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Text File | 1995-09-17 | 18.5 KB | 443 lines

┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌─┐ ┌─┐┌────┐ ├── ││ ── ││ ┌──┘│ ┌┐ ││ ┌┐ ││ ── ││ ├─┤ ││ ──┤ │ ──┤│ ───┤│ │ │ └┘ ││ ││ ││ ───┤│ │├── │ └────┘└────┘└─┘ └────┘└─┘└─┘└────┘└──┴──┘└────┘ ───────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌─┐ ┌─┐┌────┐ ├── ││ ── ││ ┌──┘│ ┌┐ ││ ┌┐ ││ ── ││ ├─┤ ││ ──┤ │ ──┤│ ───┤│ │ │ └┘ ││ ││ ││ ───┤│ │├── │ └────┘└────┘└─┘ └────┘└─┘└─┘└────┘└──┴──┘└────┘ ───────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌────┐┌─┐ ┌─┐┌────┐ ├── ││ ── ││ ┌──┘│ ┌┐ ││ ┌┐ ││ ── ││ ├─┤ ││ ──┤ ┌─┐ ┌─┐┌─┐ │ ──┤│ ───┤│ │ │ └┘ ││ ││ ││ ───┤│ │├── │ ├─┐ ┌─┘│ │ └────┘└────┘└─┘ └────┘└─┘└─┘└────┘└──┴──┘└────┘ └─┘.└─┘└─┘ ───────────────────────────────────────────────── ────────── (C)opyright 1995 Dominik Moreitz. All rights reserved. A news bulletin generator for any ANSI/ASCII/AVATAR capable BBS software. Now includes FREE REGISTRATION!, and a swag full of other exciting new features! ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Legal stuff ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ COPYRIGHT NOTICE ZeroNews & associated files may be distributed freely, as long as: 1 - No files are removed from the archive 2 - No files in the archive are tampered with or changed 3 - It is NOT used for commercial use 4 - You have read and fully agree with the Legal Disclaimer ZeroNews is copyrighted to Dominik Moreitz 1994-95. All rights reserved. No part of it may be changed or altered in any way, including the documentation & executables. By using the program you agree with these conditions. If you are putting together a Shareware CD-ROM, feel free to include the ZeroNews archive, as long as it includes all the original files. LEGAL DISCLAIMER I (Dominik Moreitz) make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including without limitation any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. I shall not be held liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from the failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user. I shall not be held liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by the use of this program. In no event will I be held liable for any damages, including (but not limited to) any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use -- or the inability to use -- this program, or for any claim by any other party. Also, no other organisation, or individual, etc, shall profit from ZeroNews, or any other software written by me (Dominik Moreitz) in ANY way whatsoever. ZeroNews and all files that come with it shall NOT be changed in any way, and shall ONLY be distributed in the form of the original archive. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Introduction ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Hi everyone! ZeroNews is a News program which was written for any ANSI/ASCII/AVATAR capable BBS. I have tested it under DOS(tm) & OS/2(tm), and it works great. I have also heard that it runs perfectly under Windows(tm). What is ZeroNews? Simple, a news bulletin generator. I got sick of my old one, so I wrote a better one. I have also looked at many other news bulletin generators to get an overall idea of what good features sysops may want. I found a lot of the other programs to be very difficult to use. Some needed elaborate configurations and setups before they worked, and others simply read in a text file, and converted it to ANSI/ASCII/AVATAR. ZeroNews does more. It has options that personalise your news screens. It allows you to run it in the full-interface mode via mouse or keyboard, or by using command-line arguments. Vers. ZeroNews Features: 6.22 - Another bug fix (in the ascii output files). 6.21 - Bug fix, thanks to Albert Alcoceba for finding this one! 6.20 - Printer support added. You can now make print outs-of your news files. 6.20 - History file added. ZN6HIS.EXE added. You can now view the date and header of past news items. You can also make ASCII/ANSI/AVATAR files from the history data file. 6.10 - AVATAR support!! ZeroNews now also generates .AVT files! 6.10 - Major Changes in the colour change menu. 6.10 - Minor bug fixes. 6.0 - Saved Configuration file. 6.0 - Text justification in your news bulletins! Allows Left, Right and centred! 6.0 - Change the character which is used to make the lines, for a more personalised news bulletin. 6.0 - Change the prompt at the bottom of each bulletin, allowing a more personalised appearance. 6.0 - Ezycom support. ZeroNews now supports some special Ezycom control codes. 6.0 - Mouse support!! 6.0 - Input & editing screens! The new screens are much more flexible than the old ones. 6.0 - Brand new interface and menus to help make your job easier! 6.0 - Registration key system (Thanks to the marvellous help of John Stephenson's REGVER libraries. Thanks John!). 6.0 - Context sensitive on-line help for all menus, and most other functions! Just press F1 for help. 6.0 - VGA REQUIRED TO RUN THIS VERSION! (High intensity backgrounds included) 6.0 - Now Supports up to 18 lines of text per news bulletin, and up to 30 news bulletins, more than enough! 5.20 - The entire program is Menu driven, no need to make a text news file & then run the program. Just enter everything on screen! 