home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Atari Mega Archive 1
/
Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
/
telecomm
/
mt_qwk_r.lzh
/
MTQWK__E.TXT
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-04-04
|
16KB
|
379 lines
The microTalk QWK-Reader
========================
V1.08 released on 05.April.1992
Written by Wolfgang Zweygart
Documentation by Ben Van Bokkem
This program is copyrighted by Wolfgang Zweygart and may not be modified
or altered in any way or charged for without the author's express
permission.
No warranties, either express or implied, are made by the author with
respect to the software or its fitness for a particular purpose. The
author accepts no responsibility for any loss that may result from the
use or inability to use this software.
I. Introduction
---------------
The microTalk QWK reader is a program that will allow you to read and
reply to messages that you have downloaded from a BBS through a QWK
compatible door such as Qmail for the PC & Turbo Board ST or Maxidoor
for Forem.
Messages bases of your choice are scanned on the BBS, compressed and,
after downloading the prepared QWK packet can be read and replied to
offline, resulting in not only considerable savings both in time and
costs, but also the added convenience of replying at leisure without the
time constraints in force on most Bulletin Boards.
The microTalk reader is feature packed, making full use of GEM and has
such features as multiple windows, allowing instant movement from one
message base to another, user defined Macro menu, standard block
commands, Clipboard, full mouse or keyboard operation and much more.
II. Installation
---------------
Copy the program and resource file into a suitable folder and click on
the program to run it. Ensure that no QWK packet is present at this
time. Two work folders will be created and and alert box will be
presented asking for the location of the QWK. Click on the alert box to
remove it and select the configuration menu.
III. Configuration
-----------------
From the configuration menu, select the default paths option and enter
the correct path to each archiver. Alternatively, you can click on each
line to bring up a fileselector which, after clicking on the correct
archiver in the fileselector, will insert the correct path for you.
Three archiving programs are in common use at present and consist of
ARC, LHARC and ZIP. The latter is recommended for faster operation.
Highlight the leftmost button of the archiver you wish to use as a
default. The two other archivers need not be installed but you must
ensure the QWK packet is archived with the same method as the default
you have selected. The latest version of these can be downloaded from
most Bulletin Boards.
Path to ARC: Full path/filename to ARC (ARC602)
Path to LHARC: " " LHARC (LZH2.xx series)
Path to ZIP: " " ZIP (STZIP 1.x)
REP Directory: Full path to where the program will prepare a reply
packet (*.REP) ready for uploading to a BBS.
QWK Directory: Full path to where the program will search for an
incoming message packet (*.QWK) downloaded from a BBS
*NOTE: DO NOT use the path to the previously created program work
folders and ensure that no other files are placed in there.
The program will use these for its own work files.
Further down the configuration menu are additional defaults which can be
saved in the configuration.
Macro Editor: Text strings can be stored here ready for recall at any
time with a single keypress and are assigned to the ten
F-Keys.
A carriage return is entered with the Control-M combination.
Charset 7 Bit: Selecting this will allow you to enter extended characters
and are useful for including unusual characters as used in
various other countries and include such characters as
Umlaut, Ä, ö, ß etc.
Fonts: This will allow you to change the size of the characters
in the window. If GDOS is loaded you may select other
other Fonts. Propotional Fonts will not work properly.
Save Config: When defaults are set to your satisfaction, click on this
option to save them to the configuration file.
The program will automatically load these defaults each
time it starts up.
IV. Help
--------
Selecting 'READER' in the first drop down menu will present you with the
program information and credits from where you may also click on the
HELP button to take you to a useful help screen.
IV.1 Keyboard commands
----------------------
In addition to the mouse control, most features can be controlled directly
from the keyboard, new users may find it helpful to print the following
list of commands, for reference, until their usage becomes familar.
KEYBOARD COMMANDS - '^' = Control
----------------------------------
'FILE' 'MESSAGE' 'BLOCK'
---- ------- -----
Alt F - Find QWK ^ L - List msgs ^ A - Begin block
^ R - Create REP ^ F - Search msgs ^ B - End block
Alt L - Load REP ^ E - Enter msg ^ X - Cut block
^ O - Open ^ R - Reply to msg ^ C - Copy block
^ Z - TOS shell ^ T - Quote msg ^ V - Paste block
^ Q - Quit Alt Q - Quote msg Alt W - To clipboard
^ U - Close window Alt D - From clipbrd
( ^ = Control ) ^ W - Cycle window Alt I - Text Import
Alt R - Review own Alt E - Text Export
Alt P - Print Text
MESSAGE EDITOR
--------------
^ Y - Delete line ^ K - Edit Header ^ G - Concatenate
two lines
^ S - Save msg.
^ ~ - Swap line up Alt ~ - Swap line down
Clr Home - Top of text <Shift> Clr Home - End of text
^ Cursor - End or start of line
V. MT-QWK in operation.
-----------------------
V.1 The 'FILE' menu.
====================
Find QWK: Each time the program is run it will search the default
folder for a valid QWK packet and automatically de-compress
the packet. However, should a de-compressed packet exist in
the work folder, it will ignore the QWK and go straight into
the main program screen. Should you have more than one
packet you wish to read, you must first select 'TIDY UP',
which will clear the work folder after which you may select
this option to process further QWK packets.
If you regularly use multiple QWK packets and do not wish the
program to process on start-up, it is recommended you keep
those in a folder other than the default.
This method will force the program to prompt you for the QWK
of your choice.
Create REP: After replies have been entered and the current session is
finished, select this option to automatically create a REP
packet for you in the specified default folder ready for
uploading to the BBS.
Note that any subsequent REP packets will be over-written by
creating further packets although you will prompted for a
'delete' or 'abort' before proceeding.
OPEN: Selecting his option will allow you to read any messages
extracted from the QWK packet.
You may scroll through the list of message bases and simply
clicking on any entry marked with an '*' will open a window
from where you may read all new messages in that base.