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The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, version 2.12 Copyright (C) 1992 by Cutting Edge Computing All Rights Reserved. Operations Manual Written by George Hatchew Cutting Edge Computing PO Box 90476 Burton, Michigan USA 48509 BBS Support Number: 313-743-8464 Voice Tech Support: 313-743-9283 (for registered users) TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- LICENSE AGREEMENT 3 INTRODUCTION 4 What is Offline Mail? 4 Why Bother to Read Mail? 5 What Will The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Do For Me? 5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 6 Software Requirements 6 Hardware Requirements 6 Required External Programs 7 Optional External Programs 8 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS 9 INSTALLATION AND SETUP 10 THE PRIMARY MENUS 12 The SETUP Menu 12 The Miscellaneous Sub-Menu 12 Global Reader Toggles 13 Message Reading Options 15 Enter/Reply Options 18 Tagline Configuration 20 Memory Swapping Options 22 Printer Configuration 24 Color Configuration 25 Video Configuration 26 National Language Support 28 The Directories Sub-Menu 30 The Archivers Sub-Menu 37 The Strings Sub-Menu 39 The Registration Sub-Menu 40 GLOBAL COMMAND KEYS 41 THE MAIN MENU 44 Open Mail Packet 44 Closed Packet Menu 45 Packet Management 46 Setup Parameters 46 Quit The Blue Wave 46 THE OPEN PACKET MENU 47 Read Mail Packet 47 Enter New Mail in Any Area 49 View, Edit or Kill Replies 50 Welcome Messages and Bulletins 50 Offline Configuration 50 File Request/View New Files 50 Quit and Close Packet 51 THE CLOSED PACKET MENU 52 Enter New Mail in Any Area 52 View, Edit, or Kill Replies 52 Offline Configuration 52 File Request 53 Quit to Main Menu 53 OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS 54 FILE REQUESTING 57 READING MESSAGES 59 Message Movement 60 Message Command Keys 62 THE REPLIES MANAGER 70 ENTERING MESSAGES 73 Entering Local, Echomail, and QWK-style Messages 73 Echomail versus Netmail 75 Entering Netmail 76 KEYWORD SEARCHING 80 USING THE MOUSE 82 TAGLINES 85 Installing John Hancock 86 The "Prompt" Tagline Selection Type 86 Tagline File Format 88 TAGFILES.BW 89 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR 90 The Configuration Menu 90 The Blue Wave Bundling Commands 94 Lastread Pointers and Bundling Commands 96 Bundling Command Macros 97 Example Bundling Commands 97 APPENDIX A Files Created, Maintained, and Used by the Reader 98 APPENDIX B Running the Reader Under DESQview 99 PRODUCT SUPPORT 100 INDEX OF KEY WORDS 101 LICENSE AGREEMENT ----------------- Cutting Edge Computing has taken every precaution to ensure that no harm or damage will occur on systems running The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. However, we cannot be responsible for any damages or other losses suffered as a result of running The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader on your system. The user assumes full responsibility for the proper use of this mail system, whether damage occurs as a fault of operator error or software error. NO WARRANTIES ARE IMPLIED OR EXPRESSLY STATED. The Blue Wave Offline Mail System and this documentation are copyrighted materials of Cutting Edge Computing. Cutting Edge Computing reserves all rights to these materials, and is protected under United States and International Copyright Laws. No part of these materials may be reproduced or modified in any way without the prior express written permission of Cutting Edge Computing. Use of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader constitutes acceptance of the stated terms and conditions. Cutting Edge Computing reserves all rights which are not expressly granted. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is fully copyrighted, and said copyright is registered in Washington D.C. with the United States Copyright Office. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is NOT FREEWARE. It is distributed under the concept of ShareWare. Users are allowed to try this program in its unregistered state for 30 days before paying for and registering the mail system with Cutting Edge Computing. If, after 30 days, you decide that The Blue Wave Offline Reader performs to your expectations, you are required by law to pay for and register your copy with Cutting Edge Computing. If the software does not meet your needs, and you do not plan on registering with Cutting Edge Computing after your 30 day trial period, you are to cease usage of the mail system. Continued use beyond the authorized evaluation period requires payment of the registration fee in full. Cutting Edge Computing grants an unlimited license to make and distribute unregistered copies of this software. Absolutely no modifications to the files contained in the software package, including this documentation file, may be made before distribution. No fee may be charged by anyone other than Cutting Edge Computing beyond the actual cost of providing these copies without the prior written consent of Cutting Edge Computing. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 3 INTRODUCTION ------------ Welcome to the world of offline E-Mail! You are about to evaluate one of the easiest to use, most powerful, most configurable, and one of the most popular offline mail systems available today. The Blue Wave Mail System is for novices and experts alike. After over two years of development, refinement, and never ending user input, The Blue Wave Mail System has become a favorite offline mail system all over the world. Several thousand people, from all over the world and from all 50 States have found the enjoyment and informative world of E-Mail come to life through the use of The Blue Wave Offline Mail System. But, no matter what OTHER people think, you're about to see and use the mail reader for yourself. Because Cutting Edge Computing believes in the concept of ShareWare, and several thousand registered users from across the globe also believe in the concept, this offline reader is here for you to evaluate today, and pay for it tomorrow. ShareWare works because authors and users alike believe in the system. Please do your part if you use the mail system for more than your thirty day evaluation period; register your copy! Complete registration details are found in two separate files contained within the Blue Wave reader's distribution archive. REGISTER.BW contains registration information for ordering your registration key in the United States, Canada, and where a local registration site is not available. REGISTER.EUR contains registration information for ordering your registration key from anywhere in Europe. What is Offline Mail? --------------------- Before we begin the details of The Blue Wave Offline Reader Operations, let's take a moment to look at the history of offline mail readers. Back in the early to mid 1980's, many people were beginning to get home computers, modems, and began communicating in several ways through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's). BBS systems began offering message bases, where people of similar interests could communicate with each other through electronic means. In many ways Electronic mail (E-Mail) was faster than the traditional first-class mail through the postal service. You could leave a message to a friend, and sign off of the BBS system. As soon as the recipient signed on, they would see a copy of their message, and could respond immediately, on line. As time went on, commercial services began offering E-Mail which could be transmitted to the message recipient several thousands of miles away in a matter of hours, minutes, or even seconds. Eventually, many people had become dependant on e-mail. While the commercial companies were developing new and better ways to transmit e-mail across the world, so were the amateur BBS operators. Several amateur e-mail networks and technologies were formed. One of the largest amateur e-mail networks still popular today is FidoNet. (Don't let the term 'amateur' fool you. Many of the people that are responsible for keeping FidoNet up and running may be classified as amateurs, but ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 4 several years of experience and knowledge, and sometimes thousands of dollars of equipment, have earned them a respectable very title.) Today, FidoNet is over 10,000 nodes strong, and still growing! As the networks and the number of home computer users has grown, the need for reading and replying to e-mail offline has become more and more essential. When BBSing was young, there was plenty of time to read and reply to messages on-line. Today, with more users than ever and more e- mail flowing than ever, there just is not enough time for every user to spend a half hour, an hour, or even two hours on-line to their local BBS. Long distance phone rates can also get to be outrageously expensive after just a few of these sessions per month. This is where offline mail reading comes into play. With today's innovations in offline mail processing, you can spend just a very few minutes per day on-line to your favorite BBS system and do all of your work offline, where there is no time limit to run up against, and where the phone company's meter is not running. Best of all, you can read your mail at any time you like. Today's communications software allows you to build script files, which in turn allows you to retrieve your mail automatically at even the oddest times of the day or night (especially when long distance phone rates are low). When you're ready to read your mail, all you need to do is fire up your favorite offline mail system, and you are on your way! Why Bother to Read Mail? ------------------------ At this point you may be asking yourself; "Why even bother with it all?". Some people unfamiliar with mail networks and e-mail sometimes cannot understand the enjoyment and knowledge that can come out of being an active participant on an e-mail network. Not only can you communicate with people from all corners of the world, but you can learn more about your favorite computer software, share recipes with others, learn how to repair your leaking roof, get advice from others on product quality ratings, or just join in a chat between long distance friends. As a matter of fact, FidoNet offers well over 300 e-mail topics ranging from Aardvarks to Zymurgy. What Will The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Do For Me? ------------------------------------------------------ The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader will allow you to actively participate in this fun and fascinating hobby to any extent you like. You can retrieve mail from your favorite BBS system to your own computer, where you are free to take your time and enjoy yourself. You aren't forced against the BBS system's time limits or the long distance charges. You are also doing your part to allow more people on your favorite BBS system so there are less busy signals, and more productive on-line sessions. It is a complete mail manager, which allows you to reply to messages, save messages to disk in a text file, print messages to your printer, and help you search out only the messages that you are interested in through the use of keyword searching. But most of all, to enjoy yourself! ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ------------------- In order for The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader to be useful to you, your favorite BBS system must support offline mail reading through the use of an on-line message bundler, which is sometimes called an Offline Mail Door. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader supports approximately 9 out of 10 BBS message bundle types in use today on BBS systems. If your host system (the BBS) has The Blue Wave Mail Door available, you can read packets that it creates with this mail reader. Another common offline mail bundle type is called the "QWK" mail packet. The QWK mail packet is in very wide use among several BBS systems. If the mail packets that the sysop's on-line door creates has a file extension of "QWK", "QW1", "QW2", etc., the mail packet will most likely be readable with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. If you are unsure of the type of offline mail that your host BBS system supports, ask your sysop. He or she will probably be glad to help get you started in your offline mail experience. Software Requirements --------------------- To get the most productive use out of The Blue Wave Mail System, it is suggested that you be running MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 3.0 or higher. The reader has been thoroughly tested with all of these versions and works with no problem. If you are running IBM Operating System/2 (OS/2) version 2.0, the reader will operate to full capacity in a "DOS Compatibility Box". The reader will NOT operate in OS/2 native mode. If you are multi-tasking your PC with software such as QuarterDeck's DESQview or MicroSoft Windows, some special settings may need to be set. The reader is fully DESQview aware and compatible. Please see the appropriate Appendix for more information about operating the reader in one of these environments. Hardware Requirements --------------------- For optimum performance, the following minimum hardware configuration should be present: * An IBM PC, AT, 80386, 80486, or fully compatible personal computer. * A minimum of 256K of free memory, but 350K is suggested. * A hard disk with at least 500,000 bytes free. See the next page for more information about the hardware requirements. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 6 Although a hard disk is recommended, a floppy drive only system can still be used. However, you may find operation with a floppy-based system to be less than optimal, due to the memory paging and overlay system built into the reader. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is designed to use as little memory as possible, which means the reader works very well in tight memory situations. The reader has been tested continuously under DESQview with only 255K of available memory with little or no memory constraints. Due to the constraints of the MS-DOS and PC-DOS operating system, the memory available to the reader at any one time is limited to 640K, minus any TSR (memory resident) programs you may have running, and the memory that DOS itself uses. However, for efficient execution of external programs from within the reader, a memory swapping system has been built in. The memory swapping system can free all but 4K of the memory used by the reader when shelling to DOS, executing an external editor or communications program, and when shelling to the archive compression programs. The memory swapping system is able to utilize EMS memory, XMS memory, and Extended memory above the 1 megabyte DOS barrier. If you have any of these types of memory available, it would be to your advantage to configure the reader to use this extra memory for quick memory swapping. If you do not have any of the above mentioned types of memory, approximately 250K of free disk space can be used to emulate the existence of this type of memory. (You may have heard the term 'disk swapping' used before.) Additionally, systems equipped with an EGA or VGA video card and monitor can make use of reader's support for extended line modes, allowing either 43 (EGA systems) or 50 (VGA systems) lines to be displayed on one screen. The extended number of lines allows you to view more of a message on the monitor at once. Required External Programs -------------------------- Nearly every offline mail system in existence requires the use of an external compression program; sometimes referred to as 'archivers' or 'data compression utilities'. There are several popular archive formats in use on public and private BBS systems today. Some of these programs are FreeWare, and others are ShareWare. PKZIP and PKUNZIP by PKWare, and ARJ by Robert K. Jung are two of the most popular archive formats available. Each of these programs is ShareWare, and is almost definitely available from the same source you received The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Most people who are active in BBSing already have these utilities on their system, so you may be all ready to begin. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 7 LHA by Yoshi is another popular archive program that is FreeWare. If you cannot find any of these data compression programs locally, you are welcome to log into The Blue Wave Support BBS (Wild! Blue) in Flint, Michigan and download them at no cost. The phone number for the Wild! Blue BBS is 313-743-8464, and the BBS is running a USRobotics 14400 HST/v32/v32bis compatible high speed modem. The only other required program for full operation of The Blue Wave Offline Mail System is an ASCII file or text file editor. A very simple editor is supplied with your copy of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. You should have TED3.COM and TED3.DOC in your distribution archive. At this time, an external text editor is required for editing new messages and replying to messages with your reader. TED3 is supplied because of the small size and because it has been released to the Public Domain (no fee is required for use). TED3 is not a product of Cutting Edge Computing. If you already have a favorite text editor, and you would like to use it to enter messages with the reader, you can do so by modifying the Editor Command Line in the reader's setup menu (this will be discussed later). Some excellent text editors that come highly recommended by other users include BOXER by David Hamel, QEDIT by SemWare, and SLED by Sam Wilmott. All of these files are available on The Blue Wave Support BBS, and are probably also available on a BBS near you. Optional External Programs -------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader provides an internal means of loading and executing several optional external programs. John Hancock, an external tagline selection and beautification utility by Dan Moore is supported, as well as a quick and convenient shell to external utilities such as your communications program and ASCII file viewer/editor. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader sports a simple interface to an external spell checker, which allows you to spell check your messages and replies quickly and easily. These external utilities will be discussed in more detail in the appropriate sections of the documentation. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 8 COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS ----------------------- Before jumping into the installation procedures, you should take a moment to quickly read over the command line parameters described here. When first executing the reader, you may need to add one or two command line switches to your command line. If the reader freezes when first loaded, it may be because of an incompatibility in the video system. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, under normal circumstances, will detect the type of monitor that you are using, and adjust its video writes accordingly. However, some situations may arise where you will need to override the reader's auto-detection, and set the video mode yourself. To execute the program normally, simply type BWAVE from the DOS command line. To override the default auto-detection, add the following switch(es) to the command line: -m Forces the reader into MONOCHROME Mode. -c Forces the reader to modify its screen writes to help eliminate "CGA Snow", which early CGA monitors sometimes have a problem with. -b Forces the reader to use BIOS screen writes. If know your computer does not support IBM Direct Video Writes, or if the reader 'freezes' when you first load it, you will probably need to add this command line parameter. It is highly recommended that you NOT use this switch, if at all possible. BIOS screen writes are extremely S-L-O-W. -lcd Forces the reader to map colors compatible with LCD displays. -s Forces the reader to execute in a mode which is very helpful and compatible with speech hardware boards and speech software for the blind and visually challenged. Many hours of work has been put into the reader to make working with speech software an enjoyable experience. Once the reader is successfully loaded, you can configure all of these command line switches to your liking in the reader's setup menu. After they are saved to the reader's configuration file, it will no longer be necessary to use the command line switches. There are two more command line parameters that offer more advanced users great power and flexibility in automating their offline mail sessions: -t Forces the reader to execute the defined TERMINAL program command line (defined in the reader's setup) automatically upon reaching the main menu. -l Automatically loads the NEWEST mail packet in your reader's 'download', or mail packet storage directory upon reaching the reader's main menu. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 9 INSTALLATION AND SETUP ---------------------- Before attempting to run the reader, there are two items that you should double check in your system configuration. Your CONFIG.SYS file, found in the root directory of your boot drive, should contain a line similar to the following: FILES=25 This line tells DOS at boot-time to allocate 25 file handles for use by programs that you will be running on your system. If you already have a 'FILES=' line in your CONFIG.SYS file, and the number after it is 25 or higher, there will be no problems. At some points of execution in the reader, there can be up to eight files open at one time. Setting FILES to 25 or higher will help to insure that there are enough file handles available to The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. The last item to check in your CONFIG.SYS file is the number of buffers that you are allowing DOS to allocate for faster disk accesses. In your CONFIG.SYS file, you should have a line that contains the following: BUFFERS=30 This line tells DOS to allocate enough system memory to hold 30 disk buffers. This in turn allows DOS to perform disk intensive activities much more quickly than normal. If the number of buffers in your CONFIG.SYS file is already set higher than 30, that is all right. If you are running a disk cache program, you can ignore this advice. However, you should follow the advice of your caching software. In many cases the cache documentation will tell you to set BUFFERS=3, or to a very low number. This enables the disk caching software to do the disk buffering, rather than DOS's slower buffering. Your next step is to create a new directory on your drive. Throughout the documentation, the reader's directory will be assumed to be 'C:\BWAVE'. Of course, if you want to place the reader on a different drive and directory, that is your option. It is highly suggested that you follow the manual's directory setup until you become familiar with the operation of the reader. At that point in time, you will be comfortable enough with the system to be able to modify your setup to suit your likings or needs. All of the files from the reader's distribution archive should be copied into the C:\BWAVE directory. This includes: BWAVE.EXE BWSETUP.HLP TAGFILES.BW TAGLINES.BW KEYWORDS.BW NAMES.BW TED3.COM At this point in time, you're ready to begin running the reader! ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 10 The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is, for the most part, self configuring. When you execute BWAVE.EXE from the DOS prompt, the reader first checks to see if the reader's configuration file (BWAVE200.CFG) is present. If this is a first time installation, or it cannot find BWAVE200.CFG, you will be asked if you wish to continue building a new configuration file. If you have made a mistake, and do not wish to build a new configuration file, press 'N'. Otherwise, press 'Y', and the reader will begin to perform its initial installation. On floppy drive systems, or systems with slow hard drives, the reader may take up to 30 seconds to bring you to the main Blue Wave Menu. During this time, the reader is searching your DOS Path statement for several external programs that may be needed to run the reader. If these programs are found, they will automatically be placed into your BWAVE200.CFG file with the proper command lines to execute them. The following programs are automatically inserted into your configuration file when found: PKZIP/PKUNZIP, PKARC/PKXARC, PKPAK/PKUNPAK, PAK, LHARC/LHA, ARJ, Q.EXE (Qedit, an external text file editor), and TED3.COM (when Qedit cannot be found). If you have these programs somewhere on your system, but they are not included within your DOS 'path' statement, it will be necessary to manually insert them into the SETUP menu, which will be described in the next section. When the reader is finished building its configuration file, you will be taken to the Main Menu. From here, you should select option 'S' to be taken to the SETUP menu. Full, detailed descriptions of every item on the SETUP menu follows. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 11 THE PRIMARY MENUS ----------------- The Blue Wave Offline Reader is divided into four 'primary' menus, which include the MAIN menu, the SETUP menu, the OPEN PACKET menu, and the CLOSED PACKET menu. The first menu that you encounter as you enter the program is the MAIN menu. The main menu has items that take you to the various functions of the reader. Navigating the menu system is very easy. You will notice that the menu selections have their first letters highlighted. You can choose a menu item by simply typing the highlighted letter on the menu, by pointing the mouse cursor (if you have a mouse and a mouse driver installed) at the desired menu item and clicking the left mouse button, or by moving the highlighted menu bar to the desired item with your cursor (arrow) keys and pressing ENTER. Since you are probably eager to get started, we will begin by discussing the SETUP menu. The SETUP Menu -------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader was designed to be extremely easy to use, yet very configurable. A first glance at the setup menu may seem overwhelming, but don't let the appearance scare you. It is really quite easy to navigate and configure to your liking. When first selecting 'S' from the MAIN menu, you will be taken directly to the SETUP menu. The setup menu is a pull-down menu structure that is grouped into several subdivisions: Miscellaneous, Directories, Archivers, Strings, Registration, and Quit. The Miscellaneous pull-down menu is further divided into categories to allow you to find options quickly and easily. Each menu item on the setup menu contains a short, one-line description of the menu command at the bottom of the screen to be meant as a quick reference guide. The help text that is displayed at the bottom of the screen is loaded from an external file called BWSETUP.HLP. The reader expects to find BWSETUP.HLP in the current directory. If the file is not available to the reader, it will display a red warning message informing you of the fact, and the help messages will not be available. Although the help text serves as a quick memory jogging tool, for the most complete description of each option you should refer to this Operations Manual. The Miscellaneous Sub-Menu -------------------------- As described above, the miscellaneous sub-menu is divided further into sub categories to make locating certain options, toggles, and settings easy. This menu is grouped into Global Reader Toggles, Reading Options, Enter/Reply Options, Tagline Configuration, Memory Swapping Options, Printer Configuration, Color Configuration, and Video Configuration. