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================================================================= The $ R / O R E A D O N L Y -={ December 1985 }=- The monthly news magazine of the Tampa Bay Kaypro User's Group and the DataCOM Super Systems(tm) ================================================================= Steven L. Sanders - Editor (Sysop) ================================================================= The DataCOM Super System is a multi-user remote database with 40mb of files online. An annual fee of $35.00 is required for access, application may be down-loaded by calling (813) 791-1454 at 300/1200/2400 baud or send a SASE along with your request to: TBKUG/DataCOM Network 2643 Cedarview Court Clearwater, FL 33519 NOTE: Articles and reviews of machines, hardware, software, and other peripherals reflect currently advertised prices as released by the distributors and are included here for YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. The TBKUG/DataCOM Network is NOT being paid to advertise these products and we cannot be held responsible for the price and/or performance of said products. ================================================================= -={ Enter the SUPER SYSTEM !! }=- The new multi-user TurboDOS-based remote system is ONLINE NOW!!! It's been a long time coming, and has been worth the wait. We have 31 seperate file areas covering most every category of public domain with filenames from ALIENS to ZCPR3. Moving around from one file area to another is a very simple task and is handled by the CD (Change Directory) command. You just enter "CD area_name" to move to the desired file section. At present we have the following file areas open: NEW RCPM TURBODOS SYS-INFO IBM/DOS GWBASIC MDM740 MEX1 MEX2 WORDPRO MAG HELP LU-CPM CPMUTIL CPM86 TURBOP FUN BASIC80 CPM-CAT C BIGBRD CBASIC ASM80 CATALOGS NEWDOS APPLE DBASE2 KAYPRO ZCPR3 CPM-PLUS -={ TurboDOS Command Prompt ]=- The Super System uses TurboDOS v1.41 (c) Software 2000 and the main difference between CP/M and TurboDOS is the way the command prompt looks. On your normal CP/M system you get a prompt like this: A> or A0> Under TurboDOS the same thing would be: 0A} and with the *Remote Access enhanced TurboDOS that I am running now, the prompt looks like this: [00:45 A1] NEW 2A} | | | | | | | | time on (hh:mm) <--+ | | +--> user/drive | | network/node <--+ +--> file area_name Your current timeon (hh:mm) is displayed first, followed by your node ID "A1", then the file area_name "NEW", and then the user/drive currently logged. For those of you who used multiple commands on the ZCPR3-based system, TurboDOS again does things slightly different. The multiple command seperator is the backslash "\" character and not the semicolon ";", use it like so: xmodem s thisfile.abc\xmodem s thatfile.xyz\etc\etc\etc -={ MEX Users Info }=- Before using GET.MEX or any sendout commands, be sure to issue the following command from the MEX prompt. STAT TRIGGER "}" The sendout trigger character must be reset for the TurboDOS prompt which ends in a "}" instead of the ">" used by CP/M systems. If you get a bunch of "Sendout Failed" errors, then you have forgotten to change the trigger character. -={ System Error Handling }=- The basic commands used while in TurboDOS are not very different from those being used on CP/M-based remote systems. If you enter an invalid command or line noise "alters" your command, you will probably get the following error message: <-- Command not found This simply means that TurboDOS could NOT find the requested command file. The command in error is always pointed at by the error message and should be fairly self-explanatory. If you attempt to move to any file area that is NOT accessible remotely you will receive the following error message: <-- Area not available -={ User Disks Anyone ?? }=- H E L P ! ! I need to sell some user disk volumes ... if I don't keep a sufficient quantity moving out I can't continue to buy disks and mailers in large (cheap) quantities. This is going to have to be made up somewhere and it will probably mean an increase in the current $10 per disk charge. I don't want this to happen -- so buy a disk today !! We have three files that list the contents of all 81 TBKUG User Disk volumes and these can be found online in the CATALOGS section or I'll be glad to furnish you with disk copies by mail if you supply the disk, the disk mailer, AND the return postage. -={ Software Review: SODU82 }=- by Lindsay Haisley Some months ago, mainly out of curiosity, I downloaded a copy of