--- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 1 Documentation for POST v3.50 (C)opyright 1991 - 1996 by Omsoft & Olli Majander All Rights Reserved POST is a Shareware program. You are granted a 30 day free trial period in which time you have to decide whether you want to keep using the program or not. If you decide to keep using POST you must register your copy of the program. Follow the instructions in this manual. If you register POST, you are allowed to use POST in an unregistered state during the time it takes for your registration code to arrive. If you do not wish to register your copy of the program, you must discontinue using it after the trial period expires. You are also both allowed and encouraged to distribute the POST350.ZIP-package by your bulletin board system, provided that you do not change the contents of the package or the code of the programs or the output of the programs in any way without an explicit permission from Omsoft. Although POST has been thoroughly tested and all possible precautionary measures have been taken to make sure that the program works as stated in this documentation, Omsoft or Olli Majander take no responsibility for any damage caused by improper use of POST. Please excuse me for all the grammatical errors this manual may (will) contain. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 2 Contents Section Subject Page ----------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements ............................ 1 Contents .................................... 2 1 Purpose of POST ............................. 3 2 Installing POST ............................. 3 2.1 Support programs and BAT-files .............. 4 2.1.1 Compressing utilities ....................... 4 2.1.2 Automatic packer detection .................. 5 2.1.3 Editor ...................................... 5 2.1.4 Viewing ASCII-files ......................... 6 2.2 Other files ................................. 6 2.2.1 Trashcan .................................... 6 2.2.2 Skipfiles ................................... 7 2.2.3 Keyword skipping ............................ 7 2.2.4 Character conversion ........................ 7 2.2.5 Logfiles .................................... 8 2.3 Swapping .................................... 8 2.4 Mouse support ............................... 9 2.4.1. Mouse - Scroll Mode ......................... 9 2.4.2. Mouse - Command Mode ........................ 10 3 Using POST .................................. 10 3.1 Main Menu ................................... 10 3.2. Session Selection Menu ...................... 12 3.2.1 Session Operation Menu ...................... 12 3.3 Board Menu .................................. 14 3.4 Pick Menu ................................... 14 3.5 Read Menu ................................... 15 3.6 List Menu ................................... 17 3.7 Configuration Menu .......................... 18 3.7.1 Color Configuration ......................... 20 3.8 Board Selection Menu ........................ 20 3.9 Other keys and options ...................... 20 4 Registration ................................ 22 4.1 Registering your copy ....................... 23 5 User Support ................................ 24 --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 3 1 Purpose of POST POST is an abbreviation from the words Personal OMEN Station. OMEN stands for Offline Message Environment. Usually you would read messages in a Bulletin Board System while you were actually connected to the system with you modem. If there are a lot of messages to read and you also write a lot of your own messages, it may take a long time before you can disconnect the line. And all the time you use, you must pay for to the phone company. POST offers you another way to deal with reading and writing messages. With it, you can do it offline, spending only a short moment of online time while downloading the new messages or uploading your own replies to the system. All files are compressed for further reducing the time it takes online. You can still use your favorite terminal program to access the BBS, you only need POST for reading and writing. Reading messages offline has many advantages. Saving your phone bill is the most obvious. This way you will also leave more time for other users of the system. Noisy phone lines are no longer a problem as the file transfer protocol will take care of them. You can get more out of the messages you read as it is so easy to read them again. And finally you can always get back to the messages you have written during the session and make any necessary adjustments. With POST you can read both OMEN and QWK -type message packets. 2 Installing POST The installation of POST is very simple. You can do it yourself by following the instructions here or use the INSTALL.EXE in the package. If you are a new POST-user, the latter is recommended. To install POST with the installation utility just type INSTALL and follow the instructions given to you. The program will ask for the language you prefer to use on installation, English or Finnish. To install POST yourself you'll you have to do is make a directory for it and unzip the package there. There is another ZIP inside the ZIP that includes some BAT-files which you must also unzip to the directory. It is recommended that you select this directory as the working directory when you are using POST. This way all the files that POST will work on are located in the same place. When using POST for reading QWK-packets, you can make a directory called QWK under the POST-directory. This is not mandatory as POST will create the directory itself if it is not already available. When you run POST for the first time it will ask you a few questions. You will have to state the directory to which your terminal places the files it downloads and the directory where it looks for files to be uploaded. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 4 2.1 Support programs and BAT-files POST needs to use some external programs in order to work with the message files received from the BBS, write new messages and make return-files. Some of these programs can be run as such, some need to be run by a BAT-file. 2.1.1 Compressing utilities The messages received from the BBS are compressed. POST needs the a decompressing utility for the file. Consult your SysOp to find out which utility you need. When POST decompresses the message file it will call a BAT-file named POSTIN.BAT. It is up to you to make sure there are correct commands and parameters in this BAT for the decompressor to work. POST will however supply the name and path of the message file to be decompressed. This will be the first argument on the commandline after the name of the BAT, so you can refer to it as %1 in your BAT. If you use POST to read QWK-packets, you need also %2 after the first argument. This stands for QWK\, which is the name of the directory POST uses to convert the QWK-files in OMEN-format. POSTIN.BAT could as simple as this: PKUNZIP -o %1 %2 See also section 2.1.2 for automatic compressing utility detection! The messages that you write in reply to the BBS will also be compressed and you need a utility for that too. Once again you must consult your SysOp for the correct utility and version. When POST compresses the so called Return-file it will call a BAT-file named POSTOUT.BAT. It is up to you to make sure there are correct commands and parameters in this BAT for the compressor to work. POST will supply the name and path of the returnfile and the names of the files to be compressed. These will be the first three arguments on the commandline after the name of the BAT, so you can refer to them as %1, %2 and %3 in your BAT. POST will also provide the BAT with the names of some other files that should be compressed in the returnfile. POSTOUT.BAT might look like this: PKZIP %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 Exemplary BAT-files for PKZIP and PKUNZIP -utilities are also included in the PBATS.ZIP-package. In fact, if you use ZIP-utilities, no POSTIN.BAT and POSTOUT.BAT are needed as POST operates these utilities directly. POST currently supports the following compressing methods: ARC, PAK, ZIP, ZOO, LZH, ARJ and UC2. If you use a compressor that does not use any of these file extensions, POST is unable to find the messagefile. Please contact Omsoft to correct the problem. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 5 2.1.2 Automatic packer detection POST can be configured to detect the compressing utility used on the message packet automatically. This is done by the AUTOPAK.PST -file. In this file each utility has three lines of information. First line consists of up to four bytes which are used to identify the packing method. These bytes are reprisented in AUTOPAK.PST in Hex-format written in ASCII. For example PKZIP places the letters PK in the beginning of each packet. These would be placed in AUTOPAK.PST first line as 504B. The indentification bytes are scanned from the first 10 bytes of the packet. If some utility does not place any non changing characters in the first ten bytes of the packet, it cannot be detected by POST. However, if the automatic detection fails, POSTIN.BAT will be used as normally. On the second line in AUTOPAK.PST comes the command line for compressing a file. Third line is for decompressing a file. Neither of these lines can exceed 20 characters. Automatic detection expects that the utilities are placed somewhere along your system PATH. If this is not the case, then you must either define the path in AUTOPAK.PST or if the command line would then exceed 20 characters, run the utility from a BAT-file and place the name of the corresponding BAT in the AUTOPAK.PST. You must also use a BAT-file if the decompressor does not accept command line redirection for the files and you use POST for reading QWK-packets. The BAT must change the current directory to QWK before decompressing and back to the original afterwards. Up to five compressing utilities can be defined in the AUTOPAK.PST. There is an exemplary file included in the PBATS.ZIP for PKZIP, LHA, ARJ and Ultra Compressor II. Note that with the UC2 you must use the UCIN.BAT for the reason stated above. 2.1.3 Editor POST has no built-in editor so, in order to write replies or new messages you need an external editor. You can use your favorite editor as long as it takes the name of the file to be edited on the commandline. The editor you use can terminate the lines with a Cr+Lf -sequence, with a single Cr or none at all. If lines are terminated, a recommended lenght of line is around 70 characters. One editor that has succesfully been used with POST is QEdit. If you wish to make the POST look even more like the BBS, you can also use QuickEd as the editor, although it is not quite as flexible. You can use other editors as long as they apply to the rules mentioned above. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 6 The editor is run from two different BAT-files depending whether you are replying or writing a new message. This way you have a chance to decide how you provide the quoted message to your editor. When you write a new message or edit a message you have already written, the editor will be run from a BAT called EDITMSG.BAT. The name of the file to be edited is passed an argument and can be referred a %1. EDITMSG.BAT is as simple as this: EDITOR %1 There is no reason why the BAT for replying must be different, but if you want to use for example QuickEd as your editor and quote the message just as you do online, then you must make the QUOTEMSG.BAT slightly different: IF EXIST MSGTMP DEL MSGTMP REN %1 MSGTMP QUICKED 1 0 300 500 REN MSGTMP %1 QuickEd looks for MSGTMP-file for the quoted message and you can quote the lines from the quote window by pressing ENTER. 2.1.4 Viewing ASCII-files This version of POST support viewing Bulletin and New Files -listing which may be included in the messagefile. To view these files, you can either use the message editor or a special utility like LIST.EXE. To use LIST or some other utility for viewing these files, make VIEW.BAT that contains the name of the utility and %1 as a parameter. The BAT might look like this: LIST %1 VIEW.BAT is an optional file and if it does no exist, EDITMSG.BAT is used instead. 2.2 Other files The files described in this section are used to control some of the advanced features of POST. They are not necessary, but you may find them useful. 2.2.1 Trashcan Sometimes another user may get so annoying that you don't want to read any of the messages he/she has written. In order to automate this you can make a Trashfile which contains the names of the users whose messages you wish to skip. The Trashfile can either be used on all sessions or just in sessions from one single BBS. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 7 Messages written by persons whose names are found in a file called TRASHCAN.PST will be skipped on all sessions. To make a Trashfile for a specific session, you must find out the identification characthers of that session. The ID-bytes are easy to find from the original messagefile. For example, if the name of the messagefile is OMEN5D.ZIP, the ID-bytes are 5 and D. A Trashfile for this session would then be called TRASH5D.PST. If a specific Trashfile for the session exists the TRASHCAN.PST-file is not used. Trashfile can contain up to 50 names in ASCII, one name on each line. The names are not case-sensitive. 2.2.2 Skipfiles You may also skip messages by their subjects. Pressing S while reading the messages will take the subject of the current message and place it in a Skipfile. Messages which subjects are found in the Skipfile are not shown. You can skip up to 100 subjects on each session and the Skipfile is saved also for the next session on the same BBS. Both the Trashfile and the Skipfile can be compressed in the Returnfile so that messages can be skipped already at the BBS. Only the specific Trashfile for this session can be used for this purpose. The skipping can only take place if the Returnfile is uploaded to the BBS-OMEN -system immediately before packing the new messages. All BBS-systems may not support the skipping. 2.2.3 Keyword skipping Messages can also be skipped according to the existence of a single word in the subject. This is done by adding the word to a file called WORDSKIP.PST. Each word or string of characters must be on a separate line. Words are not case sensitive. POST has room for 1000 characters for the Wordskip-option. Character beyond this limit will be discarded. 2.2.4 Character conversion Different systems use different character sets. In practise only the scandinavian characters have to be converted. Apart from the setting in the Configuration Menu, you can preset a certain BBS to be using a certain character set. This takes place by creating a file called CONVBBS.PST and placing the name of the BBS in there. The name is written in the format that it is found for example in the top of the Session Menu. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 8 If the system uses SF7 set, just place the name as such. If the system uses ISO Latin 1 set, add an asterisk (*) at the end of the name. If for example the system "XYZ BBS" uses SF7 set and "ISO System" uses ISO set, the file would contain the following lines: XYZ BBS ISO System* You may also convert both ISO and SF7 -incoming scandinavian characters and set the outgoing scands to either IBM or ISO. For double conversion with outgoing IBM, add + at the end of the name and with outgoing ISO, add % at the end of the name. Each name must be on a separate line. For other systems than those mentioned in the CONVBBS.PST-file konversion depends on the setting in the configuration. 2.2.5 Logfiles You can define up to 10 different logfiles to which messages can be saved by the Keep-option. You can define the logfiles to be used with every session or with a perticular session. The control file for the logfiles has the following format: Description 1 Logfile Name 1 Description 2 Logfile Name 2 ... Description n Logfile Name n Each description can be up to 30 characters long and they are shown in a selection window when you use the Keep-option. Each name can be up to 80 characters long an consist of full path to the file. The name of the control file is LOGS.PST. This is used for all sessions. If you want to make a separate logfile system for one or more sessions, the name is LOGSxy.BBS, where xy are the ID-bytes of that session. 