ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 Shareware Freeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)

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Text File | 1992-01-18 | 39.2 KB | 787 lines

The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader v2.05 Supplemental Documentation Copyright (C) 1992 by Cutting Edge Computing All Rights Reserved. Welcome to The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, v2.05! Version 2.05 is a major step forward for The Blue Wave Offline Mail System and shows major growth since the last public release (v2.01). For this growth, first and foremost, I would like to thank the users of the reader for the excellent suggestions and continued support. Many of the new features are direct requests from fellow users of The Blue Wave Offline Mail System. Without your suggestions, comments, and continued usage, there would never be a need for an updated program. As the needs and demands of the users grow, so will The Blue Wave Mail System. THAT you can count on! Secondly, I would like to thank the EXCELLENT Beta test team that I have. Their undying support and ability to unearth the tiniest of bugs never ceases to amaze me. They also have had many suggestions on making new features integrate more smoothly into the reader so that, by the time it gets to the public, it all seems to flow together more smoothly. For a complete list of beta sites involved in testing v2.05 of the reader, please see BETASITE.205 enclosed within this archive. Now for the good stuff. All bugs that were fixed since v2.00 are enclosed in BUGFIXES.205. Below is a list and description of all the new features to be found in your upgrade from v2.00 or v2.01 to v2.05: NEW, POWERFUL KEYWORD SEARCHING ------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader v2.05 sports a brand new Keyword Search function on an area by area basis. When reading mail, press "K" to bring up the Keyword filename selection window. If you have defined a "Default Keyword List File", that filename will appear in the window for you to edit. If you have not defined a default keyword list file, the reader will default to KEYWORDS.BW in the reader's home directory. KEYWORDS.BW is simply a straight ASCII text file containing any number of keywords that you want to search for, one per line. Keywords can contain spaces, and CR/LF will be ignored when locating the strings in the message text. Keywords are scanned in each message's FROM:, TO:, and SUBJ: fields, including the message text! After accepting the keyword file name, the reader will scan the keyword file, and then begin searching the entire message area for keyworded text. The messages that contain keywords will be "tagged" internally. The reader then drops into "Keyword Search/Read Mode". When using the arrow/space/enter/+/- keys to go from message to message, ONLY THOSE MESSAGES WITH KEYWORDS will be displayed. When done reading the messages that the reader has tagged for you, press ESCape to get out of Keyword Search/Read Mode. The reader will then go back to "Normal" reading mode, and will display all messages in the area. It should be noted that pressing "T)itle Scan" while reading in Keyword Search/Read Mode will still display ALL message titles in the area, and you can easily read one that isn't in the keyword list by simply pressing <Enter> on the one that you want to read. Keyworded messages are displayed in the title scan as YELLOW on BLUE, so that it is easy to spot them. As the keyworded messages are displayed on the screen, the reader highlights the keyword that was found in the message in WHITE on RED so that it is easier to pick out of the body of the message. Keyword searching by area is for REGISTERED USERS. However, unregistered users are given the opportunity of evaluating the operation of keyword searching. Unregistered copies of the reader will only allow 5 keywords to be searched at any one time. REGISTERED COPIES have an unlimited searching capability. MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS/CHANGES ---------------------------------- * Previously, to save a message to disk, you needed to press <Alt-S>. The new command to save the current message to disk has been swapped to the "S" key, and the message header searching feature is now <Alt-S>. * The selection windows throughout the reader have been modified to accept the <Spacebar>. If the window requires that items in the selection list be "Tagged", the <Spacebar> will tag the highlighted item and advance the highlight bar to the next item in the list. If the selection window does not allow tagging of the items, the <Spacebar> will act as an <Enter> key for that window. * Much cleaner message quoting. * The message entry fields have been relaxed to allow 8 bit IBM characters for those in European Countries. * For all command lines that are definable within the reader (editor command line, spell checker command line, archiver command lines), it is now possible to execute a batch file in the place of an actual .EXE or .COM file. In the command lines, if the first character is an "@", the command processor (COMMAND.COM, 4DOS.COM, etc) will be called to execute the command line, rather than issuing a direct exec command (which does not work with .BAT or .BTM files). Swapping will still be performed, if active. The disadvantage is that you have the overhead of COMMAND.COM or 4DOS.COM on top of the memory needed by your external program. However, this allows you to use 4DOS "alias" commands, also. Sample editor command lines: @Editor.Bat <=== Editor.Bat MUST lie on the DOS Path because no path was given to the reader. @C:\Batches\Editor.Bat <=== Editor.Bat does not have to lie on the DOS Path, because you gave the full path here. @Editor <=== Same as #1 [note extension not needed]. This could possibly be a 4DOS "alias". @Editor.Btm <=== Uses 4DOS's batch-to-memory execution. The reader expands the above command lines and executes the following: <COMSPEC> /c <command line defined in reader, minus the '@'> Please note that your COMSPEC environment variable must point to a valid command processor for this option to work correctly. If you do not know how to set your COMSPEC environment variable, please consult your favorite DOS Reference Manual. * When saving a message to disk, the reader now allows you to place an '!' as the first character of the "Savefile name". If the first character is the exclamation point, and a file already exists by that name, it will be OVERWRITTEN instead of appended to. (You won't have to remember this fact; the reader reminds you when you begin to save a message). * <Spacebar> or <Enter> at the end of a message area now takes you back to the "Choose Area to Read" screen, even if Automatic Title Scan is turned on in the configuration menu. This action also causes the reader to advance to the NEXT message area that contains messages, so you no longer have to use the arrow keys in the read selection window if you choose not to. * When at the "Choose Area to Read" selection window, you can now press F9 to load the message area either sorted or unsorted (on the subject field), depending on the configuration option that you have set in the reader's Setup menu. If the reader is configured to always sort messages by Subject before reading, you can press F9 to load the area UNSORTED. If the reader is configured to never sort the messages by subject, F9 will cause the reader to sort the messages before you begin reading them. * When S)aving, Quoting, or P)rinting messages, the reader replaces all occurences of ^a in the message text with '@'. * When "Beep On Personal Messages" is enabled in the reader's configuration, a two-tone bell now replaces the annoying monotone ^G bell that it used to make. The tones will also allow you to distinguish whether the message is FROM: you to TO: you without having to look at the message header. * The "Purge Mail Packets" option now sorts the message packets in the same way as the "Open Mail Packet" window, so it is now easier to find the message packet(s) that you want to delete. NEW GLOBAL OPTIONS ------------------ Global options are those that can be accessed from any point within the reader. There are several global options available to you, and now you can remember them in an instant by pressing the <Alt-H> key combination from anywhere within the reader. <Alt-H> will pop up a small help window that contains all valid key combinations that are available at any time. * The global option <Alt-I> that shows the current version of the reader, the free memory available to the reader, and the DESQview status has been modified to include the amount of free disk space available on the reader's WORK drive. * A new global hotkey: <Alt-B>. This combination is affectionately called the BOSS KEY. It was added by request from those who read their mail at work and have nosy bosses. A Quick press of the <Alt-B> combination will clear the reader's screen and bring up a fake "C:\DOS> _" prompt. To leave the BOSS KEY mode, first make sure that it is safe to do so (the boss has left the room), then press ESCape. You will continue at the point at which you were so rudely interrupted. NEW SETUP MENU ITEMS -------------------- There have been several additions to the reader's setup/configuration menu. * Under the USER STRINGS menu, there is a new option: "Printer Init String". This string is sent to the printer each time you press <Alt-P> while reading mail or replies BEFORE the reader starts to print the message. This field can contain any characters, including control characters below ASCII 32. (For instance, to enter a Control-O into the selection window, hold down the CTRL key and press "O"). * There are SEVERAL new filenames and paths definable through the reader's DIRECTORIES sub menu. * The Spell Checker Command line is used in 2 places within the reader. When entering mail through the reader, it now gives you the following options: S)ave, K)ill, E)dit, C)heck Spelling If you type "C" at this prompt, the Spell Checker command line will be executed. The second spot in the reader you can use the spell checker command line is in the View/Edit/Kill Replies Mode. When you are viewing a message that you wish to check the spelling on, simply