SODU82.LBR from the TBKUG system. A quick glance at the documentation file told me that it was another disk editing utility of the same sort as DU and DU2, and having both of these very satisfactory programs, as well as the excellent screen oriented utilities SuperZap and PATCH, I filed SODU82 away in the archive user area of my hard disk system. I must confess that it wasn't until I read a short review of SODU in "Profiles" that I dug the program up and gave it the attention it deserves, and I am quite glad that I did. SODU82 combines the best features of both SuperZap and DU (or DU2), and is very nearly a complete replacement for either or both of them. Public domain utilities for editing data directly on disks have evolved principly along two lines. The oldest, and probably most commonly used programs are the DU (for Disk Utility) series by Ward Christensen which have gone through numerous versions and revisions over the past several years. DU and DU2 allow direct viewing of the data on disk by specifying track and sector or CP/M block, and provide commands which can be entered on a CP/M- like command line to page through the disk data by sector, make changes, move data from one sector to another and so forth. In case you get lost, there is a rather complete and lengthy menu of commands available upon entering the command "?". DU is a very powerful utility, and can, with skill, be used to reconstruct crashed directories, recover erased files, separate duplicate files and do just about any job requiring direct access to the data on a disk. It is fast, and later versions are capable of using macros to do repetitive jobs without consulting the user. From Willie Davidson in Scotland has come the other, more recent (at least in the USA) disk utility called SuperZap. The most notable feature of SuperZap is that it is "screen oriented", meaning that a great deal of its work is done with the cursor movement keys by moving the cursor around on a sector dump display to the point at which changes are to be made. This facility requires that your computer be capable of accepting commands for direct cursor positioning (all Kaypros are) from within a program. Moving a cursor to a position and starting to type changes is much easier and quicker than typing a command line specifying the address in a display at which changes are to be entered, as is required by DU. You always see what is happening, since the changes you are making show up immediately instead of waiting for the a carriage return and a re-display of the contents of the altered sector. The ability to type data directly to a disk sector in either ASCII or hexadecimal form is truly a wonderful thing, however SuperZap lacks many of the more sophisticated features of DU, such as pattern search, queue, and the ability to use macros. Bill Rink's incredible PATCH program combines the best of the two (and much more) at the expense of many kilobytes of RAM, however the old DU program still remains the standard disk surgery tool for many people who have become familiar with its commands and syntax. SODU82 is essentially an update of DU, using cursor positioning to enable one to type data directly to a sector, as in SuperZap. This is SODU's finest feature. Gone is the necessity, when changing a sector, to type in long strings of characters on a command line and hope one had counted the offset in the sector correctly. A single command puts your cursor into the sector dump display and the current cursor position is where any changes you make will appear in the altered sector. Both the hex and ASCII sides of the display are instantly updated each time a change is made. The cursor control keys move the cursor non- destructively from one spot to another in the display. The ESCape key toggles the cursor from the hex to the ASCII portion of the display, and finally a single carriage return takes you back to the SODU command level where you are once again in familiar DU territory. The program author (who, with true humility, hasn't included his name in the program logon) even preserved the old and sometimes awkward command line form of sector change mentioned above in case one is hidebound enough to want it. A few additional well chosen features make SODU still more attractive, not the least of which is an excellent random access help facility. I was always glad that DU contained a good built- in help facility which was instantly available with a "?" command. The help information was, however, several pages long, programmed for serial access and crowded to