Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : ROBOM13U.ZIP
Filename : RMHELP.DBV
Help Index« ¦
The main menu is accessed by pressing the / key
while viewing the control panel. A variety of
common commands are listed, along with their
keyboard equivalences.
ý_ÿÿ^ Y
Key Purpose
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F1 Context Sensitive Help
/ Move to next / previous item
SpaceBar Push, Check, or Select item
Tab / Sh-Tab Next / previous data element
ÄÙ Go to next element or push button
Ctrl ÄÙ Accept/Save data and continue
Esc Abort data entry and back up
Keys
For Text Fields Purpose
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
Ins Toggle INSert status
Del Delete character on cursor
BackSpace Delete character to the left
Ctrl-BackSpace Delete word left
Ctrl-Y Delete to end of field
Home / End Beginning / End of field
Ctrl <-/-> Previous / Next Word
F10 Display pick-list (if available)
-
Help Index
System Window Folders Window
Incoming Mail
The OutBox The Chron File Message Archives Address Book Attachment Manager Conference Manager Tagline Manager
Snoop Mode Import Filter Names
Quick Scan Command Line Options Technical Support Contact Information t
RoboMail's control panel gives you quick access to
all parts of your mail system. The display is
divided into three primary windows.
The System Window displays information about
the status of mail and information files from
packets that you have previously imported.
The Folders Window displays a list and message
counts for the custom message folders that you
have created.
The Incoming Mail Window displays a directory
of your incoming mail and allows you to traverse
your hard disk to pick mail packets for import
into RoboMail.
Two More help screens are available.
Press PgDn to view them.
Control Panel Navigation Keys
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
To position the highlight bar in a window, click
anywhere on the control panel with your mouse.
Click within the active window to select a data
item "cell." The following keyboard commands
will also move the control panel highlight bar:
/ Scroll up/down
<-/-> Move bar left/right
PgUp PgDn Display previous/next page
Home / End Go top/bottom of data
Tab/Sh-Tab Next/Previous window
Alt-SPROACNWGFB Jump to a system window column
Alt-L Jump to the Folders Window
Alt-I Jump to Incoming Mail
Global Commands
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These command keys can be used no matter where
the cursor is located on the control panel.
/ Display a menu of common procedures
F2 RoboMail/System/Color configuration
F3 Access the Address Book
F6 Access the Attachment Manager
F7 Shell to DOS
F8 Access the Conference Manager
F10 Access the Tagline Manager
Del Delete highlighted item
Enter Select/View/Edit highlighted item
D Display message database statistics
S Toggle "Snoop" mode
F Edit import Filter Lists
Q Quick Scan of all messages in RoboMail
Esc Quit
To see the commands that are available in specific
control panel windows, see the See Also list -->
? Bulletins
The OutBox The Chron File Message ArchivesÍ ×
The top window on the control panel displays
information about the status of mail and
information files from packets that you have
previously imported.
System - This column lists the mail IDs of the
systems you have received mail from. To edit the
configuration settings specific to a system,
select a cell in this column.
Recent - This column summarizes the recently
imported messages that you have not yet
categorized. The number to the left of the slash
indicates unread recent messages and the number on
the right displays the total. To view recent
messages, select this column.
Personal - This column breaks out a sub-set of
your recent messages and provides a simple way to
view only mail addressed to you.
i
OutBox - This column indicates the number of
messages you have written that have not yet been
exported for delivery. To review your outgoing
messages, select a cell in this column. If a C
appears in this column, then you have pending
conference/mail door configuration requests which
have not yet been exported. If a R appears in
this column, it means that RoboMail has detected
an outgoing mail packet for the system. (Use the
Recall command to re-import the it if you want
to see the messages again). If you want to delete
an outgoing REPly packet that has already been
uploaded to a BBS, highlight the appropriate
OutBox cell and press the DEL key.
Archive - This column summarizes messages which
you have previously viewed and have elected to
Keep or Age. To view the archived messages
for a particular system, select a cell in this
column.
µChron - This column summarizes the messages
which you have sent and elected to keep on hand
for a period of time.
News - Welcome - Goodbye - File Lists
When any of these columns contained an illuminated
bullet point, a text file is available
file from the mail source is available for
viewing. By default, Green indicates an item
which has been updated since the last time you
viewed it and Red indicates an item you have
previously viewed.
Bltn - This column summarizes the number of
bulletins which have been sent by the mail system.
By default, a Green number indicates that there
are updated or new bulletins to be read.
Press PgDn now to see the system window commands.
¡
System Window Commands
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. Find unread mail
F4 Bulk action assignment
Sh-F4 Discard unassigned messages
Alt-F4 Discard aged-out messages
F5 Process marked messages
T Tally messages on current system
Alt-T Tally all system and folder messages
P Pack data files
X Single System OutBox export
R Recall exported messages
C Compose a new outgoing message
Del Delete item under cursor, or delete
all data from a system if cursor is in
the "System ID" column. Also can be used
to delete a REPly packet when the cursor
is in the OutBox column
&
Finding Unread Mail - To find unread mail for a
specific system, position the highlight bar
anywhere on the system's row and press the "."
(period) key. If you want to find unread personal
mail, position the cursor in the "Personal" column
before pressing the "." key.
Deleting Data - If you highlight a message column
and press Del, RoboMail will ask if you want to
assign Discard status to all the messages in that
message class. To delete an outgoing REPly
file, press Del with the cursor located in the
OutBox column. If you highlight the News,
Welcome, Goodbye, Files or Bulletin columns and
press Del, RoboMail will ask if you want to
delete the highlighted item.
To delete all data associated with a mail system
with one keystroke, highlight the system ID and
press the Del key.
