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Text File | 1991-01-01 | 61.5 KB | 1,840 lines

the Bytebrothers' ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▄▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒█▀▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▀▀▀ ▒▒█▀▀▀▀ ▒▒█▀▒▒█ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒█▀ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▀▒▒▒█ ▒▒█▒▒▒█ ▒▒█▒▒▄▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▒▒▄ ▀▀▀▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒█▒▒▄ ▀▒▒▒▒█▀▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ == Version 3.0 == Scan MarkMail and Qmail Packets (C) 1990,1991 Custom! Computing January 1, 1991 Contents 1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.1 'Input Packet' Menu Selection . . . . . . 6 3.1.1 Select File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1.2 Archiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.1.3 De-Archiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2 'Search Options' Menu Selection . . . . . 7 3.2.1 Single Search . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.2.2 Multiple Search . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.2.3 Filter Nitwits . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.3 'Output Method' Menu Selection . . . . . 11 3.3.1 Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3.2 ASCII (New) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3.3 ASCII (Append) . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.3.4 Create Conference . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.5 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.4 'Toggles' Menu Selection . . . . . . . . 13 3.4.1 Messages/Replies . . . . . . . . . 13 3.4.2 Case Insensitive/Sensitive . . . . 13 3.4.3 Swap on Shell . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.4.4 DOS Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.5 'Qwksets' Menu Selection . . . . . . . . 14 3.5.1 Save Current Set . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.2 Recall Saved Set . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.3 Delete Saved Set . . . . . . . . . 15 3.5.4 Using Qwksets . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.6 'Go!' Menu Selection . . . . . . . . . . 16 4 Integration with Your Favorite Mail Reader . 18 5 QWKSCAN Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 5.1 'Colors' Menu Selection . . . . . . . . 20 5.2 'Screen Size' Menu Selection . . . . . . 21 5.3 'Directories' Menu Selection . . . . . . 21 5.4 'Archiver' and 'Unarchiver' Menu Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.5 'Preset Strings' Menu Selection . . . . 21 5.6 'Beeps' Menu Selection . . . . . . . . . 22 5.7 'Install Password' Menu Selection . . . 22 5.8 'Exit/Save' Menu Selection . . . . . . . 23 5.9 'Quit/No Save' Menu Selection . . . . . 23 6 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 7 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 i Figures Figure 1: Current Search Settings Window . . . . . . 6 Figure 2: Input Packet Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Figure 3: Source Directory Window . . . . . . . . . . 6 Figure 4: Packet Selection Window . . . . . . . . . . 7 Figure 5: Search Options Submenu . . . . . . . . . . 8 Figure 6: Search Field Input Window . . . . . . . . . 8 Figure 7: New Search String Input Window . . . . . . 8 Figure 8: Old Search String Input Window . . . . . . 9 Figure 9: Output Method Submenu . . . . . . . . . . .11 Figure 10: Output Filename Window . . . . . . . . . .11 Figure 11: Conference Name Window . . . . . . . . . .12 Figure 12: Output Method Submenu . . . . . . . . . .13 Figure 13: Qwksets Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Figure 14: Message Selection Window . . . . . . . . .16 Figure 15: Save Verification Window . . . . . . . . .17 Figure 16: QCUSTOM Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Figure 17: 'Colors' Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Figure 18: Preset Search Strings Submenu . . . . . .21 Figure 19: 'Install' Name Submenu . . . . . . . . . .22 Figure 20: 'Install' Password Submenu . . . . . . . .22 ii 1 Description Echo-mail is great. You can leave messages on your favorite BBS and within a couple of days your messages have made it across the United States, Canada and even into Great Britain and Europe! If you use an off-line mail reader it is even easier. All you have to do is call your BBS and configure Qmail or Markmail to send your mail from the desired conferences, and down comes your mail packet ready for you to process with your favorite off-line mail reader like EZ-Reader, Deluxe², SLMR, or Session Manager. BUT..... Have you ever wished you could scan through an entire mail packet for just one key phrase? Have you ever wanted to scan through a mail packet to make sure people aren't talking to you or (worse yet!) about you without addressing the message to you? Have you ever wanted to scan through several mail packets and pull out all messages that contained the string "Hello, Mr. Neutron! Meet Mr. DNA..." (I can't tell you how often I've wanted to search on that string)....or have you ever wanted to go back through a bunch of your old packets and pull out all the messages that were contained in the thread, "Care and Feeding of Your Radiographer" or that ever-popular thread in Oklahoma, "Geriatric Cows: Victims of Society?" Well, now you can! QWKSCAN does all that and more! QWKSCAN has many features, only a few of which are bugs: 1. Search .QWK message packets or .REP reply files, optionally using AND/OR search logic. 