Tide version 1.10 Full Screen Editor Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997 Errol Smith All Rights Reserved QUICK 2 MINUTE INSTALL: Copy the contents of this archive to a directory of your choice, eg. "C:\BBS\TIDE\" Load your BBS's configuration program, change the Full Screen Editor command line to: "[drive]:\[path]\TIDE.EXE -N*N *M" where *N is the node number & *M enables memory swapping. eg. For Ezycom, "C:\EZY\TIDE\TIDE.EXE -N*N *M" in Messages>Misc>Ext.Editor For Ezycom BBS's, make sure that 'Old Style MSGTMP = NO' Exit & save your BBS setup, and test run it. If you have problems, read the detailed installation and/or FAQ later in this file. Contents: 1 - What is Tide? 2 - Feature Summary 3 - License Agreement & Registration 4 - Installation & Hardware/Software requirements 5 - Command reference and Features in detail 6 - Command line parameters 7 - Problems & Frequently Asked Questions 8 - Credits 9 - Contacting the author. ====================================================================== 1 - What is Tide? ====================================================================== Tide is a full screen editor (FSE) for use with Ezycom, RemoteAccess, QuickBBS, SuperBBS and other BBS systems using the QuickBBS style of external editor interface. Tide was originally started because I felt there was a need for a more reliable, more efficient editor than the ones currently available, (especially for Ezycom) none of which seemed to work very reliably. I also wanted an editor that fully supported Avatar0+ and made full use of its powerful scrolling commands, which were perfect for a full screen editor. After about 8 months of developing and beta testing, 'Tide' is the result! ====================================================================== 2 - Feature summary: ====================================================================== - Supports both AVATAR0+ & ANSI graphics commands, making extensive use of Avatar's screen scrolling commands. - Extremely efficient, even low speed users can use this editor! (-: - Doorway mode for remote connections to enable 'extended' keys such as page up/down, ctrl-home/end etc. - Recursive word-wrap routines & automatic paragraph handling. - Powerful paragraph reformat routine (Ctrl-D). Will even reformat & re-quote quoted text, fixing the dreaded 'chainsaw' effect. - Fast spell checking routine. (Ctrl-E) - Multi-line cut/copy/paste buffer. - When a user runs out of time, it gives them the option to save or abort their unfinished message. A 10 second time-out will automatically save the message if they do not respond. - Reads the users screen length, and adjusts the editing/quote window sizes accordingly. [ezycom only] - General/User help. (F1) - Sysop/Local help. (F2) - Importing of text files. (F3) [local only] - Exporting to a file. (F4) [local only] - 'To:' field name/handle search. (F5) [ezycom only] - Reads the users record for text/quote colours. [ezycom only] - Gives away time slices when idle for multitasking systems. Directly supports OS/2, DESQview, Windows & generic timeslicing. - Alt-J shell to DOS from within editor. - Allows user to change privacy flag & message subject [ezycom only] - Support for forwarding of messages. [ezycom only] - Sysop (local) macros. ALT F1-F12 - Built in full screen split sysop <-> user chat. (Alt-C) - Alter users remaining time while in editor. - Tagline support. (optional) - Security lockout for local/sysop keyboard functions. - No configuration program/files needed, and no need for an environment variable. - Only one copy of the editor & key is needed on your system. (but you can have multiple copies on your system without problems) - All help screens are built in to the .EXE file. - Unregistered version not crippled. (all features are enabled) - Written by a BBS user -for- BBS users. ====================================================================== 3 - License Agreement & Registration ====================================================================== IMPORTANT: Please read this license agreement before using this software. By using this software you acknowledge your agreement to the terms of this license. If you do not wish to follow the terms of this license agreement, you must remove this software from your system. The only portion of the Software that you may retain is the distribution archive itself which may be used solely for distribution purposes. Distribution of this package is encouraged, so long as no charge is levied for the distribution. Commercial Software Libraries may not include Tide in their libraries, without the written permission of the author. The distribution archive of Tide may not be tampered with in any way, shape or form. Conversion to another archive format is allowed but strongly discouraged. Adding comments, headers or extra files to the archive, or the removal or modification of any files in the archive is NOT permitted. Modifying, reverse engineering or disassembling of Tide executables or key files is strictly prohibited. Distributing the registration key or otherwise making it available to persons other than yourself is a violation of the licensing agreement. Copies of the registration key may be made ONLY for backup/archival purposes. The use of tampered versions of Tide, or the use of keys not distributed by official registration sites is an infringement of International Copyright Laws. 