Processing Messages1 " ,
The folders window displays a listing of the
messages folders you have created along with
the total number of messages currently in the
folder. While reading any message you can
elect to copy it to a RoboMail message folder.
Use message folders to organize messages of
particular interest to you for quick access and
review.
Folders Window Commands
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
F5 Process messages
T Tally current folder messages
Alt-T Tally all system and folder messages
P Pack data files
ÄÙ Read folder messages
$ Mail Importing Setup) & t
By default, the Incoming Mail window on the
control panel displays a directory of mail
packets which are waiting to be imported in your
configured incoming mail directory.
To import a single incoming mail packet, highlight
the packet name and press Enter. To tag and
import multiple packets, use the SpaceBar to tag
the files to import and then press Enter on a
system name to start the importing process.
You can traverse your systems available
directories by selecting any of the
directory entries. To refresh the current
directory display, select the "." directory entry.
To back up one directory level, select the ".."
directory entry. To change to another disk drive,
select one of the available drive letter entries
from the end of the directory listing.
NOTE: If you select a mail packet that resides
anywhere other than your configured incoming mail
directory for importing, the mail packet will be
moved into your configured incoming mail directory
if you've enabled packet archiving on the Mail
Importing Setup screen.
7 ( Tips on Quoting Quick-Merge Files Merge Macros¹ *
Navigation Commands
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Home Move cursor to start of line
End Move cursor to end of line
Up/Down Move cursor up or down one row
Left/Right Move cursor left/right
Ctrl-Right Move cursor to next word
Ctrl-Left Move cursor to previous word
Ctrl-PgUp Move cursor to top of file
Ctrl-PgDn Move cursor to bottom of file
Tab/Sh-Tab Move to next/previous tab stop
Text Editing Commands
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
Del Delete character at cursor
Ctrl-Backspace Delete word left
Ins Toggle Insert/Overwrite mode
Alt-D / Ctrl-Y Delete current line
Alt-T Delete to end of line
Alt-Z Delete to end of file
Ctrl-Enter Re-format current paragraph
G
Block Management Commands
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Alt-M Toggle block marking mode on/off
Alt-L Toggle line marking mode on/off
Alt-P Mark paragraph from cursor line
Alt-U Turn off (Unmark) current block
[+] Copy marked block to buffer
[-] Cut marked block to buffer
Del Delete marked block
Alt-Q Quote marked block to outgoing
Alt-I Insert (paste) buffer contents
File Management Commands
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Alt-E Edit another file
Alt-N Move to next file/message
Alt-F Import a text file
Alt-W Write (save) file to disk
Alt-C Close file in current window
Alt-X Save outgoing message and exit
Esc Exit without saving message
L
Other Commands
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F2 Editor Settings Menu
Alt-S Spell check current message
Alt-G Edit quick-merge assignments
Alt-J Toggle right justification
Alt-A Toggle automatic formatting
Alt-H Toggle hint display
Shift F1-F10 Execute quick-merge
,
Message SetupJ . ·
The easiest way to quote portions of a message
into your reply is to use the SpaceBar to tag
the lines of a message that you want to quote
while you are reading the message. When you press
the Reply key, all groups of consecutive lines
that you tag will be bundled together as quotes in
your new outgoing reply, formatted according to
the Quoting Style option you specified on the
Message Setup configuration screen. (Note that
the Scroll Lock key must be toggled OFF for the
highlight bar to be visible)
However, there will be some instances when the
space bar tagging methods won't do the exact job
you want. For example, you might want to quote a
single sentence in the middle of a long paragraph
or you might want to retain the format (spacing)
of the quoted material in your reply.
To perform custom quoting using the internal
editor, make sure that the cursor is positioned in
the outgoing message at the position that you want
the quoted text to be inserted, and then press
Alt-Next to switch to the message you are
replying to.
Next, position the cursor at the beginning of the
text that you would like to quote and decide on
the quoting style (formatted or unformatted) that
you need. Press Alt-Mark to start marking text
in word-processing mode if you want to reformat or
Alt-Line to start line marking mode if you want
to maintain the current formatting.
Once all of the text you want to quote has been
marked, press Alt-Quote and RoboMail will quote
the marked text back into your outgoing message
and position the cursor right under the newly
quoted text.
B 0 Sample Topic 1 Sample Topic 2 Sample Topic 3
Help Index 2 U
While in the online help system, use the PgUp
and PgDn keys to change between help pages
related to the same topic. Home will take you
to the first page in the set, and End will
take you to the last.
You can tell if additional pages are available by
looking at the bottom line of the screen. If
[PgDn] and/or [End] is displayed, more pages are
available in the forward direction. If [PgUp]
and/or [Home] is displayed, more pages are
available in the backward direction.
Press PgDn now to learn how to access the
related topics listed in the window on the right.
0
Related Topics
Use the and arrow keys to move the
scroll bar in the See Also window on the right
side of the help screen. When a topic you are
interested in is highlighted, press ÄÙ to
access the help information related to that topic.
Once you select a related topic, a
related topics. Select this option to back up
sequentially through the help screens you've
visited.
Press Esc at any time to leave the help system.
Press ÄÙ to return to the previous help topic.
4 ent b 6 ]
See, it works!
Select
Help on Help screen.
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See, it works!
Select
Help on Help screen.
< ]
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See, it works!
Select
Help on Help screen.
) @ What is a Thread? Tagging Messages§
B
To see an overview of all messages in the current
conference, press the Ins key while reading
messages. RoboMail will present a scrolling index
displaying selected data from all the messages in
the conference.
