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▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ██ ▀▀ ██ ██ ██ ▀▀ ██ ▀▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄▄▄ ██▄▄▄██ ██▄▄▄ ██▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██▄▄▄ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██▄▄▄██ ▄██▄▄██ ██ ██▄ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██ ▄██▄▄██ - The Premium Offline Message Base Manager - TM v1.10 SPEED READ, Copyright (c) 1991-92, J.E. Smith, All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................... 1 Features .......................................................... 2 Distribution ...................................................... 3 Quick Start Installation .......................................... 4 Configuring SPEED ................................................. 5 General Setup ................................................ 6 Toggles/Options .............................................. 10 Colors, Edit Picklists and User Hot-Keys...................... 13 Using SPEED READ - A Sample Session ............................... 14 Help System and Popup Menus........................................ 17 Hot-Keys .......................................................... 18 BBS List Window ................................................... 20 Conference/Area Window ............................................ 22 Read Message Screen ............................................... 25 Read Replies Screen ............................................... 32 Entering and Replying To Messages ................................. 33 Picklists ......................................................... 35 Taglines .......................................................... 36 Twit Filter and Word Censor ....................................... 37 Fido Mode ......................................................... 38 Command Line Arguments ............................................ 39 Text Editing ...................................................... 40 Technical Support and Upgrade Policy .............................. 41 Kudos ............................................................. 42 License Agreement and Other Legal Matters ......................... 43 Error Messages .................................................... 44 Commonly Asked Questions and Answers .............................. 45 INTRODUCTION SPEED v1.10 pg. -1- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to SPEED READ! SPEED is a next-generation offline QWK compatible message manager. Unlike most of the leading offline mail readers, SPEED allows you to combine incoming mail packets with an existing message base. This provides you with seamless access to older messages, much like you would have when reading messages on-line. The real beauty of SPEED is in its user interface. SPEED was designed to make you feel right at home from the very first time you use it. Every attempt was made to structure the key sequences in a logical manner. To aid in learning SPEED, popup menus are available in many places by pressing the (/) key. An extensive, on-line, context-sensitive, hyper-text, help system is always just one key away. Whenever you have a question, just press (F1) for detailed help. It's like always having the manual open to the right page. Many new features are planned for future versions of SPEED. However, they can only be implemented with your support. The registered version of SPEED does not require you to enter a 5-digit access code at start up. It removes the ending screen and your registration number will appear in your taglines where [NR] is currently displayed. Also, registered versions come with a "Special Bonus Thing". If you've never had one, you're in for a treat! The cost of SPEED is $25 (US funds). Include $5 shipping and handling for orders outside the United States. Add $5 if you require SPEED on a 3-1/2" disk. A completed and signed order form MUST accompany each order. The order form is found in the file ORDER.FRM, or you can print one by pressing (ALT-O) within SPEED. Orders are processed as they are received. Generally, orders are shipped within 7 days. However, please allow 2-8 weeks for delivery from the time your order is mailed. A lot of thought and time went into the design of SPEED. I think you will find it both intuitive and easy to use. FEATURES SPEED v1.10 pg. -2- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEED treats offline reading much like a BBS. It allows you to specify a number of old messages to keep in each conference and each new packet updates the message base. This allows you to seamlessly access old messages while reading the new ones. By setting the number of old messages to zero you can use SPEED as a conventional offline mail reader (See the CTRL-F2 command in the CONFERENCE/AREA WINDOW section). SPEED allows you to delete individual messages or mark them for long- term storage. You may easily delete all the messages in a particular conference, or mark them as read or unread. It keeps up with which messages you have read and which messages came in the last packet. SPEED includes a twit filter that prevents selected messages in the message base from being displayed. It also includes a censor to keep you from seeing certain words. The emphasis of SPEED is ease of use on small to medium sized message bases. Every effort was made to make SPEED user-friendly. It offers a comprehensive, on-line, context-sensitive, hyper-text help system and convenient popup menus. Other features include: - Command line option to auto-import QWK packets. - Ability to read messages in thread order *WITHOUT* sorting. - Option to compress the message base to save disk space. - Automatic multiple packet import (by date -- oldest packet first). - Option to swap out to XMS/EMS/DISK before running external programs. - Support for up to 50,000 taglines. - Ability to steal any line of text as a tagline. - External tagline support (JH, etc.). - Decrypt JH2 encrypted taglines. - Reply recovery, in case of a system crash. - Smart quoting option. - Save individual messages to a text file. - Print individual messages. - User-defined picklists, (to, subject, save file, etc.). - Advanced searching features within the picklists. - Popup menus, while you're learning the program. - Advanced threading based on subject or reference number. - Support for 3000-4000 conferences (depending on the system). - FIDO mode option by BBS, and auto-detection. - Automatic pruning of message base (and manual pruning). - Support for external lister and editor. - 10 user-defined hot-keys. - Text search within message base. - RIME routing. - Splitting of long replies, and subsequent merging for re-editing. - "Special Bonus Thing" for registered users. - ...and many more. DISTRIBUTION SPEED v1.10 pg. -3- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEED is distributed as shareware. It is *NOT* public domain, freeware or "free software". You may evaluate SPEED for 30 days, after which you must either register it or stop using it. Registration is required for use in a business, government or institutional setting. Unaltered copies of SPEED's *original* shareware distribution archive may be freely copied and shared with others as long as no fee is charged to do so. It may be uploaded to local and national BBS's. Anyone desiring to distribute SPEED by charging a per disk fee (i.e. disk vendors) must obtain written permission from the author, J.E. Smith, before doing so. SPEED may be distributed via subscription BBS's as long as no inference is made that the subscription in any way pays for the use or evaluation of SPEED. QUICK START INSTALLATION SPEED v1.10 pg. -4- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This section assumes you are installing SPEED onto a hard disk. Since SPEED is disk intensive and its message bases require a greater amount of storage than conventional non-message base readers, it is not recommended that you run SPEED using floppy disks. Make a subdirectory off the root directory for your SPEED files and extract the archive into it. You should *NEVER* run SPEED from the root directory of any drive. If you have registered SPEED, make sure your CONFIG.SR file is in your SPEED directory (the same directory where SR.EXE is). Start SPEED by typing: SR (ENTER) If SPEED cannot locate a copy of PKZIP and PKUNZIP it will terminate, and let you know it could not find these needed files. If that happens make sure that PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE are in your defined path, and you have not renamed them. Since SPEED will need to access the ZIP programs from various directories, the programs should be in a directory included within your path, not just in your SPEED directory. Assuming the ZIP utilities are located, you are greeted with a new user window. It lets you know that certain settings must be defined before SPEED will allow you to continue. To display the General Configuration screen, press (TAB). Fill in the required information for each of the fields. Use the up and down arrows to move to another field. Don't forget if you have any questions, press (F1) for a detailed help screen. The most important information to enter is: New Packet Directory - This tells SPEED where to look for unprocessed mail. Reply Packet Directory - This tells SPEED where to put your replies (.REP files) so your communication program can find them to upload. External Editor - This version of SPEED does not come with an editor. You must provide your own that processes ASCII files. Note that the "%s" should go where the filename to edit would normally go and it should be lower case. External Lister - Though not required, this is nice to have. SPEED has a limited internal lister that allows you to view Welcome, News and other BBS screens. The three items above, excluding the External Lister, are all that you need to start SPEED. However, as you become more comfortable with SPEED you will want to customize it to meet your personal preferences. You may change the configuration at any time by pressing (ALT-C), and selecting the area you want to configure. See the CONFIGURING SPEED section for complete details. CONFIGURING SPEED SPEED v1.10 pg. -5- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may change SPEED's configuration at any time by pressing (ALT-C). This will display a menu from which you can