2. Easily integrates with your existing message reader. 3. Ability to Filter out messages from Nitwits. 4. "Remembers" up to 10 search strings to easily support multiple searches through multiple mail packets. 5. Completely menu-driven for ease of use. QWKSCAN can optionally be run from the command line, making it possible to do searches in a batch file prior to actually reading the packet with your mail reader. 6. Previews all messages containing the search string to screen, allowing easy marking/unmarking for saving. 7. Optionally save output to new or existing ASCII files or printer. Output can also be saved in a new "conference" in the mail packet. - 2 - 8. Completely mouse-friendly. (Rumors of exploding mice are absolutely false....) 9. 43 and 50 line support, if applicable. 10. Slick windows and colors. 11. Completely customizable. - 3 - 2 Installation Hard Drive Users: ───────────────── There are several possible ways to run QWKSCAN from a hard drive system. The easiest method is to unarchive QWKSCAN into whatever subdirectory you normally use to hold your old mail packets, since the initial search directory defaults to whatever the current directory is when QWKSCAN is started. Speed Freaks: ───────────── QWKSCAN creates a work directory for its own use during operation. If you have a ramdrive you can greatly increase the system performance by using it to hold the work directory. The easiest way to use your ramdrive is to unarchive QWKSCAN into a subdirectory that is in your current path. Then change into the ramdrive and begin by simply typing QWKSCAN <Enter>. This will result in the work directory being created on the ramdrive and heart-stopping performance, even on a Vic-20 with dual cassette drives... Floppy Disk Users: ────────────────── Unarchive the QWKSCAN archive onto whatever floppy you normally use to hold your mail packets. Documentation: ────────────── You are reading it. If you would like to print it out, turn on your printer and get the perforations correctly lined up, then issue the following command at the DOS prompt: TYPE QWKSCAN.DOC > PRN <Enter> - 4 - 3 Usage After you have installed QWKSCAN, fire it up and give it a test drive by typing QWKSCAN [/5] [/4] [/m] [/b[=<workdir>]] [/q=<filename>] [/?] The "/5" and "/4" options are used to begin QWKSCAN in 50 and 43-line mode respectively. If you don't issue either command then QWKSCAN will begin in whatever mode you have set using QCUSTOM (see below), or standard 25 line if no customizations have been performed. The "/m" option is used to force QWKSCAN to start in a monochrome mode. This is useful if you have a liquid-plasma display and the default color selections toast its little video brain. The "/b" option is used to force QWKSCAN to bypass the un- archiving procedure. This option is very useful when integrating QWKSCAN with EZ-Reader or Deluxe² (see Section 4 on page 18). The "/q" option in used to run QWKSCAN in the batch processing mode from the command line using predefined Qwksets. The filename is the name of the mail packet you wish QWKSCAN to process. The "/?" option will display a help screen outlining the above options. When QWKSCAN starts, you should see a menu with the following options: 1. Input Packet 2. Search Options 3. Output Method 4. Toggles 5. Qwksets 6. Go! (Note: The actual menu is a full-screen horizontal lotus-style menu: This is just the abridged version...) The menu behaves as you might expect: The arrow keys will move the selection bar, or you can use the highlighted first letter of each command as a "shortcut" to directly execute that particular option. As the selection bar is moved horizontally across the - 5 - Main Menu, the second line of the menu will have a one-line help summary for each function. If you have a mouse and it's hooked up, there should be a mouse cursor in roughly the center of the screen. (If you have a mouse and it's not hooked up but you can still run QWKSCAN with your mouse, let us know...) You can use the mouse to select options, with the left button as the equivalent of the "enter" key and the right button the equivalent of the "escape" key. In the center of your screen you should see a large status window that lists your current search settings: ╒═[Current Search Settings]════════════════════════════╕ │ Current Input File: (.QWK Files) │ │ │ │ │ │ Current Search String: (Search Messages) │ │ │ │ │ │ Current Output Method: │ │ Screen │ │ │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Figure 1: Current Search Settings Window This window will continually update to accurately reflect your current QWKSCAN choices. 