The Flags column on the message index display
can contain a variety of characters, depending
upon the status and class of the messages being
displayed. The possible flag characters are:
A The message archive option is Age
K The message archive option is Keep
D The message archive option is Discard
The message is private
c OutBox message will be copied to chron
H OutBox message has Hold status
r You have replied to this message
1..9 Message is included in a tag group
A bulk process marked the message as read
ð The message has appeared on your screen
and you may have read it.
NOTE: If your screen is in eighty column mode,
additional columns of message data can be
viewed by scrolling the cursor off the right
edge of the screen.
The following keys are available while viewing the
message index for a conference:
Message Index Command Keys
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
ÄÙ Return to message view screen with
currently highlighted message displayed.
Esc Return to message view screen and
display the message that was active
before the Ins key was pressed.
A Set message archiving action to Age
K Set message archiving action to Keep
+
D Set message archiving action to Discard
H Toggle Hold status in OutBox
Y/C Toggle Copy to Chron status in OutBox
N Clear the current archiving option
+ Set message's archive option to
default and move to next message
- Set message's archive option to
default and move to previous message
Del Set the archiving action of all messages
in the current thread with no assigned
action to Discard status and move to the
next thread
G
* Set the archiving action of all messages
in the current thread with no assigned
action to the conference default action
and move on to the next thread
/ Set the archiving action of all messages
in the current thread with no assigned
action to the conference default action
and move back to the previous thread
1...9 Assign message to tag group 1 through 9
0 Clear tag from current message
Ctrl-T Bulk tag messages
Ctrl-U Bulk un-tag messages
F7 Shell to DOS
D Maê F å
The term message thread is a bit of arcane
terminology inherited from old fashioned online
mail systems which refers to an ongoing
conversation among individuals in an electronic
medium.
In RoboMail, all messages within a conference
which share the same subject text (character case
is not significant) are considered to be part of
the same conversation, or thread. A variety of
command keys are available for assigning archiving
actions to all the member messages of a thread.
H å
¢ J W
Pressing F9 or Composing a message from the
system window of the control panel will display a
scrolling listing of all conferences available on
the BBS. You can use this display to search for
a conference, or provide a variety of maintenance
tasks.
You can instantly Sort the conference directory
by conference number or name by simply positioning
the highlight bar in either the number or name
columns of the display. As you move the cursor
between columns, the sort order will be updated
automatically.
Searching by conference name is accomplished by
using the right arrow key to move the highlight
bar into the conference name column and typing the
name of the conference you want to locate. As you
type, the set of displayed conferences will be
narrowed to only display the conferences which
names that match what you've typed so far.
ÄTo Search by conference number, place the
highlight bar in the conference number column and
begin typing the conference number. A data entry
field will open up to accept your keystrokes.
When you've finished entering the number, press
ÄÙ to perform the conference number search.
The Conference Directory screen is also a very
convenient place to handle quick changes to your
conference aging options. The following key
commands will help you do this:
Conference Directory Command Keys
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
F2 Access conference specific setup screen.
Alt-A \
Alt-K \_ Set the conference default archive
Alt-D / option to Age,Keep,Discard or None.
Alt-N /
|
F9 Decrease the conference specific age
days setting by 1 day.
F10 Increase the conference specific age
days setting by 1 day.
ÄÙ When composing a message, select the
current conference and enter the editor to
write the message.
Esc When composing a message, abort the
conference selection process and return.
L Archive Actionsó N w
This display lists the conferences which have
active messages for the selected message class.
Use the standard navigation keys to select the
conference you would like to enter and press the
ÄÙ key to select it.
Conference Selection Command Keys
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
F2 Access conference specific setup screen.
Alt-A \
Alt-K \_ Set the conference default archive
Alt-D / option to Age,Keep,Discard or None.
Alt-N /
F9 Decrease the conference specific age
days setting by 1 day.
F10 Increase the conference specific age
days setting by 1 day.
t ÄÙ Select the highlighted conference.
Esc Abort the conference selection process
and return.
P Ma¸ R ³
Typing a number between zero and nine when the
cursor is in the conference number column of the
conference directory opens up a field which allows
you to search for a specific conference number.
The key you entered to start the search process
will be inserted into the data entry field. When
you have fully entered the conference number you
want to search for, press ÄÙ and RoboMail will
jump to your desired conference number.
T Setting a PointerÊ V A
RoboMail's conference management screen offers a
convenient interface for communicating with the
mail service to specify the conferences to be
included in your mail packet. To access the
screen, highlight a mail system in the System
window of the control panel and press F8 or select
Conference Management from the pop-up main menu.
The conference management screen is divided up
into four windows. The large window on the left
side of the screen contains a list of all
available conferences on the BBS. If RoboMail has
seen mail in the conference before and you have
not issued a drop request for the conference
recently, then SEL will appear next to the
conference name and the entire line will be
displayed in a different color to let you know
that the conference is already selected for
scanning on the mail system.
Ï
The right side of the screen is made up of three
windows which hold the pending Add, Drop and
Reset configuration requests which have not yet
been exported to an outgoing mail REPly packet.
To move the cursor between windows, use the
Tab and Sh-Tab keys.
To search for a conference name, place the
cursor in the conference names window and begin
typing the conference name to look for.
To join a new conference on the mail system,
highlight the name of the conference to add and
press Alt-A.
To abandon a selected conference, highlight the
name of the conference to drop and press Alt-D.
To reset the last message read in a conference,
highlight the conference name and press Alt-R to
Treset the conference's last read pointer.
To delete a configuration request, highlight the
configuration request to remove and press the
Delete key.
RoboMail will let you know whenever you have
"pending" conference configuration requests which
have not yet been exported to an outgoing package
by placing a C in the system's row of the
Control Panel OutBox column.