choose a specific area to configure. When colors are changed, it may be necessary to leave an area before the changes are noticeable. The following options are available from this menu: General Setup This is the screen you saw when SPEED was run for the first time. It is used to change many of SPEED's general settings, such as upload/download directories, message editor, quote string, etc. To select an item to change use the up and down arrows to move the highlight bar. The settings on some items are toggled by pressing the space bar, while others require you to directly enter text. See the GENERAL SETUP section for more information. Toggles/Options The Toggles/Options screen allows you to select your preference on several aspects of SPEED, such as the twit filter, censor, beeping on personal messages, swapping to high memory before running external programs, etc. See the TOGGLES/OPTIONS section for more information. Select Colors From this screen you can change SPEED's default colors. Note that you will only see the changes as new windows and screens are displayed. See the COLORS, EDIT PICKLIST AND USER HOT-KEYS section for more information. Picklists A picklist is a convenient way to choose an item. Some picklists allow you to enter commonly used entries. These include taglines, To: fields, Subject: fields, save files, twits and censored words. (ALT-L) displays a menu of these, from which you can choose a specific picklist to edit. Once a picklist is chosen, you may add new entries, delete unwanted entries and/or edit existing entries. Use the up and down arrows to highlight the desired picklist, then (ENTER) to select the highlighted item. For more information please see the PICKLISTS section. User Hot-Keys SPEED supports 10 user-defined hot-keys. They allow you to execute any program or DOS command by pressing (ALT-F1 to ALT-F10). See the COLORS, EDIT PICKLIST AND USER HOT-KEYS section for more information. CONFIGURING SPEED GENERAL SETUP SPEED v1.10 pg. -6- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIRECTORIES New Packets: This item tells SPEED where to look for new message packets. Normally this is the same directory as your communication program's download directory. When entering the directory you should use the full path name, including the drive. For example: New Packets: C:/DOWNLOAD/ Reply Packets: This item tells SPEED where to put your reply packets. If your communications program has an upload directory, you should use that, or you may choose to use the same directory as your communications program. When entering the directory you should use the full path name, including the drive. For example: Reply Packets: C:/COMPRG/ QUOTING Initials: SPEED offers three different styles of quoting messages, dependent upon how initials are used; First, All and None. Press the space bar to toggle through the choices. - FIRST JS> This is an example of "First". Notice that the initials > are only displayed on the first quoted line of each > paragraph. - ALL (*ALL will quote blank lines also) JS> This is an example of the "All" option. It displays JS> initials on every quoted line. This is the most JS> common style. - NONE (*NONE will quote blank lines also) > "None" does not use any initials. This can be very > confusing when there are several quotes from different > people. CONFIGURING SPEED GENERAL SETUP -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -7- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote String: The quote string is the text placed between the initials (if any) and the message text. The most common character used is the '>' symbol. Some networks (such as FidoNet) do not allow high bit characters (those greater than 127) and control characters (those less than 32). While in the Fido mode, SPEED will replace a quote string containing high bit characters with the quote string "> ". *NEVER USE VALUE 227 (the pi symbol), THIS IS A QWK CONTROL CHARACTER* High bit and control characters are entered by holding down the (ALT) key and entering the desired character's ASCII value using the numeric key pad. For example, to generate the "block" character, press the (ALT) key, enter 254 on the numeric keypad and then release the (ALT) key. For a complete list of available values please refer to an ASCII chart located in most computer manuals. Press (F1) while in this field to see a list of popular values. Smart Quoting: With smart quoting toggled On, SPEED will not quote quotes when you reply to a message. In most instances this improves the readability of a message. Press the space bar to toggle this option On and Off. Presented below are examples of each. Without Smart Quoting: BB>SS>BB> Hi Steve, how's it going? BB>SS> Very good Bill. How about you? BB> Just fine. With Smart Quoting: BB> Hi Steve, how's it going? SS> Very good Bill. How about you? BB> Just fine. CONFIGURING SPEED GENERAL SETUP -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -8- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXTERNAL PROGRAMS Editor: Enter here the DOS command needed to start your text editor including all command line options (see below). If your editor is not located within your PATH, the full path should be included along with the program's name. It is not necessary to specify an extension. The editor should read and write ASCII text files. You should always have at least 1 command line option, %s. Use %s (the %s must be lower case) where the file name to edit would go. SPEED will replace %s with the actual file name. The %s MUST be included, even if the editor does not accept command line options. EXAMPLES: Editor: MYEDITOR %s Editor: C:/UTILITY/MYEDITOR /bw %s Editor: C:/UTILITY/MYEDITOR.EXE %s -ems Lister: Enter here the DOS command needed to start your external file lister including command line options (see below). If the lister is not located within your PATH, the path should be included along with the program's name. It is not necessary to specify an extension. A lister allows you to view text files. The lister can be called via the (ALT-V) hot-key. The lister is not necessary to use SPEED. You should always have at least 1 command line option, %s. Use %s (%s must be lower case) where the file name to list would go. SPEED will replace %s with the actual file name. The %s MUST be included, even if the lister does not accept command line options. EXAMPLES: Lister: MYLISTER %s Lister: C:/UTILITY/MYLISTER /bw %s Lister: C:/UTILITY/MYLISTER.EXE %s -ems CONFIGURING SPEED GENERAL SETUP -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -9- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tagline Mgr: SPEED supports external tagline managers, such as the popular John Hancock program. Other similar programs are also supported. Enter here the DOS command needed to start your external tagline manager. Include all command line options, if any. The executable program(s) and any supporting data files should be placed in the same directory as your SPEED executable (SR.EXE). It is not necessary to specify an extension. The program is invoked from within the Message Header window by pressing (F9). EXAMPLE: Tagline Mgr: JH Tag Ret. File: External tagline managers, such as John Hancock, let SPEED know which tagline was chosen by placing it in a special return file. In the case of John Hancock, the file name is always JH?.REP. Like in DOS the '?' is a wildcard, which means it can be any character. Enter the name of the return file used by your external tagline manager. You may include wildcards ('*' and '?'), if necessary. Do NOT include a path unless the return file is in a directory other than the one containing SR.EXE and your tagline manager. NOTE: It is not necessary for JH users to complete this option. JH will work with this field blank or completed as shown below in the example. EXAMPLE: Tag Ret. File: JH*.REP CONFIGURING SPEED TOGGLES/OPTIONS SPEED v1.10 pg. -10- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Use the up and down arrows to select the item you want to change. Don't forget that help is available for each item by pressing (F1). You can toggle through the available options by pressing the space bar. Below is a description of each of the items. Twit Filter: Each time you enter a conference or message area, SPEED loads the message index for that area. If the Twit Filter option is "On", all messages with a To:, From: or Subj: matching an entry in your twit list are marked as twits. These messages are hidden from you. To later read the twitted messages, set this option to "Off" and re-enter the conference. Twits are defined with the (ALT-L) command. Select "Off" if no twits are defined. Censor: If the Censor option is "On", SPEED checks each message for offending words. If any are found, each character in the word is replaced with the '%' character. If you want to read messages uncensored, set this option to "Off", and you will see them as originally posted. Censored words are defined by the user with the (ALT-L) command. Select "Off" if no censored words are defined. Personal Beep: If you want SPEED to beep each time the displayed message is addressed to you, select "On", otherwise select "Off". Delete *.Q!*: When SPEED adds a .QWK packet to your message base, it renames the old *.QW* file to a file with an extension of *.Q!*. Once processed successfully, the old .QWK file is no longer needed by SPEED. If you want SPEED to delete processed mail packets before exiting to DOS, select "On", otherwise select "Off". If "On" is selected, all files in the download directory matching the DOS wildcard expression of "*.Q!