the max. I often had to page through it several times to find a particular nuance of syntax for which I was searching. SODU has 8 screens of very well organized help info which are available individually. A "?" command displays a single screen of all available commands, most of which are identical to those in DU. "?0" or "??" produces an index of the remaining 6 screens, which are elaborations on the rather cryptic "?" command summary. "?n" displays the nth of these 6 screens. The help screens are only half height, occupying the bottom portion of a 24 line screen. The upper half contains the work in progress, and is left untouched by the call for help. The command line is right in the middle of the screen, and immediately beneath it is displayed the last command issued. A carriage return at the command prompt executes the last command given, making it easy, for example, to page through a disk in either direction by giving an initial "+" or "-" and then repeated carriage returns. Unlike many current programs which seem determined to make use of every video attribute on your computer, SODU uses only the reduced intensity function, and this is easily disabled for those who don't have any video attributes. SODU has few drawbacks. One that experienced DU users may stumble on is that SODU will always display the sector to which it is pointing (one need not give the "D" command). Although this is usually quite convenient, displaying the current sector takes time and is not always necessary. One may, for instance, use a repetitive forward skip (e.g. "+4;/") to search for bad sectors on a disk. This runs quite quickly with DU, however the time required by SODU to display after each skip slows the process down considerably. Needed in future versions is the ability to turn off the automatic display for applications such as this. I would also hope that some form of disk access by file, as well as by track, sector and group would be available in future versions of SODU. The ability to access by filename all the sectors of a file regardless of their distribution among the other sectors on a disk is a superb feature of both SuperZap and PATCH, and the only reason that I still keep SuperZap in the utility section of my hard disk. -={ Kaypro's New PC Clone }=- And now from the "Better Late Then Never" department comes the introduction of the Kaypro PC. With all the other clones currently being sold one has to wonder why Kaypro has waited until now to produce a true PC-clone. The Kaypro PC features exactly the same 8088 CPU running at 4.77mhz as the original (and slow) IBM-PC. It also has the usual open socket for the 8087 math (number-cruncher) chip if desired by the user. It starts life as a 9-slot machine of which three are used already by the system as delivered. The remaining slots are comprised of three full-length and three half-length to allow for additional cards to be installed later. It has 256k of RAM pre- installed and room on the motherboard for up to 640k total. It comes with a multi-function card that includes the dual floppy disk controller and serial and parallel ports. The real plus for this new system is the fact that it is delivered in ready-to-run form and has a lot of bundled software included all for the low price of $1,595.00. The bundle includes Wordstar, Mailmerge, Correctstar, Starindex, a modular desktop program, telecommunications software, GW Basic, and MS-DOS operating system. The system also includes a Multivideo board that drives monochrome monitors (a 12-inch monitor is included), allows for color graphics (with a color monitor, not included), and composite video output. It also has an enhanced keyboard with a large RETURN key, IBM should take note here. -={ TurboDOS - The Ultimate PC Network }=- By Mike Busch, Software 2000, Inc. TurboDOS/PC is a software product that interfaces MS-DOS machines with a TurboDOS network. It runs on the IBM Personal Computer, PC-compatibles, or any 8086-family microcomputer that uses MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 1.x, 2.x, or 3.0. TurboDOS/PC allows the PC to become a TurboDOS network client, and to access the disk drives and printers belonging to the TurboDOS file and print servers in the network. Each PC continues to operate normally under control of its native MS-DOS operating system with full access to its local disks and other peripheral devices. The only effect of the TurboDOS/PC network connection is that the PC has access to more disk drives and printers than before. For disk operations, drive letters beyond