press "C", and the reader will execute the spell checker command line for you! In order for the reader to pass the file name to the spell checker, it needs to know where to place the message's file name on the command line. The following spell checker command line: C:\SHAREWRE\SPELLER.EXE /f=@F /t /q would expand to: C:\SHAREWRE\SPELLER.EXE /f=C:\BWave\Work\Reply\3.001 /t /q Simply use the '@F' token where you would like to place the message text file name on the command line. Also, as described above, you can execute a batch file for the spell checker command line by preceeding it with an '@' sign. * There is now an option on the DIRECTORIES sub menu to define a "Default Message Save File". If "Default SaveFile to AreaName" is INACTIVE in the reader's setup, the default save file name will be used when saving a message to disk. * Similar to the above default, the "Default Replies Save File" will be used as the default file name when saving one of your replies to disk using the "S" command from the View/Edit/Kill Reply Mode. * Another new feature (described above) is Keyword Searching. In order to perform a keyword search on the current message area, you will need to have a text file containing a list of all the keywords you want the reader to search for. You can define a default file name under "Default Keyword List File" in the DIRECTORIES sub menu. (This can be altered at the time you begin a keyword search, also.) NEW OPTIONS AND TOGGLES ITEMS ----------------------------- * If "Signature Dupe Checking" is enabled in the options menu, before you adopt a signature to your signature file, the reader will scan through it and see if the signature already exists. If it does, it will give you an informational message, and the signature will not be placed into the signature file. * If "Resume with LastRead Msg" is enabled in the options menu, and you enter a message area that contains both read and unread messages, the reader will begin reading on the first UNREAD message in that area. If this option is enabled and ALL messages have been read in the area, the reader will inform you that all of them have been read, and prompt you whether or not you want to read them again. To reread the message area, press "Y". If you do not want to read the message area again, press "N", [ENTER], or [Spacebar]. Pressing [ENTER] or the [Spacebar] will move the highlight bar to the next area that contains messages. * If "Always Save New Msgs" is enabled, after replying to or entering a message, the reader will skip the "S)ave, K)ill, E)dit, C)heck Spelling" question and automatically save the message for you. If you would like to delete the message, edit the message, or check the spelling of the message, it will be necessary to do so through the View/Edit/Kill Replies Mode. * If you reply to or enter a lot of netmail through The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, you may find the addition of "Default Netmail Bits" quite handy. From the reader's Option Menu, you can define the default settings for several netmail bits, such as "Crash", "Hold", "Direct", "Kill/Sent", and "FileRequest". NEW VIEW/EDIT/KILL REPLIES ENHANCEMENTS --------------------------------------- The View, Edit, and Kill Replies sub system has been completely rewritten from the ground up. The new system is more powerful than before, and less cumbersome to work with. v2.05 of the reader also allows you to jump from Message reading mode directly to View/Edit Replies Mode with the press of a single key. When you return from View/Edit mode, you will continue reading message at the exact point at which you jumped to the new mode! When entering View/Edit Reply Mode, you will be presented a list of all messages that are in the currently open reply packet. You can scroll through the list if you like, and choose the message that you would like to begin Viewing. After selecting the beginning message, you are automatically placed into "View" mode. You can then use the arrow keys, +, -, <Enter>, and <Spacebar> to move from message to message (exactly the same way as the message reading mode works). When viewing each reply, the following keys can be used to perform various functions: E or <Ins> - Edit the current message header and/or text. K or <Del> - Mark the current message for deletion or UNdelete. F1 - Help screen showing the functions available in reply mode. <Alt-P> - Print the current reply to the default printer. S - Save the current reply to a disk file. C - Execute the Spell Checker Command Line on the Reply. M - Move the current reply to a different message area. T - Perform a Title Scan on the reply packet. It should be noted that messages are only MARKED for deletion when using the "K" or <Del> keys. If you accidentally mark a message for deletion, you can type "K" or <Del> once again to dump the deleted flag from the message. Messages that are deleted are purged once you leave View/Edit Reply Mode. Before they are, however, the reader will inform you that there are messages marked for deletion, and ask if you really want to delete them. If so, type "Y", if not, type "N". MESSAGE ENTRY