*" are deleted. Edit Header: When entering a new message, or replying to an old one, SPEED needs to know certain information such as who the message is to, the subject of the message, message status, area, etc. You tell SPEED this information in the Message Header Window. This toggle lets you determine when this information is requested. Before - Enter information BEFORE a message is entered. After - Enter information AFTER a message is entered. Both - Enter information BOTH before and after editing a message. The "Both" option allows you to enter the information before the message is edited, and then change it after editing the message. This is useful if you decide to change the subject or tagline to reflect the content of your message. CONFIGURING SPEED TOGGLES/OPTIONS -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -11- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Swapping: When this option is toggled "On", SPEED is moved out of conventional memory before external programs (such as your editor, compressor, and DOS command processor) are executed. This frees more memory for the external program. SPEED will attempt to swap itself to high memory first. If there is not enough memory, it will attempt to swap itself to disk. Toggle this option by pressing the space bar. The advantage to swapping, as stated above, is the increased memory capacity afforded the external program. However, it will take longer to execute the program because of the time needed to remove SPEED from conventional memory. Disk swaps take longer than memory swaps. Therefore, if your applications will run without swapping, it is to your advantage to leave this option toggled Off. Snow Control: SPEED uses direct screen writes to display text. This is much faster than other available methods. However, on some older CGA video cards this produces a "snow" effect when the screen is updated. If you see "snow" while using SPEED, toggle this option to On. If your CGA card does not produce "snow" toggle this Off to get faster screen writes. Since snow is only associated with CGA video cards, this option should be Off if your system uses any other card. Taglines: This option defines how SPEED selects a tagline, or if a tagline is selected at all. Below is a brief description of each option: Off - No tagline is added to your replies. This only refers to the user portion of the tagline. The name "SPEED", version number and [NR] or your registration number is always added. There is no provision to turn this off in the registered or unregistered version. Random - A tagline is randomly selected from the entire tagline pool. Smart Random - Taglines are randomly selected from the remaining tagline pool. The same tagline is not reused until all taglines have been selected. The pool is reset to the entire list whenever SPEED is started or the total number of taglines changes. Sequential - The taglines are selected in the same order as they appear in the tagline list. Same - The same tagline is used until you choose another. From:/To: By default SPEED displays messages with the sender's name first (From: on top) and the recipient's name second (To: below From:). If you prefer seeing the To: field above the From: field, select "To:/From:". Otherwise, select "From:/To:" and the From: field will be displayed above the To: field. CONFIGURING SPEED TOGGLES/OPTIONS -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -12- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply Header: If this toggle is "On", SPEED will include a copy of the message's header (To:, From:, Subject:, etc.) in the quoted reply. This is for informational purposes only, and is deleted before SPEED creates the final reply. Mark Twit Read: If you want twitted messages marked as read, and you do not want to later go back and read them, then toggle this option On. If you want to later go back and read the twitted messages, then toggle this option "Off". Save Unread: When this option is "On", messages will continue to accumulate until they are read, irrespective of the Keep Old setting. If you do not want to purge unread messages, then toggle this option to On. If you want to limit the size of your message base toggle this option "Off". CONFIGURING SPEED COLORS, EDIT PICKLISTS AND USER HOT-KEYS SPEED v1.10 pg. -13- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT COLORS From this screen you can change the colors used by SPEED. Use the up and down arrows to select which item to change. Use the left and right arrows to change the color of the highlighted item. Sample screens are provided to let you test your selections. See below for other valid commands. (D) Sets the colors to the original factory settings. (B) Sets the colors to black and white. (R) Reloads the last saved colors from disk. Use this option if you want to start over. (TAB) Quits and saves the displayed colors as the default colors. (ESC) Quits and reloads the default colors from disk. EDIT PICKLIST From this menu you may choose a specific picklist to edit. Once a picklist is chosen, you may add new entries, delete unwanted entries and/or edit existing entries. Use the up and down arrows to highlight the desired picklist, then (ENTER) to select the highlighted item. This menu is directly accessible via the (ALT-L) hot-key. See the PICKLIST section for more information. USER-DEFINED HOT-KEYS This screen allows you to assign a DOS command to one of the user defined hot-keys. There are 10 user-defined hot-keys (ALT-F1 to ALT-F10). Enter the information just as you would at the DOS prompt. Include full path names, if needed. For example: C:\ED\EDITOR C:\SPEED\NOTES.TXT Batch files and internal DOS commands, are run as shells from COMMAND.COM. For example: COMMAND.COM /C MYBATCH.BAT COMMAND.COM /C DIR /P Some programs, such as John Hancock's tagline stealer Guido, require that the screen not be cleared before running them. To run a program without clearing the screen, make the first character an '!' in the command. For example: !C:\SPEED\GUIDO C:\SPEED\JH.TAG USING SPEED READ - A SAMPLE SESSION SPEED v1.10 pg. -14- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assuming you have successfully completed the setup section, you are now ready to begin reading mail with SPEED. The first thing you will need is a QWK mail packet. To get a mail packet load your communications software and log-on to a BBS supporting QWK compatible mail. On most BBS's, QWK mail is not built in to the software; you must run a DOOR or external program to access the mail. Look for commands such as "DOOR" or "Offline Mail". If it supports doors type DOOR for a list of available doors, and look for a door with "QWK" or "offline" in the description. Normally, the first time you enter a QWK mail section on a BBS you must provide certain information. This includes which conferences you want to receive mail from, your transfer protocol, the type of compression (always choose ZIP here) and other various items depending on the door. It's a good idea to toggle "On" the option that sends you the messages YOU enter. This defaults to OFF on most QWK systems. By having your messages in the message base it allows for better threading using the (]) and ([) keys. Once configured, you are ready to download a QWK mail packet. On most systems the command to do this is 'D'. Check the menu on the system you are using. Follow all the instructions as they are displayed. When prompted, start the download within your communication software. Once the transfer is complete, you can log-off the BBS (normally, 'G' for Goodbye). You are now ready to read your mail. To do so, change to the SPEED directory and enter SR (ENTER) This will load SPEED. If you are using an unregistered version, you will need to enter the unregistered access code and press (ENTER). If SPEED can find the packet you just downloaded it will display the BBS ID in the BBS List Window. Also notice that there is a 'YES' in 'New Packet' column. This means an unprocessed mail packet is waiting. If the window is blank, then SPEED cannot find the mail packet. Make sure the mail packet is in the 'New Packet' directory as defined in your General Setup configuration (ALT-C). Select the BBS with the unprocessed mail packet and press (ENTER). Use the arrow keys to highlight it if there is more than one entry. SPEED will then unpack the QWK packet and convert the mail to its internal format. When the conversion is complete, the Conference/ Areas Window is displayed. USING SPEED READ - A SAMPLE SESSION -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -15- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Use the (+) and (-) keys to jump to the next/previous area with unread mail (see the CONFERENCE/AREA WINDOW section for other available commands). Select a conference to read and press (ENTER). SPEED will then display the first unread message in that area. To view additional messages press (ENTER) or the right arrow. To view a previous message in this area press the left arrow. (ESC) will take you back to the Conference/Area Window. Pressing (ENTER) while the last message in this area is displayed will take you to the first unread message in the next conference with unread mail. To reply to a displayed message press (R). The Message Header Window will be displayed. Make sure all the information is correct and then press (TAB). If you need to change any of the information in the Message Header Window, use the up and down arrows to highlight the desired field and enter the correct information. SPEED will load your editor and display the original message quoted. Edit this file to add your reply. Remember to delete unnecessary parts of the original quoted message. When the reply is just the way you want it, save it and exit your editor. If an error occurred and SPEED could not load your editor, press (ALT-C), select General Setup and make sure your editor's name is entered correctly. Use the full path name if the editor cannot be located within your path statement. If the editor loads but the original quoted message is not loaded, make sure the %s is included in your editor's command line where the file to be edited should go. The %s MUST be in lower case. When you return to SPEED the Message Header Window is displayed again. This allows you a final chance to make changes, like a new subject line or a different tagline to reflect the content of your message. If the displayed information is correct, press (TAB) to save your reply (or (ESC) will abort the process and not save your reply). To view a reply you've entered, press (HOME) twice in the Conference/ Area Window. This will take you to the first conference which is Replies. Press (ENTER) and read the replies just as you would in any other conference. (DEL) will toggle the delete flag for the displayed message in case you later decide not to send the reply. When finished viewing the replies, press (ESC). To enter a new message, instead of replying to an existing one, press (E) in the Conference/Area Window with the desired conference highlighted; or press (E) while a message is displayed in the desired conference. When the message header is displayed you must supply the information for the To: and Subject: field. These