'Tide' is supplied 'as is'. This product (including any and all files included in the original distribution archive) has no guarantees or warranties of any kind. Apart from the likelyhood of it taking up disk space on your system, this product promises nothing. The author will not be held liable for any damages caused to you or your system by this product, whether from use, misuse or any other factor. Every effort has been made to make this product as 'safe' as possible, but due to the nature of Bulletin Board Systems and computers in general, there is always the chance of damage to system files and/or any associated hardware/software. Registration: This editor is NOT free. This software is shareware, meaning you MUST pay for it if you intend to use it beyond a 30 day evaluation period. After expiration of the 30 day evaluation period, you must either register or remove this software from your system. When unregistered, the editor does have some restrictions, however it is NOT 'crippled'. All functions are enabled, allowing you to effectively evaluate the editor before you decide to register it or discontinue using it. However, the editor won't let you edit a message larger than 100 lines long. The editor will regularly remind you & your users that it is only for evaluation, and occasionally put a message to this effect on the end of saved messages. The number of useable taglines is also limited to 10. When registered, all these restrictions are removed. Registration is A$25 (Twenty Five Australian Dollars) for a single registration and less for group registrations (2 or more people using one payment, eg. one cheque for 3 registrations). See the accompanying registration form for details on how to register Tide. ====================================================================== 4 - Installation & Hardware/Software Requirements ====================================================================== The only requirements for this editor are that a FOSSIL be present for remote connections. If you are running a BBS, then you will most likely already have one loaded, so this isn't a problem. It has been tested with both X00 by Raw Gwinn and BNU by David Nugent. The editor should run on any hardware, even an XT, as long as it is running some form of DOS (3.x or higher recommended), and has been tested under OS/2 Warp, DESQview and Windows without problems. It will also pass timeslices to these systems to help multitasking. Typically, at least 200k of free memory is required. In most cases, the editor will load without the BBS doing a memory swap. Installation is easy. Simply extract the distribution archive to a directory on your system, (eg. C:\BBS\TIDE) and modify your BBS configuration appropriately. This will generally involve changing the command line for the external editor to "[drive]:[path]\TIDE.EXE -N*N *M" BBS detection is automatic, looking at your environment variables, but can be overridden on the command line if you have problems (for example, you have more than one environment variable that the editor recognises - see "/B" under command line options) Order of detection is: EZY RA QBBS SBBS Whichever one it finds first will be the default. (internally, all modes except Ezycom are identical, so the editor will work with QuickBBS even if it finds an RA environment variable first. However I have included the separate options for future expansion, for example direct support of each BBS's dropfiles) If none of these is found, the editor defaults to the QuickBBS/RA style of editor interface, using "DORINFO1.DEF" for the user/port info, and "MSGTMP." for the quote & message text. "MSGINF." is optional (contains message information). All these files must be in the current directory. See the FAQ for more info. Ezycom files are read from the Ezycom system directory as defined by the "EZY" environment variable. If Ezycom mode is forced and no EZY environment variable exists, the current directory will be used. Ezycom Installation: In Ezycom's CONFIG, go into 'Messages > Misc > External Editor' And set it to: [path]TIDE.EXE -N*N *M eg. 'C:\EZY\TIDE\TIDE.EXE -N*N *M' Make sure that 'Messages > Misc > Old Style MSGTMP' is 'NO'. The -N*N passes the node number (See command line options), and the *M tells Ezycom to do a memory swap. RemoteAccess Installation: In RACONFIG, go into 'Options > Messages > External Editor' And set it to: [path]TIDE.EXE -N*N *M eg. 