IMPROVEMENTS -------------------------- * The message entry routines have been relaxed to allow the IBM extended character set for those in European countries. * When entering new messages through the reader's "Enter Mail in Any Area" menu item, the reader no longer drops you back to the previous menu after each message entered. You will remain at the area selection list until you press ESC to return to the previous menu. * Also, while at the "Enter Mail in Any Area" menu item, the scrollable area list highlights LOCAL message areas in Light Magenta, and Netmail area(s) in Yellow. Echomail areas are still the standard color of Light Cyan. * The reader now supports a quick name lookup function while entering messages. This feature can be used either while entering NETMAIL or "normal" mail. In order to utilize the name lookup function, you will need to create a text file called "NAMES.BW", and place it in the reader's home directory. There is a sample NAMES.BW file enclosed with the distribution archive that will help you better understand this function. The best way to describe the name lookup function is with an example. Let's suppose that you wanted to send netmail to me (George Hatchew, at 1:2240/176) with the subject line of "Blue Wave Ideas". Let's also suppose that you have an entry in your NAMES.BW lookup file that looks like the following: gh,George Hatchew,1:2240/176,Blue Wave Ideas At the message entry "To:" prompt, simply type "*gh". The '*' character tells the reader that it should go to the NAMES.BW file and look up the tag "gh", and insert the information contained there into the message entry fields. The format for the NAMES.BW file is as follows. Parameters in <> are required, parameters in [] are optional: <Tag>,<Full Name>,[Network Address],[Subject Line] If you are interested in finding more out about this feature, it would probably be a good idea to take a peek at the sample NAMES.BW file enclosed with your distribution archive. It contains many examples that will help you to build your own lookup file. SIGNATURE LINE ENHANCEMENTS --------------------------- * When "Signature Line Selection" is set to "Prompt" in the reader's configuration menu, and you are finished entering/replying to a message, the reader will give you a selection list of the available signatures just as before. At the selection window, you now have 4 options to choose from: 1) Press ESCape to not place a signature line in your message. 2) Press Enter on the signature line to place in your message. 3) Press F10 to manually type a custom signature line. 4) Press F9 to RANDOMLY select a signature line from the file. * While reading mail, you can now press "A" to bring up a "Signature Editing Window". If there is a signature line on the screen, THAT signature will be placed in the editing window for you to edit. If you do not wish to edit the signature line displayed (if any), simply begin typing a new signature line to place in your signature file. When you have finished editing/entering a signature line into the window, simply type <Enter>, and the signature line will automatically be appended to your signature file! MESSAGE READING MODE IMPROVEMENTS --------------------------------- * Probably the single most requested enhancement to the reader has been to implement an easier way to access/modify/delete replies and new messages that you have created during your mail session. Version 2.05 incorporates a very easy way to jump between reading mail and viewing/editing your replies. While you are reading mail, simply press the "V" key. This will immediately take you to View/Edit Reply Mode. While in this mode, the same keys are valid as described above in the "VIEW/EDIT REPLIES" section. You may also press "F1" for a list of all available keys. * The KEYWORD SEARCHING (described above) can be activated by pressing "K" while reading mail. * If your sysop has given you access, and if you have enabled "Extended Message Information" in The Blue Wave Mail Door, you probably know what ^A and SEEN-BY FidoNet message control information is presented in Echomail messages. Version 2.05 of the reader will allow you to define a color in which to display this extended message information. It will probably be necessary to go to the reader's configuration menu, under "Custom Colors", and define the color you would like to use for these lines. Extra space was used from the BWCOLOR.200 configuration file, and was defined as LIGHT GREEN on BLACK. If you do not like that color scheme, you will definitely want to make the change! * Normally when replying to a message, the default name placed in the "TO:" field of your reply is the person whose name is in the "FROM:" field of the original message. Sometimes, however, it may be desireable to reply to the person to whom the message is addressed. The reader refers to this as "Replying to Original Sender". To reply to the original sender of a message, simply type "O" while reading mail. * With older versions of the reader it was always necessary to go to the "Enter Message In Any Area" menu item to enter new mail in any message area except the one that you