cannot be left blank. When your editor is loaded there is no quoted message of course, since you are not replying to an existing message. Otherwise, everything else is the same as above. USING SPEED READ - A SAMPLE SESSION -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -16- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have finished reading and replying to the messages from this BBS, exit the reader by pressing (ESC) until you are back at the DOS prompt. You are now ready to send any replies you've written. When you exited SPEED it packed up your replies in a file that will be uploaded to the BBS. The name of the file is the same as the QWK packet downloaded except its extension is REP instead of QWK. Load your communications software once again and call the BBS. Enter the QWK mail section as you did before (except this time you will not have go through all the setup procedures as you did the first time). Select the option to upload the reply packet (usually it is 'U'). When prompted, start the upload with your communications software. After the upload is finished you can either log-off, or download another mail packet. Don't forget to delete the REP file once it is uploaded; everyone frowns on receiving duplicate messages. It would be impossible to touch on everything related to offline reading in this document. Hopefully the above will be enough to get you started or at least arm you with enough information that you can ask the right questions. If you have problems sending or receiving mail packets ask the BBS's Sysop for assistance. Most are very willing to lend a hand. Also, regular users of the BBS can provide you with valuable assistance in using an offline reader. Good luck! HELP SYSTEM SPEED v1.10 pg. -17- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEED contains an on-line, context-sensitive, hyper-text help system. At any time, you can view a help screen relating to your specific position in SPEED by pressing (F1). The importance of using (F1) throughout the program cannot be emphasized enough. SPEED's help system is rich with specific and detailed information on all aspects of the program. Nearly as much time went into the help screens as the actual program. Much of this manual was compiled using information from the help screens. Presented below is a summary of the valid commands while in the help window. (ARROW KEYS) Select a topic by moving the highlight bar with any of the arrow keys. (ENTER) View the help screen relating to the highlighted topic. (ANY LETTER) Jumps to the next selection beginning with that letter. (HOME) Moves the highlight bar to the first selection. (END) Moves the highlight bar to the last selection. (PGUP) Moves the highlight bar 1/10 back in the list. (PGDN) Moves the highlight bar 1/10 forward in the list. (ESC) or (-) Leave the help system and return to program. POPUP MENUS In addition to the help system, SPEED provides popup menus in several major areas (BBS List Window, Choose Conference/Area Window Read Message Screen and Read Replies Screen). The popup menu, when available, is accessed by pressing the (/) key. The popup menu allows you to select a function from a list of options. Only the major options are listed in each of the popup menus. It makes learning SPEED's commands easy while using SPEED. To help you learn the shortcut keys, they are displayed next to each item in the menu. To skip the menu, just press the shortcut where you pressed (/) before. The following keys are valid while the menu window is active. (UP) Move the highlight bar up one item. (DOWN) Move the highlight bar down one item. (HOME) Move the highlight bar to the first item. (END) Move the highlight bar to the last item. (ENTER) Select the highlighted item. (ESC) Exit the Popup Menu. HOT-KEYS SPEED v1.10 pg. -18- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hot-Keys are key combinations that are available to you anytime SPEED is waiting on a key to be pressed. Valid Hot-Keys include: (F1) Context-sensitive help. (see HELP SYSTEM) (ALT-C) Configure (setup) SPEED. (see CONFIGURING SPEED) (ALT-L) Picklists menu. (see PICKLISTS) (ALT-M) Available memory and other key information. (ALT-S) Shell to DOS, return to SPEED by typing EXIT. (ALT-T) Choose active tagline file. (see TAGLINES) (ALT-V) Execute external file Lister/Viewer. (CTRL-ENTER) Launch user-defined hot-key program. (ALT-F1..ALT-F10) User-defined hot-keys. (see CONFIGURING SPEED) Detailed information on selected hot-keys. (ALT-M) SYSTEM INFORMATION Key system information is available to you anytime by pressing (ALT-M). The following information is displayed. NEAR FREE Amount of free memory on the near heap. This number is really not useful to you, since you cannot control it. FAR FREE Amount of free memory that SPEED and other programs can use. When you shell to DOS or SPEED runs other programs, this is the memory that is used. Also, the message index is stored here. When this memory runs out you cannot add new messages to the message base. NEAR/FAR HEAP Test to check the near/far heap. PROCESS How long it took to perform the last timed event, such as TIME updating or sorting a message base. (ALT-S) DOS SHELL Pressing (ALT-S) will allow you to shell to DOS without exiting SPEED. This allows you to perform DOS related functions such as formatting disks, copying files or any other needed activity. When you are finished just type EXIT and you will immediately return to SPEED exactly where you were when you shelled to DOS. If Swapping is turned "Off", SPEED is left in conventional memory. This will limit the amount of free memory while in DOS. If you get errors such as 'Program too big to fit in memory' or 'Out of memory' try turning Swapping on before shelling to DOS. To change the Swap setting press (ALT-C) for configuration, select General Setup, then use the down arrow to choose Swapping. Press the space bar to toggle the setting, then (TAB) to save it. HOT-KEYS -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -19- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (ALT-V) EXTERNAL FILE LISTER/VIEWER The external file lister allows you to view text files. When you press (ALT-V) you are prompted to enter a file name. If your lister does not need a filename at the command line, you can just press (ENTER) and continue on. A Lister is not necessary to use SPEED, however it is nice to have when viewing long text files, like SPEED's documentation. The Lister is defined under the "General Setup" portion of the configuration. Press (ALT-C) and select "General Setup". (CTRL-ENTER) LAUNCH PROGRAM This displays a picklist of user-defined hot-keys (ALT-F1 to ALT-F10). You can execute the command/program by highlighting it and pressing (ENTER). It is a convenient way to access the user-defined commands while learning the shortcut key strokes. To use the shortcut keys, press (ALT) and the function key corresponding to the number of the command. You cannot edit the commands from the picklist. They may only be edited from the configuration screen. To do so press (ALT-C) and select "User Hot-Keys". BBS LIST WINDOW SPEED v1.10 pg. -20- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the opening screen, the next screen you see is the BBS List Window. From this screen you may choose a BBS message base to read. To select one, position the highlight bar over the desired BBS and then press (ENTER). To move the highlight bar use the up and down arrows. The columns are defined as: Compress - YES in this column means the message base is compressed when not in use. A compressed message base uses less disk space, but takes longer to access. Toggle this option with (F2). Reply Packet - YES here means a reply packet is present for this BBS. New Packet - A YES here means that this BBS has unprocessed mail. % Read - The percent of *total* messages that have been read. BBS ID - A unique ID (or description) for this BBS. The following keys are valid in the BBS List Window: (ENTER) Select highlighted BBS. This will process any new packets and display a window with all the BBS's conferences. (ESC) Quit SPEED READ. (DEL) Delete popup window. This menu will allow you to execute a special delete function, such as deleting a reply packet or an entire message base. Each of the listed functions can be accessed directly with the key combination shown to the right of the option. The popup menu provides an easy way to perform the functions, while learning the keystrokes. (F2) Message base compression. This allows you to choose whether or not you want to compress a BBS's message base. A compressed message base uses less disk space, but takes longer to access. Since this is selectable by BBS, you may choose to leave your favorite BBS's uncompressed, while compressing the others to save space. The default is uncompressed. (ALT-R) Delete reply packet. If a reply packet is available for the highlighted BBS, you may delete it by pressing (ALT-R). You will be prompted before the packet is deleted. Once a packet is uploaded to a BBS, you should delete it to make sure it is not uploaded again. BBS LIST WINDOW -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -21- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (ALT-D) Delete message base. You may delete the highlighted message base by pressing (ALT-D) or selecting it from the delete menu (DEL). You are prompted before the message base is deleted. Once deleted, you will not be able to recover it. WARNING: This deletes *ALL* messages and replies for the highlighted message base, including those marked as "Keep". => Use With Caution! <= (ALT-U) Update/refresh display. This will reread your disk looking for new mail packets, BBS's, reply packets, etc. It is not necessary to use this command unless you are using multitasking software such as Windows or DESQview. When SPEED is first run it builds a list of BBS's, checks for mail packets, replies, etc. Thereafter, it updates the list as things change. It does not "reread" the data from disk. This does not present a problem on single tasking systems. However, on a multitasking system it is possible to be reading mail and downloading a new mail packet at the same time. (ALT-U) forces SPEED to rebuild the BBS list, so the new mail packets are recognized, along with any other changes. (HOME) First screen. (END) Last screen. (UP) Move highlight bar up one item. (DOWN) Move highlight bar down one item. (PGUP) Previous