'C:\RA\TIDE\TIDE.EXE -N*N *M' The -N*N passes the node number (See command line options), and the *M tells RA to do a memory swap. When you register, the KEY file should be placed in the same directory where you installed Tide, your BBS system directory, and/or in the current (DOS) directory that the BBS operates in. The Key file is searched for in that order. ====================================================================== 5 - Command Reference & Features ====================================================================== A summary of these commands is available in the online help. Press ESC H or F1 for general help and F2 for sysop/local help. Edit Window: Command: Alternative: Function: Control-A (Ctrl-LeftArrow) Moves the cursor to the first character of the previous word. Control-B Change the case of the word the cursor is on. Order is lower case; upper case; first char uppercase, remaining chars lower case. ie: hello -> HELLO -> Hello -> hello ..... Control-C (Page-Down) Go down one page of text. Control-D Reformat and re-quote the current paragraph. The paragraph is reformated from the current line downwards until a blank line is encountered. Lines longer than the right margin (70chars) are word-wrapped to the next line. Lines that are shorter than the margin will 'pull-up' words from the next line. This effectively 'compacts' a paragraph. If the line the cursor is on is quoted (ie has a '>' in the first few characters), then that quote prefix is used in front of all lines in the paragraph. Also, any quote prefixes in following lines are removed. This effectively re-quotes the paragraph. This is an extremely powerful command - when used on quoted text, it will completely eliminate the dreaded 'chainsaw effect'. After getting used to it, you will find yourself hitting Ctrl-D on all your quoted paragraphs when replying to messages. It can also be used to 'quote' an un-quoted paragraph by adding a quote prefix to the current line and then running it. Transversely, it can be used to 'un-quote' a paragraph by removing the quote prefix from the current line before using it. This is similar to the Qedit command 'WrapParagraph' (Alt-B). Control-E Run/restart spellchecker. Useful after editing misspelled words. Control-F (Ctrl-RightArrow) Moves the cursor to the first character of the next word. Control-G Paste a "". Control-H (Backspace) Delete the previous char, scrolling the rest of the line left. Control-I (Tab) Move the cursor to the next tab stop. If insert mode is on, the text in front of the cursor will be moved along with it. Control-J Centre the current line. Control-K (Esc Q) Alternative to Quote (Control-Q). Control-L (Esc R) Redraw the screen. This can be used if the user receives line noise to redraw the display. Control-M (Enter) Move the cursor to the beginning of the next line. This will also insert a blank line. If the cursor was not at or past the end of the line, the rest of the line will be moved to the next line. Control-N Insert a new line. Control-O (Esc) Alternative to ESC (Activate menu). Control-P 'Paste' a line from the multiline cut/copy/paste buffer. This can be used to move and/or copy lines of text. Control-Q (Esc Q) Switch between the quote window and the edit window. If the quote window is not open, it will be opened. This will have no effect if there is nothing to quote. Control-R (Page-Up) Go up one page of text. Control-S 'Save' (ie. copy) the current line into the multiline cut/copy/paste buffer. Control-T Delete the current word, regardless of where in the word the cursor is. Control-U Delete from the cursor to the end of the current line. Control-V (Insert) Toggle insert/overwrite mode. Control-W Toggle quote window. This will open the quote window if it isn't open and close it if it is open. Control-X (Esc A) Abort the message and exit. You will (Esc Esc) be asked for confirmation. Control-Y Delete/Cut the current line. The line is stored in a multiline buffer. You can 'undelete' the line(s) with control-P. (paste) Control-Z (Esc S) Save the message and exit the editor. Control-[ (Esc) Activate the menu. Control-\ Quote the current line as if from the person the message is to. Commands for Doorway mode & Local only: F1 (ESC H) Help Screen(s) Page-Up (Control-R) Go up one page of text. Page-Down (Control-C) Go down one page of text. Control-Home Top left of edit window. Control-End Bottom right of edit window. Shift-Tab Reverse Tab. Alt-X Abort message without confirmation. Quote Window: The following keys are for the quote window. Function is similar to the same keys in the edit window, except where detailed. Use Control-Q, Control-K or ESC Q to access the quote window. The option will not be accessible if there is nothing to quote. Command: Alternative: Function: Control-C (Page-Down) Go down one page of text. Control-K (Esc Q) Switch between the quote window and the edit window. (Alternative to Control-Q) Control-L (Esc R) Redraw the screen. Control-M (Enter) Quote the current line - the quoted line that the cursor is currently on will be copied into the edit window. If the quotemode is insert (default), then the quoted line will be inserted before the current edit line. If quotemode is overwrite, then the quoted line will overwrite the current edit line. Both the current quote line and edit line will be advanced. Control-O (Esc) Activate the menu. Control-Q (Esc Q) Switch between the quote window and the edit window. Control-R (Page-Up) Go up one page of text. Control-V (Insert) Toggle insert/overwrite mode for quoted lines. Control-W Close the quote window and return to the edit window. Control-X (Esc A) Abort the message and exit. You will (Esc Esc) be asked for confirmation. Control-Z (Esc S) Save the message and exit the editor. Control-[ (Escape) Activate the menu. Quote Commands for Doorway