NOTE: Some mail services only send information
about the conferences that you currently
have selected for reading, and others can
be configured to do this. Since RoboMail
has no restrictions on the number of
conferences it can support, you should
configure the mail service to include
information about all available conferences
in your mail packet if it is at all
possible to do so. This will enable you to
X take advantage of RoboMail's advanced
conference management capabilities
X Data Entry Keysç Z â
Whenever you create a Reset conference
configuration request, RoboMail will open up a
window to ask you to specify the new message
pointer. Depending upon the mail system you are
dealing with, a variety of options are available.
Some mail systems require that you do not enter
anything into the reset request option. Doing
this will set your last message read pointer to
the last available message in the conference.
Other systems will allow or require you to specify
a specific message number to reset the pointer.
Still other systems will allow you to specify a
negative number, which means "send me the last
xxx messages in the conference."
Check with your mail system operator to see which
capabilities are available to you.
\
Utility Setup
Message Setup Mail Importing Setup System Setup Pilot & Sound Setup
Incoming Mail Data Entry KeysÞ ^ {
This configuration screen allows you to specify
the directories that RoboMail will use for file
input and output.
Use the Location of Incoming QWK Packets
field to specify the name of the directory into
which your communications program(s) will place
incoming mail packets. When RoboMail starts,
it will default to this directory for its
Incoming Mail window.
Use the Location of Outgoing REP Packets field
to specify the directory that RoboMail should use
to store exported "reply" packets.
Use the Location of File Attachments field to
specify the directory into which RoboMail should
place all incoming attached files.
[
Use the Archive Extraction Work Directory to
specify the directory that RoboMail should use as
a temporary work space when extracting messages
from incoming mail packets. RoboMail will create
this directory if it does not exist. If you have
a large RAM disk or a choice between two hard
disks of differing speeds, you should try to
specify the fastest drive available.
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Û W A R N I N G Û
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RoboMail will erase the contents of the work
directory and remove the directory after
processing the incoming mail. DO NOT specify a
directory name that will be used simultaneously
by any other program to hold files. For safety
reasons, RoboMail will not allow you to specify
the root directory of any drive or the RoboMail
home directory for this configuration option.
` Directory Setup
Message Setup Mail Importing Setup System Setup Pilot & Sound Setup Attachment Manager Data Entry KeysÇ b
This configuration screen allows you to specify
the outside utility programs that RoboMail should
use for archive file manipulation and file
viewing.
Enter the appropriate Create archive commands
in the fields for ZIP, ARJ and LZH files. Use
%T to represent the "target" file that will be
created and %S to indicate the "source" file
list. NOTE that RoboMail passes the name of a
text file that lists the files to be included in
the archive. Most archive creation utilities
require a different command line switch when a
using a list file.
For the Extract archive commands, use %T to
indicate the "target" directory for extracted files
and %S to represent the "source" mail packet.
Enter the memory required by archiving utilities
in the Archive Create/Extract RAM field.
q
Select the Use Internal Text Viewer button to
use RoboMail's internal routines for displaying
text files (bulletins, news files, etc.) to the
screen, or select the Use Text Viewer button to
specify an external utility program for the task.
In the field provided, specify the list utility,
using %T to represent the file that will be
viewed. Also, specify the amount of memory
required by your outside text viewing utility in
the Text Viewer RAM field.
When you select ArcView from the Attachment
Manager screen to examine the contents of a
attached archive file, RoboMail will free up as
much memory as possible, and run the utility
you specify in the Archive Viewer field.
Use %T to represent the file to be viewed.
The RIP Viewer field is used to define the
utility that will be used to display messages
containing Remote Imaging Protocol graphics.
1When you use the View command while looking at a
message, RoboMail will examine the text of the
message to see if there is any RIPscript code
contained within it. If so, RoboMail will
write the current message out to a message.txt
file and shell to DOS to execute the configured
RIP viewing utility.
d Conference Settings Creating Replies Directory Setup
Utility Setup Mail Importing Setup System Setup Pilot & Sound Setup Data Entry Keyså f Ë
This configuration screen allows you to set
options related to creating outgoing messages.
To specify the Message Editor you want to
use for creating messages, select the Internal
or External button. To specify an external
editor, enter a command in the space provided and
use %T to represent the outgoing message file
and %S to represent the original message you
are replying to. Then, enter the amount of
memory required by the editor in the Editor RAM
Required field.
By default, RoboMail uses REPLY.TXT and
ORIGINAL.TXT as the outgoing and original file
names when using an external editor. You can
change these if you want by specifying new file
and/or path names in the fields provided.
6
The Message Header Style setting controls the
order in which the author and recipient of a
message will appear in the header portion of
screen displays, printouts and text files.
Select either button to specify your preference.
The Taglines setting controls the default
tagline file and selection method. By default,
RoboMail will store tagline files in a file named
ROBOMAIL.RTF. However, if you want to keep
several different tagline files, you can use the
Main Tagline File option to specify the tagline
file that will be used when messages are created
in any conference that doesn't have an alternate
tagline file specified on its Conference
Settings screen.
If you choose the Sequential tagline selection
method, RoboMail will step through the tagline
file in order, selecting the next tagline each
@time a new outgoing message is created. Choose
Random to have RoboMail select any tagline from
the file and Sticky if you want to use the same
tagline over and over until you change it. To
keep RoboMail from selecting any tagline at all,
select the Disabled button.
The Quoting Style option controls the way in
which tagged lines in a message are quoted when
you are Creating Replies.
