Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : OPMED300.ZIP
Filename : OP_USER.DOC

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The Friendly FidoNet Compatible Message Editor.


Version 3.00


----------------------------------------------------------------------
USER'S GUIDE
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Copyright (C) 1988-1990 Fix Production
All rights reserved


Software written by Thomas Sundblom


Documentation written by Thomas Sundblom




Fix Production
Box 97
130 40 Djurhamn
Sweden
FidoNet 2:201/114.0


Opmed is a trademark of Fix Production

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------


Section 1 - General Information .............................. 3
This manual ............................................. 3
Copyright notice ........................................ 3
Acknowledgements ........................................ 3
Thanx to ................................................ 4
Introduction ............................................ 4
Help system ............................................. 4
General requirements .................................... 5
Memory requirements ..................................... 5

Section 2 - Getting Started .................................. 6
Updating from 2.x to 3.x ................................ 6
Installing Opmed ........................................ 6
Invoking Opmed .......................................... 6

Section 3 - Special Function Usage ........................... 7
First Aid ............................................... 7
General input field usage ............................... 7
Nodelist Usage .......................................... 7
FidoUser List usage ..................................... 8
Reply message function .................................. 8
Carbon Copy function .................................... 9
Crosspost function ...................................... 9
String search ........................................... 10
Translation ............................................. 10

Section 4 - The rest ......................................... 11
Technical support ....................................... 11
Registration ............................................ 11

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 3

SECTION 1 - General Information
-------------------------------

THIS MANUAL

The documentation for Opmed is supplied in two parts.

The Opmed Manual isn't very big, because we think Opmed is very
simple to use and install.

The User's guide, named OP_USER.DOC, explains how to install
Opmed. It also describes basic operational procedures.

Terminology that may be of interest for some users is covered in
the Reference guide, namned OP_REF.DOC.

For inquiries, questions or comments regarding Opmed, please refer
to the User's guide section "Technical Support".


COPYRIGHT NOTITCE

Opmed is copyright protected by Fix Production.

All members of FidoNet, or other alike nets, may use Opmed freely
at no cost. We do recommend you to send us a registration. Please
refer to the User's guide section "Registration".

Opmed may NOT be used in ANY commercial environment, or outside of
amateur electronic mail systems. If usage of Opmed is wanted in such
systems a special agreement must be accomplished with Fix Production.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following name are either trademarks, registered trademarks,
and/or the efforts of the person and/or company namned:

Fido, FidoNet
Tom Jennings, Fido Software

Binkley, BinkleyTerm, Confmail
Bob Hartman and Vince Perriello, Bit Bucket Software

QMail
Greg Dawson

IBM, PC-DOS
International Business Machines Corporation

MS-DOS, WINDOWS
Microsoft Corporation

AMIGA
Commodore Business Machines

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 4

THANX TO

The making of Opmed has depended on several persons' support,
help and understanding. This is my humble way to thank them.

Opmed Test Crew - (Thomas Bergstam, Mats Knuts, Caj H”gberg,
Roland Sandell, Jan Jonsson, Christer Jonson,
Bob Hartman, Tomas Nimstad, Per Odeltorp,
Torgny Palm)

Thanx for suggestions and the un-glamourous hunting for
the undocumented features, called bugs.

Other specific thanx to...

Bob Hartman
He couldn't stand the fact a programmer need some sleep
sometimes . Thanx for all corrections and suggestions.

Caj H”gberg
The living dictionary!

My Girlfriend
How can she live with me?

My Daughter
Welcome to earth!


INTRODUCTION

Opmed is a message editor compatible to the Fido standard defined
in the document FTS-0001. The FTSC document is a technical standard
definition for FidoNet, realesed by the Fidonet Technical Standard
Commitee.

Opmed is capable of performing advanced handling of the message base
used in Fido compatible systems. It's major task is to read and
write messages in such systems.

Opmed is written for all Fido compatible systems, but prefers
the environment achieved by BinkleyTerm and ConfMail/QMail.