screen. (PGDN) Next screen. (CTRL-HOME) First displayed line. (CTRL-END) Last displayed line. (+) Move to next item with a new (unprocessed) packet. (-) Move to previous item with a new (unprocessed) packet. (RIGHT) Move to next item with a reply packet. (LEFT) Move to previous item with a reply packet. CONFERENCE/AREA WINDOW SPEED v1.10 pg. -22- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From this window you may choose a conference/area to read. To select one, position the highlight bar on the desired item and then press (ENTER). To move the highlight bar use the up and down arrows. The BBS's name is displayed on the window's top border, and its Sysop's name is displayed on the bottom border. The columns are defined as: Area The ID number associated with this conference. Total Msgs Total number of messages in this conference. Keep Old The number of old messages to keep. Use (F2) to change. Last Packet The number of messages received in the last packet. Unread The number of messages you have not read. Description The name or ID of the highlighted conference/area. The following keys are valid in the Conference/Area Window: (ENTER) Select area to read messages. (F10) Displays a picklist used to search for or jump to a specific area. (see PICKLISTS) (ESC) Return to the BBS List Window. (E) Enter a new message in the highlighted area. A window will appear requesting certain information, such as the message recipient, subject, etc. (F2) This allows you to define how many old messages are kept in the message base for the highlighted conference. The 'Keep Old' number includes messages marked as "Keep", but excludes new messages. This will only change the 'Keep Old' variable for the highlighted conference. Use (CTRL-F2) to change all conferences. Consideration should be given to the process time and disk space when deciding how many old messages to keep. If you do not want to keep any old messages enter 0 (zero). The default is 50 messages. (CTRL-F2) This allows you to define how many old messages are kept in all of the conferences. This is a global command and will change *ALL* keep old variables for this BBS. Use (F2) to change only the highlighted conference. CONFERENCE/AREA WINDOW -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -23- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (T) View summary totals. (ALT-F) Toggle FIDO mode. This is selectable by BBS. (see FIDO MODE). (ALT-D) Delete all messages in the highlighted conference. You are prompted before the messages are deleted. Once deleted, you will not be able to recover them. WARNING: This deletes *ALL* messages and replies for the highlighted conference/area, including those marked as "Keep". => Use With Caution! <= (ALT-P) Prune the highlighted conference/area. Pruning consists of deleting all messages flagged as "*KILL*" and deleting messages in excess of the 'Keep Old' variable. When total messages exceeds the 'Keep Old' variable, messages are deleted on a first-in-first-out basis. (CTRL-P) Prune *ALL* conferences/areas. (HOME/END) Display First/Last screen. (A/D) Add/Drop conferences/areas from within SPEED. To Add a conference, highlight it and press (A), or to drop a conference highlight it and press (D). You are asked to confirm your selection. A special reply message is generated for the mail door in the chosen conference. It is addressed to QMAIL and the subject is either ADD or DROP depending upon which option was selected. You may view these messages in the Replies area. When the special messages are uploaded, the mail door will act upon them and add or drop the specified conferences from the list of areas from which you receive mail. NOTE: These commands may not work with all mail doors. For example, the new Qmail doors have their own special configuration. You might ask your Sysop before trying them, or experiment in a local conference first. (CTRL-HOME/END) Highlight the First/Last displayed conference. (UP/DOWN) Previous/Next conference. (PGUP/PGDN) Previous/Next screen. (+/-) Next/Previous conference with unread messages. (RIGHT/LEFT) Next/Previous conference with any messages. (CTRL RIGHT/LFT) Next/Previous conference with messages in last packet. CONFERENCE/AREA WINDOW -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -24- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (ALT-R) Mark all messages in the highlighted conference/area as read. A similar command is available while reading messages. (CTRL-R) Mark all messages in *ALL* conferences/areas as read. (ALT-U) Mark all messages in the highlighted conference/area as not read. This allows you to go back and reread all the messages and have SPEED keep up with which ones have been read. A similar command is available while reading messages. In addition to messages, most mail doors include several other information files. Below are the commands used to view them. (W) Display welcome screen. The screen you normally see when logging onto the BBS. (N) Display current news the Sysop would like for you to know. (B) Display bulletin picklist. (F) Display a list of new files since you last called the BBS. (G) Display goodbye screen. The screen you normally see when logging off the BBS. If the above files contain ANSI and you have ANSI.SYS included in your CONFIG.SYS file, then the files will be displayed in color. Check your DOS manual for more information on ANSI.SYS and CONFIG.SYS. (CTRL-W/N/B/F/G) To view the above files using your external file lister/viewer, press (CTRL-"letter"). Where "letter" is the normal command letter of the file you want to view. For example, press (CTRL-F) to view the files list. READ MESSAGE SCREEN SPEED v1.10 pg. -25- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This screen's main purpose is to read and reply to messages. The screen is divided into three parts: a header section, message window and a mouse bar. Header - This provides you with useful information about the displayed message. Message Window - The actual text of the message. Mouse Bar - Clicking the left mouse button while on this bar is the same as pressing the selected key. NOTE: Mouse support is not implemented in v1.10. Below, each of the items in the message header is defined: Date/Time - Date and time the message was created (or uploaded). From - The name of the person who wrote the message. To - To whom the message is addressed (sent). Subject - Short summary of the message's content. Number - The message number on *THIS* BBS. Networked messages have different numbers on each BBS that receives them. Refer - Original message to which displayed message refers. Board ID - A short, unique identification for the active BBS. Conf - The conference/area in which this message was posted. Flags - *KILL*: The message is marked to be deleted. Keep: The message is marked to be retained. ## of ## - SPEED's message number and total number of messages in this conference. Recvd - "Yes" if the message has been read by the addressee before you downloaded the message packet. Status - "Public" all can see it; "Private" only you can see it. The Sysop can also read private messages. Commands available while reading messages. Movement within a message: (HOME/END) First/Last screen. (UP/DOWN) Scroll Up/Down one line. (PGUP/PGDN) Previous/Next screen. (SPACE) Next screen or next message. READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -26- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Movement within the conference/area: (SPACE) Single key to read through the message base. If the displayed message is longer than what can be displayed on one screen, then the (SPACEBAR) acts like the (PGDN) key. When the last screen of a message is displayed the (SPACEBAR) acts like the (ENTER) key. (.) Single key to read through the message base in thread order. If the displayed message is longer than what can be displayed on one screen, then the (.) acts like the (PGDN) key. When the last screen of a message is displayed the (.) acts like the (+) key, and will take to the next unread message with the same subject or the next unread message, if none of the unread messages have the same subject as the displayed message. (RIGHT) Next absolute message. (LEFT) Previous absolute message. (ENTER) Move to the next unread message. If all messages have been read, it is used to move to the next message in the last packet. Pressing (ENTER) on the last message in the current conference moves you to the next conference with unread mail. The first unread message is displayed, just as if the conference were selected from the areas list. If the remaining conferences do not contain any unread mail you are returned to the areas list. (CTRL-HOME) First message. (CTRL-END) Last message. Movement within the last packet added to the message base: SPEED remembers which messages were received in the last packet and allows you to isolate them if you so choose. If the message base is sorted so that new messages are mixed in with old messages, you will want to use the commands shown below to read the message base. (ENTER) Jump to next unread message, if available. Otherwise jump to the next message in the last mail packet. (*) Jump to the first message in the last mail packet. (CTRL-RIGHT) Jump to the next message in the last mail packet. Use this instead of the right-arrow (RIGHT). (CTRL-LEFT) Jump to a previous message in the last mail packet. Use this instead of the left-arrow (LEFT). READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -27- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Movement within threads: One of the strengths of an offline message base is its ability to trace message threads (specific conversations) back to their origin and forward again. Below are the commands used in threading. ([) Chain back to the referenced message. If the displayed message shows a number in the "Refer" field, and the referenced message is in the message base, ([) will allow you to instantly view it. You can continue to step back like this, up to 100 messages. (]) Chain forward or reverse the sequence of the ([) key. As you step back with the ([) key SPEED remembers the path you took. Pressing (]) allows you to follow the same path back to your original message. NOTE: If you stray from the path by moving to a message not contained in the path, you will not be able to return to the defined path. (-) Display previous message whose subject matches the