Reformat Tagged Lines means that RoboMail
will reform any consecutive tagged lines into
a single quoted block. All quoted lines
will fit cleanly within your message margins.
Copy Tagged Lines Verbatim means that
tagged lines will not be reformatted when
they are quoted. If you are using the
internal editor, any lines which extend
beyond the configured right margin will be
truncated.
S
The Quote Entire Original Message option
will copy all of the original message into
your outgoing message, prefacing all lines
with your configured quote characters and
truncating any which would extend beyond the
right margin of the internal editor.
To control the characters that RoboMail uses to
indicate quoted lines in a message, edit the
Quoting Characters field. If you want to
include the original message author's initials in
the quoting characters, use a F for the first
name initial and a L for the last name initial.
ÚÄÄÄÄ·
³HINTº If you are using the internal editor,
ÔÍÍÍͼ you will probably find it most useful
to select the Reformat quoting style.
This is because the Alt-L + Alt-Q quoting
method can still be used to quote any lines
which need their original format retained.
@
Use the Default forwards as private setting if
you would like RoboMail to automatically default
the message security of forwarded messages to
PRIVATE status. If you frequently forward
messages to others, you should set this option to
avoid accidentally having a forwarded message
visible to everyone in a public conference.
Remember, the message addressing screen always
gives you an opportunity to change the default
security status. If you do not select this
option, the default security of forwarded messages
will match the security of the message being
forwarded.
h Mail System Settings Directory Setup
Utility Setup
Message Setup System Setup Pilot & Sound Setup Data Entry Keys. j ²
Use this configuration screen to control options
which are used during the mail importing process.
The New File List options allow you to
specify how incoming lists of newly available
files are handled. The Insert New Data at
Beginning of List option will ensure that the
"newest" files are at the top of the list when it
is viewed from the control panel. Selecting the
Append New Data to End of List option to place
newer files at the end of the list. To keep only
the most recently imported file list, select the
Replace Existing List option.
NOTE: RoboMail stores file lists using the mail
system ID with a .LST file extension in the
RoboMail home directory.
j
After RoboMail imports the information in a mail
packet, the packet is normally of no further
use. By default RoboMail will automatically
archive previously imported packets and keep only
the most recently imported packet on disk, with a
! replacing the first character of the
extension. To change this behavior, update the
QWK files to archive configuration option. Use
a number between 1 and 9 to specify the
number of packets to archive or 0 to disable
archiving completely.
NOTE: RoboMail stores all archived mail packets
in the configured incoming mail directory,
regardless of the disk or directory that
they were imported from. The relative age
of the archived packet can be determined by
examining the file extension. For example,
with QWK packets, a file with a !WK
extension would be the most recently
¿ archived packet for a system and !W8 would
be the oldest archived packet from a system.
The Default age days for new systems option
controls the number of message age days assigned
to the Conf Default and Chron Action options
on the Mail System Settings screen. This
setting controls the defaults that are assigned
the first time a packet from a mail system is
imported. You will have the option to change
these mail system defaults before any of the
conference names from the new system are scanned.
The Maximum allowable bytes in an individual
message option allows you to specify the maximum
size message that RoboMail will handle. During
import, messsages which exceed the number of bytes
you enter here will be split into multiple parts.
If your RoboMail installation is running in
protected mode, you should set this option to
its maximum allowable value: 60,000. If you are
running in real mode the value should be set at
Eapproximately 32,000 or lower if you ever see
"Conventional Memory Exhausted" errors.
The Maximum number of message lines to display
option controls the maximum number of lines that
RoboMail will display on its main message viewing
screen. If you are running in protected mode
then this option should be set to its maximum
value of 4,000. If you are running in real mode
and are low on available memory, the overhead
associated with handling 4,000 lines may be too
much for your system. So, set the option to 2,000
or lower if you have problems handling longer
messages.
l all n
ROBOMAIL IS A PROTECTED MODE EXECUTABLE -
This means that the program will automatically
detect at start up if the proper hardware and
memory are available for "protected mode"
operations. If protected mode is possible,
RoboMail will use a faster and more reliable
method of memory access and allocation for its
runtime and virtual memory operations. If
protected mode is not possible, RoboMail will
not operate.
In order to function in protected mode, a machine
must be able to provide the following resources to
RoboMail:
o A 80286 or higher CPU.
o There must be a DPMI, VCPI or XMS host
installed. Almost all systems using any
sort of memory manager will already be
configured to provide one or more of these
hosts.
3
o At least one megabyte (1024K) of free
"extended" memory. Extended memory is any
memory installed above one megabyte.
You can tell what mode RoboMail is running in by
looking at the bottom of the control panel frame.
When running in protected mode, the Host:
message will indicate DPMI, VCPI or XMS.
When you are not running in protected mode the
active host indicator message will show as REAL.
Although RoboMail's default settings for
determining which mode to run in should work fine
for the vast majority of machines, several
ROBOMAIL environment variable switches have been
added to help fine-tune the process. Do not use
any of these switches unless you have a good
reason to do so!
/HD- Disables the use of a DPMI host
/HQ- Disables the use of a QDPMI host
T/HV- Disables the use of a VCPI host
/HX- Disables the use of a XMS host
/ELnnnn Sets the maximum amount of memory that
RoboMail will request form the active
host before swapping to disk for
subsequent memory requests. The
default is 8 megabytes.
/DTnnnn Sets the "threshold" amount of host
memory (in kilobytes) which must be
available to enable protected mode
operations. The minimum is 1024.
/HM- Disables the start-up messages which
show what type of host is being used.
NOTE: Although RoboMail's DOS extender defaults
to looking for a DPMI host first for
maximum compatibility, a VCPI or XMS host
may provide more memory in tight memory
situations. As a result, RoboMail may run
P better on smaller machines when only
HIMEM.SYS is installed.