mode & Local only: Page-Up (Control-R) Go up one page of text. Page-Down (Control-C) Go down one page of text. Control-Home Top of quote window. Control-End Bottom of quote window. Alt-X Abort message without confirmation. Menu: Press ESC or ctrl-O to access the menu. The uppercase letter of each function indicates which key activates the command. Menu Keyboard Command: Alternative: Function: Help ESC H Display the help screens. Save Control-Z Save the message and exit the editor. Abort Control-X Abort the message and exit. You will ESC ESC be asked for confirmation. Redraw Control-L Redraw the screen. This can be used if the user receives line noise to redraw the display. Quote Control-Q Switch between the quote window and the edit window. If the quote window is not open, it will be opened. This will have no effect if there is nothing to quote, and the option will not appear on the menu. Private Toggle the privacy status of the message on or off (if allowed in the current message area). [Ezycom Only] sUbject Change the subject of the message. (if allowed in the current message area) [Ezycom Only] spElling Control-E Run spell checking routine. Enter (or any other key) Exit the menu. Local/Sysop commands: F1 Display help screens. F2 Summary of local/sysop commands. F3 Import a text file into the message. If insert is on, imported lines will be inserted before the current line. If insert is off, imported lines will overwrite lines starting from the cursor. Imported text will be word-wrapped to the right margin. F4 Export the message text to a text file. F5 To: field name/alias search. This will search the BBS user base for any user who's real name or alias matches who the message is being posted to, and display both. This is especially useful if handles are used on your BBS. For example, this command will tell you who someone called 'Freddo' really is. [Ezycom Only] ALT F1-F12 Sysop macros - see the section on sysop macros below for more information. Alt-C Chat to the remote user. This will put you into a split full screen chat mode. What you type and what the user types will be in separate windows. Press ESC to exit. The users screen will be automatically redrawn on exiting chat so don't be afraid to use it! (-: Alt-J Shell to DOS. Note: This may cause problems if when the editor loads there is not much free memory. Alt - Decrement users remaining time Alt = Increment users remaining time Sysop Macros: Sysop macros are accessed by holding the ALT key and pressing function keys F1 through F12. The macros are defined in a text file called 'TIDE.MAC' which should be placed in the same directory as TIDE, or the BBS system directory. The file is a simple text file where each line corresponds to a macro key. ie the first line in the file is the macro for ALT-F1, the second line for ALT-F2 and so on until the 12th line for ALT-F12. The vertical bar '|' (pipe symbol) is used to define a carriage return. Example: the macro: 'Regards,|Errol Smith' (without the quotes) will produce an output like... Regards, Errol Smith ...in the message. Use the sequence '|/s|' to save the message with the macro. eg 'Regards,|Errol Smith|/s|' would do as above but also save the message automatically. Taglines: Taglines are optional. If the file 'TIDE.TAG' exists in the Tide directory, the BBS system directory or the current directory, a random quote will be taken from it & added to the end of message text. Taglines look something like: ... This is a tagline. Please steal me! If you don't want taglines added to your messages, then simply delete (or don't create in the first place), the file TIDE.TAG. The file uses a custom format to store taglines, and I have supplied a utility with the editor to convert normal ascii text files into the format used. The usage is dead easy: TIDETAG.EXE [inputfile] [/E] With no options, it will give you a little reminder of how to use it. The default input file is straight ascii, one tagline per line. It will also convert the Ezycom 'RUMOURS.BBS' format. To do so, put a /E on the command line after the filename. eg. TIDETAG RUMOURS.BBS /E The output file will always be TIDE.TAG in the current directory. If it already exists, it will be overwritten. Notes: - The "... " prefix is added by the editor, and should NOT be part of the input text file. - When the editor looks for TIDE.TAG, it looks in the directory Tide was loaded from, then the BBS system directory (as defined by the appropriate environment variable), then the current DOS directory. This should mean only one copy of TIDE.TAG is needed on your system. - Input lines longer than 65 characters will be ignored. ====================================================================== 6 - Command line parameters ====================================================================== Command line parameters must begin with either a '/' or a '-' followed by a letter to indicate the option, then (in most cases) a parameter. There must be at least one space between separate command line parameters. Case is NOT sensitive. eg. to define node 3 all the following will work: /n3 /N3 -n3 -N3 All command line parameters are optional. Defaults are listed where applicable. - /N# This defines which node