HELP SYSTEM

Opmed has an built-in help system. The system depends on the file
OPMED.HLP, which should reside in the same directory as OPMED.EXE.
The help system could be called by pressing Ctrl-F1. It contains
many details, which can't be found in this document. Opmed can
manage without the help file, but it could be handy to have it
available.
So when you're having trouble inside Opmed, take a look in the Help
System first.

To exit the Help-system, simply press ESC. Sometimes there's an
option called "More>" or " by pressing PgUp or PgDn.

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 5

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

- An IBM PC compatible computer.

- MS-DOS or PC-DOS, version 3.00 or higher.

- About 200kb of free disk space

- Basic knowledge of Fidonet compatible mail systems.

- Version 6 nodelist (Same as Opus 1.10 and Binkley 2.40)
(Opmed doesn't depend on the existence of a nodelist)


MEMORY REQUIREMENTS

It's impossible to tell how much memory is needed. But with the table
below you can figure out the need.
(These figures may change without any notice)

For Opmed to run..................................... 210000 bytes
Add space for the nodelist.idx, equal filesize ...... Max 60000 bytes
Add for each area ................................... 150 bytes
Add for each carbon-copy ............................ 45 bytes
Add for each macro key .............................. 52 bytes
Add for each node address (Aka) ..................... 8 bytes

Limits

Max areas .......................(memory depending).. 500
Highest area number ................................. 32767
Max Messages in area ............(memory depending).. 1000
Highest message number .............................. 32767
Max carbon copies at once........(memory depending).. 100
Max crossposts at once ..........(memory depending).. 20
Max message size .................................... 300 lines
Max macro keys ...................................... 20
Max nodes in nodelist ............................... 15000
Max saved lines ..................................... 100
Max drive re-assigns ................................ 10
Max Aka's ........................................... 20

So, a quick calculation will tell you that Opmed will never
need more free memory than 500kb, no matter how big your system
might be. My Opmed occupies approx. 250kb, and I've got several
areas, macros and a complete nodelist with an idx filesize
equal to 33464 bytes (=8366 nodes).
A smart installed Binkley (Big version 2.40) system will leave
more than 300kb of free memory when invoking the message reader,
in a computer with 640kb of RAM memory.

In short: No problems!

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 6

SECTION 2 - GETTING STARTED
---------------------------

UPDATING FROM OPMED 2.x

Before installing Opmed 3.x, make sure all old files from
Opmed 2.x are removed. Like Opmed.cfg, Opmed.hlp, Setup.exe and
Conv2xx.exe.


INSTALLING OPMED 3.x

Opmed is easy to install.
- Create a directory for opmed. I.e. C:\BBS\OPMED
- Unpack all files from the Opmed package into the
new directory.
- Edit the Opmed.Cfg file with a normal "Text-File-Editor"

That should be it.


INVOKING OPMED

It's simple to invoke Opmed. Just enter the path and filename.
I.e. C:\BBS\OPMED\OPMED.EXE

If you're using BinkleyTerm, then You can also run Opmed within that
program. Use the Binkley option MessageReader found in the Binkley
configuration file.
I.e. MessageReader C:\BBS\OPMED\OPMED.EXE
Then press ALT-E in the BinkleyTerm unattended mode.

The best, but not the easiest way, is to use a batch file to run Opmed.
The batch file could like this:
@Echo Off
C:\Opmed\Opmed.exe
If Errorlevel 6 Goto Echo
If ErrorLevel 4 Goto Matrix
If ErrorLevel 2 Goto Echo
Goto End
:Echo
Call EchoExp.Bat
:Matrix
Call Matrix.Bat
:End

Opmed will use different Errorlevels when exiting.
If you have entered any Local message, add 1 to the errorlevel.
Add 2 for any echomail, and 4 for any Matrix messages.

Errorlevel New messages is
0 None
1 Local
2 Echomail
3 Local and Echomail
4 Matrix
5 Matrix and Local
6 Matrix and Echomail
7 Matrix, Echomail and Local

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 7

SECTION 3 - SPECIAL FUNCTION USAGE
----------------------------------

Opmed got some special functions. Most of them are described in the
help system, but you might need more information about some of them.