5.20 - Choose from any colour combination, make your bulletins look the way they should, great! 5.20 - Add, delete, edit any news bulletins. 5.20 - All News items are saved in a special file until you erase them! This way you can keep an easy record of your news bulletins. 5.20 - It's damn easy to use! 5.20 - Each news item is on a new screen, allowing for a clearer screen. 5.20 - ZeroNews automatically inserts the date which you write the bulletin into the bulletin. No need to do it yourself! 5.20 - In-Built Viewer, so you can view/review your news items at will. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Installation ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you used to use any older versions of ZeroNews, see 'Upgrading' below. How do you install ZeroNews? Easy: (1) Unarchive the archive in your textfiles directory, for Remote Access this is usually C:\RA\TXTFILES. For Ezycom this would usually be C:\EZY\TXT . The ANSI/ASCII/AVATAR files are created in the directory in which the ZN6.EXE file is in. If you put ZN6.EXE in your path, and run it from another directory, news files are created in your current directory. (2) Change to the directory where you installed the ZeroNews files to and then type 'ZN6' to start the program. (Make sure you are in the same directory as ZeroNews, as it needs to find the config & help files). So far so good, right? (3) If your output file names are NOT news.ans & news.asc then you should add an option in your BBS to actually display the news files once they are created. In Ezycom or Remote Access you must enter your menu editing programs. RACONFIG -M in Remote Access, or EZYMENU with Ezycom. (4) Make sure your BBS is set up to display the files NEWS.ANS, NEWS.ASC & NEWS.AVT, or whatever you changed the output filenames to. Remote Access and Ezycom AUTOMATICALLY look for the files NEWS.??? when they start up. Other BBS systems do not. Basically that's all there is to it! If you have any trouble, get in touch with me, or one of the support sites. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Upgrading from older versions! ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ FROM VERSION 6.0-6.20 : Unpack the archive over the top of the old files. This should replace all of the old files. It is VERY important that the following files are overwritten: ZN6.EXE ZN6.OVR ZN6REG.OVR ZN6REG.EXE CONFIG.DAT ZN6.HLP You can still use your ZN6.DAT with the new version, so there is no need to rewrite your news bulletins. If you had a registered version of 6.0-6.20 then make sure your key file is in your ZeroNews directory, then re-run ZN6REG after all the old files have been replaced. FROM VERSION 0.520 : Run the utility 52to60 from the command line. The file ZN5.DAT must be present! The program will convert the file to ZN6.DAT, and then erase the file ZN5.DAT. FROM VERSIONS BEFORE 0.520 : Erase all the old files & start from scratch! Sorry, but this new version is much too advanced! ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Using ZeroNews - Full Screen ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ To get around the menus in ZeroNews just press the numbers or letters associated with each menu choice. Easy! If you ever run into trouble, see the bottom of the screen for a one-line help. If you need more info, try pressing F1. This brings up the help screen for the current menu, if any help information is available. Still confused? Try to get in touch with me! I'll help! Here is an overview of the commands in each menu: Main Menu Help -------------- Add news item - This option lets you add a new news item. Delete news item - This option lets you delete a news item that is already present. Edit news item - Lets you edit the text of an existing news item. View news items - This option brings up the news viewer, which lets you see the news items. The items appear similar to how they would appear in the ANSI output file. Colour Edit - This option lets you change the text colour, background colour, line colour and header colour of any news item present. Write Ansi/Ascii - This option will write the output ANSI and ASCII files to the disk / hard disk. The ANSI/ASCII files will only be created if you choose this option. Setup - This option lets you change the setup of ZeroNews 6.20. Quit to OS - Quit to the Operating System. Add News Item Help ------------------ To navigate across the screen, use the arrow keys. The <HOME> and <END> keys take you to the beginning or end (respectively) of each line. The <DELETE>, <BACKSPACE> and <INSERT> keys work also. The <TAB> key takes you five spaces forward across the line. The <ESCAPE> key finishes the entry of text, and you will then be asked if you wish to save the text or not. Edit News Item Help ------------------- To navigate across the screen, use the arrow keys. The <HOME> and <END> keys take you to the beginning or end (respectively) of each line. The <DELETE>, <BACKSPACE> and <INSERT> keys work also. The <TAB> key takes you five spaces forward across the line. The <ESCAPE> key finishes the editing of text, and you will then be asked if you wish to save the text or not. Setup Help ---------- 1 - This option lets you change the character that will be used as the line when the ANSI/ASCII files are written. The default is a line (#196), ─ . 