displayed message, if available. Only the first 20 characters are used in comparing subjects. (+) Display the next message whose subject matches the displayed message, if available. Only the first 20 characters are used in comparing subjects. (CTRL-PGDN) Jumps to the next message whose sort field is different than the displayed message. For example, in a message base sorted by subject, (CTRL-PGDN) will display the next message with a different subject. For message bases not sorted or sorted by number, (CTRL-PGDN) will display the next available message. (CTRL-PGUP) Jumps to a previous message whose sort field is different than the displayed message. For example, in a message base sorted by subject, (CTRL-PGUP) will display the first previous message with a different subject. For message bases not sorted or sorted by number, (CTRL-PGUP) will display the previous message. READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -28- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marking and flagging messages: (ALT-U) Unread messages. This will mark all messages after the current message to the last message as unread. This allows you to reread the messages as if they were never read the first time. (ALT-R) Mark messages as read. This will mark all messages, from the current message to the last message, as read. This allows you to skip over the messages as if they were read. (INS) Mark displayed message for permanent storage. To toggle the displayed message's Keep flag press the (INS) key. Based on its previous status, the message will either be flagged for permanent storage or un-flagged. Messages tagged for permanent storage will display "Keep" in the header's Flag: field. Messages tagged for permanent storage will not be deleted until they are un-flagged. To un-flag a Keep message press (INS). Care should be exercised in tagging messages for permanent storage. Since "Keep" messages are processed each time the message base is updated, the more you have the longer your process times. Also note, "Keep" messages ARE included in the "Keep Old" total. Therefore, the number of transient "Keep Old" messages is reduced. (DEL) Mark displayed message for deletion. To toggle the displayed message's *KILL* flag press the (DEL) key. Depending on its previous status, the message will either be flagged for deletion or un-flagged. If a message is tagged for deletion, "*KILL*" will appear in the header's Flag: field. Messages in a given area are not actually deleted until a new mail packet is added to that particular area, or the area is pruned. Up until the message is actually deleted you can un-flag it by pressing (DEL). READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -29- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other commands: (A) Display message with ANSI sequences. Some messages contain special codes that allow the message to display color and/or perform animation. These messages are easily identified because of their abundance of special escape sequences. Messages with escape sequences are littered with the [ character. For this function to operate you must include ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information on using ANSI.SYS and CONFIG.SYS, please refer to your DOS manual. (E) Enter new message (see the ENTERING AND REPLYING TO MESSAGES section). (F) Find text, same as (L) command. (see below) (I) Message index. The message index displays a concise listing of all the messages' headers. The From, To and Subject fields are displayed. If the message has been read, an asterisk is displayed to the left of the From field. Below are the available commands while viewing an index. (ESC) Leave the index and return to the message you were reading. (ENTER) Display the highlighted message. (O) Sort the index. (SPACE) Toggle read/unread status. (PGUP) Previous screen. (PGDN) Next screen. (HOME) First screen. (END) Last screen. (*) Go to original message. (UP) Move highlight bar up one message. (DOWN) Move highlight bar down one message. (CTRL-HOME) Move to the first displayed line. (CTRL-END) Move to the last displayed line. (+) Move highlight bar down 5 messages. (-) Move highlight bar up 5 messages. READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -30- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (L) Locate (search for) text. The (L) command opens a window and requests that you enter a search key. SPEED will then search the active conference for text matching the key. The search will begin with the next line of the current message and continue line by line through the last message. Once a search key is defined the following commands are available: (F3) Search the active conference from the *CURRENT* message through the final message. The defined search key is used. (F4) Search the active conference from the *FIRST* message through the last message. The defined search key is used. For compatibility with other readers, the (F) key can be used interchangeably with the (L) key. (O) Sort messages. Sometimes it is convenient to view messages in an order different than SPEED normally stores them. There are five sort options available for your use. They are: No Sort, Sort by Number, From, To and Subject. The default setting is No Sort, which cannot be changed due to the way the message base is pruned (see below). Since messages are deleted on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis, it is necessary to store the message base index in the order they were received from the BBS. Therefore, before an updated index is written to disk it is sorted with the "No Sort" option. (P) Print displayed message. Note this command only supports LPT1. The Save Command can also be use to print messages, see (S) below. If your system's printer is NOT connected to LPT1, you must use the Save Command (S) and specify the correct device. (R) Reply to displayed message (see the ENTERING AND REPLYING TO MESSAGES section). READ MESSAGE SCREEN -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -31- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (S) Save displayed message to a text file. A window will open displaying a default file name, or the last name you used when saving a file. You may use the displayed name, change it, enter a new name or press (F10) to choose one from the 'Save Picklist'. See TEXT EDITING for valid commands while entering text. If the file already exists, you are asked if you want to append it. If you select 'yes' the saved message is added to the end of the existing file. Answering 'no' will cause the existing file to be overwritten. The save command can also be used to print messages. By specifying PRN, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, etc., you can send the output to a printer port instead of a disk file. Note that the Print Command (P) assumes LPT1 as printer port. If your printer is not connected to LPT1, you must use the Save command (S) and specify the correct device to print the message. (T) Steal tagline. If the message you are reading has a tagline you would like to use, then you can steal it by pressing (T). A window will appear with SPEED's guess at which line was the tagline. If SPEED guesses wrong, or you want to grab another line of text, use the up and down arrows to select which line to steal. Once the desired line is displayed you may change it before saving. To save the stolen tagline and add it to the active tagline file, press (ENTER). (ESC) aborts the process. If the line is longer than 55 characters, SPEED will only pick up the last 55 characters of the line. (F9) will decrypt/encrypt John Hancock (version 2) taglines. (ALT-F) Toggle FIDO mode (see the FIDO MODE section). READ REPLIES SCREEN SPEED v1.10 pg. -32- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This screen allows you to review previously written replies and to see them displayed the same way others will see them. To view this screen select "Replies" from the Conference/Area Window. It is the first item in the list. This screen is identical in appearance to the read message screen. However, you will notice there are fewer commands available while in this screen than the normal message screen. That is because replies are transient in nature, and are not accumulated in a separate message base. Presented below is a short summary of the available commands. Please refer to the READ MESSAGE SCREEN section for a detailed description of each command. (ENTER) Display next message. (ESC) Quit to Conference/Area Window. (A) Display messages with ANSI. (E) Edit displayed message. (H) Edit the reply header information. (I) Message index. (T) Steal tagline. (DEL) Delete displayed message. (ALT-F) Toggle FIDO mode. (UP) Scroll up one line. (DOWN) Scroll down one line. (HOME) Display top of message. (END) Display bottom of message. (PGUP) Display previous screen. (PGDN) Display next screen. (CTRL-HOME) First message. (CTRL-END) Last message. (RIGHT) Display next message. (LEFT) Display previous message. ENTERING AND REPLYING TO MESSAGES SPEED v1.10 pg. -33- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To enter a new message press (E) from the Conference/Area Window or while a message is displayed. To reply to the displayed message press (R). When entering a new message or replying to an old one, SPEED needs certain information to make sure your message is delivered to who and where you want it sent. This is accomplished in the Message Header Window. The following information is entered in the Message Header Window: FROM FIELD This is your name. SPEED uses the name supplied to it by the BBS to fill in this field. You should not have to change it. Most offline mail doors will not allow you to upload messages that are not from you. TO FIELD The name of the person to whom you are sending the message goes here. If you are replying to a message SPEED enters the author of that message as the default. If the message is to everyone, enter ALL. If the message is to the person running the BBS, enter SYSOP. A picklist is available for this field by pressing (F10). The first entry in this picklist, if you are replying to a displayed message, is the person to whom the original message was addressed to. This field cannot be blank. SUBJECT FIELD This field is used to enter a short summary of your message. If you are replying to a message, the subject of that message is entered as the default. This field cannot be blank. It is