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 12 Global Reader Toggles --------------------- On-Screen Clock: If this option is toggled ON, the reader will display the current date and time on-screen throughout the entire mail-reading session. Whenever there is keyboard inactivity, the clock will be updated. If you are running under a MULTITASKER, such as DESQview, it may be a good idea to turn the clock OFF. Turning the clock off in this situation will most likely improve the performance of any background tasks that may be running. Mouse Support Enabled: If you have a mouse installed on your system, the reader can utilize the capabilities of your mouse to make your offline mail session nearly keyboard-free. If a mouse is detected (you must have a mouse driver installed), the reader normally activates it and makes it available for use. If you do not want the mouse support enabled in the reader, set this option to "No". For full details of using your mouse to full capacity in the reader, please see the section in the documentation titled "Using the Mouse". FidoNet-QWK Compatible: Due to differences in message formatting between various message networks, this option is available in the setup menu. If you use The Blue Wave Mail System in a FidoNet message environment, you will need to set this option to "Yes", which is the default mode. If you use the reader in other networks, such as RIME, Itelec Net, or almost any other network, you should set this option to "No". It will cause the reader to format messages to be uploaded to the BBS in the appropriate manner. NOTE OF CAUTION: If you have this option set to "No" while using the reader in a FidoNet area, you may get warnings from moderators asking you to fix your reader! This is the appropriate place to do it. Beep on Error Messages: When the reader wants your attention (an error message, for example), it normally sounds a short beep. If you wish to turn off this beep, set this option to "No". Exploding Window Frames: Exploding windows are used throughout the reader to create a dramatic and eye pleasing effect. If these exploding windows are too slow on your system, or they just plain drive you crazy, you can disable them by setting this option to "No". ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 13 Display Archiver Output: This option is set to "Yes" by default so that you are able to see the display of the external mail archivers when they are in action. This is mainly provided as a debugging tool so that you can find problems during your first few uses of the reader. For a cleaner and faster display, you should set this to "No" when you are comfortable that your archivers are working properly. The reader hides the output of the archivers by directing their screen writes to the NUL DOS device. Some archiving programs (LHA/LHARC for example) do not allow their output to be redirected to a NUL device, so their screen writes will 'bleed through' unless you add a /n2 command line parameter to LHA. Packet List 2nd Sort Field: When displaying mail packets for selection (The "Open Mail Packet" command and the "Packet Management" command on the MAIN menu), the packets are displayed from NEWEST to OLDEST in the selection window. If you would like the reader to sort the packets on a secondary field before displaying them, you can instruct it to do so here. There are three settings for this menu item: None, Root Name, and Extension. When set to None, the reader does not do any further sorting on the list of mail packets. They are simply displayed from NEWEST to OLDEST. If this option is set to 'Root Name', the packets will be sorted in alphabetical order, and then by date and time. When set to 'Extension', the packets will be sorted by packet extension, and then by date and time. Screen Saver Activation: The Blue Wave Offline Reader has a built in Screen Saver option. After the defined number of seconds have elapsed with no keyboard or mouse input, the reader will clear the screen and display a moving window informing you that the screen saver is active. If you do not want to enable this feature, set the number of seconds to 0. If you feel this feature will come in handy, define the number of seconds to wait for keyboard inactivity before activating the screen saver (120 seconds is 2 minutes, etc.). The maximum value is 9999 seconds, and the minimum value is 60 seconds. 0 is accepted only to disable the screen saver activation. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 14 Message Reading Options ----------------------- Automatic Title Scan: The reader defaults to showing a "Title Scan" each time you enter a new message area from the "Choose Area to Read" menu. The title scan makes it fast and easy to scan through the message headers in the message area. On the title scan screen, you can see information about each message in the area including the FROM: field, the TO: field, the SUBJECT: field, and whether you have read or replied to the message. If you decide to disable the automatic title scan, it can still be called up by pressing "T" in read mode. Automatic Personal Mail Scan: When you first open a mail packet for reading, The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader will automatically scan for personal messages (messages addressed to you). To disable the automatic personal mail scan, simply set this option to "No". A global personal mail scan can be performed at any time during your mail session by pressing <Alt-P> at the "Choose Area to Read" selection window. Noise on Personal Messages: When this option is set to "Yes", the reader will sound a two-tone beep in message reading mode whenever you encounter a message that is addressed to you. To disable this noise and allow the family members to continue sleeping, turn this option off. Read Messages Sorted on Which Field: Before reading messages in a message area, the reader will sort them by their SUBJECT: lines, FROM: fields, or TO: fields if this option is enabled. The fields are sorted into alphabetical order. In order to maintain message threads, the reader ignores any leading "RE:" characters during the message sort of subjects. Save Message Read/Mark/Reply Tags: This menu item has three different settings: Ask, Yes, and No. During a mail session, the reader keeps track of which messages you have read, which messages you have replied to, and which messages you have "marked" for later operations. In order for these marks to be saved between mail sessions, the reader must place the 'bookmark' file back into the mail packet that you are reading. Because this process involves invoking the external archivers and partially repacking the mail bundle, it may take a few seconds on some machines. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 15 If this option is set to ASK, the reader will prompt you just before closing a packet as to whether or not you would like to perform the process of repacking the mail archive, skip the packing, or simply delete the mail packet. If this option is set to YES, it will be performed automatically by the reader. Begin Reading with First Unread Message: If you would like the reader to place you at the first message that you have not read when first entering a message area, set this option to "Yes". If set to "No", the reader begins with the first msg. Begin Reading with Last Unread Message: This function performs similarly to the previously described option, but it will begin reading messages after your LAST read message. This option is most useful when you often skip reading certain messages by using the automatic title scan. If you later re- enter the message area, you will be placed at the point where you quit reading messages. If you have read the very last message in an area, you will be placed at the last message when starting to read. You cannot combine this option with the above option. Jump to Next Area with Unread Messages: When you are finished reading a message area, the reader will automatically return to the "Choose Area to Read" selection window. If you would like the reader to automatically advance to the NEXT message area with UNREAD messages, set this option to "Yes". If set to "No", the reader's highlight bar will stay on the current selection area and you can advance to another area manually. Only Display Areas with Messages: When loading a mail packet, the reader normally displays ALL message areas that you have turned on in your offline mail door configuration, even if they have 0 messages in them. If you would like the reader to only display message areas that actually contain messages at the "Choose Area to Read" selection window, simply toggle this option to "Yes". Inform when All Messages have been Read: After choosing a message area to read through the "Choose Area to Read" selection window, the reader normally processes the message area and begins reading immediately. However, if this menu item is set to "Yes", the reader will display a dialogue box with the question: "All messages have been read. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 16 Read Again? (Y/N)" if you have already read all of the messages in the area you have just selected. Delete Mail Packet After Reading: This menu option comes into play when you have finished reading a mail packet and are ready to quit back to the reader's main menu. If this option is set to "Ask", the reader will ask you if you want to delete the mail packet you are about to close. If you select "No" to this menu item, the packet will always be preserved (you can later delete the mail packet through the PACKET MANAGEMENT function available on the main menu). Please be aware that once you delete a mail packet, none of the message in that packet can be read again! For this reason, there is no "Yes" default to this menu item. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 17 Enter/Reply Options ------------------- Add To Existing Reply Packets: When the reader unpacks a mail bundle to read, it checks your reply storage directory to see if a reply packet already exists for the BBS that you are about to read mail for. If one does exist, you are normally asked whether you would like to continue adding to the reply packet or if you want to delete it. (This is the default "Ask" mode for this option) Some users of the mail system have developed script files and batch files for their communications programs that automatically delete the reply packet after it has been uploaded to the BBS. Therefore, they assume that if a reply packet exists in the reader's upload directory that it has NOT yet been uploaded, and it should be added to. When this option is set to "Yes", the reader skips the "Add to this mail reply bundle" prompt, and automatically assumes that the packet should be added to. When to Quote Message Replies: When replying to a message, it is often a good idea to quote a small portion of the message you are replying to so that the context of your message is understood. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader has three options for quoting messages. You can tell the reader to NEVER quote a message ("No"). In this case, the reader will load your editor with an "empty" file, just as if you were entering a brand new message. If you select "Yes" for this option, the reader will always quote the message you are replying to, and load your editor with the quoted message intact. If you would like to select whether or not to quote the message for each one that you reply to, set this option to "Ask". Each time your press <R> or <Alt-R> to reply to a message, the reader will first ask you whether or not to quote the current message. Insert Quote Header in Replies: When quoting a message reply, the reader will insert the "Quote Header" you have defined under the 'Strings' setup menu item (to be discussed later). If you want the quote header to appear in your messages you must enable this option and also define a Quote Header String to be used. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 18 Prefix Reply Subjects with "Re:": When replying to a message, the reader normally takes the subject line of your reply, and prefixes it with the "Re:" string. This enables other people to see that this is indeed a reply to a message, NOT the original message. For example, if you were to reply to a message with the subject of "Blue Wave", the message subject would become "Re: Blue Wave". Some people like this procedure, and many others do not. Therefore, you can configure the reader to behave as you like in this regard. Automatically Save Messages and Replies: After entering a message through the reader, a small menu normally appears with the following options: Save, Edit, Kill, Check Spelling, or Make Carbons. You have the option of bypassing this menu and forcing a SAVE of the message by setting this menu item to "Yes". Please be aware, however, that if you need to edit or delete a message that you have entered, it will be necessary to do so through the reader's VIEW/EDIT/KILL Replies menu item. Quote-O-Meter Warning Threshold: The Blue Wave Mail Reader has an internal quote percentage calculator that can help you to keep the amount of quoted material in your message replies under control. When quoting messages, it is always best to keep the amount of quoted material to only the essential clips of text that you need by deleting lines that are unnecessary. The reader defaults to a quote-warning ratio of 80% on first time installations. This means that after editing your message, the reader will scan your reply and warn you if over 80% of your message is quoted material. If you exceed the threshold designated here, you'll immediately be given the option of reediting your message or continuing. Although you can disable this option by setting the percentage to 0, it is highly recommended that you keep the warning level near the 90% mark. If your message text exceeds 90% of quoted material, you should seriously consider trimming your message down. Set Default Netmail Bits: When entering FidoNet Netmail through the reader, you are asked for the message attributes that you want to place on the message. This allows you to define the DEFAULT bits used. See "Entering FidoNet Netmail". ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 19 Tagline Configuration --------------------- Taglines (or signature lines, as previous versions of the reader referred to them) have fast become a 'second pastime' of many people. In fact, some networks even have tagline sharing echos and conferences where people swap their funny, witty, and sometimes cynical creations. Taglines have been dedicated a complete section in the documentation due to their popularity and the very powerful way in which The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader allows you to manage taglines. Tagline Selection Type: This menu item allows you to define the DEFAULT tagline selection type to be used for placing taglines on your messages. There are five possible choices here. If taglines do not interest you, and you do not want to be bothered with them at all, simply set this item to "None". You will never have to bother with the pesky things. If you are a creative person, and you want to customize a tagline for every message you write, set this option to "Manual". After entering a message through the reader, you'll be given an editing field which allows you to type your own. If you are adventurous, you can opt to have the reader select taglines randomly from a text file. (The reader comes with a sample tagline file called TAGLINES.BW). Taglines will then be selected at random from the tagline file that you can define in the 'Directories' portion of the setup menu. If you are finicky or want the most power out of the tagline selection process, set your tagline selection type to 'Prompt'. After each message you save in the reader, you'll be given a 'pop-up' list of all the taglines from your tagline selection file (TAGLINES.BW). Through this pop-up list, you can perform ALL of the above described tagline entry types, or simply select a tagline that suits your fancy. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 20 If you are plain crazy, or love to have more fun with taglines than the average bear, hunt down a program called JOHN HANCOCK, written by Dan Moore. At the time of this writing, version 3.0 is the latest. If you cannot find this file locally, you are welcome to download it free from the Blue Wave Support BBS (information at the tail end of the documentation). The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader features internal support for this external tagline selection utility. Set the menu option to read 'J.Hancock' if you would always like to invoke John Hancock for your tagline selections. Whichever your preference, if you like taglines, it is highly recommended that you read the section of the documentation called 'TAGLINES' for complete information. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader boasts one of the most powerful tagline selection systems available in an offline mail reader! Check for Dupes Before Adopting: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader has the ability to adopt taglines directly out of messages that you are reading. When you adopt a tagline, not only do you give it a good home, but you can add it to your own personal collection of taglines. Adopting a tagline in the reader will place a tagline that is on the screen into your TAGLINES.BW file. When this option is turned on, the reader will scan your tagline file to make sure that the one you are adopting isn't already a part of your collection. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 21 Memory Swapping Options ----------------------- As mentioned previously in the documentation, the reader is capable of executing several types of external programs for your convenience and offline messaging productivity. In order to execute these programs, though, there must be enough free memory in the 640K DOS region of memory to execute them. It is possible that at certain points in an offline mail session, the reader will use nearly 300K of that available memory. If you factor in any memory resident programs that you may be running, and the memory required by DOS itself, it is very possible that some of your external programs will NOT have enough memory to run. The reader has the ability to swap all of its used memory to disk, EMS memory, or XMS memory. This leaves only 4K of the reader active, making plenty of room for your larger applications. Because both memory and disk swapping take some time, this part of the setup menu allows you to define when and where the reader should attempt to swap. Allow swapping to XMS Memory: When set to "Yes", you are giving the reader permission to attempt swapping to XMS memory. XMS memory is available on your system only if you are running an XMS compatible memory driver such as QRam, QEMM, 386^Max, the HIMEM.SYS driver supplied by DOS v5.0, or any number of other available drivers. If swapping to XMS memory fails, other swap options will be tried (if they are allowed), and as a last resort, a disk swap will be performed. Allow swapping to EMS Memory: In order for the reader to perform a successful EMS memory swap, you must be running a LIM 4.0 compatible EMS driver such as QEMM or 386^Max. The same provisions apply here as with the previous two menu items; if the swap to EMS memory fails, other allowable options will be tried. Only if all of the other (faster) options have failed will the reader attempt to swap to disk. Swap on Shell to Message Editor: When the reader is ready to load your text editor for editing messages, it will check to see if you have told it to swap first. If so, the reader will attempt a memory swap before loading the editor. If you have enough memory to run your editor without swapping, it is highly recommended that you do so. Swapping takes a bit of time, especially on floppy drives and slow hard drives. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 22 Swap on Shell to Archivers: Swap on Shell to Alt-Fkey Batch Files: Swap on Shell to Terminal Program: Swap on Shell to Spell Checker: Swap on Shell to John Hancock: Swap on Shell to External File Viewer: Swap on Shell to DOS: All of these work the same as the 'Swap on Shell to Message Editor' described on the previous page. They are provided to add more flexibility to your reader setup, rather than just having a single 'Use Memory Swapping' option. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 23 Printer Configuration --------------------- Default Printer Port: The reader is able to talk directly to your printer for the purpose of printing hard copies of messages in a download packet and copies of your replies. Here you need to define the port that your printer is connected to. If you constantly get an error message indicating 'Printer is not responding', or 'Error writing to Printer', make sure that you have the correct port defined here. Supported printer ports are LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3. Printer Init String: Some printers require an initialization string to be sent to produce the desired output quality or font. The reader sends the printer initialization string EACH time you begin a print job. You can enter any characters here from the IBM character set. Many printers use 'escape sequences' for printer commands. In order to enter an ESCape character into the string, press <Ctrl-[>. Printer Reset String: This field functions very similar to the Printer Init String, but the reader sends the reset string to the printer AFTER each print job. Use this command if necessary to restore the state of the printer before the init string was sent. Send Form Feed After Printing Each Msg: When this option is turned on, the reader will send a form feed to your printer after printing each message in message reading mode or view replies mode. Send Form Feed After Printing Each Msg in Batch Mode: The reader prints in batch mode only when you have 'marked' messages for later printing. Batch printing mode is invoked from the "Choose Area to Read" selection window with the F5 key (Msg Utilities). It is highly recommended that this option be kept OFF, and is provided for those who really need the capability. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 24 Color Configuration ------------------- Custom Color Configuration: The custom color configuration option allows you to customize your screen colors while using the reader in 'message reading mode'. When you select this option from the menu, you will have the chance to change the color of several display items while you are reading messages. You'll be taken to a new screen. The top half looks very similar to the message reading screen. As you change your color configuration, the sample screen will be updated so you can immediately see what your color configuration will look like. After you change your color configuration, you will be asked if you would like to permanently save it. To make the color configuration active for the current session only, press 'N'. If you would like to permanently save your color configuration to disk, answer 'Y'. Version 1.00 Color Scheme: Selecting this menu item will set the color configuration to the Blue Wave version 1.00 default colors. The version 1.00 color scheme is a black background with bright colored highlights. Version 2.00 Color Scheme: Selecting this menu item will set the color scheme to the Blue Wave version 2.00 default colors. The Blue Wave version 2.00 color scheme is a blue message reading background, with easy-to-read pastel colors used for highlighting. Version 2.10 Color Scheme: Selecting this menu item will set the color scheme to the Blue Wave version 2.10 default colors. Version 2.10 of the reader allows more color configurability, primarily to the message header region of the screen. This color scheme exploits the new color configuration options; there is a cyan header background combined with a grey message reading background for a very dramatic message display. Those users with monochrome monitors may find that selecting the version 1.00 default color scheme will produce the best results. Of course, if you have a monochrome system, you are free to customize your color configuration so as to produce the best results for your system. For added convenience, the currently active color is displayed in words at the bottom of the split custom color configuration section. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 25 Video Configuration ------------------- Write Method: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader initially installs itself with DIRECT video screen writes turned on. Direct video writes are compatible with most systems today. However, if direct video writes do not work for you, set this option to BIOS. BIOS writes should not be used, if at all possible, due to the extremely slow screen updates that BIOS mode provides. CGA Snow Checking: Turn this option on ONLY if you have an older CGA video system that displays video 'snow' when the screen is updated too quickly. Enabling this option with other video systems will only display degradation of the video system updates. LCD Color Mapping: You should enable this option ONLY if you are running an LCD screen display that has trouble displaying the option settings on the SETUP menu. You can temporarily enable this option through the use of the -LCD command line parameter. Monochrome Color Mapping: You should enable this option ONLY if you are running a Monochrome video system. This menu item will cause the reader to 'map' all colors throughout the mail reader to a 'black and white' color scheme that is easy to view on monochrome monitors. Unpredictable results will occur if you are running a color system and toggle this menu item. Some screens in the reader will be black and white, while others will be in color. This is normal behavior. If you are running a color system, and desire the monochrome color mapping mode, set the option to ON, save your configuration, quit the reader, and restart again. Speech Software Compatible: Many hours have been spent on the speech software compatibilities in the reader. This option is provided for blind and visually challenged users who have voice synthesis hardware and software installed on their system. Please see the file SPEECH.DOC. This speech software compatibility is achieved by the use of Direct video writes where spoken words are either unnecessary or undesirable, and BIOS video writes where the words need to be spoken. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 26 If you do NOT have a voice synthesis system installed, you should NOT enable this option. Certain screen updates, particularly while reading messages, will be extremely slow, and the words will not be spoken anyway. Many thanks to Doug Langley for his help in getting speech software compatibility into The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader! Video Mode: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader has the ability to use the extended line modes on VGA and EGA equipped computers. If the reader detects an EGA video system, it will allow you to set the number of lines displayed on the screen to 43. If the reader detects a VGA video system, it will allow you to set the number of lines displayed on the screen to 50. The extended line modes enable you to view more of a message on the screen at one time, and see more of the various selection windows. Set 25 Lines for Message Editor: If you are running in one of the extended line modes (43 or 50 lines per screen), it may be necessary for the reader to restore the video system to 25 line mode before shelling to your message editor. Some message editors cannot detect extended line modes, or will not restore the video system correctly before returning to the reader. If you experience problems when shelling to your message editor with extended line mode enabled, try turning this option on. The reader will set 25 line mode for your editor, and upon returning, will return the reader's video system to its original state. Set 25 Lines for Spell Checker: Set 25 Lines for DOS Shell: Set 25 Lines for Terminal: Set 25 Lines for External File Lister: All of these options work the same as the 'Set 25 Lines for Message Editor' option described above. The only difference is that they work with their respectively identified external programs. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 27 National Language Support ------------------------- The National Language Support provided in The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is for the convenience of those who use the readers in countries that do not use the United States' time, date, and character conventions. On-Screen Time Format: If you have enabled the "On-Screen Clock" in the reader's SETUP menu, you can change the format of the time displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. There are 5 different options available, and you can cycle through the options by pressing ENTER. The first is "12:mm PM". This will display the time in a 12-hour format with either the designation AM or PM appended. This is the common format used in the US. The second available time format is "24:mm:ss". This will display the time in a 24-hour format with a moving seconds display. In this mode, the time is updated approximately once per second. "12:mm:ss" displays the time in a 12-hour format with a counting seconds display, much the same as described above. The final option is "24:mm". If this format is chosen, the reader will display the time in a strictly 24-hour format, with no moving seconds display. On-Screen Date Format: If you have enabled the "On-Screen Clock" in the reader, you can change the date format displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen. There are 5 available options for the display of the current date. "Month D, YYYY" will display the full name of the month, the day of the month, and the current year. This is the most popular US date format. "DD Mmm YY" will display the current date in a more international format. The date is displayed with the day number first, the first 3 letters of the current month, followed by the last 2 numbers of the current year. "MM-DD-YY", "MM/DD/YY", and "DD/MM/YY" all function similarly. The only difference between them is the order of the month, day, and year and the number separator used. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 28 Double-Byte Language Support: Some languages, such as Chinese, represent a "letter" by using 2 bytes, or characters on the screen. These languages also use the full range of characters available in the IBM 8-bit character set. This poses a problem when messaging on FidoNet, because the ASCII 141 character (ì) is used in the network as a "soft carriage return". In order to present messages properly, the reader must ignore this character completely. Because this is also a valid "letter" in double-byte languages, messages are often-times not shown properly for these users. Enabling this option only has one function; it prevents the reader from ignoring this character, and it will display it as any other character in the message. Because users of double-byte languages often must change this setting between messages or message areas, a special key has been assigned in Message Reading Mode to quickly toggle this function. Pressing the tilde key (ASCII 126 or ~) will switch quickly and easily between display modes. Enable Inbound Translations: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader allows you to define a custom inbound translation table for every IBM 8-bit ASCII character from ASCII 33 to ASCII 255. When reading messages from disk, the reader will use the Inbound Character Translation Table defined to translate FROM: fields, TO: fields, SUBJECT: fields, and the message text if this option is turned ON. These translation tables are mainly for use by people whose languages require translations of certain characters to be read properly. Enable Outbound Translations: This option works in much the same way as "Enable Inbound Translations". However, when this option is enabled, it will perform the character translations on OUTBOUND messages. After entering a new message or reply, the reader will translate the FROM:, TO:, SUBJECT:, and message text according to the user defined Outbound Character Translation Table. Inbound Character Translation: Outbound Character Translation: These options will allow you to define the respective translation tables. Instructions for defining the character translations are given on-screen. The procedure is very self-explanatory, so a detailed expanation need not be given here. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 29 The Directories Sub-Menu ------------------------ The directories sub-menu allows you to define several directories that the reader will use throughout its execution. This is also where you will give the reader the name of your message editor (an editor that will save straight-ASCII text files), default file names used in the reader, and all of the command lines to call any optional external utilities you may want to set up. Download Directory: The download directory is where the reader will look for mail packets that you have downloaded from your host BBS system. Each BBS Sysop selects a "Packet Name" that identifies his or her BBS. When you download mail through The Blue Wave Offline Mail Door, or one of the generic QWK offline mail doors, you should either download it to the directory you specify here, or copy the mail bundle into this directory. If you enter a directory name that does not exist, The Blue Wave Offline Reader will ask you if you would like to create it. If you answer "y", the reader will attempt to create the directory. If the creation of the directory failed for one reason or another, you will be informed of this fact, and you should create it yourself from the DOS command line. Please note that the reader *needs* these directories in order to operate properly. If the reader was unable to create the directory, or if you wish to do it manually, it is absolutely necessary that you do so before opening a mail packet for reading. The expansion of your mail packet will probably fail if the download and work directory do not exist. Upload Directory: The upload directory is where The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader will create your reply packets to be uploaded to the BBS. Reply packets are named according to the BBS's packet name that the sysop has chosen for his or her BBS. After you have completed reading a mail packet, and wish to return to the Main reader menu, your reply directory is checked to see if any files have been created that need to be uploaded to the BBS. When the reader detects that a packet should be made, the appropriate archiver is used to Mash your reply packet for transfer to the BBS. If you downloaded a mail packet called WILDBLUE.TU1, and have performed an Offline Configuration, a File Request, or have replies or entered new mail, a file called WILDBLUE.NEW will be created in the UPLOAD directory. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 30 If you have generated replies during a QWK mail packet session, the reply file created by the reader will end with a ".REP" file extension, and be placed into the reader's UPLOAD directory. The next time you sign onto the BBS that you downloaded the mail packet from, you need to upload the resulting .NEW file (for Blue Wave doors) or .REP file (for QWK doors) so that the mail door can process your reply packet. After the mail packet has been successfully uploaded, you can delete the mail packet from your system. Please note that the upload directory must be present. Each time the reader is loaded, it attempts to make the appropriate directories, if they are missing. If you are having trouble with the reader and/or external archivers NOT Mashing your reply packet(s) properly, please be sure that the UPLOAD directory does indeed exist. Work Directory: The WORK directory is where the reader will tell the external archivers to unMash your mail packet. This directory should point to a drive and directory that has plenty of space to hold the completely unarchived mail packet. While you are reading a mail bundle, the complete archived packet is still left in your DOWNLOAD directory. If you are running on a floppy drive-based system, you should be sure that you download a small enough mail packet so that the completely unarchived packet will still have enough room to decompress onto one of your floppy drives. As with the DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD directories, the WORK directory *must* exist. When the reader is loaded, it does a check to be sure that the directory you have defined does indeed exist. If not, it attempts to create it. However, the reader will *not* abort if the directory cannot be made so that you have the opportunity to go to the SETUP menu and redefine your directories. When The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is exited properly (through the Q)uit Option on the main menu), this directory should be removed automatically by the reader. You should NEVER place files in the WORK directory that you do not want to loose! The reader DELETES THIS ENTIRE DIRECTORY after closing a mail packet as part of the normal 'cleanup' process. If you define your work directory as a directory that already contains files, the reader will warn you. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 31 Swap Directory: If you have enabled any of the memory swapping options on the reader's SETUP->Miscellaneous menu, you need to define a SWAP directory. The reader's overlay swap file consumes approximately 250K of disk space. The reader allows you to specify the drive and directory where you would like this swap file to be written. This would be particularly handy for a person running a floppy-based system. Because it takes some time to write this swap file, and read it back in again, it should probably be written to a hard disk. If your memory is tight because of running a RAMdisk, you could point the swap directory to your RAMdisk to make it lightning fast. In any case, you should enter your SWAP directory here. If this directory does not exist, the reader will attempt to create it. Editor File Path: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader requires the use of an external editor for the purpose of editing replies and new messages. The reader comes packaged with a very simple, small, public domain editor called TED3.COM. (Tiny Editor) If you are not comfortable using this editor, or you prefer to use a different editor than TED3.COM, you should give the name of the editor you would like to use here. By default, upon initialization of the reader, TED3.COM is inserted in this field. Two other excellent editors that perform well with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader are BOXER by David Hamel, and QEDIT by SemWare. Although you do not need to enter the full drive, path, and file name of your editor here, it is highly suggested. TED3.COM will work just as well as C:\BWAVE\TED3.COM, but each time the reader tries to load the editor, a full search of your DOS path must be done in order to locate it. By supplying the reader with the full path specification, it will significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to load the editor. In other words, if your editor is NOT on your DOS path statement, you *must* specify the full drive, directory, and file name. The same should be done with ALL of the external programs that you define in the reader's setup menu. If the reader encounters an @F in the editor command line, it will replace it with the file name of the message text to be worked on. If @F is not found the file name will be passed LAST on the command line. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 32 Spell Checker Command Line: The Blue Wave Offline Reader is capable of interfacing with an external spell checking program. Many people use a spell checker to spell check their messages and replies for obvious spelling errors. A spell checker that comes highly recommended by many users is ShareSpell; a ShareWare spell checking program which can be found on many BBSes, including the Blue Wave Support BBS. At the time of this writing, the latest version of ShareSpell available was 2.30. ShareSpell is written by Acropolis Software. The same rules for defining the spell checker command line apply as for defining the editor command line described above. Most spell checkers require you to pass the file name on the command line of the file that you want to check. A simple command line for ShareSpell would be C:\SSPELL\SS.EXE @F The '@F' in the command line causes the reader to REPLACE the '@F' with the name of the file that contains your message text. As long as you have the '@F' in the command line, the reader will worry about passing the file name to spell check. Terminal Command Line: The reader has a quick and convenient way to access a user defined terminal (or communications) program. From anywhere within the reader, you can press the keys <Alt-T>, and the Terminal Command Line will be executed. The rules for defining the Editor Command Line also apply to the Terminal Command Line; you must include the full path and file name of the batch file or program to run if it is NOT on your DOS Path. The terminal command line does not pass any command line parameters to your program or DOS. To help in automating your offline mail sessions, a command line parameter added to the reader will automatically load and execute your terminal program as soon as it reaches the main menu. Running "BWAVE -t" from the DOS command line will cause the reader to execute the Terminal Command Line as soon as it reaches the main menu. This command line parameter will work on both unregistered and registered versions of the reader, however, unlicensed copies must wait for the ShareWare notice. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 33 External LIST Command Line: The reader has a very simple built in ASCII File Viewer, or LIST program which is available by pressing <Alt-L> from anywhere within the program. This command line definition is supplied for those who would like a more powerful file lister, such as Vernon D. Buerg's LIST.COM to be accessible while using the reader. If *no* command line is defined here, the reader will prompt you for a file name to view when pressing <Alt-L>. It will then use the internal file lister to display the file to your screen, allowing you to scroll through the file. However, if you do define a command line here, the reader will prompt you for a file name, and then pass control to the external list command line that you set up. In order to get the file name that you enter in the reader to be passed to the external list program, you must use the '@F' token, just like the Spell Checker Command Line. A sample command line for the external LIST command might be: C:\UTIL\LIST.COM @F Of course, you will need to replace 'C:\UTIL\' with the actual drive, path, and file name of the program that you would like to call. John Hancock Command Line: The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader sports a very simple interface to the external John Hancock tagline selection and beautification utility. John Hancock is a ShareWare program by Dan Moore which allows you to select taglines, modify defined taglines, and much, much more. Full details on installing the John Hancock program are given in the section of the documentation about Taglines. If you have John Hancock installed on your system, and it is located in the directory C:\BWAVE\JHANCOCK, the command line: C:\BWAVE\JHANCOCK\JH3.EXE Is all you need to place here. The reader does not pass any command line parameters to the John Hancock program. All ShareWare programs that are discussed in the preceding pages are available on BBS systems everywhere. If you have trouble locating any of these files, you are welcome to download them free of charge from The Blue Wave Support BBS. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 34 Tagline File Name: When entering or replying to messages, The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader allows you to select a Tagline in 4 different ways, or none at all. If the Tagline Selection Type is set to PROMPT or RANDOM, the file defined here will be used to pull taglines from. If this file does not exist, the reader will show an error message, and allow you to enter a tagline manually. This default Tagline File Name can be overridden for each BBS, and even for each message area on different BBSs, allowing you the most flexibility of any offline mail system. Please see the section of the documentation on 'Taglines' for more information. Specifically, you can scan the documentation for "TAGFILES.BW". A sample override file, TAGFILES.BW, should have been enclosed with your copy of the reader. Default Message Save File: When reading messages with the reader, you may happen upon a message which you would like to save to disk as an ASCII file. The reader provides the "S" command while reading messages that does just that. Here you can define the default ASCII save file name that you would like to use. This simply saves you the trouble of typing the file name each and every time that you want to save a message to disk. The reader uses a special macro that gets expanded before you save the file to disk: @AT@. @AT@ is replaced by the area's AREA TAG before committing the message to disk. The Area Tag is supplied by the host BBS system, and often reflects the name of the message area that you are reading. For instance, the International Blue Wave Support Echo on FidoNet has the area tag of "BLUEWAVE". The default save file name of "C:\BWAVE\SAVE\@AT@.TXT" would be expanded to "C:\BWAVE\SAVE\BLUEWAVE.TXT" automatically for you. Default Replies Save File: The default Replies Save File is very similar to the default message save file, except it is used while viewing your replies through the reader's Reply View/Edit/Kill mode. The replies manager allows you to save messages to disk with the "S" - save reply to disk command. The reader also allows the use of the macro "@AT@" in the default replies save file, as described above. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 35 Default Keyword List File: When reading messages, it is often necessary to perform a 'keyword search' to limit the reader to only displaying messages that contain key words or phrases. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader sports a VERY powerful keyword search system which allows you to type keywords manually during a message reading session (the <Alt-K> command), or using a 'keyword list file' (the <K> command). A sample keyword list file should have been supplied in your distribution archive of the reader. The file KEYWORDS.BW contains information on building and customizing your own keyword list search file. For complete information on keyword searching, see the section titled "Keyword Searching", later in the documentation. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 36 The Archivers Sub-Menu ---------------------- The Archivers sub-menu allows you to define the paths and command lines that will be used by the reader when Mashing and unMashing your mail and reply packets. There are 6 entries on this sub-menu. You can define compression and decompression command lines for ZIP, ARC, PAK, LZH, and ARJ. There is also an entry called "External". You can use this "External" Slot for any archivers/unarchivers that may come along that the reader will not recognize. When the reader does not recognize the archive format of a mail packet, the command line entered in the "External" slot will be used. If that command line fails, the reader will abort that mail packet, and take you back to the Main Blue Wave Menu. Two "macro" characters may be used in the command line definitions for automatic insertion of the file names and directories by The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Where the archiver command line needs the name of the file to be worked on, you should use the "macro" @F. The other "macro", @I, is usually used as the second command line parameter to the archiver or unarchiver. For example, suppose your download directory is "C:\BWAVE\DOWN", and the packet that you are about to open is WILDBLUE.TU1. You also have your work directory defined as "C:\BWAVE\WORK". In order for The Blue Wave Reader to successfully decompress your mail packet (ZIP compression is assumed), it would need to execute the following command: PKUNZIP C:\BWAVE\DOWN\WILDBLUE.TU1 C:\BWAVE\WORK If you have this defined as your ZIP decompression command line: PKUNZIP.EXE @F @I the reader would do all of the work for you. For each compression type that the reader supports, a sample command line will be given. Please remember that if the archiver or unarchiver you are trying to use is NOT located on your DOS path or in your reader directory, you will need to insert the FULL drive:\path\filename.ext in these fields. Otherwise, you may just specify the name of the .EXE or .COM file. ZIP: These are the suggested command lines for ZIP compression and decompression: PKZIP.EXE @F @I PKUNZIP.EXE @F @I ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 37 ARC: These are the suggested command lines for ARC compression and decompression. (Please remember that you may substitute PKPAK and PKUNPAK for PKARC and PKXARC below). PKARC.COM -a @F @I PKXARC.EXE @F @I PAK: These are the suggested command lines for PAK compression and decompression: PAK.EXE a @F @I PAK.EXE e @F @I LZH: These are the suggested command lines for LZH compression and decompression. (Please note that you may substitute LHARC.EXE for LHA.EXE below). If you have "Display Archiver Output" set to YES: LHA a /m @F @I LHA e /m @F @I If you have "Display Archiver Output" set to NO: LHA a /m /n2 @F @I LHA e /m /n2 @F @I The purpose of the /n2 switch when using LHA is to prevent 'bleed through' of the archiver output when "Display archiver output" is set to NO. ARJ: These are the suggested command lines for ARJ compression and decompression: ARJ.EXE a -e @F @I ARJ.EXE e @F @I ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 38 The Strings Sub-Menu -------------------- "Any Name" Default: This field is provided as a convenience to you. It could possibly serve several purposes, such as to monitor mail to other people, or look for mail addressed to a different alias than the one(s) you use on BBS systems. When the reader encounters a message addressed TO or FROM the "Any Name" Default, it will act as if it has encountered a PERSONAL Message. If you have "Beep On Personal Messages" enabled, the reader will sound a beep when this name is encountered. Some BBS host systems have message areas that allow you to post under ANY alias you like; that is to say, you can modify the FROM: field of a when replying or entering a message. The name in the "Any Name" Default field will be used to fill in the FROM: field automatically. Of course, you may change the field if you like. It is only provided as a default response. QWK Alias Name: One of the weaknesses of the QWK formatted mail packet is the fact that only ONE name is passed from the host BBS system to the reader. This presents a problem when you are scanning for personal messages, especially if you use both your real name and an alias for posting messages. The QWK Alias Name is used to scan for personal messages while you are using the reader in "QWK mode". You may place any name here you like. Quote Header String: The Quote Header string can be used to add some 'color' to your messages. If you have enabled the option "Attach Quote Header to Replies" in the setup menu's Enter/Reply Options menu, this is the string that will be placed at the beginning of all of your replies. Several MACRO characters are available, which are replaced by actual text when quoting: @F - This is replaced with the name in the FROM: field of the message you are replying to. @FF - This is the First name ONLY in the FROM: field. @FL - This is the Last name ONLY in the FROM: field. @T - This is replaced with the entire TO: field. @TF - This is the First name ONLY in the TO: field. @TL - This is the Last name ONLY in the TO: field. @S - This is replaced with the SUBJECT Field. @D - This is replaced with the DATE of the message. @N - Create a New Line, or carriage return. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 39 The Registration Sub-Menu ------------------------- When you register your copy of the reader with Cutting Edge Computing, you will be issued a registration code. The registration code you receive will tell the reader that you have indeed paid for your copy, and will unlock the registered user only features in the mail system. Additionally, the ShareWare notice screen will disappear, and there will not be a delay when loading the reader. When you receive your registration information from Cutting Edge Computing, you will need to enter the information that is on this menu: Registration Name: Here you should enter your name, EXACTLY as it appears on the registration form you received from Cutting Edge Computing. If you do not enter it EXACTLY as shown on your form, the reader will not acknowledge your registration properly. If you used a middle initial or other punctuation, and this is displayed on your registration form, you must enter it here. Example: "Jonathan Q. Public". Registration Number: Upon receiving your registration papers, you will receive a unique registration code. Enter the code here EXACTLY as it appears on your registration form. Secondary Registration ---------------------- The secondary registration fields are provided so that two separate users can enter registration information into the reader. The secondary registration name and number serve the same purpose as the primary registration; they tell the reader that the person reading the mail packet is a registered user. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 40 GLOBAL COMMAND KEYS ------------------- Before we begin discussing the operation of the reader, it seems appropriate to discuss the keys that are available throughout the ENTIRE reader. At *any* point in the execution of the reader, the following key presses will activate the described function. <Alt-H> ------- Pressing <Alt-H> from anywhere within the reader will activate the Global Command Key help window. This help window briefly describes all of the keys that are available to be called globally. <Alt-D> ------- Perhaps the most useful of the global command keys is <Alt-D>. The <Alt-D> hotkey will cause the reader to shell to DOS. To exit the DOS shell and return to your mail reading session, simply type "EXIT" at the DOS command line, and press ENTER. The reader will resume execution at the exact point in which the shell to DOS was activated. <Alt-C> ------- Another useful function of the reader is the <Alt-C> hotkey. This hotkey causes the reader to jump to the SETUP, or Configuration menu. Unlike the other global hotkeys, the <Alt- C> hotkey is DISABLED when you are at the reader's main menu. To enter the setup while you are at the main menu, simply select the "SETUP" menu item. When you enter the SETUP menu through the <Alt-C> hotkey, a few menu items will be disabled. Changing the WORK directory, the DOWNLOAD directory, or the UPLOAD directory is not allowed when jumping to the setup menu with this hotkey. Additionally, you cannot change video modes (25/43/50 line modes) when you do not enter the SETUP menu through the main menu. This function is provided to make quick changes to your configuration while you are currently processing a mail packet. <Alt-B> ------- The <Alt-B> hotkey is provided for mail addicts world-wide. The users of Blue Wave affectionately call this the "Boss Key". If you are hard at work reading messages and your boss happens to walk in, a quick press of the <Alt-B> key will take care of any prying eyes. The screen is cleared, and a fake "C:\DOS" prompt is displayed. You MUST press the ESCape key to exit. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 41 <Alt-I> ------- The <Alt-I> hotkey will pop up an information window which contains information about the version of the reader you are using. The version number, the copyright holder, and the registered status appear at the top of the window. The bottom half of the window provides you with useful information about the operating environment of the reader. The amount of free memory available to the reader is displayed, along with the free disk space on your WORK drive. If the reader's auto-DESQview detection finds that DESQview is running on your system, the version of DESQview will also be displayed. <Alt-1> ------- Pressing the <Alt-1> key combination (the "1" key must be the one above the lettered keys on the keyboard. Pressing <Alt> along with the "1" on the keypad will NOT work correctly) will bring up a Reminder Timer. The reminder timer serves as a very useful tool. You can define the number of minutes you would like the reader to wait before reminding you that your dinner is burning (or any other life-threatening event). When the alarm timer has expired, you will be given a screen show, complete with alarm noise and a snooze button! <Alt-L> ------- Pressing <Alt-L> will pop up a dialogue box which asks you for a file name to view. The purpose of the <Alt-L> hotkey is to allow you to view text files on your drive(s) while using the reader. If you have an "EXTERNAL LIST COMMAND LINE" defined in the reader's setup menu, the reader will execute that command line with the file name you type in the window as the command line parameter. The reader also has a built-in file viewer. If you prefer to use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader's internal file lister, simply delete any command line defined in this slot. The reader will automatically use the internal file lister if no command line is defined. If you are using the reader's internal file lister, instructions for moving within the lister will appear on the bottom line of the screen. To return to the normal operations of the reader, simply press ESCape. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 42 <Alt-T> ------- The <Alt-T> command is provided as a quick and easy way to enter your favorite terminal (or communications) program. When you press <Alt-T> from anywhere within the reader, the "TERMINAL COMMAND LINE", defined in the reader's setup menu, is executed. Registered users of The Blue Wave Offline Mail System also have the option of using the "-t" command line parameter. If you execute the reader with the command line "BWAVE -t", the reader will automatically execute the terminal command line upon reaching the main menu. For advanced users, it is possible to set up batch and script files to completely automate your offline mail sessions! <Alt-F1> through <Alt-F10> -------------------------- Pressing <Alt-F1>, <Alt-F2>, <Alt-F3>, and so on will cause the reader to execute a BATCH file called "ALTF1.BAT", "ALTF2.BAT", "ALTF3.BAT", and so on. The Alt-FKey batch files are provided as a further convenience to you, since you can define your own programs to run through the reader. As an example, you can create a batch file called ALTF7.BAT in your reader's directory that calls up your favorite word processor. When you press <Alt-F7>, this batch file will automatically be called by the reader. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 43 THE MAIN MENU ------------- After your initial configuration is complete, you will be returned to The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader's MAIN Menu. The main menu will also appear as the first menu each time you load BWAVE.EXE from the DOS command line. From the Main Menu, you can select from five options: Open Mail Packet, Closed Packet Menu, Packet Management, Setup Parameters, and Quit. Open Mail Packet ---------------- When you select "O"pen Mail Packet from the main menu, the reader will do a quick scan of the directory you have defined as your "Download Directory" in the SETUP Menu. The reader will attempt to find all packets that it believes to be Blue Wave Mail Packets, or QWK Mail Packets. Any file whose file extension falls into one of the categories below will be displayed in a selection window: .Sa1 - .Sa9 ---| .Su1 - .Su9 | Mail packets with these extensions normally .Mo1 - .Mo9 | are Blue Wave Mail Door-generated mail packets .Tu1 - .Tu9 | .We1 - .We9 | The file extension indicates the day of the .Th1 - .Th9 | week the file was downloaded. .Fr1 - .Fr9 ---| .QWK The .QWK file extension normally indicates .QW1 - .QW9 that the file was downloaded from a generic QWK-style mail system. .1 - .9 ---| The reader allows you to rename mail packets .01 - .99 | to have purely numerical extensions so that .001 - .999 ---| many mail packets can be saved for later use. You are allowed to rename mail packet extensions however you like. The reader does not care if you rename a .QWK packet to have a .971 file extension, nor does it care if you rename it to have a .Su7 file extension. The reader will auto-detect the type of mail packet it is after decompression. All mail packets are sorted in the packet selection window from NEWEST to OLDEST. Therefore, you should be able to find your newest mail packets at the top of the list. You can scroll through the list of mail packets with your cursor keys or your mouse to highlight the packet you would like to read. When you have highlighted the correct packet, press ENTER. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 44 After the packet has been selected, the reader will decompress the mail bundle to your defined WORK directory, process the mail packet, and then look for any reply files you may have waiting in your UPLOAD directory. If a reply packet is found for the BBS you are about to read mail for, you will be asked: A Reply Packet Exists for this BBS. Do you want to ADD to it? If you answer "Y", the reader will then begin to decompress your reply packet to the WORK\REPLY directory so that it can be added to during your mail session. If you answer "N", the reader will DELETE the reply packet for you, and continue with the mail reading process. If the unpacking of the mail packets was successful, you will be taken to the OPEN PACKET MENU (described later). If the unpacking of the mail packets was NOT successful, the reader will give you some type of error message, and then return you to the main menu. In order to read the troublesome mail packet, it will be necessary to correct the error condition (it is usually a wrong DECOMPRESSION COMMAND LINE) and attempt to reload the mail packet. Closed Packet Menu ------------------ In order to enter the Closed Packet Menu, you must have downloaded at least one Blue Wave Mail Packet or QWK mail packet from a BBS, and have opened the mail packet with the "Open Mail Packet" menu command. Each time a mail packet is opened, the reader compares the INFormation file (*.INF) contained in the mail packet with any that may be located in the main Blue Wave directory. If you do not have an INFormation file from that BBS, or if the INFormation file you have is older than the one contained in the mail packet that you are opening, the reader will make a copy of it in the current directory. The Closed Packet Menu allows you to enter new messages, perform offline configurations, enter file requests, and edit or kill replies without having to have a current packet for the BBS you would like to work with. This is a feature not available in most offline mail readers. When you select "C"losed Packet Menu from the Blue Wave MAIN menu, you will be shown a list of all BBSs that you have previously downloaded and read mail from. Highlight the BBS that you would like to work with, and press ENTER. (If only one INFormation file is available, it will automatically be loaded by the reader.) As with the Open Packet Menu, the reader will scan your reader UPLOAD directory for any mail packet that may be waiting to be uploaded back to the host BBS system and ask to ADD to the pkt. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 45 Packet Management ----------------- The Packet Management system allows you to manage the mail packets that are sitting in the reader's DOWNLOAD directory. When selecting this menu item, a list of all mail packets in your download directory is generated and displayed in the same fashion as when selecting "Open Mail Packet". When using the Packet Management system, you can mass delete packets, delete single packets, and rename packets in your DOWNLOAD directory. To purge mail packets one at a time, move the highlight bar to the packet you would like to delete and press ENTER. The reader will then ask for confirmation. Type "Y" if you wish to delete the packet. Type "N" or ESC if you do not want to delete the file. To delete several mail packets at a time, move the highlight bar to the first packet you would like deleted and press the SPACEBAR. Continue this process until you have selected all packets that you would like purged. When done tagging packets, press ESC. The reader will then ask for confirmation before deleting the mail packets. To abort the deletion, press "N" or ESC. To delete the mail packets, type "Y". The packet management system also allows you to rename mail packets. To rename a mail packet, highlight the packet you want to rename. Then press F10, or click the left mouse button on the letters "F10" at the bottom of the screen. A popup window will appear in the center of the screen, and ask you for the new file extension you would like to place on the packet. When renaming mail packets from the DOS command line, it is very important that you NOT modify the root name of the file. The reader will not load the mail packet properly if the root name of the mail bundle is different from the names of the files inside of it. (This does NOT apply to QWK mail packets. QWK mail packets may be renamed any way you like). Setup Parameters ---------------- Selecting "S" from the Main Menu will take you to the SETUP/Installation Menu. For full details on the SETUP menu, please see the previous section in the documentation. Quit The Blue Wave ------------------ Pressing ESC or "Q" from the Main Menu will allow you to exit The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader normally. Whenever you use the reader, you should be sure to properly exit the program so that anything that needs to be done with your reply and/or mail packets may be processed. You may loose your replies otherwise! ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 46 THE OPEN PACKET MENU -------------------- After selecting "Open Mail Packet" from the main menu and your mail packet has been successfully opened, you will be shown a new screen with a new menu. This screen is referred to as the OPEN PACKET MENU. At the bottom of this screen, you will notice some information about the current packet. The file name of the packet that you have open is displayed on the top border of the information window. Inside the window, you will find the name of the BBS that the mail packet came from, along with the Sysop's name. At this point, your mail packet is open and ready for use. There are several choices on the Open Packet Menu, and each one will be described in detail below. Read Mail Packet ---------------- Selecting "R"ead Mail Packet from the Open Packet Menu will allow you to read the mail that you have downloaded through The Blue Wave Mail Door or one of the generic QWK mail doors. You will be shown a list of all message areas that you are currently downloading, along with the total messages in each area, the number of messages in the area that you have NOT read, and the total number of personal messages in each area. Select the message area that you would like to read from this list, and press ENTER. The reader will then begin the message reading process for that message area. For the commands available while reading messages, please see the section titled "READING MESSAGES". The screen that is displayed after selecting "Read Mail Packet" is known as the "Choose Area to Read" selection window. Much of the power of the mail system is accessible through this selection window. Below are the descriptions of the functions available while at the "Choose Area to Read" selection window: <Tab> ----- Position the highlight bar on a message area that you would like more information on, then press the <Tab> key. A popup window will appear on the screen with more information about the area that is highlighted. <Alt-P> ------- The <Alt-P> key combination performs a global scan and read of all messages that are addressed TO you (personal messages). After pressing <Alt-P>, you have the choice of reading all personal messages, or only the UNREAD personal messages, if there are any in the mail packet. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 47 <Alt-K> ------- The <Alt-K> key combination performs a packet purge function. While reading messages, you can 'mark' certain ones for deletion from a mail bundle. The <Alt-K> command is used to actually pack these deleted messages out of the mail bundle. The <Alt-K> command will also allow you to delete messages which have already been read in addition to messages that have been marked for deletion. <F1> ---- As you read messages through the reader, it keeps several bits of information as to the 'status' of the message. These status bits include whether you have read the message, whether you have replied to the message, or whether you have marked the message for later replying, printing, deletion, or saving to an ASCII file. Pressing F1 will allow you to clear, set, or toggle the status of any or ALL of these bits in either the currently highlighted message area or all areas in the current mail packet. <F5> ---- The F5 key is a very powerful tool when you want to save entire groups of messages to either your printer or disk file. As you read messages in the reader, you can 'mark' messages for later Saving, Printing, or Replying. When you are ready to either save or print these groups of messages, all that is necessary is to press F5. You will be first asked whether you would like to save messages to an ASCII file, or write them to the printer. Press 'S' to save messages to an ASCII file, or 'P' to print messages to your printer. The next screen will prompt you for which messages you would like to operate on. You can choose to operate on ALL messages, UNREAD messages, only your PERSONAL messages, or messages that are marked for Saving, Printing, or Replying. And finally, you will be asked if you would like to operate on ALL areas in your download packet, or only the currently highlighted message area. The reader will then proceed to perform the desired operation on the messages that you have indicated. If, at any time, you wish to abort the procedure, simply press your ESCape key or click the right mouse button. If you have indicated that you want to save messages to an ASCII file, the reader will then ask you for the file name to save the messages to. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 48 <F7> ---- Pressing F7 will allow you to enter a message to the currently highlighted message area. The reader will perform the same steps as if you were entering messages elsewhere in the reader. For more information on entering messages, please see the section titled "ENTERING MESSAGES", later in the documentation. <F9> ---- Pressing F9 while at the "Choose Area to Read" selection window will allow you to dynamically change the sorting parameter for the currently highlighted message area. After highlighting the message area that you would like to read, press F9. You will be given a small menu that asks you for your choice as to how you would like the messages sorted. You can choose to sort on the FROM: field, the TO: field, the SUBJECT: field, or to load the messages with no sorting done on them. <F10> ----- The F10 key is another very powerful feature of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Pressing F10 at the selection window will allow you to read certain messages across different message areas. A secondary selection window will pop up on the screen asking you if you would like to read messages marked for Saving, Printing, Replying, all personal messages, or only unread personal messages. After pressing F10, the reader will gather all messages that you have selected from ALL message areas, and begin the message reading process. Enter New Mail in Any Area -------------------------- The "E"nter New Mail In Any Area command will allow you to post messages in bases that you are not currently downloading. If you need to enter mail in a base that you are not downloading, or a base that currently has no messages in your download packet, you will want to enter this command. The reader will then display several message areas, including ones that you ARE currently downloading. Highlight the message area that you would like to enter the new message in, and press ENTER. The reader will go through the same process just as if you were entering mail through the message reading mode. When you are done entering mail, simply press ESCape, and you will be taken back to the Open or Closed Packet Menu. NOTE THAT SOME QWK DOOR IMPLEMENTATIONS DO NOT ALLOW THIS ITEM TO WORK! ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 49 View, Edit or Kill Replies -------------------------- Selecting "V"iew, Edit, or Kill Replies from the Open Packet Menu will allow you to see inside of your current reply packet (*.NEW files for Blue Wave Packets, or *.REP files for QWK packets). The replies manager is a very powerful system, and is described in full detail in its own section. Please see "THE REPLIES MANAGER" for full instructions on using the View, Edit, or Kill replies mode. Welcome Messages and Bulletins ------------------------------ The Blue Wave Mail Doors and many of the QWK mail system doors provide the capability for the Sysop of the host BBS system to include Welcome Messages and Bulletins with your download packet. Many times these announcements contain listings of new message areas available and other important information. Selecting this menu item will present you with a list of all available bulletins and welcome screens enclosed in your mail packet. You can scroll through the listing of bulletins and select the one(s) you would like to view. Offline Configuration --------------------- Selecting "O"ffline Configuration from the Open Packet Menu will take you to the Offline Configuration Menu. The Offline Configuration Menu allows you to configure The Blue Wave Mail Door while you are using the reader and not connected to the host BBS system. This feature is DISABLED when reading a .QWK mail bundle, since the various QWK mail packaging systems simply do not provide a consistent, usable interface between the different systems. For full details, please see "OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS". File Request/View New Files --------------------------- If a file called NEWFILES.??? exists in your mail packet, the reader will display a scrollable listing of the file on the screen. As you are viewing the new files listing, you can simply type <Alt-R> to pop up the file requesting window. If NEWFILES.??? does not exist in your mail packet, you will get an informational message, and the File Request window will become active. For more information on file requesting, please see "FILE REQUESTING", later in the documentation. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 50 Quit and Close Packet --------------------- Selecting "Q"uit and Close Packet from the Open Packet Menu will close the mail bundle you are currently working with, and return you to the Blue Wave Main Menu. If you have enabled the option to ALWAYS or PROMPT save of your message read pointers and marks, the *.XTI file built by the reader will be compressed into your mail bundle with the appropriate archiver. Before completely closing the packet, however, the reader will ask you if you would like to DELETE the mail packet (if you have enabled that option within the reader's setup menu). If you delete the mail bundle, please remember that there will be no way to read it again! The reader will then erase all of the files in your WORK directory (the uncompressed mail bundle), and archive any replies, offline configurations, or file requests that you have made during the current session. If the packet you are reading is a QWK style mail bundle, the upload file will end with a .REP file extension, and be placed in your reader's UPLOAD directory. If you are reading a mail packet from a Blue Wave Mail Door, your reply packet will end with a .NEW extension and will also be placed into your reader's defined UPLOAD directory. If a reply file is made, you should upload the resulting reply file the next time you sign onto the BBS that the mail packet came from. This will complete the mail download/upload cycle. If you do not upload your reply packet, your replies will never make it to the BBS, and any offline configurations you may have made will not become active. After the reader returns to the Main Menu, you are free to quit the reader, or load another packet to read! ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 51 THE CLOSED PACKET MENU ---------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader allows you to perform some of the same functions that are normally available on the Open Packet Menu EVEN WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE A MAIL PACKET AVAILABLE FOR THE BBS YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH! In order to perform a "Closed Packet" function from The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, it is necessary to have downloaded and opened at least ONE mail packet from the BBS you would like to work with. Each time you open a mail packet for reading, the reader checks to see whether the current BBS information is newer than that which the reader has stored for use in the Closed Packet Menu. If so, the reader updates its information, and stores it in your main reader directory in a file known as the INF, or INFormation, file. The file's ROOT name will be the same as the packet name that the sysop has selected for his or her system. (If you download a packet called WILDBLUE.FR2, the reader will store a file called WILDBLUE.INF in your main reader directory.) When you select the Closed Packet Menu from The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader's MAIN menu, the reader will initialize itself with the information stored in one of these files. If only one INFormation file is found, it will automatically be loaded, and the BBS information will appear on the lower four lines of your screen. If more than one INFormation file is available, you will be prompted as to which BBS you would like to select. Move the highlight bar to the appropriate BBS, and press ENTER. Enter New Mail in Any Area -------------------------- Selecting this option from the Closed Packet Menu will allow you to enter mail in any area on the BBS that is available to you. The reader will go through the normal Message Entry screen, and then load your editor for you to enter the message. View, Edit, or Kill Replies --------------------------- View, Edit, or Kill Replies will allow you to edit any messages that may be in your current reply file (.NEW file for Blue Wave bundles, and .REP file for QWK bundles). For more information on using the replies manager, please see "REPLIES MANAGER" elsewhere in the documentation. Offline Configuration --------------------- When working with a BBS that uses a Blue Wave Mail Door, the reader will allow you to perform an Offline Configuration for the current BBS while at the Closed Packet Menu. Please see the section titled "OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS" for detailed information on performing an Offline Configuration. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 52 File Request ------------ The reader will allow you to perform a File Request from the Closed Packet Menu, also. This function works the same as the "Open Packet Menu". For more information on File Requesting, please see the section in the documentation regarding "FILE REQUESTING". Quit to Main Menu ----------------- After you have finished working at the Closed Packet Menu, you should select this option, and return to the Main Menu. Selecting "Q"uit will cause the reader to compress any reply packets that may need to be processed for uploading to the host BBS system. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 53 OFFLINE CONFIGURATIONS ---------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail System will allow you to perform Offline Configurations in a very simple, easy to use manner. The entire offline configuration process is menu driven, and does not require kludgy "messages" to operate, as is required when using other offline mail systems. First, a word about offline configurations. Offline Configuration is a way for you to communicate to The Blue Wave Mail Door any changes that you may want to make in your DOOR configuration. You can change your HotKeys mode, Xpert Mode, the message areas that you are downloading, and keywords/filters. In fact, the only thing that you cannot change through the Offline Configuration process is the selection of your Archiver and Protocol. Offline configurations can save you precious time and money, because you can take your time setting up The Blue Wave Mail Door the way you would like it without tying up the BBS and watching the phone company get rich. Offline configuration is a feature that is totally enabled upon registration of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Since the reader and door are ShareWare products, you are given a fair chance to try them out before paying for the software. After 5 offline configurations, this feature is disabled for unregistered users. When you register your reader with Cutting Edge Computing, the door will allow you to perform as many offline configurations as you please. The reader communicates your offline configuration to the door through your UPLOAD, or reply packet. When you perform an offline configuration, a special file is placed into your .NEW packet. In order for the door to recognize that you have made an offline configuration, you will need to upload your .NEW packet through The Blue Wave Mail Door. After processing any messages that you have uploaded, you will see a message from the door indicating that it is processing your offline configuration request. Your new configuration is in effect immediately after your packet is uploaded. If you want your configuration to become active AFTER your current download session, you should upload the configuration after downloading your mail packet. When you first select "Offline Configuration" from either the reader's Open Packet or Closed Packet Menus, the reader will do a quick scan of your reply directory to see if any offline configurations are pending (waiting to be uploaded to the BBS.) If an offline configuration file is found, you will be asked if you would like to load the NEW information (that which is waiting to be uploaded to the BBS). To load the ORIGINAL information, select "N". To load the changes that are waiting to be uploaded, press "Y". The reader will then take you to the Offline Configuration Menu. The Offline Configuration Menu is only available while reading a mail packet from a Blue Wave Mail Door. QWK mail systems do not have a standard interface for offline configuration, so you will need to check with the sysop of the QWK system for instructions with his/her mail door. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 54 Password -------- Press ENTER on the Password option to choose the type of passwording (if any) you would like to use within The Blue Wave Mail System. You will then be asked to fill in two fields. The first field is the password that you would like to use to protect your access to either The Blue Wave Mail Door, The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or both. Type your password here. The second field asks you which type of passwording you would like. You can selected between "None", which disables the passwording feature, "Door Only", "Reader Only", or "Both Reader and Door". Select the option you would like using the cursor keys, and press ENTER. Keywords -------- The Blue Wave Mail Door will scan and bundle messages based upon Keywords that you may define. To learn how to use Keywords in The Blue Wave Mail Door, please see "Using The Blue Wave Mail Door", later in the documentation. Press ENTER on the Keywords option to edit the Keywords that you would like the door to use. You can use the cursor keys to move between the fields, and press F10 when done. Filters ------- As with Keywords, The Blue Wave Mail Door will FILTER mail based upon strings that you may define as Filters. To learn how to use filters in The Blue Wave Mail Door, please see "Using The Blue Wave Mail Door" later in the documentation. Press ENTER on the Filters option to edit the Filters that you would like the door to use. You can use the cursor keys to move between the fields, and press F10 when done. Macros ------ The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 3 Bundling Command Macros. These macros allow you to enter a bundling command that you use frequently in just 2 keypresses while online. Again, this option can save you both online time and money. Pressing ENTER on the Macro Menu option will allow you to edit your 3 Blue Wave Bundling Command Macros. As with the previous fields, you can use the cursor keys to scroll through the fields. Press F10 or ENTER on the last field when you are finished editing your Bundling Command Macros. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 55 BBS --- Pressing ENTER on the BBS menu item will allow you to define whether or not HotKeys, Xpert Mode, and ANSI graphics in the door are ON or OFF. Additionally, the "D/L Msgs From You" toggle will tell the door whether or not you would like to receive messages in your mail packet that have your name in the "FROM:" field of the message. (Messages that you have entered on the BBS or through the offline mail system.) Areas ----- Selecting the Areas menu item will allow you to toggle on/off the message areas on the BBS that you are currently scanning and downloading. You will be shown a list of all message areas available to you on the BBS that is currently active. The message areas that are currently ACTIVE (those which you are scanning through the door) will be indicated by an asterisk (*) in the left-most column. Inactive areas will not be highlighted. If an area is currently ACTIVE, and you wish to tell the door to stop scanning the area, highlight it and press the SPACE BAR. The (*) will disappear, indicating that it will no longer be active. If an area is currently INACTIVE, and you wish to begin scanning that area for mail, simply move the highlight bar to the desired message area and press the SPACE BAR. When you are done selecting or deselecting areas for scanning, press ENTER or ESCape. If the reader thinks that you have changed your area configuration, you will be prompted whether or not you wish to upload (send the Blue Wave Mail Door) your area configuration. Press ENTER or "Y" to save your area configuration to your .NEW packet. If you wish to discard the area infomration and keep it the same, press "N". The next time you log into The Blue Wave Mail Door and upload your .NEW packet, the door will activate and/or deactivate the areas that you wish. It will then give you a list of all active areas. Quit ---- Selecting the Quit option will return you to the Open or Closed Packet Menu, depending on where you were when you entered the Offline Configuration Menu. If you have made changes to your door configuration, the reader will ask if you want to save the changes. If you want to save your changes, press "Y". You should then upload your resulting .NEW file to the mail door. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 56 FILE REQUESTING --------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail System incorporates a powerful File Request system to save you even more online time and money. File request sessions are controlled by the Sysop of each individual BBS system. Therefore, the BBS that you call may not support The Blue Wave Mail System's file request procedure. File Requesting is also limited in UNREGISTERED versions of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. You will be given 5 opportunities to try the system's file request sessions if you are an unregistered user. After you have exceeded this limit, you must either discontinue file requesting, or register your copy of The Blue Wave offline Mail Reader with Cutting Edge Computing. Registered users may file request any number of times, provided they do not exceed the Sysop's limit of files or any possible upload/download ratios. Entering your file request through the reader is simple; just choose "File Request" from either the Open or Closed Mail Packet Menu. You will then be able to enter up to 10 file names that you would like to download from the current BBS during your next upload/download session through The Blue Wave Mail Door. (The sysop may configure the door to allow less than 10 file requests. If less than 10 file requests are allowed, you will only be allowed to enter the number of file requests that your sysop allows). Wildcards in file names (the DOS '*' and '?' characters) are NOT supported. Whne you have entered a file request, the reader will include a special file in your upload (reply) packet indicating to the door which file(s) you would like to download. When you upload your packet through the door, it will search the BBS's file directories for the file(s) you have requested. If they are found, you will be given the chance to download them. When installing The Blue Wave Mail Door, the Sysop can indicate which protocols are BATCH, and which are SINGLE file protocols. The door will respond differently according to the protocol that you have chosen. Single-File Protocols --------------------- If you are using a protocol that has been installed as a SINGLE FILE protocol, you will be asked, one by one, whether or not you wish to download the file that you have requested while you are ONLINE with The Blue Wave Mail Door. Pressing "N" will skip the currently displayed file, and continue to the next file in your request packet. If you wish to download the file being displayed, press "Y". The door will then begin sending you the file with the protocol that you normally download mail packets with. Xmodem, Xmodem-1k, and Jmodem are examples of single-file protocols. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 57 Batch Protocols --------------- If you are using a protocol that has been installed as a BATCH protocol, the door will always send you your requested files in a BATCH. Using a batch protocol gives you not only increased speed, but also greater flexibility. The door will build a "batch download queue" of the file(s) that you have selected. After the door as processed your last file request, the door will ask you whether or not you wish to continue with the file request session NOW. Pressing "Y" will immediately begin your download session. At this time you should tell your communications program to begin receiving a BATCH download. Pressing "Q" will abort the file request session, and continue just as if no file requests had been received. Pressing "N" will allow you to download the file requests at the same time you download your regular mail packet. The door will return you to the main menu, where you should select "D)ownload New Mail". After the door has gathered and bundled your mail packet, it will display the "normal" screen indicating the file name and size/time of your mail packet. You will also notice that it says "Req. Size:". The total size of your file request will be shown here. Begin your mail download as usual, indicating to your communications program that you will be receiving a BATCH download. The door will then begin sending all of the files in the "download queue", beginning with the files that you have requested. Your mail packet will be sent LAST. Examples of batch protocols include Zmodem, Ymodem, Ymodem-G, and HSLink. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 58 READING MESSAGES ---------------- It is highly probable that the great majority of the time you spend using The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader will be spent actually reading messages. When it comes right down to it, the entire purpose of the reader is to allow you to read your mail OFFLINE, while saving you money in phone connect charges and allowing others to access the host BBS system. The reader allows you to enter new messages and reply to current messages offline too. Besides the obvious savings in online time in replying, you are not pushed against time limits when creating messages offline. You have time to think your messages through and create useful replies. In fact, the advent of offline mail systems has not only increased the popularity of messaging on BBSs, but has made networking (with amateur networks such as FidoNet) expand into a huge pool of useful information. As you are probably aware, BBS message bases are usually divided into sub-topics somtimes called Conferences, Message Areas, Echos, and Special Interest Groups (SIGS). When you download your mail through The Blue Wave Mail System, these message area distinctions are preserved. Selecting "Read Mail Packet" from the reader's OPEN PACKET MENU will take the reader into "message reading mode". You will be shown a list of all of the areas that you have instructed the door to bundle messages in, along with the total number of messages in the area, the total number of UNREAD messages in the area, and the total number of PERSONAL messages in the area. To actually begin reading your mail packet, you need to highlight the message area that you would like to read, and press ENTER. If you have enabled the Automatic Title Scan option in the reader's SETUP menu, you will be shown a list of all messages in the current message area. The title scan allows you to "page" through the messages and begin reading with the message that you have highlighted. To begin reading your mail on the first message, simply press ENTER again when the title scan is shown. If you press ESCape while reading messages, the reader will take you back to the Title Scan screen, and position the highlight bar on the last message that you have read. You can then page through the messages some more, and press ENTER on the message to read, or press ESCape again to return to the "Choose Area to Read" selection window. There are various keys that are active while reading mail. Each one will now be explained below in detail. At any time while reading mail, pressing F1 will give you an abbreviated HELP screen, with short descriptions of each of these keys. Additionally, pressing <Alt-M>, clicking the MIDDLE mouse button, or clicking the LEFT mouse button while the mouse cursor is on the word "Menu" (on the 6th line of the screen), will cause the reader to display a pull-down menu system. All functions can be accessed through the menu. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 59 Message Movement ---------------- The following section will describe the keys available to you while reading messages in a message area. For full information on using the mouse to navigate the reader, please see the section titled "USING THE MOUSE", later in the documentation. ESCape ------ Pressing ESCape while reading a message in an area will drop the reader backwards by one screen. If "Automatic Title Scan" is enabled in the reader's SETUP menu, you will be shown the Title Scan screen. If the Automatic Title Scan is OFF, the reader will drop to the "Choose Area to Read" selection screen. RightArrow Grey ENTER ENTER Key ---------- Each of these 3 keys will advance you to the next message in the area. If you are currently reading the LAST message in an area, the reader will sound a short beep. Pressing any one of these keys again will automatically drop you back one screen. (The reader will act as if ESCape was pressed). LeftArrow Grey MINUS ---------- These two keys will move you BACK one message in the current area. As with the "forward direction" keys, if you are reading the FIRST message in an area, the reader will beep once. Pressing these either of these two keys a second time will make the reader act as if an ESCape was pressed. UpArrow ------- The UpArrow (cursor key) will scroll the current message UP one line. If you are at the top of the message, this key becomes inactive. DownArrow --------- The DownArrow (cursor key) will scroll the current message DOWN one line. If you are at the BOTTOM of the message, this key becomes inactive. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 60 PageDown -------- The PageDown key (labeled PgDn or PgDwn on some keywords) will scroll the current message down one complete screen. PageUp ------ The PageUp key (labeled PgUp on some keyboards) will scroll the current message down one complete screen, or page. SpaceBar Grey PLUS Key ------------- The SpaceBar and Grey PLUS keys serve a dual-purpose in the reader. When a message contains more than one screen of text, pressing one of these keys will act as if PAGE DOWN was pressed. It will continue performing the PAGE DOWN function until the last page of the message is on the screen. When the last page of the message is on the screen, pressing the SpaceBar or Grey Plus key advances to the NEXT message in the message area. Home ---- The HOME key will take you to the first "page" of the current message. If the top of the message is already on the screen, this key becomes inactive. End --- The END key will take you to the last "page" of the current message. If the last line of the current message is already on the screen, this key becomes inactive. <F> --- Pressing the "F" key will take you to the very FIRST message in the current message area. If you are already at the first message in the area, this key becomes inactive. <L> --- Pressing the "L" key will take you to the very LAST message in the current message area. if you are already at the last message in the area, this key becomes inactive. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 61 <J> --- Pressing "J" while reading messages will allow you to JUMP to a specified message number in the current area. You will be prompted to enter a message number. If the message is available, the reader will immediately JUMP to that message. If the message is unavailable, you will be given an error message, and the reader will stay on the current message. 0-9 --- Pressing the 0 through 9 'number' keys will immediately bring up the "Jump to message number:" entry window. Control-RightArrow ------------------ This key is only useful when reading a mail packet on BBSs that support Reply Chaining, or Reply Linking. If the current message has a line on the message header that reads "Reply at #nn", you can press the Control-RightArrow key combination to go directly to the reply of the current message. (Hold down the CTRL key, and press the right cursor key). If the reply is not available, the reader will give you an informative message, and stay on the current message. Control-LeftArrow ----------------- This key combination is similar to the Control-RightArrow combination, but instead of moving to the reply of the current message, the reader will jump to the ORIGINAL message, if available. If the message header displays the line "Reply to #nn", this key will take you to the proper message number. Message Command Keys -------------------- The following keys allow you to perform various, useful functions while reading messages in a mail packet: <R> --- Pressing "R" while reading messages will allow you to REPLY to the current mesage. If enabled, you will be asked if you would like to Quote the current message. You will then be given the message entry "from" to fill out, containing the PRIVATE status of your message, who the message is FROM, who the message is TO, and the message SUBJECT. After the "form" has been completely filled out, the reader will load your text editor and allow you to enter the text of your message. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 62 <Alt-R> ------- This function is very similar to the <R>eply function described above, however when you press <Alt-R>, you can reply to the current message in a DIFFERENT message area. After pressing <Alt-R>, you will be presented with a list of all message areas that are available to you on the BBS. Choose the area you want the reply to go to with the highlight bar, then press ENTER. After the message area selection process is finished, you will be given the message entry form to complete, and the reader performs the same steps as for the <R> key. <E> --- The "E" key is similar in operation to the "R" key, except that you are not asked if you would like to Quote the current message. Use the "E" key when you would like to enter a NEW message in the message area. The reader will prompt you for the appropriate information, and then load your text editor. Enter the body of your mesage, and quit the editor. You can then choose to save your message, edit your message again, kill the message, spell check the message, and even cross-post or carbon-copy your message. <Alt-E> ------- The <Alt-E> key combination is very similar to the <Alt-R> key combination. Pressing <Alt-E> while reading messages in an area will allow you to post a NEW message in any message area on the BBS. The reader will display a selection list of all messages on the BBS. Simply move the highlight bar to the message area you would like to post the new message in, and press ENTER. The message entry procedure (described in the section "ENTERING MESSAGES") is followed. <O> --- The <O> key allows a reply to the ORIGINAL sender of the message. On a normal reply, the reader places the name in the "FROM:" field of the message you are reading into the "TO:" field of your reply. Using the <O> key reverses this function. It places the name in the "TO:" field of the message you are reading into the "TO:" field of your message reply. The normal message entry procedures follow when using <O>. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 63 <Alt-N> ------- Pressing <Alt-N> while reading a message will allow you to reply to the current message via NETMAIL. This key is only functional when using a Blue Wave Mail Packet, as QWK packets do not provide the interface necessary for addressing FidoNet- style netmail properly. After pressing <Alt-N>, the reader will scan the BBS information file for a message area defined as NETMAIL. If the reader cannot locate a netmail base on the BBS that you are reading messages from, an informational message will be displayed, and the message entry procedure will be aborted. If the reader was successful in locating a netmail base, it will begin the netmail message entry procedure (See "ENTERING MESSAGES", later in the documentation). If possible, the reader will scan the network address out of the Origin line of the original message, and place it into the netmail message entry form for you. <Alt-K> ------- Pressing <Alt-K> while reading mail will allow you to perform a 'manual' keyword search of the current message area. A popup window will appear with five keyword entry slots. After entering the keywords that you would like to search for, the reader will begin scanning the message area for matches to your input, and then begin displaying messages that contain your keyword(s). To exit "Keyword Search/Read Mode", simply press ESCape. The reader will resume normal reading. For full information on keyword searching, please see "KEYWORD SEARCHING", later in the documentation. <K> --- Pressing <K> while reading messages will allow you to search for keywords from a prepared TEXT file. Many genealogists use this function to scan for several names at one time. The reader will prompt you for the name of a keyword-list file, and then begin the keyword search. Keyword-list searching is intended for REGISTERED users only. However, the reader will allow UNregistered users to search for only 5 keywords at a time. Registered copies of the reader allow for ANY number of keywords to be searched at any one time. After the reader has entered search mode simply press ESCape to resume reading mail. For full information on keyword searching, please see "KEYWORD SEARCHING", later in the documentation. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 64 <Alt-S> ------- Pressing <Alt-S> while reading messages will activate the reader's HEADER SEARCH feature. You will be given a "form" similar to the message entry form. Fill out the search criteria, and press F10 or ENTER on the last field of the window when finished. You can instruct the reader to perform a header search for ANY matches that it finds by answering "N" to he "Must match all search criteria" question. If you want the message to match ALL of the criteria, answer "Y" to this question. Press ESCape when you have completed your header search. --- Pressing while reading messages will make the reader search for PERSONAL mail in the current message area ONLY. (To perform a global search for personal messages, use the <Alt-P> key combination from the 'Choose Area to Read' selection window). The reader will act the same as if it were performing a user-defined search of the current message area headers. <S> --- Pressing the <S> key while reading a message will allow you to save it to an ASCII Disk file. The reader will prompt you for the file name to save the message to. Press ESCape to abort the save function. If the file you specify already exists, it will automatically be APPENDED to, unless you press F10 after entering the file name. If the file does not exist, it will be created by the reader. <Alt-W> ------- The key combination <Alt-W> performs the same function as the <S>ave to ASCII file function, but instead writes the current message to your PRINTER. If you have toggled "Send Form Feed after Printing Msgs" ON, the reader will send a form-feed to the printer after printing each message. <V> --- Pressing the <V> key will immediately take you to the replies manager, or View/Edit/Kill Replies mode. If you do not have any replies that belong to the currently open message bundle, an informational message will be displayed, and you will be returned to message reading mode. See "REPLIES MANAGER". ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 65 <Alt-V> ------- The <Alt-V> key combination will allow you to View the current message on-screen, as is. This command is useful for BBSs that support the uploading or entering of ANSI messages (those which contain the ANSI Escape Color Codes). The reader will simply output the current message to the screen through DOS (just as if you executed a "TYPE FILENAME.EXT" at the DOS prompt). The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader has an INTERNAL ANSI display driver, allowing you to view ANSI messages on the screen very quickly and easily. The loading of ANSI.SYS to view ANSI screens and messages is not necessary. <T> --- The <T> key will give you a Title Scan of the current message area. The Title Scan can be very handy to use if you have disabled the Automatic Title Scan. The Title Scan allows you to page through the message "headers", as a type of 'preview' of the message text. It displays the messages "read" and "reply" status (whether or not you have already read or replied to the message), who the message is FROM, who the message is TO, and the SUBJECT of the message. It is also a quick way to jump between messages. You can move the highlight bar to the message that you would like to read, and press ENTER. The reader will immediately move you to the message that you have selected, and begin reading from there. --- Pressing while reading a message area will give you more information about that area. This display shows you the "AreaTag" of the message area, the number of personal messages, the number of unread messages, the total number of messages, and whether the current base is Echomail, Netmail, or a Local conference. <Alt-F> ------- Pressing <Alt-F> while reading a message will allow you to FORWARD the current message to another user in another message base. When reading a mail packet that has come from a Blue Wave Mail Door, you MAY NOT HAVE THIS OPTION AVAILABLE TO YOU. Forwarding messages is usually a reserved sysop-only function. The sysop of your host system has the ability to control access to this function in the reader. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 66 <A> --- Pressing <A> while reading messages will bring up a window which contains an editing field. The purpose of this function is to allow you to edit and/or create a TAGLINE while reading messages. After editing or entering a tagline in the editing window, the reader will append the tagline to your defined tag file. If a tagline is currently on the message reading screen (the line begins with "... "), the current tagline will automatically be brought into the editing window. The <A> key also allows you to cut and paste a tagline from the message reading screen. When the editing window is on the screen, simply press F9. You will then be able to mark a block of text for editing and later appending to your tagline file. When adopting a tagline with the <A> key, the new tagline automatically is placed in the file defined as your DEFAULT TAGLINE FILE in the reader's setup menu. If you would like to adopt the tagline to an alternate file, use the <Ctrl-A> adoption process. <Alt-A> ------- Pressing <Alt-A> when there is a tagline on the screen (a line beginning with the characters "... ") will cause the reader to adopt the current tagline to the default tagline file with NO questions asked. It is a very quick way to adopt a tagline. When adopting a tagline with the <Alt-A> key, the new tagline automatically is placed in the file defined as your DEFAULT TAGLINE FILE in the reader's setup menu. If you would like to adopt the tagline to an alternate file, use the <Ctrl-A> adoption process. <Ctrl-A> -------- Pressing <Ctrl-A> while reading messages will allow you to adopt a tagline in much the same manner as the <A> key process, with one exception. The <Ctrl-A> function will allow you to enter the name of an alternate tagline file. If you would like to adopt, enter, or edit a tagline to a file that is not defined as your DEFAULT TAGLINE FILE, you must do so with this function. <Ctrl-A> will also allow you to cut and paste a line from the text of a message. Simply press F9 while the <Ctrl-A> dialogue box is on the screen, mark the block of text you would like to edit or adopt, and the reader will take care of the rest for you! For more information, please see the section "TAGLINES". ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 67 <M> --- Pressing <M> while reading a message will allow you to MARK that message for later operations. A sub-menu will appear asking if you would like to mark the current message for later Saving to ASCII file, Printing, Deletion, or Replying. Select the appropriate item from the menu, and the reader will continue where it left off. Five short cut keys are provided so that you may bypass the pop up menu if desired: <Ctrl-S> -------- Pressing <Ctrl-S> will mark the current message for later Saving to an ASCII file. <Ctrl-P> -------- Pressing <Ctrl-P> will mark the current message for later Printing. <Ctrl-R> -------- Pressing <Ctrl-R> will mark the current message for later replying. <Ctrl-D> -------- Pressing <Ctrl-D> will mark the current message for later Deletion from the mail packet. <Del> ----- Pressing the <Del> Key will mark the current message for later deletion, just as the <Ctrl-D> key does. However, the <Del> key adds a different twist; the reader automatically advances to the NEXT message in the message area. These various markings come in handy when you wish to dump entire blocks of messages to a text file at one time, print messages in a batch mode, reply to messages all at one time, or delete messages from your mail packet. All operations that can be performed on Marked messages are accessible through the 'Select Area to Read' selection window (the F5 through F10 Keys). If a message currently has a mark SET, and you wish to remove that mark, simply perform the same step(s) you made to place the mark on the message. This will cause the reader to REMOVE the mark from the current message. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 68 <*> --- Pressing the '*', or asterisk key, will toggle the "read" status of the message. If you are reading a message, but would like to mark it as UNREAD so that you can come back to it later, simply press this key. If you are using a mouse, you can accomplish the same thing quickly by moving the mouse cursor to the words "Read: Yes/No" in the message header display and clicking the LEFT mouse button. <~> --- The tilde key will allow you to quickly toggle the current setting of the "Double-Byte Language Support". For more information about who and when you should enable this option, please see "Double-Byte Language Support" in the section regarding the SETUP menu. <Alt-M> ------- Pressing the <Alt-M> keys in message reading mode will activate the reader's PULL DOWN MENU SYSTEM. This menu is extremely useful when you need to browse through all of the commands available to you. The pull down menu system is also the main navigation tool when using a mouse with the reader. The pull down menu system is activated by placing the mouse cursor on the words " Menu " on the message header border, and pressing the LEFT mouse button. If you have a 3-button mouse, the MIDDLE mouse button also activates the pull down menu system. For full details on using the mouse with the reader, please see the section "USING THE MOUSE". ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 69 THE REPLIES MANAGER ------------------- The replies manager, or "View, Edit, or Kill Mode", allows you to perform operations and manage your currently active replies and new messages. Viewing your replies is strikingly similar to message reading mode, which was described in the previous section. When entering the replies manager, you are automatically presented with a title scan of your reply packet. You can move the highlight bar to the desired reply and press ENTER. This will take you directly to the reply that was highlighted. After you are in the replies manager, you are presented with the replies in your reply packet, one by one. You can scroll through your replies and move from one reply to the next through the use of your cursor keys. The cursor keys (and all of the other "MESSAGE MOVEMENT" keys work as described for message reading mode). When you are finished editing, deleting (killing), and performing the various other functions with your replies, simply press the ESCape key (or the RIGHT mouse button, if you are using the mouse). You will be returned to the point in the reader at which you entered the replies manager. The following keys perform the described functions while in View, Edit, Kill mode (the replies manager). <E> --- Pressing the <E> key allows you to EDIT the reply that is currently being displayed on the screen. You will first be given the standard message entry "form", with all of the fields pre-filled with the information contained in the current message. After accepting the information on this screen, you will be asked "Edit the message text?". If you would like to edit the text of your message, press "Y", or the LEFT mouse button. Your text editor will then be loaded with the current message for you to edit. After the editing is complete, the reader will re-display your message with the changes you have made. <M> --- Pressing the <M> key will allow you to move the reply that is currently displayed on the screen to ANOTHER message area on the BBS. After typing <M>, you will be presented with a selection list window of all message areas on the BBS. Simply highlight the message area that you would like the reply moved to and press ENTER. You have now moved your message to the new area. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 70 <K> or <Del> ------------ Pressing the <K> key, or the <Del> key will cause the reader to mark the current reply for DELETION from your reply packet. The reader does NOT delete the reply immediately. Instead, the message is tagged, and the word "DELETED" appears on the bottom of the message header border. If you accidentally delete a message, simply press <K> or <Del> again, and the DELETED status will be removed. When you leave the replies manager, the reader will present a red dialogue box with the question: There are replies marked for deletion! Are you SURE you want to delete these replies? If you are sure that you would like to delete the messages that are marked, answer "Y". If you have mistakenly deleted messages, simply press "N", and the reader will not pack the replies out of your reply packet. <C> --- Pressing <C> while in the replies manager will cause the reader to execute the "SPELL CHECKER COMMAND LINE", which is defined in the SETUP menu. The current message text file name will be sent to the command line (the @F parameter will be replaced by the file name). Use this command if you would like to spell check the current reply. <S> --- Pressing <S> while in the replies manager will allow you to save your current reply to an ASCII disk file. You will be asked for the file name to save the message to. Type the name of the file, and press ENTER to append to or create the file. Press F10 to overwrite an existing file. Pressing F5 while the "Save Message to ASCII file" window is active will present you with a directory list, allowing you to select the file you would like. <Alt-W> ------- Pressing <Alt-W> will write the currently displayed reply to your defined printer. This function operates identically to the <Alt-W> option while in reading messages mode. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 71 <T> --- Pressing the <T> key will cause the reader to redisplay the TITLE SCAN of your current reply packet. <~> --- Pressing the tilde key will toggle the current status of the "Double-Byte Language Support" option, which is explained in detail in the SETUP menu section. <Alt-M> ------- The <Alt-M> key combination will activate the View/Edit/Kill Mode menu system. This will allow you to browse through the options available to you in the replies manager and choose the function you would like to perform, without having to memorize the command keys available. If you have a 3-button mouse, pressing the MIDDLE mouse button while in the reply manager will also activate the menu system. If you do not have a 3-button mouse connected to your system, you can simply move the mouse cursor to the word "MENU" on the bottom line of the message header window, and click the LEFT mouse button. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 72 ENTERING MESSAGES ----------------- One of the "other" main functions of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is the process of entering messages offline. Not only does entering messages offline save you connect time to the host BBS system, but it also allows you to reply to your messages quickly and easily. It allows you to format your replies intelligently, research your facts, and present your ideas in a clear and concise way. There are two types of message entry in The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. QWK mail packets, local message bases (bases that are not echoed to other systems through a mail network), and Echomail bases all use one form of message entry. FidoNet style netmail bases use another similar, but extended format for message entry. FidoNet style netmail entry is ONLY available when reading mail packets from a Blue Wave Mail Door compatible host system. The basic reason is that the QWK mail packet format does not provide a consistent interface for entering FidoNet netmail. Not only that, but the QWK packet format is not capable of passing information to the reader which communicates the TYPE of message base each area is defined as on the host BBS system. To enter messages with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, it is required that you have an EXTERNAL ASCII-capable TEXT EDITOR defined in your reader's SETUP menu, as was described at the beginning of this documentation. A very simple text editor (TED3.COM) was supplied in the reader's distribution archive. If you do not have another ASCII-capable text editor available, TED3.COM will get the job done. Entering Local, Echomail, and QWK-style Messages ------------------------------------------------ When you begin entering a message to a message area that is defined as a local base or an echomail base (with Blue Wave Packets), or when you begin entering a message when utilizing a QWK-style mail packet, you will presented with the 'standard' message entry form. The standard message entry form consists of four entry "fields". The first field is the PRIVATE status of the message. (If you are using a Blue Wave Mail Packet, this field may be DISABLED. If the host BBS system indicates that private messages are either not allowed, or are forced to private status, then the reader will automatically place the correct value in this field, and not allow you to toggle the status). If you would like to make your message PRIVATE, enter a "Y" in this field. If you want to make the message PUBLIC, enter a "N" in this field. This field is always enabled with QWK message replies, due to limitations of the QWK format. Even though you can set the PVT status, the mail door *MAY* change the status of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 73 The second field displayed is the FROM: field. More often than not, this field will be DISABLED. Most message areas on the BBS host systems allow only one type of name to be entered in the FROM: field; either your alias or your real name (if aliases are allowed on the host system). If you are using a Blue Wave Mail Packet, and the sysop of the host BBS system allows ANY alias to be entered in the FROM: field of the current message area, the reader will allow you to edit this field. The third field used to enter the name of the person to whom you are addressing your message. When entering NEW messages, this field will default to "All". If you would like to address a new message to a specific person, simply type their name over the word "All". If you are REPLYING to a message, the person's name to whom you are replying will automatically appear in the TO: field. If you would like to change the addressee of the message, simply begin typing the new name. The reader will erase the default name as soon as you type a letter. To accept the default, simply press ENTER. You will notice that when the highlighted field is the TO: field, a message will appear on the right hand side of the dialogue box which reads: "? for Name Lookup List". If you type ?[ENTER] in the TO: field, a window will appear directly beneath the message entry dialogue box which lists all of the names you have defined in your NAMES.BW file. You can then highlight the name of the person to whom you would like to address your message and press ENTER. The reader will fill in the fields for you. For more information on using NAMES.BW, please see the sample NAMES.BW file enclosed with your reader. The fourth and final field in the message entry dialogue box is the SUBJECT of the message. Here you should enter an appropriate subject for your message so that other users, when they scan the messages in a message area, will read your message if the subject line piques their interest. To finish your message header entry, simply press ENTER on the SUBJECT field, press F10, or click the LEFT mouse button the the words "F10 - Accept" at the bottom of the message entry window. The reader will then load your text editor and you can begin entering the text of your message. At any time during the message entry procedure, you can type <Ctrl-M> or <Ctrl-X> to make carbon copies or cross-post your message. Details of these operations are described near the end of this section. At any time during the message header entry procedure, you can press ESCape or click the LEFT mouse button on the words "ESC - Abort" to abort the message entry function. Clicking the RIGHT mouse button will also act as if an ESCape was pressed during the message entry process. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 74 Echomail versus Netmail ----------------------- Before the process of entering netmail is described, it may be appropriate to discuss the concept of netmail in general. If you are active on FidoNet message bases, you may see the term "NETMAIL" used daily. Netmail is similar to Echomail in some ways. Both echomail and netmail are entered on one BBS system, and travel to at least one other BBS system on the network. There are, however, several big differences between Echomail and Netmail. Echomail is never addressed to only one BBS system. Echomail travels to ALL SYSTEMS that carry that particular echomail base. Sometimes echomail bases are carried by only a very few systems, and sometimes they are carried by several hundred or several thousand systems around the country (and even the world!). The FidoNet International BLUEWAVE Support echo is an example of an echomail base that is carried throughout the world. When you enter a message into the BLUEWAVE echo, and you address the message to me (George Hatchew), not only does the message travel to my system, but also to ALL systems that carry the BLUEWAVE echo. Netmail has a specific destination. It is addressed to a person or several persons on ONE BBS SYSTEM. Netmail gets to the final destination by way of an addressing scheme that is used by FidoNet and other FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs). Netmail addressed to me will be destined for my system, and my system only. Other BBS participants that carry other echos will not see the message. Netmail is normally used for PRIVATE correspondence between two people. When a message has no value to other participants of a particular echomail base, it is always best to send it via Netmail so that other people are not paying for the cost of your message. Netmail is a somewhat complex concept, and one which much too involved for a complete discussion here. A complete document the size of this manual could probably be written about the details of netmail and how it can be routed and handled by different mailers. If you are seriously interested about getting access to or getting involved with netmail transmissions, it is probably best to ask the Sysop of your host BBS system. He or she will be able to provide specific details about how netmail is handled on his or her system. (All BBS systems handle netmail a bit differently). Many times netmail is sent DIRECTLY from the host BBS system to the destination system. For instance, if a netmail message was entered on my BBS system in Flint, Michigan, and was destined for Phoenix, Arizona, the message would be delivered DIRECTLY to Arizona. The phone connect charge from Michigan to Arizona would be billed to my phone bill as any other call. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 75 Because of the cost involved in handling direct netmail, many sysops do not allow access to netmail bases unless prior arrangements have been made. If there is not a netmail base accessible in your mail packet, ask your sysop if one is available. Entering Netmail ---------------- When entering messages to a base that has been defined as NETMAIL by the sysop of the host BBS, the reader will present you with an entry form that is very similar to the standard message entry form. There are two more fields to take into consideration when entering netmail. The ADDR: field is where you will enter the destination address of your message. All FidoNet nodes and networks that use the FidoNet Technology (FTNs) are assigned network addresses. These addresses usually consist of three numbers (or four numbers, if the destination address is a point system). The addresses take the form of ZONE:NET/NODE.POINT. In order to enter a netmail message, you will need to know the destination address of your message. The Blue Wave Support BBS has the address 1:2240/176.0, or Zone 1, Net 2240, Node 176, Point 0. Enter the destination address of the netmail message in this field. The last field is the ATTR: field, or the Attributes to place on the message (sometimes called BITS or NETMAIL BITS). You cannot actually move the highlight bar to the ATTR: field. Instead, the reader provides a quick and easy way to toggle the attributes of a netmail message. At any time during the message entry procedure, you can press one of the "Control Keys" displayed under the netmail header entry box to toggle the status of the message. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader allows the setting of 7 netmail status bits. All, some, or none of these bits may be available to you. Because of the cost that is involved of transferring netmail, sysops control which bits are accessible. All of the bits will be described here for completeness. If you are not the sysop or an assistant of the host BBS system, it is VERY LIKELY that some or all will be unavailable. Crash <Ctrl-V> -------------- If the Crash option is available, pressing <Ctrl-V> during netmail message entry will toggle the CRASH status of the message. Various FidoNet mailers treat the crash bit differently, but all of them treat the message as going DIRECTLY to the remote system. When the CRASH bit is set on a message, the message will not be routed through other systems, and it usually means the message will be transmitted ASAP. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 76 Direct <Ctrl-D> --------------- If the Direct option is available, pressing <Ctrl-D> during netmail message entry will toggle the DIRECT status of the message. This bit is usually used when CRASH mail is not desireable, yet the message should go directly to the destination system. (Crash mail usually means send ASAP, and to not wait until the phone rates are cheap.) Attach File <Ctrl-F> -------------------- If the File Attach option is available, pressing <Ctrl-F> during netmail message entry will toggle the w/FILE status of the message. THIS OPTION IS NORMALLY NOT AVAILABLE. Attaching a file to a netmail message does not mean that the reader will send a file with your mail packet upload. This option allows the sysop of the host system to use the reader on his or her local system to attach a file to a remote node. Hold for Pickup <Ctrl-H> ------------------------ If the Hold option is available, pressing <Ctrl-H> will toggle the HOLD status of the netmail message. Hold status is interpreted by nearly all mailers as meaning one thing: The mailer will NOT dial out to deliver the message. The message will be packed and placed on hold for pickup by the remote system. Unless the destination system calls the host system to pick up the message, it will never be delivered. Immediate <Ctrl-I> ------------------ If the Immediate option is available, pressing <Ctrl- I> will toggle the IMMediate status of the netmail message. Some mailers and mail processors do not use this message status at all. This capability is mainly provided for those sysops running FrontDoor, InterMail, or D'Bridge as the mailer. IMMediate message status forces the mailer to pack the message for immediate, DIRECT delivery barring all costs and calling restrictions. NOTHING is going to stop an IMMediate message from being delivered. Kill/Sent <Ctrl-K> ------------------ If a message is marked as K/Sent, it will normally be deleted by the mailer after successful delivery to the remote system. This option is especially useful when you do not wish to keep a copy of the original, as it helps to maintain a 'clean' message base. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 77 Request a File <Ctrl-R> ----------------------- If this option is available to you, pressing <Ctrl-R> will toggle the FREQ status of the netmail message. File Requesting is, more often than not, limited to the sysop and his assistant(s). Setting the File Request bit is a little different than the rest. Instead of entering a subject in the SUBJ: field of the message, the name of a file to request is entered there. For example, if you had the capability to file request, you could possibly enter a message to my system (1:2240/176), set the FILE REQUEST toggle to ON, and in the subject field type "BWAVE210.ZIP". This would cause the mailer to call my system to file request the file BWAVE210.ZIP. Because of the obvious cost involved in requesting files from other nodes in a network, this option should be used very prudently, if you do have access to file request files from other nodes. As with the standard message entry procedure, the netmail process also allows the <Ctrl-M> - Make carbon copy function. Full details of carbon copying and cross posting follow. Make Carbon Copies <Ctrl-M> --------------------------- At all message input forms, you can type the <Ctrl-M> key combination to inform the reader that you would like to make 'carbon' copies of the message you are about to enter. The reader's Carbon Copy feature allows you to write one message, and send that SAME message to several people in the same message base. Carbon Copying is allowed in both Local and Netmail message bases. However, carbon copying is NOT allowed in Echomail bases. Carbon copying in echomail bases is considered annoying behavior by many people. By definition, all people receiving an echomail area will also receive a copy of your message. Sending several copies of the same message to different people in an echomail area only serves to waste the money of those people paying to transmit the messages to other systems. When the reader has been told to enter Carbon Copy mode, a message will flash on the right hand side of the message header entry form. You should complete the entry of your message as normal. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 78 After your message has been saved, the reader will enter Carbon Copy mode. It will begin presenting message entry forms, one by one, for you to fill out. After you have completed the entry of the LAST message header, simply press ESCape. This will exit carbon copy mode, and the reader will resume where you began entering the message. Cross Post Message <Ctrl-X> --------------------------- Cross posting messages is very similar to the procedure of making Carbon Copies of messages. Cross posting a message results in the reader posting a copy of your message in SEVERAL DIFFERENT message areas, whereas carbon copying posts copies of your message in the SAME message area. Cross posting is available in Local and Echomail Bases (and all QWK bases). When you have instructed the reader that you would like to cross post your message, the normal message entry procedure is followed. When you have saved your message, a selection window will appear on your screen, listing all message areas available on the BBS. If you want to cross post your message to only ONE echo/local area, simply highlight the area you would like to cross post the message to and press ENTER. You will then be given another message entry form to fill out, and the process is complete. If you would like to cross post your message to more than one message area, you will need to TAG the desired areas. Simply find the first cross post base, highlight it, and press the SPACE bar (or the MIDDLE mouse button, if you have a 3-button mouse). Then move to the next base to post the message to, and press the space bar. Repeat this process until all areas you want the message posted to are tagged, then press ENTER. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 79 KEYWORD SEARCHING ----------------- One of the most requested and one of the most powerful features of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is the very flexible KEYWORD SEARCHING system. Keyword searching will help you to quickly and easily locate messages in your download packet that contain topics of interest to you. There are two ways to perform a keyword search of a message area when you are in message reading mode. The first is a "manual keyword search" function. The manual keyword search function is called up by pressing <Alt-K> while in message reading mode. The second way of performing a keyword search is through a keyword list file. The keyword list file search is VERY powerful and easy to use; especially if you consistently search for the same keywords on a regular basis. Keyword List File Searching --------------------------- Keyword list file searching is best described by using an actual application. Many genealogists use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader for reading the national and international FidoNet echos relating to genealogy. Some of these echos generate very large amounts of traffic, sometimes 300 to 400 messages per day. A serious genealogist with limited time will most likely not have time to read through this many messages every day. Additionally, only a small percentage of these messages may actually be useful and informative. Through keyword list file searching, you can build a "keyword list" (a simple ASCII text file) which contains all of the names that you are currently researching. A sample keyword list file, KEYWORDS.BW, was supplied in the reader's distribution archive. This sample file describes the format to use. Basically, the keyword list file should contain a list of keywords that you want the reader to search for, one per line. The reader ignores the CASE of keywords when searching for a match (CAPITAL and lower case letters will both be treated equally). The default mode of the reader is to find matches to any string that is a direct match or contains a superset of the keyword. For instance, a keyword of "the" will find "the", "them", "parthenon", and "breathe". The following keyword search parameters can be forced for any keyword that you define in your keyword list file: !keyword - Searches for a match to <keyword> in the TEXT of messages ONLY. @keyword - Searches for a match to <keyword> in the HEADERS of messages ONLY. #keyword - Matches only if <keyword> is a WHOLE word. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 80 After you press <K> in message reading mode, the reader will open up a dialogue box, asking for the name of your keyword list search file. Simply enter the correct file name (or simply press ENTER if the default file name is correct), and the reader will begin scanning the current message area for your defined keywords. After the scan is complete, the reader will begin presenting the messages which contain your defined keywords, with the keywords HIGHLIGHTED. You can move from message to message just as in normal message reading mode. To exit keyword search/read mode, press ESCape. For further details on keyword list searching, please see the sample keyword list file, KEYWORDS.BW, which should have been enclosed with your copy of the reader. Manual Keyword Searching ------------------------ It is often desireable to search a message area for a specific keyword or keywords on a whim. Pressing <Alt-K> in message reading mode will allow you to perform the same function as a keyword list file search, but it allows you to type the keywords directly into 5 editing fields. Full instructions for using this option are displayed on the <Alt-K> dialogue box. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 81 USING THE MOUSE --------------- The Blue Wave Mail System fully supports the use of a MOUSE for moving through the menu system, selecting items from lists, providing input in dialogue boxes, and entering one-key input through the keyboard. In order to take advantage of the mouse support, you must have "Mouse Support" in the reader's SETUP menu activated. You must also have a Microsoft or compatible mouse driver loaded either as a TSR or a Device Driver through CONFIG.SYS. For more information on installing your mouse driver, please see either your Mouse reference manual, or the DOS reference manual. There are five types of input required through The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader; Yes/No responses, Menu Input, List Selection, Dialogue Box Input, and Multiple Choice Mini-Menus. Mouse functions while reading mail will be discussed also. Mouse Yes/No Responses ---------------------- Most of the input required at prompts in the reader require either a "Yes" or "No" response, Instead of pressing "Y" or "N", you can use the mouse as the "keyboard". Pressing the LEFT mouse button at a Yes/No prompt will translate into a "Y". The RIGHT mouse button translates to a "N". Menu Input ---------- You can select a menu item by simply moving the mouse cursor to the desired menu option and pressing the LEFT mouse button. Pressing the RIGHT mouse button while the reader is processing a menu will have the same effect as pressing the ESCape key. List Selection -------------- The reader has several screens where you must highlight an item from a selection "list", and press ENTER to select the item (such as when choosing a message area to read). Mouse input on these lists is very simple and straight forward. To select an item on the current screen, move the mouse cursor to the desired line and press the LEFT mouse button. If there is more than one "page" of choices, the reader will place a "[PgDn]" or a "[PgUp]" icon at the bottom of the selection list. To move down one page, move the mouse cursor to the "[PgDn]" symbol and press the LEFT mouse button. To move up one page, move the mouse cursor to the "[PgUp]" symbol and press the LEFT mouse button. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 82 Pressing the RIGHT mouse button while the reader is processing a "list" will make the reader behave as if you pressed the ESCape key. If you have a 3-button mouse, the MIDDLE mouse button will always act as a <SpaceBar> keypress. Some list selection windows allow you to 'tag' items by pressing the space bar. Pressing the MIDDLE mouse button will tag the currently highlighted item and advance the highlight bar down one item. If a list selection window does not allow item tagging, the MIDDLE mouse button serves as an ENTER key. Some list selection windows provide even more capabilities than a simple highlight/press ENTER selection. For example, the "Select Area to Read" selection window will allow you to press F10 on the keyboard for global message reading. To activate this function with the mouse, move the mouse cursor so it is resting on the words "F10 - Global Msg Reading", and press the LEFT mouse button. The reader will then act just as if you had pressed F10 from the keyboard. Dialogue Box Input ------------------ Many Dialogue Boxes in the reader require keyboard input to perform various functions. Sometimes messages appear in a pop up window indicating "Press F10 to Accept", etc. You can perform these various functions very easily with the mouse. Simply move the mouse highlight cursor to the words or action that you would like to perform, then press the LEFT mouse button. The highlighted action will then be performed. Pressing the RIGHT mouse button while a dialogue box is active in the reader has the same effect as pressing the ESCape key (normally it closes the dialogue box and the reader resumes execution). Multiple Choice Mini-Menus -------------------------- Sometimes the reader will allow you to enter more than just a "Yes/No" response. Some prompts in the reader allow for 3 or more choices from a mini-menu. The default action will always appear on the screen. To accept the default response, simply click the LEFT mouse button on the default response shown. To accept any of the responses that are displayed on the screen, position the mouse highlight cursor on top of the response that you would like and press the LEFT mouse button. Pressing the RIGHT mouse button during mini-menu processing will act as if an ESCape key was pressed. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 83 Reading Messages with the Mouse ------------------------------- Reading messages with the mouse in The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader is very easy. When mouse support is enabled in the reader's SETUP menu, the reader will format the message header box with a few mouse ICONS. Clicking the LEFT mouse on these icons results in the action being performed. At any time in message reading mode, clicking the MIDDLE mouse button (if you have a 3-button mouse) will activate the reader's pull down menu system. Through the pull down menu system, you can access ALL of the functions of the keyboard in message reading mode. Along the right hand side of the message reading screen you will see an UP arrow and a DOWN arrow. The UP arrow icon serves as a PageUp key. When you click on this icon, the current message will scroll up one full page. The DOWN arrow icon serves a dual purpose. If the bottom of the message is on the screen (there are no more pages to view of the current message), clicking on the DOWN arrow icon will cause the reader to move to the next message in the area. If there is more of a message that is not displayed on the screen, the DOWN arrow icon will serve as a PageDown function, and display the next page of the current message. Along the bottom border of the message reading mode header box you will find four more icons. The farthest icon to the right is the "NEXT" icon. Clicking the LEFT mouse button on this icon will advance the reader to the next message in the current message area. The next icon to the left is the "PREV" icon. Clicking the LEFT mouse button on the "PREV" icon will cause the reader to move to the previous message in the current message area. The icon farthest to the left of the screen is the "MENU" icon. If you do not have a 3-button mouse, clicking the LEFT mouse button on this icon will bring up the reader's pull down menu system. (Remember, if you have a 3-button mouse, the MIDDLE mouse button will also bring up the menu system). Next to the "MENU" icon is the "MARK" icon. Clicking the LEFT mouse button the the "MARK" icon will bring up the reader's mark-message menu. (The <M> function from the keyboard). And finally, you can scroll the text of the currently displayed message. To do this, you will need to position the mouse cursor anywhere within the TEXT window of the screen. Holding down the LEFT mouse button while the cursor is on the bottom half of the screen will scroll the text UP. Holding down the LEFT mouse button while the cursor is on the top half of the text window will scroll the message text DOWN. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 84 TAGLINES -------- Although The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader supports the use of an external tagline selection utility (John Hancock v3.0), the reader has a very sophisticated tagline manager built into it. (Previous versions of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader and documentation referred to taglines as "Signature Lines".) "What are taglines?", you might ask. Taglines are usually used to add spice, humor, and/or satire to messages. Many people find the sharing and collection of unique taglines turns into a fun hobby all by itself. There are several sources of picking up taglines (The reader allows you to quickly and easily adopt taglines right out of a message that you are reading. See "READING MESSAGES" for a description of the <A>, <Alt-A>, and <Ctrl-A> functions.) One of these sources is the FidoNet TAGLINES echo. Other networks also have similar conferences. However, the best taglines are probably the ones you can create using your own imagination and wit! The reader automatically appends taglines to messages, if configured to do so. At the end of many messages, you will find something similar to the following: ... A programmer's work is never done! --- Blue Wave v2.12 * Origin: The Blue Wave Support BBS -=* Flint, MI *=- (1:2240/176.0) The line "... A programmer's work is never done!" is considered the tagline of the message. There are several ways to configure the reader to add taglines to messages. If you do not care to add taglines to your messages, simply configure the reader tagline selection type to "NONE" in the reader's SETUP menu. A "Manual" tagline entry is also provided for those who wish to create taglines on the fly, but it is often tedious. I suspect that very few people use this as the default setting. Three other ways of selecting taglines are provided in the reader: Random, Prompt, and the external tagline selection utility John Hancock. (Simply calling John Hancock a tagline selection utility is grossly understating its power. You can beautify taglines, mutilate taglines, and much more.) When the reader is configured to use the "Prompt" and "Random" tagline selections, an ASCII text file is used to select taglines from. A sample tagline file, TAGLINES.BW, should have been supplied with your copy of the reader. When the reader selects taglines randomly, it scans the tagline file and automatically picks one for you. There is no prompting or other pop up windows to deal with. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 85 The most fun is probably had by using the "Prompt" setting. This setting is the most flexible to use, and is probably the hardest to document (although once you understand how it works, it becomes very simple). Installing John Hancock ----------------------- Configuring John Hancock to work with the reader is fairly straight-forward. Because John Hancock is a fairly complicated program in its own right, full information about configuring and the initial installation of John Hancock itself is well beyond the scope of this documentation. Please see the JH documentation for full details. Once John Hancock is configured to work on your system, all you need to do is edit the "John Hancock Command Line" in the reader's SETUP menu. If John Hancock is installed in a directory called "C:\JHANCOCK", the command line you should put in this field is "C:\JHANCOCK\JH3.EXE". If you want to use John Hancock as your primary tagline selector, set "Tagline Selection Type" to "J.Hancock" in the reader's SETUP menu. The reader will take care of all the rest! Upon return from John Hancock, the reader expects to find a file called "JH?.REP" in the reader's home directory (the current directory while the reader is executing). The tagline found in JH?.REP will be appended to your message upon return to the reader. If the JH?.REP file is *not* found upon return, you will be given a message to that effect so that you can check your John Hancock configuration, if necessary. The "Prompt" Tagline Selection Type ----------------------------------- As mentioned earlier, the "Prompt" tagline selection type is by far the most flexible tagline selection option. After entering and saving a new message or reply, the reader will scan your defined tagline file and present you with a windowed tagline selection list. Highlight the tagline that you would like to append to your message and press ENTER. To skip adding a tagline to your message, press ESCape. The tagline selection window also has six function keys available: <Tab> ----- Expands the currently highlighted tagline and displays it for you to view. The tagline expansion replaces any "@" macros with information from your current message. The use of "@" macros are discussed in the sample tagline file distributed with the reader (TAGLINES.BW). ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 86 <F1> ---- Pressing <F1> will search the tagline file FROM THE CURRENTLY HIGHLIGHTED tagline to the end of your tagline file. After pressing <F1>, you will be given a window in which to type the search string. Press ENTER, and the reader will begin searching your file. The search function also searches [COMMENTS] and [ALTLISTS] for text. After performing your initial search, the <F2> key becomes active. You can then repeat the last search that you made by pressing a single key. <F5> ---- Pressing <F5> will allow you to load an alternate tagline file. If you are currently viewing "TAGLINES.BW", but the tagline you want is in a file called "MYTAGS.TXT", simply press <F5>, type "MYTAGS.TXT", and press ENTER. The reader will load the alternate tagline file. <F8> ---- When you press <F8> at the tagline selection window, the reader will randomly highlight a tagline from your tagline list. To accept the newly highlighted tagline, simply press ENTER. You can press the <F8> key as many times as you like, until an appropriate tagline is found. <F9> ---- Pressing <F9> is very similar to the <F8> function, except that the reader automatically selects a tagline and appends it to the message. No further prompting is done. <F10> ----- Pressing <F10> at the tagline selection window will allow you to manually enter a tagline. Simply type the tagline you would like to place on the message in the editing window. If you would like the reader to add the newly created tagline to your tagline file, simply press F9. Otherwise, press ENTER. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 87 Tagline File Format ------------------- The sample tagline selection file supplied with the reader (TAGLINES.BW) contains much of the information for building your tagline selection list. Each line in the tagline selection file that does not begin with a comment line (a line beginning with a ';' character) and that does not begin with [COMMENT], [ALTLIST], or [HANCOCK] will be considered a valid tagline. The reader ignores all characters past column 76 in the tagline selection file. You should keep all lines shorter than this, or they will be truncated by the reader. The [COMMENT] Token ------------------- The [COMMENT] token can be used to place comments in the tagline selection window. Any line beginning with [COMMENT] will be displayed as-is in the tagline selection window. It will be non-selectable as a tagline, but the reader will search for text in a comment line when using an <F1> search. This can be useful if you want to divide your tagline file into groups or sections of related taglines. The [HANCOCK] Token ------------------- Any line beginning with [HANCOCK], when highlighted and selected from the tagline selection window, will cause the reader to execute the John Hancock Command Line, defined in the reader's SETUP menu. A sample tagline file entry might look like this: [HANCOCK]Press ENTER here to load John Hancock. The [ALTLIST] Token ------------------- The [ALTLIST] token gives the tagline selection process its greatest power and flexibility. The following tagline file entry: [ALTLIST]C:\Bwave\StarTrek.Tag when highlighted and selected from the tagline selection window, will cause the reader to load an alternate tagline file called STARTREK.SIG in your C:\BWAVE directory. Using these command tokens appropriately will give you the power to build your own tagline selection "menu tree". For full details and samples, it is highly recommended that you read through the sample TAGLINES.BW file supplied with the reader. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 88 TAGFILES.BW ----------- TAGFILES.BW is a 'hardcoded' file name in the reader. Whenever the tagline selection process is about to take place, the reader opens the file TAGFILES.BW and scans it for parameters relating to the BBS and message area that you are entering the message to. The purpose of this file is to round out the extremely customizable tagline selection system. For each BBS that you call, you can define separate tagline files and tagline selection types. To go even further, for every message area on every BBS that you call, you can define tagline selection parameters! THE USE OF THIS FILE IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. If this file is not found, the reader will not complain nor will it care. When a BBS entry or echo entry is not found, the default reader tagline configuration defined in the SETUP menu will be used. This file is a flat ASCII (text) file that you can edit with any text editor. Here is a sample entry: BBS_ID WildBlue C:\BWave\WildBlue.Tag Prompt BLUEWAVE C:\BWave\Bluewave.Tag Random COMM None Hancock The BBS_ID line tells the reader that when reading packets with the root name of "WILDBLUE" (such as WILDBLUE.MO1, WILDBLUE.QWK, etc), it should use the tagline file "C:\BWAVE\WILDBLUE.TAG", and the default tagline selection type is "Prompt". When replying or entering messages in the message area with the area tag of "BLUEWAVE", the reader should randomly select taglines from the file "C:\BWAVE\BLUEWAVE.TAG". When replying or entering messages in the message area with the area tag of COMM, no tagline file is to be used. Instead, the John Hancock Command Line will be executed each time a tagline selection is necessary. Other parameters for the tagline selection type in this file are "None" (used when you do not wish to add taglines to messages entered in certain areas) and "Manual". Remember, the BBS_ID line gives an override to the entire message packet. If there are parameters listed under the BBS_ID line, they will override the BBS_ID line in the area tags defined. The correct value for the Area Tag can be found by highlighting the message area in question at the 'Choose Area to Read' selection window and pressing the <Tab> key, or by pressing while reading messages in that particular message area. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 89 USING THE BLUE WAVE MAIL DOOR ----------------------------- Although most of the time you spend using The Blue Wave Mail System will be spent in the Offline Reader environment, much of the power and potential for online savings of time and money will come through using The Blue Wave Mail Door to its full potential. In order to get the fullest out of The Blue Wave Mail Door, it is necessary to become familiar with the operating procedures in the door. The Configuration Menu ---------------------- This section will describe all of the commands available to you through The Blue Wave Mail Door's Configuration Menu. At first glance, the Configuration Menu may seem overwhelming. Please do not let this scare you off. The mail system was carefully designed to provide each individual user with options not available in other mail systems. Each menu item will be described below, along with a short description of where, how and/or why the command would be useful in any given situation, if the command description is not obvious. Choose Message Areas: When selecting "C", you will be displayed a list of all LOCAL, ECHOMAIL, and GROUPMAIL bases available to you. Here you will be able to select and deselect message areas for download through The Blue Wave Mail Door. To toggle the status of a message base, enter the base number or number/letter combination associated with the message area. You may enter more than one message base number at a time; simply separate them by spaces. Some mail doors allow the sysop to FORCE message areas on so that you must download them. In this case, the area will be flagged with a '!' symbol, and the mail door will not allow you to turn the message area off. If downloading forced message areas becomes a burden, you should kindly ask your sysop if downloading the forced message areas is absolutely necessary. Reset Lastread Pointers: Selecting "R" from the Configuration Menu will allow you to reset the pointers indicating which messages have been read and which have not been read. The door will ask you how many DAYS you would like to "go back". Entering a 0 here will set your pointers to the current date and time (no mail will be found for download during a subsequent scan until more mail has been imported into the bases.) ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 90 Entering any number other than 0 will reset your pointers to the specified number of days. (Entering a '1' would set your pointers back 24 hours. Entering a '2' would set your pointers back 48 hours, and so on.) Archiver Selection: Selecting "A" from the door's Configuration Menu will allow you to select the archiver of your choice, from those defined by the Sysop. The archiver will be used to compress (Mash) the mail packet before you download it. Protocol Selection: Selecting "P" from the Configuration Menu will allow you to select the transfer protocol of your choice, from those defined by the Sysop. The protocol will be used during a download of a mail packet, the upload of a mail packet, and any File Request sessions that you may make. HotKeys: The Blue Wave Mail Door defaults to using "HotKeys" for a new user. The HotKey option allows you to select menu commands without having to press ENTER after each selection. Obviously, however, it will be necessary to press ENTER after some commands that require input of more than one character. With extremely noisy phone line conditions, hotkeys may not be desireable. Xpert Help Menus: The Blue Wave Mail Door defaults to using FULL help menus. However, after you become comfortable with the door, you may wish to turn off the full help menus. With Xpert Mode enabled, only the menu title, command keys, and time remaining are displayed. Bundle Messages FROM You: If you have this option enabled, the door will pack and allow you to download messages that you have entered either through the BBS or through the offline mail reader. If you upload large volumes of mail, the downloading of your own messages may not be desireable. Turn this option off to force the door to skip the bundling of messages that have your name in the FROM: field. Graphics (Color) Enabled: If your communications program supports ANSI graphics, and you would like to receive output from the mail door in living color, turn this option on. Turning this option off forces the door to mono mode. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 91 Set Password Option: The password or Secure option is unique to The Blue Wave Mail System. Although some may question its usefulness, there are several situations where you may wish to enable this feature. There are 4 levels of security offered: * Password prompting in the DOOR only. * Password prompting in the READER only. * Password prompting in the READER and DOOR. * No password prompting (Default). In a situation where you download sensitive areas from the BBS, and use The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader on a machine that is shared by several other users, you may wish to add the secure option to the READER only. Each mail packet will be encrypted with a password. If a user tries to read a packet encrypted with a password, they will be prompted to enter it. If the user does not get the correct password after three tries, the reader will NOT allow them to read the mail packet. Another situation may occur where Father downloads sensitive mail, and does not wish for Daughter, Son, or Wife to read it. It may be useful to set the secure option in both the READER and DOOR, since it is possible that the family knows Father's BBS password. By prompting for a password when entering the door (obviously one that is different from the BBS password), he has another layer of security. Limit Download Packet Size: If you are running with limited drive space, this option is extremely useful. If you define a maximum packet size of 100K, the door will stop bundling messages once the requested maximum packet size has been reached. The maximum packet size is the size of the UNCOMPRESSED mail bundle that the door is building. If you enable this option, you can ensure that the downloaded mail packet will fit onto the disk space you have available after the mail packet has been decompressed. Macro Definitions: The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to define up to 3 macros that can be used in the place of manually entering your bundling commands during each mail download session. The Blue Wave Bundling commands are described in detail a bit later in the documentation. Most of the BW doors available also allow you to automatically execute certain macros after the door has scanned the message database on the BBS. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 92 Keyword Definitions: The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 different Keyword definitions. These keywords will be used during the mail scanning process to inform you of mail in an area which contains any one of the keyword definitions. To get the full use out of keywords, you must use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands (described later) to instruct the door on how to handle keywords in certain areas. The best way to describe the use of keywords is with an example. Let's suppose that you are looking for Apple computer equipment to buy in the National FidoNet FOR-SALE Echo. Sometimes the FOR-SALE echo generates more than 200 messages per day. Instead of downloading all 200 messages, of which (possibly) 199 of them are of no interest to you, you may define the keyword APPLE. You would then be informed during the SCANNING process of all messages containing the keyword APPLE. By using The Blue Wave Bundling Commands, it is possible to ONLY bundle messages with the Keyword APPLE in them. This, of course, saves on-line time, and time you would have to spend paging through the numerous (UNWANTED) messages offline when using the reader. Naturally, there are many other uses to the Keywords option. The idea behind keywords is to let The Blue Wave Mail Door do the work for you! Filter Definitions: Like Keywords, The Blue Wave Mail Door allows you to specify up to 10 FILTERS. Filters essentially work just the opposite of Keywords. During the door's SCANNING process, you are informed of messages that contain any of the Filters that you have defined. After the mail scan is complete, you can use The Blue Wave Bundling Commands to FILTER the messages that you do not want to receive. Again, the best way to describe the usefulness of Filters is with an example. Let's suppose that Joe Blow in the FidoNet C Programming Echo is consistently entering messages which contain false information, is constantly flaming others, and is being an all around nuisance. Although you really enjoy reading the C_ECHO, you get tired of seeing messages entered either from Joe Blow or to Joe Blow. By defining the Filter of JOE BLOW, you will be flagged if there are any messages containing the Filter. By using The Blue Wave Bundling Commands, you can then instruct The Blue Wave Mail Door NOT to bundle messages containing the Filter JOE BLOW. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 93 The Blue Wave Bundling Commands ------------------------------- Several Bundling Commands are available to you to make The Blue Wave Mail System one of the most robust mail systems available today. By combining The Blue Wave Bundling Commands with Keyword Definitions and Filter Definitions, you can discriminately select messages ON-LINE to download, rather than wasting time downloading mail, of which only a few messages are of any interest. The following section will give an in-depth description of each Bundling Command available to you, and examples on how to use each one to build a custom mail packet. The Blue Wave Mail Door prompts you for your Bundling Commands at the end of each mail SCAN, just beofre the system actually gathers mail for you. After viewing the SCAN TABLE, you can actually select which areas and/or messages you wish to download. the Bundling Commands ONLY affect the current download session, and are not saved for later use. (Unless you have defined them as a MACRO in the door's configuration menu, or in the reader's OFFLINE configuration). The default behavior of the door is to gather ALL NEW MAIL. The Blue Wave Bundling Commands only MODIFY the result. You can think of The Blue Wave Bundling Commands as a way to dynamically change the messages that the door has prepared to download for you. The commands are actually LETTERS and SYMBOLS, followed by numbers and "key words" which modify the effect of the command. The keywords "*" and "all" are recognized by each Bundling Command, and operate on ALL message areas that you have tagged for downloading. (A "K*" would gather keywords ONLY in ALL areas). The Bundling Commands may be "linked" together to form one long string of characters. To perform multiple commands within the same bundling command, you simply need to separate them by SPACES. "-2 K9 P14 F22" is a perfectly valid bundling command. (This example would cause the door to not bundle messages in area number 2, gather keywords only in message area number 9, gather only personal mail in area number 14, and filter out messages in area number 22.) Deselecting an Area: To dynamically (and temporarily) deselect an area from the message bases that you are downloading, you can use the "-" bundling command. "-*" or "-ALL" would deselect all message areas, resulting in a total of 0 messages being downloaded. "- 14" would temporarily deselect area #14. "-P1" would deselect message area "P1" on systems that use letters as area names, such as Maximus-CBCS. Format: -<area #> or -* or -all ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 94 Adding an Area: To reselect an area which was previously deselected using the "-" command, use the "+<area #>" command. Please note that it is NOT possible to add a message area to your download packet that you are not currently scanning. If you have entered several bundling commands and realize that you have made a mistake, use the "+*" or "+ALL" command. This will reselect ALL message areas that you are scanning, and clear any designation of keywords/personal/filters in all message areas. In other words, it is the same as starting new. Format: +<area #> or +* or +all Bundling Personal Messages Only: To instruct the door to bundle only your personal messages (messages addressed either to your login name or real name/alias name) in a message area, use the "P" command. To bundle only your personal mail in area #23, use "P23". to bundle only personal mail in ALL areas, use either "P*" or "PALL". Format: P<area #> or P* or Pall Bundling Keywords Only: To instruct the door to bundle only messages containing your Keyword definitions, use the "K" bundling command. WHEN USING THE "K" COMMAND, PERSONAL MAIL IS ALSO BUNDLED, IF ANY IS FOUND. To download only keyword messages in area #192, use the bundling command "K192". If you want to download ONLY keyword and personal mail in all areas, use "K*" or "KALL". Format: K<area #> or K* or Kall Filtering Messages in an Area: If you would like the door to skip packing any messages that contain your filter definitions, use the "F" bundling command. To filter all messages in area #57, use the bundling command "F57". To filter messages in ALL message areas, use the "F*" or "FALL" commands. Format: F<area #> or F* or Fall Bundling a Specified NUMBER of Messages: The Blue Wave Mail Door has the ability to download a specified number of messages in any message area. This command is especially useful when downloading a message area for the first time, as sort of a "test drive". you may only want to bundle the first or the last 10 messages in the area to see if you will enjoy reading that particular message base. The Blue Wave Mail Door has two functions that will do this. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 95 Bundling the LAST (#) of Messages in an Area: To perform this function, use the "L" bundling command. The "L" bundling command is a bit different from the rest, as it takes two parameters instead of one. To bundle the last 10 messages in area #563, use the command "563L10". To gather the last 10 messages in ALL areas, use the command "*L10". The "L" bundling command is also a quick way to override your lastread message pointers for a particular area. If you choose to download the last 500 messages in area #3, and your lastread pointer indicates that only 7 messages are new, the "L" command will allow you to override the setting and download all 500 messages. (Use "3L500"). Format: <area #>L<# of msgs to bundle> Bundling the FIRST (#) of Messages in an Area: Bundling the first nn number of messages in an area is done in much the same way as bundling the last nn number of messages in an area. To bundle the first 199 messages in area #92, use the command "92L199". To gather the first 5 messages in all tagged areas, use "*F5". Format: <area #>F<# of msgs to bundle> Lastread Pointers and Bundling Commands --------------------------------------- By default, upon a successful download session through The Blue Wave Mail Door, the door will update the last read message pointers in ALL areas that were SCANNED. (Note: If an area was deselected with a "-" command, it will STILL be updated to reflect the new last read pointer!) In most cases, this is desireable. However, The Blue Wave Mail Door takes into consideration that all users' needs are not the same. The following two Bundling Commands will modify the default setting regarding message pointers. No Update of Message Pointers: If you wish the door to NOT update your message pointers for one reason or another, use the "N" bundling command. If you want the door to not save message pointers in area #75, use the command "N75". To not update message pointers in ALL areas that you are scanning , use "N*" or "NALL". Format: N<area #> or N* or Nall Force Update of Message Pointers: Because the default behavior of the door is to UPDATE message pointers, this command is only useful to kill the effect ofa previously entered "N" command. Suppose that you are downloading 50 areas, and only want one message base updated. You could use the bundling command "N* U2". This would force the door to ONLY update the pointers in area #2. After an accidental "N*", a "U*" will correct the mistake. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 96 The "!" Command: Finally, the "!" command. A "!" anywhere on the command line tells The Blue Wave Mail Door to NOT prompt for any more bundling commands once the bundling command has been processed. By default, the door will process a command line, calculate a new TOTAL MESSAGES, and display it. You may then enter more bundling commands, or simply press ENTER to accept what was already processed, and begin bundling. Bundling Command Macros ----------------------- As described earlier, the door allows you to define up to 3 bundling command "macros", to be used at the bundling command prompt. The bundling command macros should be defined prior to their use as a bundling command. Once a bundling command macro has been defined, you can enter all of your bundling commands with just 3 keystrokes, instead of trying to remember all of the commands that you normally do. For example, if you have define a bundling command macro #1 and a bundling command macro #2, you can force to door to process your #2 macro by entering "M2" at the bundling command prompt. If you have tagged the macro as an "automatically executed macro", then the door will execute the macro immediately after displaying the scan table to you. Example Bundling Commands ------------------------- Most of the Blue Wave Bundling Commands described above do very little good when used alone. By combining the commands, the ultimate in custom mail bundling is available. Several examples follow, but please remember, there is virtually no end to what can be accomplished! -ALL +14 K17 F1 This command deslects all areas, adds area #14 for ALL NEW messages, area #17 for KEYWORDS ONLY, and FILTERS the messages in area #1. The door then calculates a new total, and waits for more input. -ALL +14 K17 F1 ! This command does the same thing as the previous example, except it doesn't prompt for more commands. The door begins bundling immediately (because of the "!" command). -14 P2 N18 K1 P22 17L60 F928 97F20 M3 This command deselects area #14, gathers personal messages only in area #2, does not update message pointers for area #18, selects keywords only in area #1, personal messages only in area #22, gathers the last 60 messages in area #17, filters messages in area #928, gathers the first 20 messages in area #97, and then executes macro #3. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 97 APPENDIX A: Files Created, Maintained, and Used by the Reader -------------------------------------------------------------- TAGFILES.BW - This file defines the overrides for certain BBS systems and message areas in regards to tagline files to use and the tagline selection type to use. Please see the section titled "TAGLINES", and the sample TAGFILES.BW enclosed with the reader. PKTSTATS.BW - PKTSTATS.BW holds the packet information displayed at the 'Select Packet to Read' selection window. This file is automatically maintained by the reader each time you leave the "PACKET MANAGEMENT" menu item on the reader's MAIN MENU. If this file does not exist it will be created by the reader. You may delete this file at any time. However, you will loose the packet information which is displayed. BWAVE200.CFG - This is the default configuration file used by the reader to load and save your reader configuration items which have been set from the SETUP menu. You may use more than one configuration file by executing "BWAVE <config.fil>" from the DOS command line. For example, to load a configuration file called "MYSETUP.CFG", type "BWAVE MYSETUP.CFG" to load the reader. BWCOLOR.200 - Your custom color configurations are stored in this file so that you can easily trade color combinations with your friends. If BWCOLOR.200 exists in the reader home directory, it will automatically be loaded. NAMES.BW - This is a hard coded file name that is used to present a list of quick lookup names when pressing '?' in the TO: field while entering a message. The format for NAMES.BW is described in the sample file enclosed with your reader. BWSETUP.HLP - The reader loads the help text for the SETUP menu from this file each time you enter the SETUP menu. If this file does not exist, a warning message will be displayed. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 98 APPENDIX B: Running the Reader Under DESQview ---------------------------------------------- The reader is fully DESQview compatible and aware. DESQview is automatically detected by the reader at startup. If the reader detects DESQview (you can verify this fact by pressing <Alt-I> from anywhere within the reader), it automatically releases time slices to other tasks while waiting for keyboard input. This in turn allows your background processing to flow more smoothly and quickly. Here are the recommended settings for setting up DESQview to execute the reader: Memory Size (in K): 350 Writes Text Directly to Screen [Y] Displays Graphics Information [N] Virtualize Text/Graphics [Y] Uses Serial Ports [N] Requires Floppy Diskette [N] The option "Writes Text Directly to Screen" is recommended to be set to "Y" for speed reasons. The reader displays will be updated much more quickly when set to "Y". However, if you do not care to set this option to "Y", "N" will also work. The option "Virtualize Text/Graphics" can also be set to "N" to increase the speed at which the display is updated. However, by setting this to "N", you will be unable to confine the reader's output to a window less than the full size of the screen. Additionally, if you have the On- Screen Clock turned on in the setup menu, the clock updates will bleed through to other windows in your DESQview session. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 99 PRODUCT SUPPORT --------------- The Blue Wave Mail System is a growing and developing software package. Cutting Edge Computing is always interested in hearing your comments, complaints, suggestions, and of course kind words. We take into consideration every request that we get in order to make The Blue Wave Mail System a first class offline mail package. We would like to hear from you! If you are having trouble with The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, or have comments and suggestions, please drop us a line. We can be reached via direct FidoNet NETMAIL, through the International BLUEWAVE Echo (available on the FidoNet Backbone and Distribution Hubs), and of course through the US Mail. Voice technical support is provided Monday through Saturday at 313-743-WAVE (that's 313-743-9283, for those of you without letters on your telephone!). Cutting Edge Computing is owned and operated by George Hatchew in Burton, Michigan, USA. Here are the addresses where you may contact me directly: US Postal Service ----------------- Cutting Edge Computing PO Box 90476 Burton, Michigan 48509 USA The Cutting Edge Computing Support BBS -------------------------------------- The Wild! Blue BBS 1-313-743-8464 Flint, Michigan 1200-14400 bps HST/v.32bis Compatible FidoNet 1:2240/176 Sysop: George Hatchew Voice Technical Support ----------------------- 1-313-743-9283, Monday through Friday ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 100 INDEX OF KEY WORDS ------------------ -b 9 -c 9 -l 9 -lcd 9 -m 9 -s 9 -t 9, 33 [ALTLIST] 88 [COMMENT] 88 [HANCOCK] 88 Add To Existing Reply Packets 18 Adopting a tagline 67 Alarm 42 Allow swapping to EMS Memory 22 Allow swapping to XMS Memory 22 ALTF1.BAT 43 ARC 38 ARJ 7, 11, 38 Automatic Personal Mail Scan 15 Automatic Title Scan 15 Automatically Save Msgs and Replies 19 BBS_ID 89 Beep on Error Messages 13 Begin Reading w/ First Unread Message 16 Begin Reading w/ Last Unread Message 16 BIOS screen writes 9 Blue Wave Support 8 Boss Key 41 BOXER 8 BUFFERS=30 10 BWAVE200.CFG 98 BWCOLOR.200 98 BWSETUP.HLP 10, 98 Carbon Copy 78 CGA Snow 9, 26 Check for Dupes Before Adopting 21 Closed Packet Menu 45 Command line parameters 9 Compression program 7 CONFIG.SYS 10 Copyright 3 Cross posting messages 79 Custom Color Configuration 25 Cutting Edge Computing 3 Default Keyword List File 36 Default Message Save File 35 Default Printer Port 24 Default Replies Save File 35 Delete Mail Packet After Reading 17 DESQview 6, 7, 42, 99 Direct Video Writes 9 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 101 Display Archiver Output 14 DOS shell 41 Double-Byte Language Support 29 Download Directory 30 Echomail 75 Editor File Path 32 Enable Inbound Translations 29 Enable Outbound Translations 29 Entering a message 73 Entering messages 73 Europe 4 Exploding Window Frames 13 External LIST Command Line 34 External programs 7 FidoNet-QWK Compatible 13 FILES=25 10 Floppy drive 7 Global Command Key 41 Hardware requirements 6 History 4 Inbound Character Translation 29 Inform when All Messages have been Read 16 Insert Quote Header in Replies 18 John Hancock 8, 21, 85, 86 John Hancock Command Line 34 Jump to Next Area with Unread Messages 16 Keyword list file 80 Keyword searching 80 KEYWORDS.BW 10 LCD Color Mapping 26 LHARC/LHA 11 LZH 38 Memory Swapping 23 MONOCHROME 9, 26 MOUSE 82, 83, 84 Mouse Support Enabled 13 NAMES.BW 10, 98 Netmail 75 Netmail entry 73 Noise on Personal Messages 15 On-Screen Clock 13 On-Screen Date Format 28 On-Screen Time Format 28 Only Display Areas with Messages 16 Optional external programs 8 OS/2 6 Outbound Character Translation 29 Packet List 2nd Sort Field 14 Packet management 46 PAK 11, 38 PKARC/PKXARC 11 PKPAK/PKUNPAK 11 PKTSTATS.BW 98 PKZIP 7 PKZIP/PKUNZIP 11 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 102 Prefix Reply Subjects with "Re:" 19 Printer Init String 24 Printer Reset String 24 Q.EXE 11 QEDIT 8 Quote Header String 39 Quote-O-Meter Warning Threshold 19 QWK Alias Name 39 QWK mail 6 Read Messages Sorted on Which Field 15 Reading messages 59 Registration details 4 Registration Name 40 Registration Number 40 Reminder Timer 42 Replies manager 70 Save Message Read/Mark/Reply Tags 15 Screen Saver Activation 14 Secondary Registration 40 Send Form Feed After Printing 24 Set 25 Lines 27 Set Default Netmail Bits 19 SETUP menu 12 ShareWare 4 SLED 8 Speech hardware 9 Speech Software 26 Spell checker 8, 71 Spell Checker Command Line 33 Support 100 Support BBS 100 Swap Directory 32 Swap on Shell to Alt-Fkey Batch Files 23 Swap on Shell to Archivers 23 Swap on Shell to DOS 23 Swap on Shell to External File Viewer 23 Swap on Shell to John Hancock 23 Swap on Shell to Message Editor 22 Swap on Shell to Spell Checker 23 Swap on Shell to Terminal Program 23 TAGFILES.BW 10, 89, 98 Tagline File Name 35 Tagline Selection Type 20 Tagline selection window 86, 87 Taglines 20, 85 TAGLINES.BW 10 TED3.COM 10, 11 Terminal Command Line 33 Upload Directory 30 Video Mode 27 Voice Technical Support 100 WARRANTIES 3 When to Quote Message Replies 18 Work Directory 31 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Operations Manual, v2.12 Page 103