3.1 'Input Packet' Menu Selection Selecting this main menu option will bring up the following submenu: ╒════════════════════╕ │ Select File │ │ Archiver │ │ De-Archiver │ ╘════════════════════╛ Figure 2: Input Packet Submenu 3.1.1 Select File This option allows you to select which mail packet you will search. Initially a window will pop up to allow you to input the desired search directory: ╒═══════════╡Source Directory for QWK/REP Files:╞══════════╕ │ E:\COMM\MAIL │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Figure 3: Source Directory Window - 6 - The default value for this search directory is the current working directory when QWKSCAN was started. After you have input the desired search path (if necessary), a scrollable window with a list of files will pop up to allow easy selection of the desired input filename: ╔═[Select File]══╗ ║ 1MINX.QWK ║ ║ 2MINX.QWK ║ ║ 3MINX.QWK ║ ║ 4MINX.QWK ║ ║ 5MINX.QWK ║ ║ MINX.QWK ║ ║ SLEEPY.QWK ║ ║ THUNDER.QWK ║ ║ DATAWARP.QWK ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════╝ Figure 4: Packet Selection Window When the filename is selected, QWKSCAN will un-archive it into its work directory, ready to be searched. 3.1.2 Archiver This option will allow you to input the name of your archiver. The default is PKZIP.EXE. QWKSCAN uses the archiver to rezip a mail packet if you modify the mail packet by performing a Nitwit Filter on it, or if you send your output to a New Conference (see below). 3.1.3 De-Archiver This option will allow you to input the name of your unarchiver. The default is PKUNZIP.EXE. If you type in a garbage name here, QWKSCAN is guaranteed to fail when it tries to unarchive the input packet, although it will do so with taste and style... 3.2 'Search Options' Menu Selection Selecting this main menu option will bring up the following sub- menu: - 7 - ╒═════════════════╕ │ Single Search │ │ Multiple Search │ │ Filter Nitwits │ ╘═════════════════╛ Figure 5: Search Options Submenu 3.2.1 Single Search Selecting this option the first time will bring up the following window: ╒═══Search Field═══╕ │ Entire Message │ │ To │ │ From │ │ Subject │ │ Conference │ │ Message Body │ ╘══════════════════╛ Figure 6: Search Field Input Window This window will give you the opportunity to specify which portions of the messages you wish to search. Selecting "Conference" will bring a pop-up window listing all the available conferences to search. Selecting any other field will bring up a second window: ┌───────────┤Enter New Search String #1├────────────┐ │ │ └─! = NOT───────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 7: New Search String Input Window If you want to scan through all the messages looking for your name, enter your name here. (Note that this probably won't narrow down the field very much if your name happens to be 'John' or 'Mary!') Searches are by default case-insensitive, so a search on "john" will be just as effective as a search on "JohN" (Note: You can control whether the search will be case sensitive or insensitive with a selection under the 'Toggles' main menu selection.) You can search for all messages ■ in a certain thread ■ "to" and "from" a certain name ■ containing the phrase "Kill a Tree for Rickover!" ■ NOT containing a certain phrase For example, if you would like to find and view every message NOT containing the word "the", you would enter your search string as "!the", making sure that the exclamation point is directly over the exclamation point on the bottom window border. - 8 - If you would like to look at every message in the packet, simply search on the letter 'e' or space ' '. Selecting of the search options every time after the first time will bring up a window similar to the following: ┌──────────────Strings────────────────┐ │ │ │OS/2 │ │Bytebrothers │ │Thunder Road │ │Care and Feeding of Your Radiographer│ │Elliott │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 8: Old Search String Input Window The strings in the above example are from a sample session of QWKSCAN. Each line represents a search string previously used during the QWKSCAN session. To reuse a previously entered string, simply select it with the scroll bar. QWKSCAN will remember up to 10 old search strings. This is very handy when you are looking through several mail packets for all messages of a certain thread. To enter a new string select the first line, which will always be empty. The New Search String window will then pop up, allowing you to enter your new string. After you have selected the desired search field and search string (or conference), the window in the center of the screen displaying your current search settings will be updated to reflect your choice of the search string. The search string will be followed by a character inside a pair of brackets [x]. This character indicates which field you have chosen to search, and represents the first letter of each of the above choices. For example, a search string that looks like this: "Jimmy" [F] would indicate that you have chosen to search for any message [F]rom "Jimmy". 3.2.2 Multiple Search Selection of this option will perform just like selection of the Single Search option, except that after you have entered the first search criteria you will go through a second set of menus to select the second search criteria. In addition you will specify the desired AND/OR search logic. This gives you the flexibility, for example, to search a mail packet for every message containing the phrases "IBM" AND "!expensive" (not many matches there!) or possibly every message - 9 - containing the phrases "Qmodem" OR "Procomm". You also will specify the desired search field for each search criteria, so the following phrase on the Search Settings Window "Tony" [F] AND "Qedit" [S] would indicate that you have chosen to find every message [F]rom "Tony" that also contains the phrase "Qedit" in the [S]ubject field. 