important that you change the subject field if the content of your message is substantially different than the displayed subject. Some people choose which messages to read by scanning the subject field. A picklist is available for this field by pressing (F10). PRIVATE FIELD A "N" in this field marks the message as public, which means that anyone can read it. Unless you have a special reason for the message to be private, you should leave it as public. To make your message private enter a "Y" in this field. Private messages can only be read by you, the person you sent it to, the Sysop and anyone else who has enough security to read private messages. As you can see, private messages are not always that private. Remember that when sending them. ENTERING AND REPLYING TO MESSAGES -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -34- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- AREA FIELD Enter the ID number of the conference/area where your message is to appear. This number defaults to the conference you are in. Once you enter a number and move to another field, the description of the selected conference appears to the right of this field. This field is used when you want to move a message or reply to a different conference/area. Sometimes when a discussion strays from the conference topic, you are asked to continue the discussion in a more appropriate area. A picklist is available for this field by pressing (F10). TAGLINE FIELD If taglines are enabled, SPEED will choose a tagline from the active file and put it in this field. You can accept it, change it or type in one of your own. Taglines are limited to 55 characters. A tagline is a cute/witty (or silly, depending on your point of view) phrase added to the end of a message. SPEED comes with a sample tagline file GENERAL.TAG. A picklist is available for this field by pressing (F10). Once the information is as you want it, press (TAB) to continue, or (ESC) to abort the message. The Message Header Window is available before editing, after editing or both depending on how this option is set in your configuration. The default is both. See CONFIGURING SPEED for more information. PICKLISTS SPEED v1.10 pg. -35- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A picklist allows you to choose an item from a list of choices. To locate a particular item, begin typing that item or the number to the left of the item into the Search field. As you type, the highlight bar jumps to the closest match. If you make a mistake, use the (BACKSPACE) key to correct it. Picklists are available for the following items by pressing (F10) while in the appropriate field: Taglines - You can save up to 100 taglines per file. To: Field - You can store 24 names to use in the To: field when creating a message. The first item in the picklist is the name shown in the To: field of the displayed message, it cannot be edited or deleted. Subj: Field - You can save up to 25 Subj: titles. Save - You can store up to 25 save file names. Twits - You can have up to 25 names of people (or subjects) you want twitted. Censor - You can have up to 25 words you want censored from messages. Areas - This displays the areas for the current BBS. Note the areas list cannot be changed or edited. Picklists are also used in other places, such as the bulletin list and tagline file list. They all function the same way, though some commands are disabled depending on the picklist displayed. Disabled commands are not highlighted at the bottom of the picklist window. The following keys are valid while using a picklist: (ENTER) Select highlighted item. (ESC) Exit picklist. (DEL) Delete highlighted item. (INS) Insert new item. (HOME/END) First/Last screen. (CTRL-HOME/END) Move highlight bar to the First/Last displayed line. (PGUP/PGDN) Next/Previous screen. (DOWN/UP) Move the highlight bar Down/Up one item. (F2) Edit highlighted item. (F3) Search for next match, begin with next item. (F4) Search for first match, begin with first item. (F5) Clear search key. (F10) Jump to original item. TAGLINES SPEED v1.10 pg. -36- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are two tagline picklists available within SPEED: 1. Tagline File picklist (ALT-T). 2. Tagline Entry picklist (ALT-L). The Tagline File picklist allows you to select the active tagline file. It is accessed by pressing (ALT-T). You can have up to 500 tagline files, with each having up to 100 entries, for a total of 50,000 taglines. You add new tagline files with the (INS) key and delete old ones with the (DEL) key. A tagline file stays active until another one is selected. See below for information on editing. The Tagline Entry picklist allows you to add, delete or edit individual entries within a tagline file. To access it press (ALT-L) and select "Taglines", or while in the Message Header window highlight the "Tagline" field and press (F10). The (INS), (DEL) and (F2) keys are active in this picklist. TWIT FILTER AND WORD CENSOR SPEED v1.10 pg. -37- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TWIT FILTER A twit filter allows you to screen the messages you see. When SPEED reads an area's index it compares the message's To:, From: and Subj: fields with the entries in the twit list. If a match is found, the message is marked as a twit. SPEED will not display twitted messages, thereby screening out unwanted messages to or from an individual, or with a particular subject. SPEED always tries to skip twitted messages. However, sometimes this is impossible (i.e. if all the messages are twitted). If SPEED cannot skip a twitted message, for whatever reason, it will display a blank message with "*TWIT*" in the header fields and a box in the message area letting you know the message is a twit. To enter items in the twit list, press (ALT-L) for the picklist listing. Then select "Twits" from the list. The Twit Filter option must be set to "On" for the twit filter to function. To do so press (ALT-C), select "Toggles/Options" and then toggle Twit Filter "On". CENSOR SPEED allows you to define up to 25 words to be censored from all messages. When a word is found in a message that matches an entry in your censor list, SPEED replaces each character in the word with a percent sign '%'. You may use wildcards in the words. For example: Censored Word Words Censored darn darn darn* Any word beginning with "darn" (darn, darnit, etc). *darn* Any word containing the string "darn" (darn, darnit, goshdarn, goshdarnit, etc). ?ow Any 3 letter word ending with "ow" (how, cow, etc). To enter words in the censor list, press (ALT-L) for the picklist listing. Then select "Censored Words" from the list. The Censor option must be "On" for the censor to function. To toggle this "On" press (ALT-C), select "Toggles/Options" and then toggle Censor "On". FIDO MODE SPEED v1.10 pg. -38- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Fido mode is toggled "On" and "Off" for a particular BBS by pressing the (ALT-F) key while viewing the Conference/Area Window or viewing a message. The default is OFF. This option is selectable by individual BBS. Even when you are not in the Fido mode, SPEED will automatically switch to the Fido mode if you are replying to a Fido message. The FidoNet network requires its messages to meet certain standards. This includes not using extended and control characters such as the block character found in SPEED's tagline. Also, messages must contain only one tear line. That is the line with "---" above the tagline. If you leave messages on a FidoNet BBS, you MUST use SPEED's Fido mode. If you are unsure whether a particular board is a member of FidoNet or not, check with your Sysop (the person running the BBS) before leaving messages in an echoed area. While in the Fido Mode, SPEED scans all the replies you generate for offending characters and replaces them with spaces. If your quote string contains extended characters, it is replaced with the standard "> " quote string. COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS SPEED v1.10 pg. -39- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MONOCHROME MODE The MONO command line option forces the program into a monochrome mode thus eliminating the use of colors. Normally, SPEED will detect the type of video card in your computer and adjust the colors accordingly. However, if you are using a color card (CGA, EGA or VGA) and a monochrome monitor, SPEED will attempt to display colors. This may be difficult to read. To override the auto-detect and force the program into a monochrome mode, start SPEED as such: SR MONO (ENTER) LINE FEED OFF Some printers automatically send a line feed after each line of text. By default, SPEED sends a line feed after each line of text. If both SPEED and your printer are sending a line feed, then the printout will be double spaced. To turn off SPEED's line feed use the command line option LFOFF when starting SPEED, as shown below: SR LFOFF (ENTER) AUTOMATIC IMPORT Two command line options are provided to automate the task of importing new mail packets. /I This option imports all unprocessed QWK packets in the download directory into their respective message base. Example: SR /I (ENTER) /I:BBS_ID This option imports all unprocessed mail packets for the specified BBS. You can get the proper BBS_ID name from the BBS List Window. Example: SR /I:8250 (ENTER) When a message base is updated via the /I switch, the BBS List Window will show XX under % read. ANSI MUSIC Some external ANSI drivers support ANSI music. SPEED by default suppresses ANSI music control codes, since most ANSI drivers do not support it. However, if your ANSI driver does support music, start SPEED with the /M command line option. Example: SR /M (ENTER) Some ANSI music can be quite long (and annoying). To abort the ANSI, press any key. It may take a few seconds for the music buffer to empty and for the music to stop. TEXT EDITING SPEED v1.10 pg. -40- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- When entering certain text information, such as a message subject, you may use the following text editing commands: (HOME) Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. (END) Moves the cursor to the end of the line. (LEFT) Moves the cursor one space to the left. (RIGHT) Moves the cursor one space to the right. (CTRL-LEFT) Moves the cursor one word to the left. (CTRL-RIGHT) Moves the cursor one word to the right. (DEL) Deletes one character at the cursor. (BACKSPACE) Moves