position, deleting the move list, but dont modify the rest of the data

EXIT : Close the application


MAIL

SEND QUEUED MAIL : Send the queued mail to the SMTP server. While sending, the application belongs inactive. If the connection is not possible you will receive an error message.

REVIEW QUEUED MAIL: With this option you can view, modify or delete your queued messages. The following dialog will appear :

By clicking <Delete> you take off the message of the queue. With <Open>, or double-clicking over the message list you will open the  message editor

DELETE QUEUED MAIL : This option delete ALL the quqed messages

MESSAGE EDITOR : Open the message editor

ADDRESS BOOK : Open the address book

ADD OPPONENT TO ADDRESS BOOK : Add an address book entry with the opponents data.


UTILITIES

INVERT BOARD : Reverse the chess board

LOG FILE : Allows to view the log file, and to initialize it

EDIT SIGNATURE : Open the Windows NOTEPAD with your signature file

PGN : To export the game to PGN file

IECG : There are two options in this menu, send a report of finished games to International Email Chess Group and send an event join request to this organization.

IECC : You can send a finshed game report to International Email Chess Club.


GAME SELECTION

The game selection dialog is as follows :

Simply select a game with the mouse and click OK, or double click over the game list.


MESSAGE EDITOR

The editor dialog form is as follows:

BUTTONS

<Save> Save the message body to a text file. You can add an optional header to: line, that is usual in some BBSs with Iternet Email Services

<Queue> Put the message in the queue. The message will be post next time you connect to the SMTP server.

<Send Now> Send the message inmediately, if you are connected

<Print> Send the message to printer

<Exit> Close the editor dialog


ADDRESS BOOK

The address book is a simply list with two columns: Name and Email address. It has a text file associated, ectool.lst, where you can manually add, modify or delete lines, with this format :

Valverde, Andres ; avalverderedestb.es