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NAV-TIPS.BBS
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1990-02-28
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Tips on navigating the Coalgate BBS
I just began using TPBoard as a bulletin board for the Coalgate
BBS and have been observing users as they attempt to navigate the
menu system.
Some, who apparently have encountered TPB before, have no
problem, but the vast majority of new users to the system seem to do
a number of common things which confuse, frustrate and use up more
time than is necessary on a long distance phone ... all of which
tend to reduce the enjoyment of using a BBS.
I decided to include this file with the PmCat files for those
who do wish to call, in an attempt to make life a bit easier.
ALL USERS:
Most of the features of TPB have short versions or shortcuts to
save on-line time.
For example, there is no benefit to constantly displaying
graphics menus (it takes much more time to send all the ANSI codes
used in constructing that pretty graphics screen) ... if you do wish
efficiency ...
... at the very first prompt, "Do you wish to use IBM color
graphics (y/N)" just press <ENTER> (the capitalized letter, when
offered, is the default choice). This turns off the graphics and
makes redisplay of menus quicker, although not as pretty.
As a new user to the Coalgate BBS you won't have immediate access
to the REGSTRD file area (where the registered version of PmCat resides),
but you will have access to any of the other (over 45 megabytes in over
1000 files as I work) files on the Coalgate BBS.
To get at these files you need to press <F> to move to the FILES
portion of the board.
Your file area will be the one you were in (NEWIN for new users
... name has nothing to do with users' access level) when you were
last on Coalgate BBS
To change file areas, press <C> and then press <?> to get a list
of areas available to you. Just type in the number or the name of
the area and you are moved to that area.
At this point, the user has THREE options for seeing the listing
of files, <D>, <V> and <F>. This is one of the nicer features of
TP Board.
<D> - gives a quick, 4 column listing of only the names of files
within this file area. It is quick and dirty, but not too
informative unless you know precisely what you want, by
filename.
<V> - gives a DOS type (verbose) directory listing of the files
in this file area.
<F> - gives two lines for each file, one for the filename, # of
times downloaded and date of last dowload. The second line
is a description of what the file is/does.
OK, now you are in a file area, and once again, this is where TP
Board really shines!
You see a file BOOTLOOK.LZH for instance and wonder what it does
(the lazy sysop has not yet put in all the descriptions <grin>
There is a simple solution ...
at the menu prompt type "A BOOTLOOK" and press <ENTER> ...
Your menu prompt line will now include (BOOTLOOK.LZH), indicating
you are inside an archive. The <D> and <V> commands will work as
above to show you what files are in the archive.
You may view the contents of files within an archive in this manner.
For example, BOOTLOOK.LZH contains the files bootlook.exe, bootlook.pas,
and bootlook.doc ... you want to see the bootlook.pas file, so just enter
the following command at the prompt line ...
"T BOOTLOOK.PAS" ... and press <ENTER>
... you will then be shown the file as if you were reading a text
file by modem.
The <T> command will work on any file, just as the DOS "TYPE" command
works.
ONE MORE NEAT THING about TPBoard.
You can download ONLY the BOOTLOOK.PAS file from inside the archive!
TPBoard extracts the file, recompresses it in a ZIP format and transmits
it to you as BOOTLOOK.ZIP!!
For the complete user documentation on the use of TPBoard, download
the file TPUSER.ZIP from the NEWIN area or the TEXT area, where it will
finally end up.
The entire TPBoard system is available in three separate files in
the TELECOM area as TPB61-1,TPB61-2 and TPB61-3 or as a single archive
in the REGSTRD area (the single archive is just the three ZIP files all
under one roof to simplify downloading if you wish to do it that way.)
One other thing ... pressing Cntrl-C will break you out of a long
listing of anything you don't wish to continue viewing.
Well, there you have it .. happing telecommunicating <whew!> .