were currently reading. Now, for REGISTERED USERS ONLY, you can type <Alt-E> while reading mail to post a new message in *any* message area! Pressing <Alt-E> will bring up an area selection list. Simply highlight the message area that you would like to enter the message in and press <Enter>. From this point, it is exactly like entering any other message. Quick, simple, and painless! * Similar to the <Alt-E> command, the reader now supports what it refers to as "Cross-Replying". When you press <Alt-R> at a message that you would like to reply to, a message area selection list pops up, and you will be able to choose the message area in which to place your reply. If you have ever been involved in an Echomail conversation, and the moderator or another user politely asks you to take your discussion to another echo, it is now extremely easy to do so! Simply press <Alt-R>, choose the appropriate message area, and you have just moved the conversation to a new Echo! * Have you ever been reading mail, and decide that you want to reply to a particular message, but you would like to send it via FidoNet Netmail? Simply press <Alt-N>. This feature will be referred to as "Netmail Replying" throughout the reader. You will be asked if you would like to quote the message, then you will be given a "Netmail Message" entry form to complete your message entry. It should be noted that if the message you are repling to is in an Echomail area, the reader attempts to scan the message text and automatically fill in the Net Address for you! This is a very quick and simple way to keep off topic messages out of national echos and in private netmail, where it probably belongs. If you do not have access to a netmail message area on your host BBS, you may want to ask your sysop if he or she can support FidoNet Netmail for users (not all of them can.) * Message forwarding has been implemented in this copy of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. However, Message Forwarding is a sysop-controlled option, and you may or may not have access to do so. Normally, message forwarding is considered a "Sysop-Only" function. To forward the current message to another user or message area, simply type <Alt-F> while the message is displayed on the screen. I will not go into full detail here about message forwarding, because if you have access to it, you probably know what it does already. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader Version 2.01 Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Blue Wave Software All Rights Reserved Below is a complete list of new features and functions found within the Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader v2.01: * Perhaps the largest request we have had is to allow the reader to handle more messages per area. Although this did cost about 10K more of memory, we have accomplished it. The reader will now use ALL free memory available in your system to read mail. If you need to read 2000 messages in one message base, it is now possible. The maximum number of messages that can be handled in any one message area by the reader is now limited only by the amount of free RAM that you can give the reader. I have been successful in using the reader in as little as 250K, but you most likely will need to enable "Perform Memory Swaps", so that your archivers and editor have enough memory to load. The average user probably won't need more than 300K of free memory, while some others may need 400K free. You may have to experiment a bit to determine the optimum for you. * In order to help you determine how much memory is available to The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader at any particular time, you can press <ALT-I> from *anywhere* within the reader. Pressing <ALT-I> will display a window containing the current reader version, the copyright notice, the registration status of the reader, and the free memory available to the reader. * The reader will now return time slices while running under DESQview. While the reader is standing idle, the time slices will be given back to the other DESQview window(s). This should make background operations perform both faster and more smoothly. If you press <ALT-I> while running under DESQview, the reader should report to you the version number of DESQview that you are running. This will verify the fact that auto-DESQview detection was successful. * While reading messages, if there is a "Signature" line on the screen (a line beginning with "... "), you can now press ALT-A to "Adopt" this signature into your own Signature File. The signature filename is taken from the SETUP menu under "Directories". The signature line will be appended to your signature file exactly as it appears on the screen, minus the "... " prefix. * The maximum number of lines that the reader can handle in the SIGNATURE File has been increased from 500 to 1000. * While reading messages, the SPACEBAR now performs a dual function. If a message is more than 1 "page", and there is more not displayed on the screen, SPACEBAR will act like a PgDn was pressed. If all of the message text has been shown, the SPACEBAR acts as an