2 - This option lets you change the prompt that appears on the bottom of each message. The prompt is 'Press Enter' by default. 3 - This option lets you change the justification of any news items that you write AFTER you change this option. 1 = Left (default), 2 = Centre, 3 = Right. 4 - If you run Ezycom, set this to true. If set on then this will include some Ezycom codes in the output ANSI/ASCII files. 5 - You can change the output ANSI filename with this option. 6 - You can change the output ASCII filename with this option. 7 - You can change the output AVATAR filename with this option. 8 - While this is set to true, any news item you write or edit will be stored in the history file. Only the date & header is stored. 9 - If this is switched on, when you choose 'Write Ansi/ascii' from the main menu, the news items will also be sent to the printer (LPT1 ONLY!) View News Help -------------- Use the arrow keys to to go forward or backward through the news files. The <HOME> and <END> keys take you to the beginning of the news items or to the last of the news items, respectively. The news files are displayed in the colours that will be used in the ANSI and ASCII output files. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Using ZeroNews - Command line ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ There are several handy command line options that you can use with ZeroNews : /? - This option brings up the help screen. The help screen shows you a short listing of the command line options, and what each option does. /W - Reads the news data file and writes the ANSI/ASCII/AVATAR files. /D - Deletes all news items in the data file. CAUTION - NEWS FILES WILL BE ERASED! /V - This loads the news bulletin VIEWER ONLY. This is handy if you only want to have a look at the news items. /L<filename> - Loads in a different news file. Use this if you have renamed your ZN6.DAT to something else. This is useful for storing older news data files, then viewing/using them. All options can be used separately or together. For example, if you use /L to read in a new file, then /W to write the file, it will read the file specified on the command line, NOT ZN6.DAT! ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ ZeroNews History Processor ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ A new feature from ZeroNews 6.20 was the history file processor. ZeroNews now lets you keep track of old news bulletins, even ones that have already been deleted. The ZN6HIS.EXE file has three command line parametres that you can use: /W - Writes the ASCII/ANSI/AVATAR files called NEWSHIS.ASC NEWSHIS.ANS NEWSHIS.AVT /P - This option sends the history file to the printer. /Dxx - This option deletes history file entries older than xx days. If you wish to use the history file, or ZN6HIS.EXE, you must have the option 'HISTORY FILE' set on. You can do this in setup, inside ZeroNews. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Support for ZeroNews ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you are experiencing any sort of difficulty, please get into contact with me, or one of my support sites. My BBS: Substation Zero Phone: (02) 831-8040 FidoNet: 3:713/803 AdventureNet 169:3006/6 Support Sites: -------------- Sysop BBS Name Numbers Baud Where? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robin Verryt Robster's BBS +649-435-2338 28.8k +649-435-2334 14.4k Whangarei, NZ Deon Attard WhitSunday Waves BBS +617-942-4328 28.8k Qld, Australia !!! WARNING !!! The following BBS is NO LONGER A ZEROSOFT SUPPORT SITE!! The sysop & co-sysop of the following BBS refuse to answer my messages to them, and after they became a support site they restricted my access to their BBS. David Ready Home Computing BBS +612-809-2292 28.8k Nsw, Australia ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Registering ZeroNews ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Good News! ZeroNews doesn't cost a fortune. A registration key can be obtained from me (or my BBS), for FREE!!! Here's how you register: Fill in the form (REGISTER.DOC) and then: Send the completed document to me. You can send it via post (snail mail) FidoNet, AdventureNet, or call my BBS. I will then send you the key file that you need to register ZeroNews, and will provide instructions on how to install the key. - Versions of ZeroNews prior to 6.20 are now FREEWARE. - Future versions may or may not be free. REMEMBER!!!! THIS SOFTWARE IS SHAREWARE, NOT FREEWARE. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO USE THE SOFTWARE FOR A THIRTY (30) DAY TRIAL PERIOD, AFTER WHICH YOU MUST REGISTER. THAT IS THE LAW. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │░░░▒▒▒▓▓▓ Finishing Comment & Trademarks ▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ I would like your help in making this program a LOT better. Please Netmail me at 3:713/803@fidonet for any improvements you may like to see added to ZeroNews. Thanks, and Cya around, Sysops........ Trademarks: OS/2 is an registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Windows and DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Ezycom is a trademark of Peter Davies. Remote Access is a trademark of Wantree Development.