FIRST AID

A small help menu could be invoked by pressing the F1 key. The menu
contains several commands, and you can scroll the list by using the
arrow keys. Each command can be called from the menu either by
pressing the appropriate key, or by moving the highlighted bar to the
command and press enter.
If you need to know more about the commands, use the Help System provided
by pressing the Ctrl-F1 key.


GENERAL INPUT FIELD USAGE

The input fields has some special keystrokes to help you edit the
field. Many fields are pre-entered by Opmed. To move the cursor within
a field use Left/Right arrow keys and Home/End. Also Ctrl-Left/Right
could be used. To empty a field use Ctrl-Backspace.


NODELIST USAGE

A nodelist is a list of all nodes in FidoNet. Opmed can live without
the nodelist, but it prefers to have it around. When you're about
to enter a nodenumber in a Node field, you should simply enter the
number. But you can also take advantage of a search function in Opmed.
You can exchange the node number with a "?". This will give you
a manual search window.
Example:
Node: 201/?
Will give you the manual nodelist search window, and puts you at
201/0 in it. Then use the the arrow keys to scroll.


OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 8

FIDOUSER LIST USAGE

Opmed will try to use the Fidouser file as often as it needs to.
The fidouser list is only used in the Matrix Mail area.
The search kind is by default Binary, but could be specified to
be Generic in the configuration file.
The diffence between the two is major.

Binary mode will search for a hit, and will use the first hit. It
is fast and requires a more correct entrance of the name.

Generic mode will use a sequential search for a hit. When it hits
a name matching the entered, it will ask you if it is correct. If it
isn't it will continue the search.

There is a way to use Generic mode, even if the default is Binary.
Enter a "*" character as the last character in the name, and Opmed
will use the Generic search instead of the Binary.
Example:
Andersson*

You can also search the FidoUser list manually, by entering a single
"?" character in the name field.

If you wanna skip the search, enter a "!" after the name.
Example:
Areafix!

There is also another way to use. Maybe you don't know the name of
the sysop to whom you wanna send your message, but you know his
nodenumber. Then enter "Sysop" in the name field, and the nodenumber
in the node field, Opmed will then try to find the name of the sysop
and replace Sysop with it.
Example:
To: Sysop On: 2:201/114
Will result in:
To: Thomas Sundblom On: 2:201/114


REPLY MESSAGE FUNCTION

A reply is entered by pressing F4, and if you are in an echomail area
you will be prompted if you want it "Public" oc "Private". The
difference is:
Public A normal reply in the current area.
Private A private reply, that will be put in the
Matrix area. The destination node will be picked from
the Origin line.

And then a prompt on how to quote the message is shown. The topics
are:
Normal Strips the kludges, seen-by lines, origin and
tear lines. Puts the rest of the lines behind the
standard quote sign " > ".
Technical Doesn't strip any line. But will convert all
control-a characters to "^A". The whole message is
quoted.
Don't Will delete all lines of the original message.
In other words "Reply Without Quotes"
Abort Will abort the reply function, and return to read mode.

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 9

CARBON COPY FUNCTION

The Carbon copy function lets you send a message to more people
than the one originally entered in the To field. Carbon Copy does
only work in the netmail area. There is a simular function for
the echomail areas called "CrossPosting".
To use the Carbon Copy function, you have to put one or more rows
in the message while entering the message text.
The lines will be processed when saving the message.
The row could look like this:
cc: Sundblom
The "cc:" is the keyword for carbon copy, and must be in the far
left column. The row shown above will tell opmed to send a carbon copy
to "Sundblom". Opmed will use the FidoUser.lst file to find the
complete name and nodenumber for "Sundblom". If no fidouser list is
used, or the name isn't found then, you will be prompted for the
complete name and nodenumber. To avoid the search in the FidoUser
file you can enter the whole name and nodenumber at once.
cc: Thomas Sundblom 2:201/114
or just
cc: 2:201/114
which will be sent to Sysop on 2:201/114.
You can use several "cc:" lines, or put several destinations on
the same line. i.e.:
cc: Sund, Sandell, Thomas Bergstam, Bob Hartman 1:132/101
cc: Palm, 2:2/0
With a little help from the FidoUser file, opmed will send that
message to:
Thomas Sundblom on 2:201/114
Roland Sandell on 2:201/114.3
Thomas Bersgtam on 2:201/101
Bob Hartman on 1:104/501
Torgny Palm on 2:201/118
Sysop on 2:2/0