2.3 Swapping POST has been programmes with the speed of operation in mind. Therefore as much of the data as possible is being held in memory instead of seeking the data from the disk. As this makes POST work faster it also means that POST requires a lot of memory to work with. With the current memory managers this is usually no problem. But sometimes there may come a situation, when there is just not enough of memory left to run the external programs or you cannot perform some operation in DOS Shell that you would like to. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 9 In order to prevent these situations POST has been equipped with the ability to swap itself out of the conventional memory for the time when external programs are being used of you are in the DOS Shell. POST can use either EMS or XMS -memory or disk as a media for the swap. Existence of EMS/XMS/Diskspace is done in that order and the first available media will be used. You can however configure POST to use only one of these from the Configuration Menu. If you are using disk as the swapping media, you may set the environment variable TMP or TEMP to point to the directory to which the swapfile should be created. The swapping itself is being done by a Public Domain routine programmed by Thomas Wagner. Omsoft is unable to guarantee the proper operation of these routines in every environment. If you are experiencing problems with the swapping, try first to use the different swap medias one by one and if none of them work properly then set the swapping option OFF. 2.4 Mouse support There are two modes of operation for the mouse, Scroll mode and Command mode. The mouse mode can be changed by pressing F4. Current mode can be saved from the Update Configuration menu by X-command. 2.4.1 Mouse - Scroll Mode Up/down movement of the mouse equals pressing the up/down cursor keys. The text of messages as well as the menubar can easily be scrolled by moving the mouse. The speed of the movement is configurable by the F5 and F6 -keys. F5 increases and F6 decreases mouse movement. Speed adjustment takes place in 10 steps and the movement can be disabled by pressing F6 several times. The selected speed can be saved by saving the overall configuration. Mouse buttons can be configured for up to 10 keystroke macro. Macro configuration takes place by first pressing the appropriate control key and then the keys of the desired macro. Configuration is finished by pressing the left mouse button or after 10 keystrokes. The configuration keys are: F7 - Mouse left button F8 - Mouse middle button F9 - Mouse right button The macro is placed in the keyboard buffer when the mouse button is pressed. This way you can use mouse to give commands from POST also to outside programs like editor e.g. The macros are saved automatically. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 10 Default macros for the mouse buttons are: Left - B Middle - ESC Right - Enter Default values allow you to read messages forward and backward, and with a three button mouse also to Quit. 2.4.2 Mouse - Command Mode Mouse cursor is placed on the screen and it moves along with the movement of the mouse. Commands can be issued by placing the mouse cursor on a letter on the screen and pressing the left button. The letter under the cursor is placed on the keyboard buffer and thus taken as a command. For example if you want to reply to a message, just place the mouse cursor on any R or r on the screen and press the left button once. The middle and right mouse buttons work as in the Scroll mode. 3 Using POST POST is a very simple and easy to use menu-driven program. Although you use POST to read BBS-messages, it is not a terminal program. You will need some terminal program to download the compressed messagefile from the BBS. Make sure you download the file that is meant for OMEN or QWK -systems as some BBS-programs have some other kind of downloading options available as well. After downloading the messagefile, disconnect and return to DOS. Move to the directory you made for POST and start the program. You will then find yourself in the main menu. 3.1 Main Menu Reading and writing messages from/to a BBS is called a session by POST. When you start a session, POST will then decompress the messagefile and do some indexing. It will also convert the Scandinavian characters if the option was selected. Commands in the Main Menu are: S - Start a new session. Available only if a session is not already open. POST will automatically decompress all the OMEN-files it finds in the download directory. If more than one messagefile was found, you will be prompted to select the BBS you wish to have the session with. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 11 R - Restart old session. This will upack any operations performed on the same session earlier which have then been finished. This command is available only if a Return-file for the current session is found in the upload-directory. C - Continue current session. Available only if a session is already open. This command takes you to the Session Menu. F - Finish current session. This will make a Return-file in the upload directory, containing all the messages you have written during the session and possible other operations as well. This command is available only if you have done operations during the current session. If an earlier Return-file is found in the upload-directory, you will be prompted to either overwrite the old file or merge the new operations in the old file. You can disable this option from the configuration. E - Exit POST/Exit & Keep session. The format of this command depends on whether you have a session open or not. If no session is open, this command returns to DOS. If a session is