the editor is on, '#' being the node number: eg /N2 This will normally be on the BBS config line as '/N*N' Default is 1. This option is MANDATORY for multiline systems. - /B##### Define BBS type. This will override automatic detection (see installation) Where ##### is: EZY - Ezycom RA - RemoteAccess QBBS - QuickBBS SBBS - SuperBBS OTHER - Other (QuickBBS/RA style editor interface) Only the first letter is required, all others are ignored. eg. /BE /BEZY /bEzy (force Ezycom mode) This will usually only be required if you have more than one environment variable that Tide recognises (eg. you have both EZY & RA variables and you want the editor to load up in RA mode) - /S[ecure] This will disable local sysop functions such as shell-to-dos, import, export & changing users time. This would normally be used as a security measure in places where the BBS software is used for local logins (eg schools), or is in a public area and you don't want users accessing the operating system or otherwise being able to 'hack' your system. Typically this would be used in conjunction with similar security inside the BBS, such as the 'Keyboard Password' in Ezycom. eg. /S /Secure /SECURE - /V Turn off video mode changes. Tide will by default attempt to switch to a bigger video mode to accommodate remote users with long screen-lengths that won't fit on the current screen mode. (eg 50 rows). Local logins always get the full current screenlength, regardless of their user setting. If your BBS is already in 43/50 row mode when Tide loads, or if none of your users have more than 24 lines then you are unlikely to notice. Only Ezycom passes the screenlength, so other BBS systems will have no need for this switch. This switch would generally only be used under a multitasker. (eg. Desqview may switch to graphics mode to accommodate large windows, which can get annoying) - /H Disable high ascii. (ascii codes > 127 decimal) This will stop users entering high ascii in messages. The default is to allow high ascii. (Under Ezycom, high ascii is not allowed if the user has ibm extended chars off. However other BBS systems have no way of 'telling' the editor whether to allow high ascii or not.) - /F########.### If you are using a BBS system that uses a filename other than "MSGTMP." to contain the message text, then this can be used to override the default ("MSGTMP." for RA/QuickBBS, or "MSGTMP.nnn" for Ezycom, where nnn is the nodenumber) eg. /Fmsgtxt.xyz - /R## This defines the maximum number of rows available for editing. ie the maximum length of the message in lines. eg /R20 will limit all messages to a maximum of 20lines. - [filename] Putting a filename FIRST on the command line will override everything else and bring the editor up in local mode, with the [filename] loaded into the quote window. This will enable you to use the editor with an offline reader, for example BlueWave. (in theory (: ) eg. TIDE message.txt ====================================================================== 7 - Problems & Mini F.A.Q. ====================================================================== The editor won't load! Double check your BBS setup. Make sure that the command line is correct, and that you are enabling the memory swap. (eg. *M) Also make sure that the editor actually IS where you tell the BBS it is. (eg if you are loading the editor from a ramdisk, make sure that the .EXE is there and that your startup copies the editor .EXE to the ramdisk) The editor loads, but I get "WARNING!! CAN'T FIND 'MSGINFO.nnn'" or "WARNING!! CAN'T FIND 'EXITINFO.nnn'" (possible Ezycom problem) - The editor thinks you are running under Ezycom when you aren't - Force the BBS type with the /Bx command line or get rid of your EZY environment variable. - Your EZY environment variable doesn't exist, or contains the wrong path to your BBS system directory. - The node number is not being passed to the editor properly. Check you have the /N*N command line parameter. This would be indicated by the extension of either filename not being the correct number for that node. - You're running Ezycom, and haven't set: 'Messages > Misc > Old style MSGTMP' to "NO" in your BBS configuration. Fix it! I'm using Ezycom, and the editor appears to work, but the message doesn't get saved properly, and/or there is no text to quote. You haven't set 'Messages > Misc > Old style MSGTMP' to "NO" in your BBS configuration. Fix it! The editor only works on node 1. You aren't correctly passing the node number to the editor. Make sure that you have the /N*N parameter on the editor command line. Alternatively, you have incorrectly setup the command line for your other node(s). I get a run-time error when I try to do a shell-to-dos (alt-J) from inside the editor. There is not enough free memory to do a shell after the editor has loaded. If you want to shell to dos, exit the editor first & shell from within your BBS software. (remember to save the users message first..) Alternatively, enable the memory swap when the editor is loaded (if you haven't already). The paragraph reformat routine (Ctrl-D) leaves some of the quote prefix (usually the initials) in the paragraph when I run it on quoted lines; or the reformated paragraphs don't line up with unformated ones. The quote prefix has a space between the initials and the ">", or is missing a space before and/or after the quote prefix. Go to your BBS setup and change the quote prefix to: " @> " or " > " ie. a space, the initials (optional), a greater than sign, then another space. This is the (unofficial) fidonet standard as defined in FSC-0032.TXT. There aren't enough lines available for editing big messages, and it occasionally puts annoying 'unregistered' taglines on my messages! Simple solution. Register! Why is it called 'Tide'? 