the cursor one space to the left and deletes one character. (INS) Toggles between the insert and over-type mode. While in the insert mode the cursor's height will increase and new characters are inserted by shifting all remaining text one position to the right of the cursor. Toggling back to the over-type mode will restore the cursor to its normal size and characters entered will replace those at the cursor. (F5) Converts all the text to upper case. (F6) Converts all the text to lower case. (F7) Makes the first letter of each word upper case. (F8) Reverses the character's case at the cursor. (PGDN) Reverse all changes and continue editing. (ESC) Reverse all changes and quit. (ENTER) Accept all changes and quit. In some instances, the input line will appear with text already in it. This is either the default or the last entered text. Pressing any character will erase the line and allow you to enter new text. However, you may choose to edit the text by first pressing a control key. A control key is any valid non-alphanumeric key such as (INS) or (LEFT). TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPEED v1.10 pg. -41- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions or comments about this product should be directed to: Jim E. Smith Channel 8250 344 Observatory Drive or SPEED Conference #25 Birmingham, AL 35206 205-744-8546 I also monitor the following network conferences: U'NI-Net/US - SPEED, shareware and offline ILink - shareware and offline Intelec - shareware and offline PlanoNet - SPEED_Support Address messages to JIM SMITH. In addition to the above, registered users are provided with my home phone number for immediate technical support. UPGRADE POLICY - Open-ended promises are easy to make, but difficult to keep. In the end, the user usually feels cheated. - I want to offer free updates as long as it is economically feasible and other circumstances do not preclude it. - By "economically feasible", I mean, for example, as long as enough new orders are coming in to cover the cost of continued development. - By "other circumstances do not preclude it", I mean, for example, if someone hacks and distributes the key file scheme, it will have to be changed and new key files mailed out on a subsequent upgrade. In this example, the registered user would have to pay a small upgrade fee to cover the postage and handling. - In addition, all registered users are eligible to beta test the latest version, just by downloading it from Channel 8250 [205-744-8546] conf. #25 or the Lunatic Fringe [214-422-2936] conf. #169. This will give the loyal supporters first crack at anything new, and provide me with an experienced pool of SPEED users. On Channel 8250, leave a comment to the Sysop and request access to the SPEED conference. You may access the SPEED conference on your first call to the Lunatic Fringe. I reserve the right to withdraw this at any time, with no forewarning. KUDOS SPEED v1.10 pg. -42- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No successful program is the result of only one person's labor. This program is no exception. I would like to thank all the people that have significantly contributed to SPEED READ. First, I would like to thank all the people who have registered SPEED. If you had not done so, SPEED would have ceased to exist. I would like to give a special thanks to the registered users who chose to help beta test the latest version of SPEED. Thanks! Next, I would like to recognize the Sysops of Channel 8250, RANDY HILLIARD (local) and MIKE TYNER (remote). They have willingly given of their time, energies and system resources, to provide SPEED a home BBS. Thanks! I would like to give a special recognition to the original beta team. They were there when SPEED was just a dream and a bunch of buggy code. Each of these people have earned a special heartfelt thanks: DANE BEKO ERIC HUNT VALERIA PALMER MIKE STROCK GEORGE DE BRUIN BLAKE MILLER JOHN STEWART Also, I would like thank PATRICK SPRENG, Sysop of The Blue Flame BBS in Dallas, TX for creating the original SPEED.ICO. I appreciate Patrick's willingness to loan his artistic talent. LEGAL SPEED v1.10 pg. -43- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LICENSE AGREEMENT SPEED READ (the software) is licensed to you. The author, J.E. Smith, retains sole ownership of the software. You may try the shareware version for no more than 30 days, after which you must either register it or quit using the program. Registered users may only use the software on one computer at a time. At no time should more than one copy of software be running on different computers at the same time. Registered users are permitted to make a backup copy of the CONFIG.SR file for their own use in case the original disk becomes defective. All other copies of this file are prohibited. The CONFIG.SR file should not be loaned, given away or otherwise used by anyone other than the licensee. You may NOT alter, decompile or disassemble the software or any of the supporting files other than what occurs during the natural use of the program. You may NOT assign, sublicense, or transfer the program or any rights under this License to anyone else. This License Agreement is NOT transferable, and can only be revoked by the user if he or she destroys ALL copies of the program. DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY SPEED READ IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PRODUCT. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN, OR USE OF, THE SOFTWARE. OTHER Throughout this document mention is made of other companies' products and trademarks. This is for reference purposes only. In no way does the author of SPEED READ imply any relationship to these companies or trademarks. The trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. ERROR MESSAGES SPEED v1.10 pg. -44- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whenever SPEED runs into a problem it will usually popup an error message. Most are self-explanatory or provide a help screen for more detailed information. However, some errors seem to generate more questions than others. Below is a listing with an explanation of these errors. 1. ERROR #512 This means that SPEED can not find an executable program such as PKZIP and PKUNZIP in your path. When this happens usually the user has placed a copy of the two ZIP programs in the SPEED directory. When SPEED changes out of this directory, it can no longer find the executables. To correct this, either put PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE in a directory within your path, or add the directory where they reside to the path. 2. One copy of SPEED is already loaded in memory. Normally, you should press N and type EXIT. Continue on? (y/N) The above error message occurs if you shell to DOS and try to run another copy of SPEED. When SPEED in run it creates the file LOCK.SR and marks a certain location in memory. If you try to run a second copy of SPEED it sees the LOCK.SR file and/or the marked memory location and gives you the above warning. It is not safe to run more than one copy of SPEED. Doing so puts your message base at risk. However, you will also get this warning if you lose power while running SPEED. If there is not another copy of SPEED in memory, select "Y" and continue on. 3. Cannot open file: A:/SR.EXE/SET2.SR This error occurs if you attempt to run SPEED from the root directory of a drive. SPEED should always be run from its own directory off of the root directory. COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SPEED v1.10 pg. -45- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Why does the total number of messages exceed the 'Keep Old' setting? A: The keep old setting only includes "old" messages, not new messages. For example if your keep old is set at 20 and your new packet has 7 messages, SPEED will keep 20 -old- messages and 7 -new- messages for a total of 27 messages. If the keep old of 20 included new messages that would cause a problem if your new packet had say 40 messages. The first 20 would be lost. That is why the keep old count excludes new messages so you will never lose a new message, no matter how many come in the last packet. Each time a new packet is added to a conference, SPEED will first prune it to get the number of messages down to the keep old level. Then it will add on the new messages. Note that if the new QWK packet does not have messages for a particular conference, then that conference will not be pruned. Conference are only automatically pruned when new messages are added. Q: How can I beta test SPEED? A: All registered users are eligible to beta test SPEED. You can pick up betas on Channel 8250 in the SPEED conference #25. Call and answer the new-user questions and leave the sysop a comment saying you are a registered user and would like access to the SPEED conference. You will not be able to download the beta on the first call, but the Sysop usually gives you full access within 24 hours. 8250 is a 2-node message only BBS so it is very easy to get into. The phone numbers are 205-744-8546 and 205-744-5166. Betas are also available on John Stewart's Lunatic Fringe within 24 hours after they are posted on 8250. John's BBS allows first time callers to download after filling out the new-user questions. The SPEED conference is #169. The phone number is 214-422-2936. On both BBS's it is necessary to join the SPEED conference before downloading the beta file. Q: How can my BBS become an official distribution site for SPEED? A: To be an official distribution BBS, I require the board to: 1. Carry the SPEED conference. Which requires joining either U'ni-net/US or PlanoNET. 2. Provide the latest version of SPEED to first time callers. Channel 8250 normally does not allow downloads to first time callers, so 2 doors were set up to allow Z-modem and X-modem downloads of SPEED to first time callers. 3. Carry the latest beta version of SPEED for registered users, in the SPEED conference. All registered users are eligible to beta test SPEED. COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS -- continued SPEED v1.10 pg. -46- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Is there any way to access a copy of the messge I am replying to? A: The file REFER.SR contains an exact duplicate of the message you are replying to. This file can be used as a reference file or in conjunction with an external quoting program.