ENTER key, and will move you to the next message. Now you can read an entire message area simply by pounding on the SPACEBAR. * The reader now displays a "Position Counter" at the bottom of the message-reading screen, indicating your relative position within the message area. The first message in the area will be message #1. If there are a total of 200 messages in one message area, the reader would count them off as "Pos: 1 of 200" through "Pos: 200 of 200" as you progress through the message area. This counter has nothing to do with the "Msg num xx of xx" display on the message header. "Msg num xx of xx" is the ACTUAL number of the message on the BBS at the time you downloaded your mail packet. * The reader now allows for up to 10 user-definable "hot-key batch files". You can create the files "ALTF1.BAT", "ALTF2.BAT", ... , ALTF10.BAT", and place them anywhere on your DOS Path. To invoke these batch files, simply press <ALT-F1> through <ALT-F10> from *anywhere* within the reader! If you have "Perform Memory Swaps" enabled within the reader, the reader will swap its used memory before executing the batch file. You could use these batch files to load your communications program, or any other external utility. * As a bonus to the ALT-F batch keys described above, it is now possible to interface a spell checker with the reader. When reading messages, the reader will remember the last file name of the message that you have REPLIED to or ENTERED. If an ALTFx.BAT key is invoked while reading mail, and there is a file name in memory, the file name of the MESSAGE TEXT will be passed to the .BAT file as the first command line parameter. In ALTF10.BAT, you could have the following: @ECHO OFF REM Load Spell Checker from within Blue Wave d:\sharewar\sharespl.exe %1 <other switches> This would load SHARESPL.EXE with the file name of the message you last saved. NOTE: The instant you leave the "Open Packet Menu", the reader no longer remembers your last message's file name. Make sure you use your batch file requiring a file name parameter BEFORE you leave the Open Packet Menu. * You may now define your own "Quote Header", using tokens that will be replaced with actual information when you reply to a message. In order for the quote header to appear in your message, you must: 1) Make sure you have toggled "Attach Quote Header" to ON in the SETUP->Options menu. 2) You must be REPLYING to a message, and you must tell the reader that you want to QUOTE the message. You can edit your own quote header in the SETUP menu under "User Strings". The following tokens can be used, and will be expanded to contain information about the message that you are quoting: @F - Reader replaces the @F with the name used in the FROM: field of the message that you are replying to. @T - The @T token is replaced by the name in the TO: field of the message that you are replying to. @D - The original date of the message that you are replying to. @S - The Subject of the message that you are replying to. @N - Forces the reader to place a CR/LF in the quote header. An example quote header line: On <@D>, @F said to @T something@Nabout @S: When expanded and placed in your Quote file, it may look something like this: On <18 Sep 91 12:30>, George Hatchew said to Fred Rappuhn something about The Release of Blue Wave v2.01: If you liked the "Standard" quote header of v2.00, use the following as your Quote Header Definition: -=> Quoting @F to @T <=- * The OFFLINE Configuration menu now supports the "Bundle Messages FROM You" flag that some of the BBS doors have. When this is set to "No", the doors will not bundle any messages that have your name in the From: field. If the BBS door that you use does not yet support this flag, it will very shortly. * When the reader performs a "Title Scan" of the message area titles, messages addressed TO: you are now colored Light Magenta. Messages FROM: you are colored Light Yellow. All other messages are still the default color of Light Cyan. This should help you spot a personal message much more quickly and easily. * When performing a "Title Scan" of the message bases, the reader now shows the current area's Long Area Name at the top of the screen. * If you have enabled "Save Msg Read/Reply Tags", the reader will now keep track of which messages you have read (same as v2.00), and which messages you have REPLIED to (new). The status of both of these flags is displayed when reading a message (on the message header), and on the Title Scan. Messages that have been replied to will appear on the Title Scan with a "~" symbol preceding the message number. Some people like to call this symbol a "tilde", but we call it a WAVE! * There is a new toggle on the SETUP->Options menu to allow you to define HOW you want the reader to default the "Save File" name. The "Save File" is the file that is written when you press <ALT-S> while reading messages to save the current message to disk. If you toggle "Set SaveFile to AreaName" to "Yes", the reader defaults to using the Short area name as the save file. If you are reading the BLUEWAVE echo, the default save file will be "BLUEWAVE.TXT". CONSUMER_REPORTS