P  R  O   N  E  W  S    -    The Only News Generator with ACiD Art   
     
                     Official ACiD Guarentee of Freshness:

                  Packaged at 07:00pm on Monday Jan. 12, 1995


[ WHAT THE HELL IS PRO NEWS ]

  Pro News is a ppe that replaces the news file in pcboard.  It allows the         
sysop to have a nice graphical news header and allows for easy maintance of
the news files.  Version 2.0 allows the sysop to create his own header files
by using predefined macros.

[ INSTALLATION OF PRO NEWS ]  
  
  Unzip Pro News into it's own directory.  If you use the buddy system
on your HD, Pro News may run into problems, make sure its in it's own 
directory.

  Their are two parts of Pro News.  The first part is the part that only 
displays the news to the callers and skips the menu.  This is what will be
executed during the login sequence.  To install this put this
line in your current news file: 

                    !C:\PATH_TO_PPE\PRONEWS.PPE /SHOW

  The /SHOW part is important, the news will not display without it. The 
other possible installation option is to put it in your bulletin file.  The 
command line is still the same in either.
  
  Now that you have the display portion installed, you must install the sysop 
portion.  Their are two options here.  The first is to replace the NEWS 
command so that when a regular types news they will a forum style news menu.
They can only view news unless their name is in the security file (explained
in next section).  If you wish to cofigure it like this, edit the CMD.LST 
file, make the command NEWS, make the security the normal user level (20??) 
and use this command line:

                        !C:\PATH_TO_PPE\PRONEWS.PPE 

  If you are using this option then make sure to add the sysop's name to the
security file so that he can add and remove news of the menu.  The other 
option is too handle the news command like a normal PCBoard system.  That is,
just display the news and skip the menu.  To do this edit your CMD.LST file
add the command NEWS, make the security 0 so all users can access it, and 
make the command line:

                    !C:\PATH_TO_PPE\PRONEWS.PPE /SHOW

  In this case, you then need to add a second command, i used MNEWS, without
the /SHOW switch so that the sysop can add and remove news.  You still need 
to add the sysop's name into the security file so that the sysop has clearance
to the appropreate commands.

[ CREATING NEWS HEADER ]

  This version contains a unique system of search and replacing predefined 
macros embedded in a file.  I included the default header of v1.0 of Pro News 
as an example and as the default.  If you wish to create a new header file
create a header you wish to use and use these codes to have the proper info
placed there:

Macros (with || Codes)     What the Macros will be replaced by
------------------------|---------------------------------------
        |FM|            |  The Name of User who created the news
        |FG|            |  News flag and status         
        |NN|            |  The News Number
        |TM|            |  The Time the news was created
        |ST|            |  The Subject of the message
        |DT|            |  The Date the news was created

Example:

  ÜÜ                                                                       ÜÜ
  þþÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄþþ
  ÞÝ    News # ú |NN|                  From ú |FM|                         ÞÝ
  ÞÝ    Posted On ú |DT|               Posted At ú |TM|                    ÞÝ
  ÞÝ    Title  ú  |ST|                                                     ÞÝ
  þþÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄþþ
  ßß                                                                       ßß
<EOF>

End Example

  It's pretty straight foward BUT their is only one catche.  This is that
their must be an <EOF> as the last line of your file * WITHOUT ANY COLOR 
CODES *.  It must appear exactly as <EOF> to be read correctly by the ppe.  
Besides that though, these macros can be placed anywhere and your header can 
be up to 22 lines long.

[ GIVING CLEARANCE TO ADD AND REMOVE NEWS ]

  In my case, when my board used to be up I pretty much let the co-sysop 
handle all the day to day boring stuff and I just sat back and watched the
board run smooth.  In the previous version only the sysop could create and
remove news, but now any user that is on you PRONEWS.SEC file can.  To give
a user clearance to the "A" and "R" commands simply add his name to the 
PRONEWS.SEC file located in the same directory as the ppe.


[ DISCLAIMER ]

  This program has been beta tested at numerouse sites without any 
malfunctions or problems.  If it blows up, shreds, eats, formats, destroys
infects, mutates, crunks, de-compresses or fucks up your computer in any
way or form, tough shit.  The members of Pro PPL are in no way responsible
for how any particular programs reacts to your system.