3.2.3 Filter Nitwits Selection of this menu option will allow you to 'say goodbye' to those messages from that certain someone who always seems to raise your blood pressure, even if his/her messages aren't directed at you! This is similar to using the NOT operator ('!') as described above in a normal search, except that matching messages are filtered out and are overwritten in the MESSAGES.DAT file. When this option is selected you will be presented with a series of windows exactly like the 'Single Search' option. After you have selected your options the Search Settings Window will show something like this: "Christie Brinkley" [F] (Filter this Nitwit!) This indicates that you intend to filter out every message [F]rom "Christie Brinkley", although why you'd want to do that I have no idea.... You could also use this option to suppress that long-running thread in Oklahoma about "Geriatric Cows" by selecting a search string of "Geriatric" and a search field of the [S]ubject. Note that once this option is enabled, selection of the 'Output Method' main menu option is disabled since all output is in the form of modifications to the MESSAGES.DAT file. After you have performed the search by selection of the main menu 'Go' option (described later) you will NOT be shown the matching messages. Instead, you will receive a notice informing you how many matches there were and, after verification, QWKSCAN will then actually overwrite the offending messages in the MESSAGES.DAT file. If you have performed a Filter operation, when you exit QWKSCAN or select another mail packet the original mail packet will first be re-archived to make your changes permanent. The filtered messages are not saved. EXCEPTION: If you started QWKSCAN with the /b (bypass unarchiving) command-line switch, the mail packet is not - 10 - rearchived upon exit since QWKSCAN doesn't know the correct name of the .QWK packet to put the changes into. Running QWKSCAN with the /b option is normally done when using QWKSCAN from EZ-Reader or Deluxe². When you exit QWKSCAN in this situation, the filter changes will be effective for this session of EZ or Deluxe², but when EZ/Deluxe² is exited the changes will be lost unless EZ/Deluxe² rearchives the MESSAGES.DAT file when they exit. In Deluxe² this can be accomplished simply by setting a bookmark prior to exiting. EZ-Reader version 1.31 and beyond will automatically detect any changes to MESSAGES.DAT by QWKSCAN, and will then automatically rearchive the MESSAGES.DAT file. 3.3 'Output Method' Menu Selection Selecting this Main Menu option will bring up the following submenu: ╒═══════════════════╕ │ Screen │ │ ASCII (New) │ │ ASCII (Append) │ │ Create Conference │ │ Printer │ ╘═══════════════════╛ Figure 9: Output Method Submenu 3.3.1 Screen All messages initially go to the screen for previewing. If this option is chosen, they go no further. 3.3.2 ASCII (New) When this option is chosen a second window will open, allowing you to enter the desired path and filename for the output: ╒══════════════════╡Output Path\Filename╞══════════════════╕ │ │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Figure 10: Output Filename Window QWKSCAN will check to make sure it can open that file. If it can't it will beep at you, give you a nastygram, and let you try the whole thing again.... 3.3.3 ASCII (Append) When this option is chosen, a Path window followed by a Filename window similar to the 'Input Packet' sequence will occur. This will allow you to easily select your filename for appending - 11 - messages. This option is great when you are searching through several mail packets for all messages of a certain thread. ** CAUTION ** One of the first things I did when I was developing QWKSCAN was append a bunch of messages onto QWKSCAN itself. In other words I accidentally selected the filename QWKSCAN.EXE as the file to append to, and QWKSCAN happily committed electronic hari-kari. And I must say that it didn't die well... Realizing that this could be a Bad Thing should it happen again, I added some damage-control features to this file-selection window. Now QWKSCAN won't let you append messages to any file with an extension of .EXE, .COM, .BAT, .QWK, .REP, .ZIP, .ARC, .SYS, .OBJ, or .LIB. I think this should about eliminate the problem, but just be a little careful when you are selecting your output file to append to... 3.3.4 Create Conference This option will allow you to save all your matches in their own special "conference" in the mail packet, just as if you had downloaded it from the mail door. When you exit QWKSCAN, it will rearchive the mail packet to make your new "conference" a permanent addition. When you read the mail packet with your reader, you should be able to select your new "conference" and see all the matches from your QWKSCAN session. Selection of this option will bring up an input window similar to the following: ╒═════Conference Name════╕ │ Qwkscan1 │ ╘════════════════════════╛ Figure 11: Conference Name Window This will allow you to provide the name of your conferences to QWKSCAN. Note that if you create multiple conferences, they all need to have unique names. The input window is set up to facilitate easy creation of unique conference names, simply by backspacing over the "1" on the end of the default "Qwkscan1" and replacing with another digit/character. The "Create Conference" output option is very handy to use in "Qwksets" (described later), when QWKSCAN is run in a batch file prior to reading the packet with your reader. - 12 - 3.3.5 Printer Selection of this option will send your marked messages to the printer. 