would default to "CONSUMER.TXT". If you set this option to "No", the reader will default to "BWAVE.TXT". However, if you change the path or file name at any time while using the reader, it will remember your last input, and leave it as the default for the entire session (or until you change it again). * When any external program is run (Dos Shell, ALTFxx.BAT, Archivers), the reader will test the errorlevel returned from the program. If it is NOT zero, it will display a window with the command line that was executed and the errorlevel that the program returned. If this is a non-critical error, the reader will continue as normal. However, if an archiver/unarchiver fails, the reader handles it as an error situation. * The reader's selection windows were fine-tuned to be more consistent and easier to navigate: Ctrl-PgDn Ctrl-End ~~~~~~~~~ Takes you to the VERY bottom of the selection list. Ctrl-PgUp Ctrl-Home ~~~~~~~~~ Takes you to the VERY top of the selection list. All other navigation keys perform as before. * Previous versions of the reader were stubborn as to where its configuration file had to be. Version 2.01 now performs the following steps when trying to locate its configuration file: 1) If the command line contains a <filename.cfg> parameter, THAT configuration file will be loaded. EXAMPLE: c:> BWAVE c:\bwave\mycfg.cfg 2) If there is NO command line configuration file, the reader looks for the DOS Environment variable "BWAVE". There are two possible ways to set the environment variable: a) Set the environment variable with the full file name that you want to load: EXAMPLE: SET BWAVE=C:\BWAVE\BWAVE.CFG b) If you want to save a few bytes of environment space, you can use the SET command to only point to a directory. In this case, you MUST use a trailing backslash on the directory name so the reader does not get confused and think you are trying to specify a file name. If there is no file name on the environment variable, BWAVE200.CFG will try to be loaded. EXAMPLE: SET BWAVE=C:\BWAVE\ 3) If there is no BWAVE environment variable, and there is no command line override, the reader will begin looking for BWAVE200.CFG. First it looks in the current directory, then it searches the DOS Path. 4) If all three of the above options fail, the reader will perform the steps required to make a first-time installation. In ALL cases, the reader changes to the DRIVE and DIRECTORY where its configuration file is located. This will allow you to have multiple configurations on one computer. When the reader is terminated normally, it will change back to the directory that you loaded it from. * The ability to edit your BWAVE configuration from *anywhere* within the reader was added. If you need to edit your BWAVE configuration from somewhere other than the Main Menu, you may do so by pressing <ALT-C>. Have you ever been reading messages and decide that you need to make a quick configuration change? Now you can simply press <ALT-C>, make the change, and continue where you left off, without having to "close" your mail packet and exit to the Main Menu! This is an EXTREMELY useful feature! There are 2 points to note when "Hotkeying" into the SETUP menu: 1) You will not be able to edit your UPLOAD, DOWNLOAD, and WORK directories when pressing <ALT-C> to edit your configuration. For obvious reasons, you must edit your default directories only when entering the SETUP menu through the Main Menu. 2) If you edit your COLOR configuration by using <ALT-C> to enter the setup menu, the color changes may not take place immediately. If you are at the "Message Reading" screen, and change your color configuration, you will need to exit back to the "Choose Area to Read" menu before the color change takes complete effect. This is not a design flaw, but is necessary in order to not add more code overhead which would slow down screen writes in-between messages. "Hotkeying" into the SETUP menu was a last minute feature, which was to be included in v2.10. However, we saw no point in keeping this extremely handy function out of v2.01 just because of item #2 above. "Use it in good health." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- We regret that we could not get ALL of the user suggestions into this release of The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader. Due to some bugs and problems in v2.00, this release was meant to fix, not create, more problems. The Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader, version 2.10 has already begun development, and we hope to deliver you a nice Christmas present. Here are just a couple of the ideas that we are trying to incorporate into the next release. This list is by no means ALL that will be forthcoming. We want to have a *few* suprises! --- New, powerful SEARCHING feature. This searching feature will allow the user to define any number of "keywords" in the reader. Upon user command, the reader will search both the message headers and the message text for any of these keywords. --- A Global PERSONAL message search/read feature. --- Bulk/Mass Printing, Saving, and purging of messages within a mail packet. --- Much, much more!