the highest local drive refer to remote drives accessed via the network. Remote disks may be used exactly like local ones. All the usual file- and directory-oriented commands of MS-DOS (like COPY, DEL, REN, DIR, CHDIR, MKDIR, and RMDIR) work on remote and local drives alike. The sub-directory features of MS-DOS (versions 2.00 and later) are fully supported on remote drives. MS-DOS application programs, overlays and data files may be copied to and executed from remote disks, except for packages that use copy-protection schemes to prevent this. Remote files may be accessed by several TurboDOS and PC users simultaneously, subject to the usual TurboDOS file-locking rules. TurboDOS/PC allows print output to be routed either to the PC's local printer or to remote printers accessed via the network. All of the advanced print routing, spooling, and print job control features of TurboDOS are fully supported by TurboDOS/PC. Automatic print spooling allows many users to share one printer without interfering with one another. In addition to fully supporting the MS-DOS environment, TurboDOS/PC also includes a special program interface that gives applications direct access to the native file- and print-oriented functions of TurboDOS. TurboDOS/PC works with any of the PC-compatible accessory boards that provide a high-speed network port (ARCnet, Ethernet, RS422/SDLC, etc.). The package is furnished as several MS-DOS ".COM" files that may be executed from a local disk. Alternatively, MS-DOS and TurboDOS/PC may be downloaded over the network, using a bootstrap module provided with the TurboDOS/PC package. Finally, every good software package deserves equally good documentation. The 82-page TurboDOS/PC manual is both tutorial and comprehensive, including separate sections intended for users, programmers, and implementors. "If TurboDOS is so good, why haven't I heard of it before?" Perhaps it's because we have never run an advertisement for TurboDOS since its original introduction in early 1981. Not one. We've steadfastly devoted our resources to enhancing and supporting TurboDOS, not selling it. That's why you might not have heard much about it...or us...unless it was by word of mouth. Despite our best efforts to maintain a low profile, however, the market acceptance of TurboDOS has been nothing short of spectacular. Recent figures indicate that some fifty thousand TurboDOS networks have been installed during the past four years. At end-user prices, that's $25 million worth of TurboDOS software and roughly half a billion dollars worth of hardware. We believe that this makes TurboDOS the most widely used local-area network (LAN) software in the world. (We always get a chuckle from the television ads that explain how much LAN experience "Team Xerox" has with more than 1,000 networks installed...) Take a look at some of the computer manufacturers who have chosen TurboDOS as their network operating system. N.V. Philips of the Netherlands, Europe's largest electronics company, designed their entire P-3000 family of office automation microcomputers around TurboDOS. Honeywell, the leading supplier of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment in the U.S. and a major computer company as well, picked TurboDOS to automate their nationwide network of HVAC dealers. NCR Corporation, a major computer manufacturer, chose TurboDOS for the file-server in their Decision-Net LAN system. Sweda International, a division of Litton Industries and a leader in point-of-sale automation, is using TurboDOS in their latest system designed for the fast food industry. Equally impressive is the roster of users on five continents who have made a major commitment to TurboDOS by installing multiple systems. The United States Army, Navy, and Air Force are major users of TurboDOS, as are the armed forces of Britain, Australia, and Canada. In Great Britain, British Telecom (Britian's equivalent of AT&T) and Plessey (the British electronics giant) each have dozens of TurboDOS installations, while Scotland Yard uses TurboDOS systems to solve crimes. In the aerospace field, there's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL alone has nearly 100 TurboDOS systems), NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and the Lockheed Missile & Space Division. In banking, TurboDOS networks are used by Bank of America, Guarantee Financial, Lloyd's Bank International, and several major European banks. In the academic world, UCLA and USC have very large TurboDOS-based networks, with smaller installations at Harvard and the