3.4 'Toggles' Menu Selection Selecting this Main Menu option will bring up the following submenu: ╒══════════════════════════╕ │ Messages/Replies QWK │ │ Case Insensitive │ │ Swap on Shell OFF │ │ DOS Shell <Alt-Z>│ ╘══════════════════════════╛ Figure 12: Output Method Submenu 3.4.1 Messages/Replies QWKSCAN has the capability to search your replies as well as the regular messages. Toggling this option prior to selecting the Input Packet will allow you to select standalone .REP files for scanning instead of .QWK files. Selecting this option causes no other windows or submenus to pop up. The only visible effect is on the Current Search Settings window in the middle of the screen. Note that while scanning .REP files QWKSCAN now has the capability to 'Kill' replies. This option is very handy when you wish to review all your replies prior to uploading to your local board. To kill a reply, simply hit the 'K' key while viewing a reply. This is a toggle, so hitting 'K' again will cause your reply to become 'un-killed.' EZ-Reader and Deluxe² can optionally keep a copy of your replies inside the .QWK file. If that is the case, toggling the QWK/REP option after selecting an input .QWK packet will allow you to scan the replies that were saved inside the .QWK packet. Note that the killing of replies while shelled out from your reader is disabled, since your reader and QWKSCAN will get confused about which replies are dead and which aren't! Trying to Kill a reply in this condition will earn you a Nastygram... 3.4.2 Case Insensitive/Sensitive Selecting this option will toggle the case sensitivity option of QWKSCAN's search. Performing case sensitive searches is marginally faster than case insensitive searches, but requires you to get exact matches of search strings. In a case sensitive search, for example, using a search string of "John" will NOT find messages to "JOHN." This option was provided primarily for - 13 - speed freaks who want to squeeze every possible ounce of performance out of their machines... 3.4.3 Swap on Shell QWKSCAN shells to DOS in order to execute the archiving and unarchiving operations on the mail packets. If the 'Swap on Shell' option is toggled ON, QWKSCAN will first unload all but about 2k of itself from memory prior to executing the dos shell. QWKSCAN will attempt to unload itself first to extended memory, then to expanded memory, and finally to a disk file called QWKSCAN.SWP. The ability to unload itself from memory prior to running the external archiving or unarchiving program drastically lowers the RAM requirements of QWKSCAN. If you have extended or expanded memory, it is recommended that this option be turned ON, since the unloading process is very quick. If you don't have extended or expanded memory, it is recommended that this option be turned ON only if you really need the memory when you are shelled out, or you are swapping to a ram drive, since the unloading process to a disk file incurs a noticeable performance penalty. 3.4.4 DOS Shell Selection of this option will cause QWKSCAN to shell out to DOS using the system's command processor defined by the COMSPEC environment variable. This command is assigned to the hotkey <Alt-Z>, which is active at ANY time during QWKSCAN's operation. Type EXIT at the command prompt to return execution to QWKSCAN. 3.5 'Qwksets' Menu Selection Beginning with version 3.0, QWKSCAN has the ability to process mail packets in batch mode from the command line without any input from the user. This mode of operation is very useful if you routinely perform the same set of repetitive operations on every mail packet you process with QWKSCAN. If, for example, you always search the entire packet for your name and send that output to a new conference, and then save every message in a given conference to an ascii file for arhiving, this process can be easily automated using 'Qwksets.' Qwksets represent complete sets of search criteria, including the search string(s), search logic, search field, case sensitivity, and output option. The Qwkset data is actually saved in a file named QWKSCAN.SET, which will be created when necessary in the same directory where QWKSCAN.EXE resides. Selecting the 'Qwksets' main menu option will bring up the following submenu: - 14 - ╒══════════════════╕ │ Save Current Set │ │ Recall Saved Set │ │ Delete Saved Set │ ╘══════════════════╛ Figure 13: Qwksets Submenu 3.5.1 Save Current Set Selecting this option will cause the current complete set of search criteria to be saved to disk. You will be given a chance to put in a description for the Qwkset before it is saved. The description can be anything you wish which will adequately identify the Qwkset for you at a later date. Examples include "Save all C-Language messages to CLANG.TXT", or possibly "Filter messages from Bill the Cat." 3.5.2 Recall Saved Set Selecting this option will bring up a pick list consisting of the various Qwkset descriptions previously saved. Selecting one with the scroll bar will cause all the matching search criteria to be automatically established in QWKSCAN. 