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-
- The Blue Wave Offline Reader
- v2.11
-
- Upgrade and New Feature Documentation
- Copyright (C) 1992 by Cutting Edge Computing
- All Rights Reserved.
-
-
- This information is provided to those people who are extremely familiar
- with previous versions of the reader, and who do not care to comb the
- full documentation to find what has been added.
-
- However, if you are unsure of how to use a feature that is described
- here, consulting the appropriate section in the full documentation
- (BWAVE.DOC) will be necessary. The following features were added
- and/or enhanced between version 2.10 and version 2.11 of The Blue Wave
- Offline Mail Reader:
-
-
- * If you are upgrading from v2.10 or earlier of The Blue Wave Offline Mail
- Reader, you will need to check one configuration item in your current
- setup. The menu option SETUP->Miscellaneous->Reading Mail Options->"Read
- Msgs Sorted by Subject" has been changed to "Read Msgs sorted on which
- field". If you previously had the OLD option set to "NO", the v2.11
- reader will have this option set to "Subjects". I'm sorry about the
- inconvenience, but in order to add the functionality of the next feature,
- the option had to be moved in the configuration file.
-
- * A new setup option, "Read msgs sorted on which field" has replaced "Read
- msgs sorted by subject". You now have the option of reading messages
- sorted on the following fields:
-
- - Subject
- - Name in the TO: field
- - Name in the FROM: field
- - Unsorted (messages are displayed in the order they appear on the BBS)
-
- * Major support has been added for users whose language requires special
- treatment through the use of translation tables and "unprintable"
- characters. A new setup sub-menu has been added called "National
- Language Support".
-
- National Language Support includes the ability to translate one character
- to another in both incoming and outgoing mail, support for Double-Byte
- Languages (such as Chinese), and different display formats for the
- on-screen clock and date function.
-
- Because the new National Language Support functions are described in
- detail within the main documentation (BWAVE.DOC), the effort will not be
- duplicated here. If you feel you have a use for one of the National
- Language Support options, you should scan the documentation for "National
- Language Support", which begins on page number 28 in BWAVE.DOC.
-
- * The elusive "Using The Blue Wave Mail Door" section of the documentation
- has been included in v2.11's BWAVE.DOC file. Sorry to those people who
- looked for the mentioned section but could not find it. (It was
- mistakenly omitted from the v2.10 documentation file).
-
- * The functionality of the F9 key at the "Choose Area to Read" selection
- window has been changed to allow non-default message sorting when loading
- messages in an area. Pressing F9 will now give you an intermediate menu,
- allowing you to read the highlighted message area sorted on the FROM:,
- TO:, or SUBJECT: fields.
-
- * The functionality of the F1 key at the "Choose Area to Read" selection
- window has been changed to allow much more functionality and flexibility
- than before. you can now Set/Clear/Toggle *all* marks and message status
- bits by whole areas or the whole packet at a time. The menu options
- presented to you should be fairly self-explanatory. If you are unsure
- about its use, please consult BWAVE.DOC.
-
- * The reader now has an internal ANSI screen driver. There is no longer a
- need to have ANSI.SYS loaded in order to view ANSI messages or welcome
- screens and bulletins.
-
- * When viewing NEWFILES.* file lists, the reader now will automatically
- determine if the list is formatted with ANSI, and it will display the
- listing in full color, if appropriate.
-
- * The global <Alt-I> information screen now informs you if the reader is
- running under:
-
- - DESQview, and the version number of DESQview
- - an OS/2 Virtual DOS Machine
- - Windows 386/Enhanced mode, and the version number of Windows
- - if DOS, the version number reported by DOS. SETVER, DR-DOS, and
- possibly others, will affect the DOS version displayed here.
-
- * Built-in time release functions have been added to the reader when
- running in an OS/2 v2.0 DOS box (VDM). The reader will automatically
- detect if it is running under OS/2 and release processor time
- accordingly.
-
- * Built-in time release functions have been added to the reader when
- running in a Windows 386/Enhanced session. The reader will automatically
- detect if it is running in a Windows Enhanced mode DOS session, and free
- processor time accordingly. This should make the operation of the reader
- under windows more friendly to Windows applications.