NOTE: Quarterdeck's QDPMI allocates around 70kb
of conventional memory when a protected
mode program starts up, and this cannot be
swapped out at runtime by RoboMail's
swapper functions when shelling to DOS.
If you find that your DOS shell's in
RoboMail are too small, then add the /HQ-
switch to your ROBOMAIL environment
variable.
PERFORMANCE AND CONFIGURATION ISSUES
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
When running in protected mode, all of
ROBOMAIL.EXE and ROBOMAIL.OVL are loaded in memory
at once. The amount of conventional (below 640K)
memory available when you start the program is not
very important. As long as there is at least 256K
of conventional memory and sufficient extended
¾memory the program will run very well. People
using many TSRs, DesqView or Windows will now find
that RoboMail runs much better and provides
greatly improved memory management.
WINDOWS AND DESQVIEW USERS -- By default,
RoboMail will request up to 8 megabytes of
extended memory from the active host before
resorting to a disk swap file. So, you should try
to provide at least 2 megabytes of extended memory
to RoboMail for best performance. If you are
running under Windows, RoboMail will interact
closely with Windows virtual memory swap file and
you will see extremely good performance. If you
are running other applications simultaneously and
want to stop RoboMail from using 8 megabytes of
Windows virtual memory, you should add the /EL
switch (documented above) to your ROBOMAIL
environment variable. Don't do this unless you
feel RoboMail's appetite for memory is adversely
affecting the performance of other programs
running at the same time.
ßOS/2 USERS -- You should edit your VDM system
settings to provide at least 4 megabytes of DPMI
memory (8 is better) and 640K XMS (for fastest
swapping to external programs).
NOTE: Because of a conflict between RoboMail,
OS/2 2.1 and PKZIP's usage of DPMI memory,
it is important that you do not remove the
supplied PKZIP.CFG file from your RoboMail
directory. The file disables PKZIP's DPMI
usage when shelled out from RoboMail.
p The IMPORT.LOG File Directory Setup
Utility Setup
Message Setup Mail Importing Setup Pilot & Sound Setup Data Entry Keysº
r )
Use this configuration screen to control some of
the technical details of RoboMail's operation.
Select the Set VGA 50-line Mode at Start-Up
option if you would like RoboMail to toggle
your VGA screen into 50 line mode when first
displaying the control panel.
The Use VGA User Interface controls whether or
not RoboMail will attempt to re-define certain
characters on a VGA screen to simulate a GUI type
environment. If you run RoboMail on a VGA
equipped system and are running in a "window"
under a multi-tasking operating system, RoboMail
will automatically disable this option.
By default, many of RoboMail's screen displays
will "zoom" up when they appear. If you find
this to be distracting or too slow on your
system, turn the option off by disabling the
Enable Exploding Windows check box.
zTo speed up operations in interactive reading
mode, RoboMail has the ability to do some of its
needed "house keeping" in the background. This
option is enabled by default. De-select the Do
DBV file Clean-Up in the Background option if
you would like to disable this feature. You can
tell when RoboMail is doing its background
processing by looking for a cute little happy face
character in the upper right corner of the screen.
Select the Ask About OutBox Export when Exiting
RoboMail check box if you want RoboMail to prompt
you to export OutBox messages when you quit the
program with active messages in your outbox.
Use the Mouse options to enable or disable a
right or left handed mouse.
NOTE: To use a mouse with RoboMail, your
operating system must have a "mouse driver"
active. If RoboMail cannot find your mouse
driver you will not be able to take
^ advantage of the mouse shortcuts built into
RoboMail.
The Require Password at Start-up options allow
you to set up a password that you will need to
enter in order to start the program. Use this
option if your RoboMail databases contain
sensitive information that you do not want others
to see. Fill in a password and select the check
box to enable this feature.
The Program Swapper options control RoboMail's
memory usage when it shells to DOS via the F7
key or to run an external utility program. By
default, RoboMail will attempt to use EMS, XMS
and the disk directory defined for swap files.
If RoboMail encounters problems when shelling,
make sure that your defined swap directory is
valid and extant, then try disabling both the EMS
and XMS options. Verify that the swap routines
work with the options off, then turn them back on
« one at a time to isolate your difficulties. If
you have a RAM disk with 640K or more available
disk space, specify it as your Location for
temporary disk swap files.
~ t Mail Navigation Directory Setup
Utility Setup
Message Setup Mail Importing Setup System Setup Data Entry Keys v c
Use this configuration screen to control the
actions taken by RoboMail's auto-pilot and the
sounds generated during operations.
ÚÄ· The Auto-Pilot settings control the actions
³.º taken whenever you press the period key while
Ôͼ viewing recent messages. The auto-pilot
default settings allow you to move sequentially
through all unread messages on a system, assigning
the default archiving action as you go and
processing the messages in the conference before
moving to the next conference. To change this
behavior, modify any of the four auto-pilot
options.
When using the auto-pilot or assisted reading
modes, if you would like RoboMail to automatically
perform a page down operation so you can read the
rest of messages longer than 1 screen before
continuing on to the next message, select either
or both of the automatic page down check boxes.