3.5.3 Delete Saved Set Selecting this option will bring up a pick list of Qwkset descriptions. Selecting one will cause that particular Qwkset to be deleted from disk. 3.5.4 Using Qwksets To use the command line batch processing capabilities of QWKSCAN, begin by creating your desired Qwksets. I have two Qwksets defined in my own setup, one to search for my name and the second to search for the string "Qwkscan," both sending output to new conferences. Once the Qwksets are defined, simply invoke QWKSCAN using the "/q" command-line option to tell QWKSCAN which packet to process: qwkscan /q=MINX.QWK or, qwkscan /q /b (if running shelled out from a reader) All status and error messages from QWKSCAN will go to the screen in this case, requiring no input from the user as each individual Qwkset is processed on the named mail packet. This process is most easily accomplished using a batch file. My batch file to process my Qwksets and then my reader looks something like the following: - 15 - ======================[Sample READ.BAT file]===================== rem ------------------ rem Change to ramdrive rem ------------------ f: rem --------------- rem Process Qwksets rem --------------- qwkscan /q=e:\comm\mail\minx.qwk rem ------------- rem Run EZ-Reader rem ------------- set ezrdr=d:\comm\ez d:\comm\ez\ez-286 set ezrdr= rem -------------------------- rem End of batch file READ.BAT rem -------------------------- ==========================[End of file]========================== 3.6 'Go!' Menu Selection After you have all the options set, selecting this option will begin the actual search. If the Filter Nitwits option has been selected, upon completion of the search QWKSCAN will beep, display the number of matches found and then give you the opportunity to verify the overwriting of the Filtered messages. If the Filter Nitwits option was NOT selected, when QWKSCAN has completed its search it will beep and bring up a full-screen display of all matching messages, showing the TO, FROM, and SUBJECT lines, similar to the following figure: ╒══To═════════════════From══════════════Subj═══════════════════╕ │√ JIMMY PEARSON ELLIOTT JACKSON MAIL CALLS │ │√ JIMMY PEARSON BILL NOLAN MAIL CALLS │ │√ BOB STOUT SAMMY MITCHELL Magazines? │ │√ ERIC COCKRELL MARK SPRINGER Ideas for version "N.x"│ │√ JOSEPH SHEPPARD GEORGE DECAMP Boardwatch │ │√ TOM RAWSON DENNIS MCCUNNEY 4dos with EZ-Reader │ │√ ANDY KEEVES DENNIS MCCUNNEY MESSAGES IN THE ECHO │ │ │ │ │ ╘══════════<<Space/Middle Btn>> to Mark/Unmark═════════════════╛ Figure 14: Message Selection Window Each message begins already "marked" for later saving, indicated by the 'check' mark in the first column of each line. Individual messages can be unmarked by selecting them with the scroll bar - 16 - and then pressing 'space' or the middle mouse button. (If your mouse only has two buttons you can use both buttons to achieve the same effect.) To view the individual messages move the scroll bar to the desired message and hit the <Enter> key or the left mouse button. The selected message will then be displayed on a full-screen window. While in this full-screen message viewing window, several keys are active: Spacebar Performs a PgDn if not at the end of the message, otherwise will goto the next marked message. Enter Same as Spacebar. + or = Goto Next Marked Message Either - Goto Previous Marked Message G Goto Previous Marked Message K Kill Reply (only applicable if viewing replies) Home, End, If the message is larger than one screen, these PgUp, PgDn, perform as expected. Up/Dn Pressing F1 while in this window will bring up a help screen summarizing these functions. For all you mouseketeers, recall that pressing the left mouse button is equivalent to pressing the <Enter> key. After you have completed viewing all the messages and marking and unmarking as desired, pressing <Escape> will exit back to the Main Menu. At this point, if the output method is ASCII (New), ASCII (Append) or Printer, a final window will pop up to allow you to verify saving the marked messages to the previously selected output device: ╒═══════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ Save Marked Messages to file? Y/N │ │ │ ╘═══════════════════════════════════════╛ Figure 15: Save Verification Window Depressing 'Y' will cause the messages to be written/printed; any other key will abort the operation. - 17 - 4 Integration with Your Favorite Mail Reader One of the niftiest ways to run QWKSCAN is from a hot-key in EZ- Reader, Deluxe², SLMR, or Session Manager. Your off-line reader can now be turbo-charged to do superfast searches for every occurrence of, for example, your boyfriend's or girlfriend's name and you can then answer every one of those messages to show how much you care! To set this up simply assign QWKSCAN to your favorite hot-key inside your mail reader, making sure to include the "/b" command-line switch. This will force QWKSCAN to bypass the "Input