-
- * Enhanced the speech capabilities of the reader to work with more types
- of speech synthesis hardware. Some software would begin spelling out the
- text of messages in message reading mode, and required special
- configuration to get around this problem. If you had this problem with
- your speech package, you will most likely find that you do not have to
- work around the problem anymore.
-
- * The <Alt-M> pull-down menu in message reading mode now displays the
- hotkeys that activate the function, if you prefer not to go through the
- menu system.
-
- * Pressing '*' while in message reading mode will toggle the "Read" status
- of the current message. If you would like to mark a message as "Unread",
- simply press '*', or click the LEFT mouse button on the word "Read:" in
- the message header display window.
-
- * When Cutting/Pasting a tagline from the message reading screen, the
- following keys and key combinations have been added:
-
- - Mouse LEFT Button sets cursor position AND accepts.
- - Mouse RIGHT Button aborts the current operation.
- - <Ctrl-LeftArrow> moves one word to the left.
- - <Ctrl-RightArrow> moves one word to the right.
- - <Home> moves to the beginning of the line.
- - <End> moves to the end of the line.
- - <Ctrl-Home> or <PgUp> moves to the top row of the message window.
- - <Ctrl-End> or <PgDn> moves to the bottom row of the message window.
-
- * NEW Macros have been added to the user-defined Quote Header String
- (SETUP->Strings->Quote Header String).
-
- - @FF - First name of person in FROM: field
- - @FL - Last name of person in FROM: field
- - @TF - First name of person in TO: field
- - @TL - Last name of person in TO: field
-
- * Executing the reader with the command line switch -LCD will force it to
- map colors that are more easily seen on some LCD displays.
-
- * A new option in the SETUP menu under Miscellaneous->Video has been made
- to permanently set the -LCD command line switch. If you have a need for
- the -LCD command line switch, and you would like to make this a permanent
- start up parameter, set "LCD Color Mapping" to "Yes".
-
- * The reader will now allow you to open an "empty" mail packet for the
- purpose of viewing bulletins, new files listings, and offline
- configurations.
-
-
- QWK Mode Enhancements/Fixes
- ---------------------------
-
- * A global reader setting has been added to the SETUP menu under
- Miscellaneous->Global Reader Toggles. Setting "FidoNet-QWK Compatible
- Mode" to "Yes" (which is the default) will format messages that are
- acceptable in the FidoNet network. If you do your offline message
- reading and replying in non-FidoNet networks, you should set this option
- to "No" so that the BBS's message processing software will digest the
- messages propely.
-
- * When reading .QWK mail bundles, the reader will now create and modify the
- correct .REP file that belongs to the mail bundle. This is true even if
- the first packet has been renamed with some other "root" name.
-
- * When entering messages with a .QWK mail bundle, the reader will now allow
- you to change the FROM: field of your message. HOWEVER, you should note
- that when the message is uploaded through the BBS mail door, a different
- name *may* be put on the message. This is not a function or limitation
- of the Blue Wave Reader, but rather a function of the sysop's mail door.
-
- * Deleting messages from .QWK mail bundles did not always work properly.
- You can now pack messages out of a .QWK mail bundle with the <Alt-K>
- command from the "Choose Area to Read" menu with confidence.
-
- * Occasional rebooting/lockups/exception #13's that occured with QWK
- message packets when leaving the reader have been fixed.
-
- * Occasional lockups when keyword searching .QWK mail packets will no
- longer happen.
-
- * Some .QWK mail doors did not like the way private messages were generated
- in version 2.10. The reader should be compatible with many more doors
- now.
-
- * Some networks require that offline mail readers preserve the "reference
- message number" when a user replies to a message. The reader will now
- include this information in upload (*.REP) packets.
-
- * The formatting of .REP packets has been enhanced to work with many more
- .QWK mail doors. If you had trouble uploading .REP packets to .QWK mail
- doors with version 2.10, you should have no problems with v2.11.
-
-