Universities of Alabama, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Washington. Some industrial concerns using multiple TurboDOS installations include Upjohn (drug manufacturer), CCH Computax (largest U.S. tax-preparation bureau), Bally (slot machines), National Can (containers), Coca Cola (beverages), and...believe it or not...Xerox! -={ Juki / Silver Reed Tricks }=- by Steve Wilson {Editor's note: There is an entire file of these neat tricks for either the Silver Reed or the Juki 6000 series printers online and it's called JUKI6100.FQT in the WORDPRO area. For those of you who are reading this in it's printed form and wondered how I got the "SEASON'S GREETINGS" banner on the title page - this is where I learned how to do it.} I'm a writer. I got my computer as a writing tool. Oh, I dabbled in basic for one afternoon. Eventually I got Personal Pearl to add. But when I found I could make my printer do tricks by varying Wordstar's print commands I finally had something frivolous enough to pass as fun, rather than work. Below are some of the things I've discovered. Most are silly. But a few may be of legitimate use to some of you. Note: all of the effects were achieved with an MD II using a virtually unmodified Wordstar 3.0 (only the help level, justi fication, and hyphen defaults have been changed), with the MP200 (SilveReed 550) printer using the Courier 10 print wheel. If you attempt any of the stunts below with some other configuration, only machine language can say what will happen. They also work on the Juki 6000 series printers with the Courier 10 wheel installed. AN ACCENT MARK You can get a comma to print as an accent mark by using a .sr command in conjuntion with the "overprint character" (^PH) and superscript (^PT) commands. The .sr command controls how much the platen roller turns when doing a subscript or superscript. The default setting is .sr 3. Here's the word "resume,." To get this to print properly, this is what I had on my screen: .sr5 Here's the word "resume^H^T,^T. .sr3 Note that the line in which "resume," appears is preceded by a line with the command ".sr5." The ^PH after the 'e' causes the next character, in this case a superscripted comma, to be printed on the same space as the 'e'. Don't forget that a dot command must be put on a line of its own, as it will cause any text on the line to be ignored (it won't put a blank line in your text). Also, if using an effect like this in a body of text, it's a good idea to follow it with a .sr3 command, to return the setting to default in case you call for other sub or superscripts like H2O. WORD IN BOX One can get rather carried away with subscripts, superscripts and overprints. I set out one day to see if I could put a word in a box. I succeeded: .sr5 ***S*T*A*R**** .sr1 ****** .SR3 But on my screen it looked like this: .sr5 *^H^V*^V^H^T*^TS^H^T*^TT^H^T*^TA^H^T*^TR^H^T*^T*^H^V*^V^H^T*^T .sr1 ^T******^T .sr3 {Some more by Steve} After playing with some of the new commands I read about in Steve's article I decided to try a few of my own. I wanted to see if I could design a KAYPRO logo and came up with: = = === == == ====== ====== === = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ====== ====== = = = = ====== = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = === And then I set out to design a new name logo for the magazine and came up with this: = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = These all probably look quite strange to those of you who are reading this as a disk file rather then seeing it in it's printed form. You should still get the main idea - don't be afraid to experiment, the most you waste is a little ribbon and a bunch of sheets of paper. - Steve -={ Hot Product of the Month }=- It just has to be ... DAK's 300/1200 baud ADC smartmodem for only $169.00 (+ $6 s/h)!! Order product #4334 This is a total Hayes look-alike, work-a-like auto-answer, auto- dial 300 or 1200 baud modem. It is Bell 103 compatible at 300 baud and Bell 212A compatible in 1200 baud mode. It will operate with any modem program designed for a Hayes modem and responds fully to the "AT" command set made standard by Hayes. We have MEX v1.14 which supports the new 1k packet protocol and is fully useable at 1200 or 2400 baud speeds already configured for any Hayes-type modem - only thing else you need would be a RS-232 cable to go between the computer and the ADC modem. You can get one of these cables from most any computer dealer and you need only support pins #1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 