Packet" selection and the un-archiving process. QWKSCAN will assume that the mail packet has already been un- archived and is present in the current directory. To use QWKSCAN in this fashion, begin by firing up your mail reader and selecting a mail packet. After the file has been un- archived into the work directory, you can then hit your pre- defined QWKSCAN hotkey and instantly do searches on either messages or replies. As an example, I have Alt-F10 configured in EZ-Reader as the following command: Alt-F10: qwkscan /5 /b When QWKSCAN is started with the "/b" bypass switch it expects to find the appropriate message files already existing in the current directory. This works with no modifications for EZ- Reader since it shells out to external programs from within the EZ work directory. However, Deluxe² shells out from the actual Deluxe² directory rather than the Q-WORK directory. To use QWKSCAN with Deluxe² in this case, simply specify the location of the work directory using the "/b=<workdir>" command line option. For example, the following will work fine with the default work directory in Deluxe²: qwkscan /b=.\q-work It is important that there be no spaces either before or after the equals sign in the command line. One of the niftiest things you can do with Sparky's new Deluxe² mail reader is customize the main menu, among other things. To add Qwkscan to the Deluxe² main menu, simply edit the file DELUXE2.1 and add the following line somewhere above the "END" line and below the "Main Menu" line: - 18 - DOS=qwkscan /b=.\q-work\, Qw%kscan This will add a new Main Menu option in Deluxe² to run QWKSCAN with a hotkey of 'k'. - 19 - 5 QWKSCAN Customization QWKSCAN is now completely customizable via a separate utility called QCUSTOM. QCUSTOM creates a file called QWKSCAN.CFG in the same directory that it was run from to save the user defaults. When QWKSCAN is started, it will look in its own directory to find QWKSCAN.CFG and if it doesn't find it will assign reasonable defaults, so QWKSCAN.CFG is optional and not required. BUT.... ...The best way to run QWKSCAN now is to put QWKSCAN and QCUSTOM into a directory in your path, run QCUSTOM to set the default search directories, and then change to a ramdrive and start QWKSCAN. Regardless of whether you start from a ramdrive or not, you no longer have to start QWKSCAN from your mail directory to avoid typing in the correct search directory, since that will be set by QCUSTOM. Just be aware that the work directory will be created as a subdirectory beneath whatever directory you started QWKSCAN from, which is why it's so fast if you start from a ramdrive.... When QCUSTOM is started you will see a menu similar to: ╒═[Options]════════╕ │ Colors │ │ Screen Size │ │ Directories │ │ Archiver │ │ Unarchiver │ │ Preset Strings │ │ Beeps │ │ Install Password │ │ Exit/Save │ │ Quit/No Save │ ╘══════════════════╛ Figure 16: QCUSTOM Main Menu 5.1 'Colors' Menu Selection Selection of this option will bring up a second window: - 20 - ╒════════════════╕ │ Standard │ │ Monochrome │ │ ByteBrothers │ │ Custom! │ ╘════════════════╛ Figure 17: 'Colors' Submenu You can select the Standard Colors, Monochrome Colors, or ByteBrother colors (put on sunglasses first!). Or you can completely customize every color on the screen with the Custom! selection. If you are like me, a piece of software is just unusable until I have blown about 4 hours customizing the colors... 5.2 'Screen Size' Menu Selection Selection of this option will allow you to specify your preferences for 25, 43, or 50 lines on your display without using the QWKSCAN command line option. 5.3 'Directories' Menu Selection Selection of this option will allow you to specify the default search directory for your mail packets and the default directory to hold your output ASCII files. 5.4 'Archiver' and 'Unarchiver' Menu Selections Selection of these options will allow you to specify the names of the utilities you want to use to unarchive mail packets and to rearchive them when you perform Filter options. 5.5 'Preset Strings' Menu Selection Selection of this option will bring up a second window: ╒══════════════╡ Preset Search Strings ╞═════════════╕ │ elliot │ │ qwks │ │ vilan │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ╘═════════════[Ctrl-Enter When Finished]═════════════╛ Figure 18: Preset Search Strings Submenu This allows you to specify some search strings for QWKSCAN to remember from session to session. This option is useful if you - 21 - find yourself consistently searching for the same strings in every mail packet. The above example is from my own setup. When you are done entering strings, hit <Ctrl-Enter> to save the results and return to the main menu. 5.6 'Beeps' Menu Selection When QWKSCAN completes a search it will sound a beep to let you know that it is completed. Selection of this option will give you control over the type of beep you (and your household) will experience... 