2The Personal Message Beep option controls the
persistence of the beep that RoboMail emits when a
"personal" message is encountered. Select any
option, from Always to Never. The Sounds
option lets you set the program for full sound,
completely silent operation or the personal
message beep only.
x c
z
Whenever RoboMail imports a mail packet, it adds a
comma-delimited line to an IMPORT.LOG file in
its home directory that you can use to help
optimize your settings. Here's a dissection of a
sample log line:
BCS,01/12/92,22:19:22,53,29.44,0,53,0,0,2644,1.80
| | | | | | | | | | |
A B C D E F G H I J K
A - Mail System ID
B - Import Date
C - Import Time
D - Total number of messages in the message packet
E - Number of seconds required to import messages
F - Number of new message records added
G - Number of trash message records recycled
H - Number of aged-out messages recycled
I - Number of filtered messages not added
J - Total messages in base
K - Messages per second imported (DöE)
: | Copy/Move a File Attachment Manager
Utility Setup² ~
When you press the attachment hot key, F6, while
reading a message that has an attached file,
RoboMail will display a small menu which will
allow you to perform a variety of functions on the
file.
Select Copy File to copy the attachment to
another location on your system while still
maintaining the original file attachment in
RoboMail.
Select Move File to remove the attachment from
RoboMail and place it in another location on your
system.
Select Delete File to permanently remove the
file attachment from RoboMail.
Select Edit File to load the file into your
configured external editor for editing.
Select List File to display the file to the
screen using your configured file viewing utility.
Select View Archive to display the contents of
a compressed file using your configured archive
viewing utility.
Select Attachment Manager to look up the
current attachment on the attachment manager
screen.
Attachment Optionsq l
Press [F6] from the control panel screen or while
reading messages to access the attachment manager
screen.
The attachment manager screen provides an overview
of all files that are currently attached to the
active messages in your RoboMail system. All of
the file viewing and manipulation commands
available on the Attachment Options screen are
also available here.
In addition, you can also make notes about
individual file attachments by highlighting the
attachment and pressing Alt-N. If a files notes
extend beyond the borders of the attachment
manager window, use the + and - keys to scroll
the data.
Data Entry Keys: 5
This screen tells RoboMail where you would like
to copy or move the indicated file to. If you
would like to change the name of the file during
the copy/move operation specify a new name in the
"As" field. After the target file name has been
specified, RoboMail will ask you for the target
directory name.
C Attachment Options Attachment Manager Addressing a Message± <
Some offline mail systems allow files to be
attached to a message. RoboMail has full support
for this capability*. When you attach a file
to an outgoing message by specifying a file name
in the Attachment field of the Message
Address dialog box, the message will be included
in the exported mail packet for the BBS.
To view an attached file on a message you have
received, press the attachment hot key, F6 to
access the Attachment Options or Attachment
Manager screens.
NOTE: Pay special attention to the
Public/Private status of messages with
file attachments. With most mail
systems the attachment will be available
to all the users of the BBS if the
message has public status.
* RoboMail supports the file attachment
methodology first implemented in the Tomcat
m mail door for Wildcat! bulletin board systems.
Wildcat! and Tomcat are trademarks of Mustang
Software, Inc.
R Color Settings Folder Settings Conference Settings Mail System Settings& !
Select the configuration options that you would
like to update. Depending upon the screen that
this menu is called from, the following options
will be available to you.
RoboMail Settings
Screen Display Colors
Conference Settings
Folder Settings
Mail System Settings
5 Data Entry Keys Mail Door Drivers
Trademarks! b
This screen contains all configuration settings
that are specific to an individual mail system.
To access the screen, press F2 while viewing
messages or from the control panel, or select the
system ID on the control panel.
The mail door configuration settings control
offline conference configuration requests. If an
imported mail packet contains a complete DOOR.ID
file, RoboMail will be able to fill in many of the
options on this screen automatically. If not, you
will need to fill them in or press the Driver
button to pick a mail door configuration driver.
The Your Name, Sysop Name, Location and
Phone Number data on this screen are extracted
from the incoming mail packets and are not
editable.
The Door, Version, and System options are
informational only and serve no functional use in
RoboMail. The Control Name field should be
cfilled in with the name to which offline
configuration messages should be addressed. The
Add, Drop and Reset fields should be filled
in with the correct keywords for selecting,
abandoning and resetting conferences.
The Config Subject field should only be filled
in if the mail service supports multiple
configuration requests in a single message. The
information you enter in this field will be used
as the message subject when making a multi-part
offline configuration request.
Check the Mixed case subjects allowed box if you
want RoboMail to allow mixed case message subjects
in outgoing messages to this BBS.
Check the Force high ASCII strip (Fido Mode)
box to set the default option for individual
conferences on this mail system. If this BBS
requires that all messages contain low order ASCII
characters only, you should activate this option.
D
The Split replies at XXX lines options allow
you to control the way RoboMail handles long
outgoing messages to this mail system. If you
enable this ability, long OutBox messages will be
split into multiple parts during the export
process. Many BBS systems limit the allowable
length of posted messages, so you should make sure
that this option matches the requirements of the
mail system.
The Conf Default radio buttons control the
default archive option that will be assigned to
all conferences on the mail system as they are
scanned into RoboMail. The default is to Age
messages 7 days before recycling. You should
adjust the age days option to suit your needs.
Make sure you are certain if you decide to assign
Keep status as the default. You'll be surprised
how quickly large databases of messages can
accumulate.
The Chron Action radio buttons control the
action that will be assigned to outgoing messages
that have Copy to Chron status as they are added
to your chron file. The default is to Age your
outgoing messages for 7 days in the chron before
they are available for recycling. Set the age
option to the length of time you want to maintain
your messages in the chron.
The Receipts radio button indicates the type of
"Receipt Request" notifications that are available
on the BBS. RoboMail will automatically detect
and allow receipt requests in conferences which
are using the PostLink** networking system. If
the mail system also allows local receipt requests
using the RRR prefix in the message subject,
select the appropriate radio button to indicate
this capability to RoboMail. If the BBS is a
PCBoard 15 system, select the PCBoard Style
receipt option.