When using the FidoUser list in the carbon copy function, Opmed
will use the generic search algorithm. For safer function.

I think I've put a piece of power into the carbon copy function!


CROSSPOST FUNCTION

The crosspost function is an alike to the Carbo Copy function, but
for the echomail areas. A crosspost will result in that the message
is posted in several echomail areas. The keyword is "cp:", and should
be entered into the message text. If you are writing a message in
the echomail area MEADOW and want the same message posted in the
areas BINKLEY and FRODO use these lines:
cp: BINKLEY
cp: FRODO

or simlpy

cp: BINKLEY, FRODO

Simple enough?

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 10

STRING SEARCH

Searches for a entered string in all messages in current area.
Each message that contains the string will be marked, and
the first message with the string in it will be shown after
the search is completed. The string is not case sensitive on the
normal ascii alpha characters "A" to "Z". but on all others.
Current translation is used when searching.


TRANSLATION

OPMED supports a special way to translate characters. The method is
described in detail in the FSC-0050 document.
The translation is used in the From, To, Subject fields besides the
message text body.
NOTE: If you're using a translation kind that translates the path
separator character "\" to any thing else. I.e. we swedes
uses that character for our "™". Then you must enter the
translated character, when typing in a filename, like a file-
attach specification.
Example:
C:™Binkley™Myfile.arc

The default translation kind should be specified in the configuration
file OPMED.CFG, but is default PC-8. You can also specify a different
translation for a special area, by creating a file called CHARSET in
that area's directory. That file should only contain the proper
translation keyword. When a message that doesn't contain any CHARSET
information appears, OPMED will use the one specified in the
configuration file, or in the CHARSET file.

Opmed will can handle the following translations:

KeyWord Description
PC-8 IBM PC standard character set (8-bit)
ISO-4 United kingdom (7-bit)
ISO-6 Plain ASCII (7-bit)
ISO-11 Sweden (7-bit)
ISO-15 Italian (7-bit)
ISO-17 Spanish (7-bit)
ISO-21 German (7-bit)
ISO-60 Norwegian (7-bit)
ISO-69 French (7-bit)
ISO-8859 Latin-1 (Windows, Amiga) (8-bit)

The translation data is found in the OPMED.TLT file. Extented
OPMED.TLT file may be distributed if there's a need to extend it.
Contact Fix Production for more information.

OPMED Version 3.00 - User's guide - Page 11

SECTION 4 - THE REST
--------------------

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Fix Production will provide technical support to all registered
users, via the FidoNet matrix mail system. Non-registered users
will not be supported.


REGISTRATION

If you register your usage of Opmed you will be informed of any
updates of the Opmed executable file and/or it's support files
OPMED.TLT and/or OPMED.HLP.

Please refer to the "Copyright" section for a discussion on the
copyright rights.

It's easy to register you usage of Opmed. Simply send us a postcard
containing Opmed version, Your Name, SystemName and Nodenumber.

Example:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +--------+ |
| OPMED VERSION 3.00 | | Please | |
| | | use a | |
| Name : John Doe | | stamp. | |
| | +--------+ |
| System: Seventh Heaven | |
| | |
| Node : Zone:Net/Node.Point | Fix Production |
| | |
| | Box 97 |
| | |
| | 130 40 DJURHAMN |
| | |
| | SWEDEN |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+


- End of User's Guide -