open, this command saves the situation in the session so that you can continue from where you left of at the next time. After that POST checks if there are more sessions available. If no sessions are found, POST will exit to DOS. If a session is found, POST remains in the Main Menu so that you can either start the next session or exit to DOS. Q - Quit & Delete session. Available only if session is already open. If you have operations done in the current session, POST will warn you and ask if you really want to quit. Pressing N or ENTER takes you back to the Main Menu. If you answer Y or no operations are found, POST will delete all the files linked to the session. After that POST checks if there are more sessions available. If no sessions are found, POST will exit to DOS. If a session is found, POST remains in the Main Menu so that you can either start the next session or exit to DOS. U - Update configuration. This command will take you to the Configuration Menu where you can set the system paths, select colors and make some other selections. D - Delete a corrupted session. You can use this option to delete a session which cannot be opened normally by POST. You are prompted for the ID-characters of the session to be deleted. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 12 3.2 Selection Menu When you start a session, POST will scan the input directory for any files that match either the OMEN- or QWK-standard. If no such files are found, you will be told about it and prompted to press a key. If only one file is found, the session is started immediately. If more than one files are found, you will be shown the name of the system from which the file has been downloaded and the date of the file. You must then select the session you wish to start by pressing the number linked with the session. The ID-bytes of each session are shown with the name of the BBS. If you want the session to be rescanned, you can obtain this by pressing F2 before opening the session. Rescanning will build all the index- and other necesacry files again as well as converting the scandinavian characters. This option is useful if you are experiencing problems with a corrupted file. 3.2.1 Session Menu After starting the session, you will be in the sessionmenu. There will be a session information box on top of the screen. This will tell you the amount of messages received and the name of the system, where the messages were downloaded from. There will be indicators for the operations you have done, telling you the amount of new messages and replies you have written and how many messages you have deleted or moved. Commands in the Session Menu are: L - List operations. Available only if you have done some operations during the session. This command will take you to the List Menu. S - Statistics. This will give you a short listing of the total amount of messages and the amount of messages on each board. R - Read messages. This command lets you read the messages downloaded from the BBS. You can also use ENTER instead of R. You will first be placed on the Board Menu, which will tell you the amount of messages on the current board and give you a few selections to make. P - Pick by subject. This command takes you to the Pick Menu. F - Find a string. This command performs a non-case-sensitive search for a string up to 40 characters long. The string will be searched from both the header and text sections of the message. You can use it to find a particular message by searching for the number, or you can use it to read messages on a definite subject or even use it as a second mailcheck by searching for your name. After the search is complete and no messages containing the string are found, you will return to the Session Menu. The current position of your reading is restored after the search. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 13 If the search was not completed and you issue a new search, you can either give a new string or continue searching for the old string. M - Mailcheck. Available only in registered copies. This command automatically finds and shows you all the messages that are addressed to you. Unregistered copies do not contain the name of the user, so it would not work. W - Write a message. You will first be asked the board where you want to place the message. You can get a listing of the boards available to you by pressing ENTER. When in the listing, you can issue a Find operation for the name of the board by pressing F. You can then find the next matcing board by pressing N. After that you will be asked the name of the receiver. If you want to address the message to All, just press ENTER. NOTE: you can not send messages addressed to All on private boards! You can save the name you entered on a list. Names can be retrieved from the list by pressing TAB when you are editing the name. You can select the name by cursor keys and pressing ENTER. Next you must enter the subject of the message. If you press ENTER in the beginning of the line, the operation will be aborted. Next POST runs the editor via EDITMSG.BAT and you can enter the text you wish. After completing the text, POST resumes action and asks you if you want to save the message. Press Y or ENTER if you want it to be saved or N to discard the message. O - Offline Select. This command takes you to Board Selection menu. I - Import a message. Same as above, but you will be prompted for a filename and the file is then taken as the text of the message. E - Edit Skiplist. This command gives you a listing of the subjects you have skipped during this session. You can delete singe subjects from the list or the entire list. This command is available only is subjects have been skipped in the current session. B - Bulletin. Shows you the Bulletin-file if one exists. N - New Files. Shows you a listing of new files on the BBS. This command is available only if the listing exists. Q - Quit. This command returns you to the Main Menu. You can also use ESC. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 14 3.3 Board Menu First in the board menu there is an indication of the amount of messages on the board. Commands in the Board Menu are: N - Shows the next message on board. You can also use ENTER, + or Cursor Right. P - Pick by subject. This command takes you to the Pick Menu, but only the messages on current board are shown. This option is available only in the registered version. J - Jumps to the Board Menu on the next board that has messages. C - Choose a board by its number. You can only go to a board that has messages on it. Pressing ENTER gives you a listing of the available boards. B - Goes back to the last message on the previous board. Returns back to the Session Menu if used at the first message. Q - Quit back to the Session Menu. You can also use ESC. 3.4 Pick Menu In this menu you get a listing of all the messages in the session or on the current board. You can move the bar by the arrow keys and select to read all the messages with the current subject by pressing ENTER. The amount of messages with the current subject is indicated at the top of the screen in parenthesis. If you initiated Pick by Subject from the Board Menu, the name of the current board is also shown at the top of the screen. Commands in the Pick Menu are: ENTER - Picks the messages with subject under the selection bar to be read.  - Moves the selection bar to the previous subject.  - Moves the selection bar to the next subject. S - Skips the current subject. Skipped subjects are indicated with a different color. Del - Unskips a skipped subject. P - Prints the listing of subjects to PRN. K - Saves all the messages with the current subject to an ASCII-file. Q - Quit back to the Session Menu. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 15 In the board-mode the following commands are available: Ctrl-Cursor Right - Selects the next board. Ctrl-Cursor Left - Selects the previous board. 3.5 Read Menu Statusline on the top of the screen while reading messages will show the number of the individual operations performed so far. It will indicate any operations performed on the current message and whether the message is marked with a bookmark. Date and time is also shown and active alarm is indicated by an asterisk. After each message there will be a menu at the bottom of the screen. In the menu there are only the command letters. The commands depend on the rights you have on the current board and the possible operation you have performed on the current message. After the menu there is an indicator that tells you how many messages there are left on the current board and on the file altogether. Commands in the Read Menu are: N - Next message. This command shows you the next message. You can also use ENTER, + or Cursor Right. A - Shows the same message again form the beginning. G - Global Reply. Just like an ordinary reply, except you can choose the board where your message is placed. Use this, if the subject of the message is beyond the scope of the current board. K - Keep the current message in an ASCII-file. You will be prompted for a filename to save the message to. If the file already exists, the message will be appended at the end of the file. You can pass the filename-question by pressing ENTER and the message will be saved with the default name MSGnnnnn.LOG, where nnnnn is the number of the message. The filename can include path and can be up to 35 characters long. You can also set a default path and name for the file in the configuration menu. See section 2.2.5 for information about predefined logfiles. NOTE! If you want to keep all the messages with the same subject, use the Keep by Subject option in the Pick Menu. Q - Quit back to the Session Menu. You can also use ESC. B - Goes back one message. You can also use - or Cursor Left. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 16 J - Jumps to the next board containing messages. You will be placed in the Board Menu. If you jump from the last available board, you will go back to the first available board. P - Jump to a new position in the session. The first message is position 1. Pressing ENTER gives you a board by board listing of the messages in the current session. S - Skips current subject. No message with the same subject will be shown. POST will be able to skip up to 100 subjects in each session separately. See also WORDSKIP.PST (chapter 2.2.3)! C - Choose a board by its number. You can only go to a board that has messages on it. Pressing ENTER gives you a listing of the available boards. When in the listing, you can issue a Find operation for the name of the board by pressing F. You can then find the next matcing board by pressing N. R - Reply to the current message. If you quote the message, the editor will be run by the QUOTEMSG.BAT, otherwise by the EDITMSG.BAT. You may also choose to import the text from a file. Once you have written the message and return to POST, you will be asked, if you want to save the message or not. W - Write a new message on the current board. Works just like the normal Write-command, except you are not asked the number of the board. I - Import a message. Same