7-7, 8-8, and 20-20 for complete auto-dial/auto-answer operations. --> All DAK products come with a 30-day money-back guarantee <-- DAK Industries 8200 Remmet Avenue Canoga Park, CA 91304 1-800-325-0800 (VISA, M/C) -={ THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT !! }=- It's just about time to close the books on 1985 and look forward to even bigger and better things for 1986. The TBKUG/DataCOM group is now supported by over 800 active members from 50 states and 11 countries. It's hard for me to believe this all got started from a desire to form a local user group for Kaypro computer owners. The first bulletin board system was The Tampa Bay Bandit Board, and was run on a Kaypro II (remember them?) with a Hayes 300 Smartmodem. The TBBB went online in June of 1983 and was designed to service the needs of the Kaypro users in the immediate area. I soon found that there were many Kaypro owners and users from all over the country that desired the same quality software I was offerring to the local users. It didn't take long before the Kaypro II was replaced by a Kaypro 10, and the Hayes 300 modem was replaced by a Hayes 1200 modem. My idea was to expand the system to suit the needs of the users and pretty soon I was looking at yet another Kaypro 10, another Hayes 1200 modem, and a second incomming phone line. It stayed this way for about a year with the membership on an ever increasing trend. Then along came the new 2400 baud modems and many users requested the ability to talk at this new higher speed. About this time US Robotics began their "Sysop's offer" and was furnishing known remote systems with their new 2400 baud Courier modems. Well, we jumped right on that bandwagon and ordered two of the super-fast Courier modems and replaced the Hayes 1200 modems on both systems. The only problem I had now was there never seemed to be enough time to maintain both of the remote systems to my standards and still get all the other work done. About six months ago I started seriously looking at some of the multi-user systems being sold to small businesses and this planted the seed. The end result is the all-new SUPER SYSTEMS(tm) now online, a TurboDOS- based multi-user system with basically unlimited expansion. My maintenance time has been reduced as all the files are on one machine and the users can call either line and see the same files and have access to a common RBBS message system. My plans are to add another incomming line for each new group of 200 users added to the membership. TurboDOS can handle 16 slave processors so the present hardware configuration should remain in effect for quite some time with no need for upgrades. All of this could not have been possible without YOUR support and I'd just like to say: T H A N K Y O U ! ! ! Anyone who thinks CP/M is dead has not been on my system!! The number of MS/PC-DOS files is growing all the time but it has a long way to go to catch up with the amount of CP/M software we have online at present. I fully intend to support ALL popular operating systems: CP/M-80, CP/M-86, CP/M Plus (3.0), MS-DOS, PC- DOS, TurboDOS, and whatever else the engineers and designers can come up with in the future. The one really nice thing about a modem is that it makes your computer virtually compatible with any other computer hooked up to a modem regardless of the operating system being used. CP/M users can call my system and see what a TurboDOS system looks like, or call a FIDO system and see what's new in the MS/PC-DOS world, or even connect with a giant mainframe like those used by CompuServe or the Source. -={ WSGUIDE (Wordstar made ridiculously simple) }=- (c) 1984 by Craig Werner (some rights reserved) One of the most common complaints about Wordstar is that there are too many commands to learn. I have taught over a dozen people how to use Wordstar by adhering to the dictum that it does not make sense to learn all the commands before you start using the program, just the ones you need. They were all using Wordstar within 10-15 minutes. To start: Type 'ws' at the prompt, (i.e. A>ws) In the main (No-file) menu: D starts a Document. (That's what you want to edit.) L changes the Logged disk drive, so you can see which files are there. (LB changes to disk B, LA to disk A, etc - the colon is not needed) --> make sure to hit [RETURN] X eXits to DOS, so you can run other programs. Within Wordstar: ^J^H2 (There is about 7 lines of help screen at the top. You get rid of them with Control-JH2 - you can just hold down the control key and hit J and H, then lift off the control