5.7 'Install Password' Menu Selection Unregistered versions of QWKSCAN begin by displaying an initial title screen which will require the press of F10 to continue. Registration brings a password which is keyed directly to your name which will allow you to bypass the initial screen. All future versions of QWKSCAN will use the same password scheme, so obtaining new registered upgrades is as simple as downloading the latest version of QWKSCAN and installing your password. The password is saved in QWKSCAN.EXE itself, so it is important that QCUSTOM be run from the same directory as QWKSCAN.EXE when installing the password. To install your password, select the 'Install Password' option to bring up the following window: ╒═════════════════ Name ══════════════════╕ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════╛ Figure 19: 'Install' Name Submenu Be careful to type in your name EXACTLY as it appears in the file PASSWORD.DOC, included with your registration diskette. After the name is input, the following window will pop up: ╒══ Password ═══╕ │ │ ╘═══════════════╛ Figure 20: 'Install' Password Submenu Once again, enter your password EXACTLY as it appears in the file PASSWORD.DOC. If the password and name you have entered match, they will be installed into QWKSCAN.EXE. - 22 - 5.8 'Exit/Save' Menu Selection Selection of this option will exit QCUSTOM and cause the file QWKSCAN.CFG to be created in the directory that QCUSTOM was executed from. When QWKSCAN is executed it will search its directory for the presence of QWKSCAN.CFG and use the values from that file. If QWKSCAN does not find its configuration file then it will assign reasonable defaults to the values. 5.9 'Quit/No Save' Menu Selection Selection of this option will exit QCUSTOM without writing the data into QWKSCAN.CFG. - 23 - 6 Credits <insert vivid mental image of white-hatted cowboy riding into vast panoramic sunset, grateful townspeople looking on, large Times-Roman letters scrolling across screen...> Technical/Programming Tony Tortorelli Assistance: Shawn Regan Jimmy Pearson Ron Bebus DOS Shell SWAP code Marty Del Vecchio ByteBrother Colors: Bob Hogan after a bad night Beta-Test BBS MINX/Bill Nolan (316) 721-3773 Beta-Testers, v3.0: Michael Robertson Joe Martella Ron Bebus Bob Hogan Jimmy Pearson Key Grip: What? Assistant to Mr. Pearson: Victor the Rat Wardrobe: Dead Elvis Makeup: Tammy Faye Unbelievable Patience: Crystal, my wife. - 24 - 7 Registration QWKSCAN is released as shareware. That means you get to try it and see if it is useful to you before you spend any $$$ on it. If you do find QWKSCAN useful, then please register it. Registration brings you a copy of the latest version on your choice of diskette sizes, and encourages shareware authors to continue to churn this stuff out. When you register QWKSCAN you will receive a password that is generated from your name or your company name that you supply. This password, when installed using QCUSTOM, will allow you to bypass QWKSCAN's initial opening screen. In addition, your name or your company's name will appear on the main menu indicating that this particular copy of QWKSCAN is registered to you. All future versions of QWKSCAN will use this same password scheme, so upgrading to new versions will be as simple as downloading the latest versions and installing your password. I can be reached at: ■ The Mailing Address Listed Below ■ The MINX Bulletin Board System (1-316-721-3773) ■ The DATAWARP Bulleting Board System (1-713-355-6107) ■ Interlink Shareware Conference ■ Interlink EZ-Reader Conference ■ Interlink QMail Conference ■ Interlink Off-Line Conference If you are using the echoed conferences to contact me, please spell my name with 2 ell's and 2 tee's (ELLIOTT) or I might miss the message, even with QWKSCAN on the job.... Registration fee is: ■ $15.00 for 5 ¼" disks ■ $17.50 for 3 ½" disks Throw in an extra $10 and I'll not only send you this version, I'll also send you the next two major versions when they are available. Please make all payments in US funds payable to Elliott Jackson. NEW! Now you can register QWKSCAN with your Mastercard/Visa! Simply fill out the appropriate data in the supplied order form, or for even more convenience call Mike Meyer's excellent DATAWARP BBS at the above phone number and fill out the appropriate - 25 - [S]cript. Your registered copy of QWKSCAN will be blasted out to you as soon as your order is processed. - 26 - ***************************************************************** Q W K S C A N ! Order Form YES! I want to receive my very own disk with the latest version QWKSCAN, the new wave in shareware software! Please RUSH the diskette to the below address: __________________________________________ Name __________________________________________ Address __________________________________________ City, State ZIP Code Qty Description Price/ea. Total ================================================================ _____ QWKSCAN, 5 ¼" Floppy $15.00 ______ _____ QWKSCAN, 3 ½" Floppy $17.50 ______ _____ 2-Version Upgrade Service $10.00 ______ Grand Total ______ ================================================================ Payment Method: [ ] Check/Money Order [ ] MasterCard [ ] Visa Send order form to: __________________________________ Card Number + Expiration Date Elliott W. Jackson Custom! Computing __________________________________ PO Box 846 Name (As it appears on the card) Oxford, KS 67119 ___________________________________________________________ Registration Name (to generate password, <40 characters) ** Thanks!! ** ***************************************************************** - 27 -