'tide' is 'edit' backwards. Get it? (-: Can I use it with a BBS system other than Ezycom, RA, QuickBBS or SuperBBS?? Yes, if your BBS software uses the RA/QuickBBS system of external editor handling. That is, 3 files in the CURRENT directory: DORINFO1.DEF - standard drop file containing line/user info MSGTMP. - (no extension) An ascii file. If it exists when the editor loads, it will contain the quoted text. When the editor exits, this file will contain the saved message (or not exist if message aborted) (The name of this file can be overridden on the command line - see /F in command line parameters) MSGINF. - (no extension, optional) A text file containing message information: line 1: Who the message is FROM line 2: Who the message is TO line 3: Message subject line 4: Message number } Where message is being line 5: Message area } posted. (not used in editor) line 6: Private flag ("YES" or "NO") If your BBS software does not support this method of using the external editor, there may be 3rd party utilities to make your system 'emulate' them. Of course it will also work with other BBS systems using Ezycom's advanced FSE handling, but I don't know of any at the moment! (-: I want it to load faster! - - Put the editor in a RAMDisk. Even over a network, this will usually decrease load time significantly. Putting it in a local ramdisk on each machine on your network will make the most difference. The editor doesn't care where it gets loaded from, so you can have multiple copies on different machines. Alternatively, if you don't want to/can't have a RAMdisk on each machine in your network, then having a copy on each machine's local hard drive will still speed things up. - Try disabling the memory swap when the editor loads. (this usually involves removing the *M from the command line). This will make a noticeable difference especially if your system swaps memory out to disk. This may or may not work, depending on how much memory your OS & BBS software uses up. Try it, and if the editor runs reliably, then leave it that way! In most cases, Tide WILL run without a memory swap. However, a Dos-shell from within the editor when the BBS is not swapped out will not leave much memory for the shell. You have been warned! ====================================================================== 8 - Credits & Support/Beta sites ====================================================================== Many thanks go to the following people for beta-testing, bug hunting, many suggestions & general hassling: Dave Chapman (The Web BBS) Peter Davies (Author of Ezycom) Darren Gibbs (Way Out West BBS) Simon Phillips (Zzap BBS) Scott Farrell (Blue Marlin BBS) Phillip Dean (Eagle's Nest BBS) Robert Wilson (Restless BBS) Alistair Simpson (Satellite BBS) Neil Lees (Altered Reality) Support/Beta test sites - The latest version of Tide should be available from any of the following BBS systems. It should also be available on any other Ezycom support site. It is also being distributed via the Ezycom file distribution network. The Web 61-2-528-5941 (Dave Chapman) Way Out West 61-2-628-8888 (Darren Gibbs) Restless 61-45-76-6185 (Robert Wilson) Blue Marlin 61-47-76-1211 (Scott Farrell) Altered Reality 61-3-887-2115 (Neil Lees) ====================================================================== 9 - Contacting the author ====================================================================== If you have any suggestions or comments about Tide, then feel free to contact me. If you are having problems with it, PLEASE read the Problems/FAQ, and check your setup. I don't like to tell people to RTFM! (-: When reporting a problem, please give me as much information as possible, including the version number that you are using. If the problem results in a run-time error, please tell me the error code & procedure name that are displayed by the error handler. Telling me only "It doesn't work!" is not very helpful in fixing the problem! I can be contacted as 'Errol Smith' in the Ezycom_Utilities, Ezycom_Support & Ezycom_Development fidonet echoes. The Ezycom_Utilities echo is the preferred echo. Please do not post in the other areas unless you do not receive the Utilities echo. (Utility support is technically off-topic in the other echoes). Netmail/crashmail to my point address: (preferred) Errol Smith, The Web BBS, 3:712/523.5 (fidonet) Or netmail/crashmail to 'Errol Smith' at The Web BBS: Line 1: 61-2-528-5941 (v34, Mailer, Crashmail) FidoNet - 3:712/523 Adventure - 169:3005/2 WorldNet - 61:9600/350 E-mail: errol@ros.com.au World Wide Web: http://www.ros.com.au/~errol/tide.html Or via snail-mail (post) to: Errol Smith PO Box 119 Round Corner, NSW, 2158 Australia