key and hit 2.) (I use 2 because the 2nd level menus are preserved, if you have to search for something they still are there.) Prefixes (IF you have to search for a command, it's going to begin with one of the following prefixes.) ^Q for Quick (cursor movements of a large scale) ^O for stuff seen On-screen (like spacing, justification, centering) ^P for things seen only during Printout ^J Help screens ^K File commands + Block Moves + [Note: the O (for open) and P (for print) make sense, but why J and K? Answer: Look at your fingers. They are used by the other two keys of the right hand, and U and I were taken. These two, and other Wordstar commands are ergonomic (to minimize hand movement), not mnemonic (to minimize brain movement)] Useful commands (in 11 groups) 1. All cursor keys work. Use them for motion, although control commands exist, why bother with them. However, I'll mention a few of these in context. 2. ^Q^R - goto beginning of file (^R = Page Up) ^Q^C - goto end of file (^C = Page Down) 3. ^F - one word forward ^A - one word backwords 4. ^Q^S - beginning of line (^S = left arrow) ^Q^D - end of line (^D = right arrow) Picture the keyboard R It makes life simpler that way : /\ A S D F <= <- -> \/ => C 5. Deletion: ^G - deletes the letter you are on. (This makes a lot more sense if you know that ^G was a bell on old teletypes. It's not so arbitrary.) ^T - delete a word (the key above G) ^Y - delete a whole line (the key next to T) 6. ^B - reformats (rejustifies) a paragraph when its been edited. IMPORTANT. 7. ^P^S - UnderScore (the S for score, U was taken) ^P^B - Boldface (B for bold) 8. Onscreen Stuff ^O^Sn - line spacing. ^OS1 = single space, ^OS2 doublespace ^O^H - toggles Hyphen-help (Hyphen help can be an annoying feature when using Control-B to reformat.) ^O^J - toggles justification (between rough-edge and Right- justify) ^O^G - Paragraph indent (left side only) ^O^R/^O^L - sets Right/Left Margin repectively. (Note: WS automatically puts the left margin in, so Column 1 is really already an inch from the left. The margins are all relative to this Page offset.) 9. File Access ^K^D - Save file and leave [Done] IMPORTANT. ^K^R - Read another file into the one you are currently editing. [See below for Writing] 10. Searching ^Q^F - Find: search for a pattern/word. ^Q^A - Search and replace. (These have options, like 'G' for Global, that are explained within the command.) 11. Block moves (Blocks/Passages/Excerpts of text) #1 Mark it. Go the beginning and type ^K^B (Begin), then go to the end and hit ^K^K. It should change color or highlight status. Again: ^K^B begins / ^K^K ends. #2 Move cursor to where you want the text to go. ^K^C - copies the marked text to where you are now. ^K^V - moves (copy and deletion) text to where you are. (C and V are next to one another) Other block commands worth knowing: ^K^W - writes the block to a file for disk (which can be later read into another file by ^K^R) ^K^Y - deletes the marked text (remember ^Y deletes a line) ^K^H - Unmarks/Hides a piece of marked text. (^K^H if you goof or when you are done with it) Dot Commands: .OP Omit Page numbers (good for one page letters) .PA Insert a Page Break / Pagination. .MT # / .MB # Margins top and bottom (# of blank lines inserted per page) .PO # Page offset (See above note on margins) (The help screen ^J^D will give you the rest.) -={ High Speed 2400 Modem - $389 }=- From: Keith Petersen, W8SDZ Re: USR Courier 2400 bps modem for $389 Anyone interested in purchasing a US Robotics Courier 2400 bps modem will want to check out the deal offered by Microcomputer Concepts. Their price is $389 plus shipping. Microcomputer Concepts 5291 Clark Circle Westminster, CA 92683 Phone: 800-772-3914 (voice, except California) 714-898-3002 (voice, California) 714-896-0775 (modem RBBS 300-1200-2400 bps) Contact: Gary Johnson Disclaimer: I have no connection with Microcomputer Concepts except as a satisfied customer (I bought a Courier 2400 two weeks ago. It arrived within a week of placing my phone COD order which was shipped via regular UPS). --Keith Petersen Sysop RCPM Royal Oak, MI (313-759-6569) -={ Happy Holidays To All }=- And may all your family be well during the coming holiday season. Looking at my Christmas bills I'm reminded of a joke I heard the other night on TV. One man says to another, "Someone stole my wife's credit card." To which the other man replied, "So did you report the theft?" "No", he answered back, "Whoever has it now is spending less then my wife ever did!" Merry Christmas !! Steve Sanders