If message attachments are allowed on the mail
j service, then select the Tomcat or PCBoard
style radio button to inform RoboMail of this
capability.
* Pilot & Sound Setup Data Entry KeysÍ È
This screen contains all setting which are
specific to the current folder.
Select Display ANSI automatically if you would
like messages which start with the [ANSIART] or
[ANSI50] markers to be displayed automatically.
Select Play ANSI music is you would like any
ANSI music contained in displayed ANSI messages to
be played. Please note that the sound settings on
the Pilot & Sound Setup screen must also be
turned on for music to be played.
Z Archive Actions Internet Setup Pilot & Sound Setup
Trademarks Data Entry Keysq 6
This setup screen allows you to set all options
that are specific to the individual conferences on
the mail systems you call.
Use the Alternate Tagline File field to specify
the name of a special tagline file that you want
to use for taglines when creating mail in this
conference. This field is optional.
If you use an alias name in this conference,
enter the name in the Your alias in this
conference field. If this field is filled in,
RoboMail will default to the alias name whenever
you Reply or Compose message in this
conference. This field is optional.
NOTE: Your mail system operator usually has to
pre-approve the use of an alias name. Most
mail processors will reject messages
written using alias names unless the name
has been approved by the system operator.
The Automatic Routing check box controls
Robomail's behavior when sending private mail in
PostLink** managed echo mail conferences. With
this option selected, RoboMail will automatically
attempt to route any message sent with private
security.
Selecting the Internet Conference check box will
enable many of RoboMail's powerful Internet
routing and addressing features in this
conference. This option MUST be set ON in all
Internet newsgroup and Email conferences for
correct addressing. See the Internet Setup
help screen for details on these capabilities.
Selecting the Messages to ALL in personal check
box will add all conference messages addressed to
ALL to the mail system's Personal column on
the control panel. Note that this occurs only
during message importing, so checking this box
will not retroactively assign personal status to
messages which have already been imported.
>
The Copy replies to chron file check box
controls the default status of the Copy to Chron
option on the message addressing screen. If you
would like your outgoing messages copied into the
Chron File during export, then you should make
sure that this option is selected. Note that you
always have the option of controlling this
behavior individually for each outgoing message.
Select Display ANSI automatically if you would
like messages in this conference which start with
the [ANSIART] or [ANSI50] markers to be
displayed automatically.
Select Play ANSI music if you would like any
ANSI music contained in displayed ANSI messages to
be played. Please note that the sound settings on
the Pilot & Sound Setup screen must also be
turned on for music to be played.
The Default Action radio buttons control the
cdefault archiving action that will be assigned
to recent messages in this conference whenever
you press one of the action assigning keys on the
message view screen. Select Age, Keep, or
Discard to have a default action assigned or
None if you want to explicitly set the archiving
action for every recent message imported into this
conference.
defî ;
Use this screen to control the screen color scheme
used by RoboMail. To do this, use the + and -
keys or mouse to select the color that you would
like to change (indicated between the and
characters on the screen) and use the arrow keys
or mouse to move the small color selection box so
that it surrounds the color that you would like to
set. When the desired color is selected, press
ÄÙ to confirm the color selection.
On color systems, you can toggle between blinking
foreground and high intensity backgrounds by
pressing Alt-B.
Use Alt-D to set the colors back to RoboMail's
defaults for your monitor type.
Use Alt-S to save your color selections so
they will be loaded each time you start RoboMail.
The color definitions are stored in a file named
ROBOMAIL.CLR in the RoboMail home directory.
« If you made changes to the color scheme that you
don't like, press Esc and the colors that were
active before you entered the color definition
screen will be restored.
Data Entry Keys* ¢ %
Press the configuration hot-key, F2, while
using the internal editor to access the Editor
Settings screen.
By default, RoboMail's internal editor will only
perform automatic word-wrapping in outgoing
messages. You can change this behavior if you
like, by using the Word Wrap radio buttons.
The default right margin in the message
editor is 72 characters. If you would like to
change this, enter a new number in the Right
Margin Setting field.
Any changes you make to the editor settings will
be used for all future editing sessions.
¤ %
õ ¦ C
In RoboMail, you "process" messages to execute
their specified archive action. The most common
usage for this is to move Recent messages into
the Trash or Archive message classes.
Press F5 when viewing messages to process the
currently displayed conference or folder, or
highlight a mail system ID and press F5 from the
control panel for a menu of messages which can be
processed.
When a message is processed, RoboMail looks at the
current message class (Recent, OutBox, Archive,
Chron) and the specified message action (Age,
Keep, Discard, Hold, None) and determines what
to do with the message. For example, Recent
messages marked with Age or Keep status will
be moved into the mail system's archive, and
Archive or Recent messages marked with
Discard status will by placed in the Trash for
recycling.
ª
NOTE: Once a Recent message has been moved
into the message archive or trash,
there is no way to return it to the
Recent message class.
¨ Data Entry Keys^ ª Y
Press the bulk marking hot key, F4, from the
control panel to assign archive actions to large
groups of messages from a single mail system.
The two sets of radio buttons on the bulk
marking dialog box allow you to specify the class
of messages (personal, recent, archive or chron)
that you would like to modify, as well as the
archive action to assign.
By default, the bulk marking process will not
touch any message which already has an archive
action assigned. To override this capability and
assign the desired action to all the messages in
the specified message class, select the Replace
existing assignments check box.
If you have changed the number of aging
days on one or more conference configuration
screens and want to update the age days currently
assigned to the specified messages, select the
Update age days with default check box.
&