as above, but you will be prompted for a filename and the file is then taken as the text of the message. F - Forward the current message to another receiver. You are prompted for the board and receiver. T - Adds the writer of the current message to the Trashcan. Trashcan is activated when this command is issued. D - Delete the current message. You can also use the Delete-key. Available only if you have SysOp-rights on the current board. You will be prompted for a confirmation for the operation. M - Move message to another board. Available only if you have SysOp-rights on the current board. You will be prompted for the number of the board to move the message and if the message should be made Private. = - Toggles the Private/Public -status of the current message. Available only if you have SysOp-rights on the current board. E - Edit operation on current message. This is a shortcut to edit the reply or a SysOp operation performed on the current message. Available only if the message has been operated on. U - Undo operation on the current message. Available only if the current message has been operated on. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 17 Home - Jumps back to the first message in the file. End - Jumps to the last message in the file. Alt-S - Current message will be stored in a special file and all the stored messages can be added to the end of the next or any other future session. This option is useful for example in a situation when you want to reply to a message but you haven't got the necessary material in hand at the moment. (NOTE! OMEN only!) 3.6 List Menu It is still possible to change the contents of your message even though you have already saved it. To do this you must select the List operations option in the sessionmenu or the Alt-L QuickKey. In the List Screen the top window shows the details of the selected operation. Options are listed below in the left window. Operations are selected from the right window with cursor keys and PgUp & PgDown. Commands in the List Menu are: B - Prompts you for a new board for the message. Available for reply, new message and move -operations. R - Prompts you for a new receiver for the message. Available only for reply and new message -operations. S - Prompts you for a new subject for the message. Available for reply, new message and move -operations. T - Loads the message text in the editor so you can make the necessary adjustments. Activated also with ENTER. Available only for reply and new message -operations. D - Duplicates the operation to the first empty slot. Available only for reply and new message -operations. E - Exports the text of the message to a file, name of the file will be prompted. Available only for reply and new message -operations. P - Toggles the Private/Public -status of the message. Available for Move operation and for a message on Both-board. M - Prompts you for a new Matrix address for a NetMail message. Available for reply and new message -operations. A - Prompts for a new alias for a reply or a new message on an aliasboard. U - Undo the selected operation. You will be prompted for confirmation for the undoing. Q - Takes you back to the Session Menu. You can also use ESC. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 18 3.7 Configuration Menu The configuration menu shows your current selections and gives you a chance to change your choices. The colors of the Configuration Menu are fixed and your selections have no effect here. Commands in the Configuration Menu are: A - Change the path to the directory where POST looks for the incoming OMEN-files. B - Change the path to the directory where POST places the outgoing Return-files. C - Give the full path or directory to where POST will direct the messages saved by the Keep-option. D - Toggle default quote option. This defines how POST will react to ENTER when you are asked whether you wish to quote the replied message. (Y/n) means that POST will quote the message if you press ENTER at the question. (y/N) means that POST will not quote the message by pressing ENTER at the question. Whichever selection you make, you can always use Y or N to make your choice at the question. E - Toggle whether board listings will show only selected boards or all boards. This option makes it easier to find an individual board from a long listing if the board is selected. NOTE! Some BBS-software does not support the indication of selected boards. Setting this option ON would result in an empty board list. H - Toggle the language of the Help-screens between English and Finnish. I - Toggles the writers initials in the quote-marker. If option is ON, writers initials will be added in the beginning of each line of quote, ie. AB>..., otherwise only the >-character marks the quoteline. K - Toggle the Scandinavian character conversion. Leave this OFF unless you need to convert 7-bit Scandinavian characters to 8-bit and vice versa. If this option is set to Auto, POST will try to conclude automatically the need for conversion from the INFO-file. Refer also to the CONVBBS.PST-file. L - Toggles between the normal 25 line mode and VGA 50/EGA 43 line screen mode. Hold means that POST will not attempt to change the current mode at all. This is useful if you are using a screen mode not supported by Turbo C++. M - Toggles MIME quoted printable decoding ON/OFF. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 19 N - Toggles AutoStart option. If AutoStart is ON, POST will automatically search for any OMEN-files and previously opened sessions. AutoStart saves you the trouble of pressing S in the Main Menu. O - Toggles overwrite mode. If this option is ON, POST will automatically overwrite any existing old Return-file when finishing a session. If OFF you will be prompted to either overwrite or merge the new operations to the old Return-file. P - Toggle the message text output method. When the message is longer than the length of the screen, you will be prompted to press a key to continue with the next page. You can select how the next page is shown. Scroll will print the lines at the bottom of the screen and scroll the screen up. CLS will clear the text section of the screen and start each page from the top. R - Remove files. This option controls whether POST will delete the message- and system-files after Quitting or Finishing the session. If ON, all files related to the session are deleted with the exception of Skipfile and Trashfile. If TXT, all the information about the system is left in the disk so you can write new messages to it. If OFF, only the operational files on the session will be deleted and all the rest are kept for future use. Also the next new session found in the download directory will be decompressed over the old session. S - Toggle Sound. POST will beep at certain points if this option is ON. T - Toggle QWK. When set OFF, POST will not attempt to read the QWK-files from the download directory. This way you can use antoher reader for QWK-packets. When set Multi, POST will open a new session for the packet even if there is an old session available from the same BBS. Otherwise the new session will overwrite the old one. U - Lets you to change the color selection. V - Set the delay time in seconds for the Video Screen Saver. 0 to disable. Alt-V will start the Saver without a delay. W - Set swapping ON or OFF. You can also define the preferred swapping media (EMS/XMS/Disk). X - Quit and save the selections. Your selections will be saved in the configuration file and they will be active whenever you use POST. Q - Exit with no save. The selections you made will not be saved in the configuration file, but they will remain active until you change them again or exit POST. You can also use ESC for this option. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 20 3.7.1 Color Configuration The current color selections with a small sample are shown on the left of the screen. The colors are named by their main function in the message section, but they are also used in other places. On the right hand side of the screen there is a list of all the colors available. The selection can be saved from the Configuration Menu with the X-command. Commands A - N change the specified color. You can set both the foreground and background colors with the exception of Quote-color where the background color follows that of the Text color. Other commands in the Color Configuration are: ! - Set the default colors. Q - Quit back to the Configuration Menu. 3.8 Board Selection Menu In this menu you can choose the boards you wish to be packed in the next message file. Your selections will take effect once you have saved them and sent the Return-file to the BBS. Commands in the Board Selection Menu are: S - Gives you a listing of the non-selected boards. You can move in the listing with the cursor keys and select individual boards by pressing ENTER. When in the listing, you can issue a Find operation for the name of the board by pressing F. You can then find the next matcing board by pressing N. U - As above but the listing shows selected boards from which you can unselect. A - Sets all boards selected. C - Sets all boards unselected. X - Saves the changes and returns to the Session Menu. Q - Returns to the Session Menu without saving the changes. 3.9 Other keys and options F1/? - Gives help for the commands in the menu. Alt-A - Set time for alarm. POST will check the time and sound an alarm when needed. There is a 15 minutes security time with the alarm, so that the alarm will go off even if you were writing a message at the actual time of the alarm. Alt-B - Marks the current message with a bookmark. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 21 Alt-C - Checks for possible replies to the current message. This command searches to the end of the current board and shows all messages that are addressed to the writer of the message where the command was issued. Alt-D - Deletes the bookmark on the current message. Alt-E - Execute a DOS command. Alt-F - Hot-key version of the Main Menu command F. This will finish the current session, make a Return-file to the upload directory and return to DOS. Alt-J - Shell to DOS. POST uses the COMSPEC environment variable if available, otherwise it will run COMMAND.COM. Shelling is available almost anywhere in the program. Alt-K - Uses the EDITMSG.BAT to load WORDSKIP.PST-file to the editor for changes. Keyword skipping will be re-initialized after exiting the editor. Alt-L - Jumps to the List menu if operations available. Alt-N - Jumps to the next marked message. Alt-R - RTFM-option. If the POST.DOC file is located in the current directory, this command will use the VIEW.BAT if available or the EDITMSG.BAT to show the document. Alt-Q - Hot-key version of the Main Menu command Quit. It will delete the current session and return to DOS. Alt-T - Toggles the Trashcan option on or off. This is useful when you don't want to read messages from certain users on certain boards. Alt-U - Uses the EDITMSG.BAT to load the current Trashcan-file into the editor. Trashcan will be re-initialized after exiting the editor. Alt-V Initiate the Video Screen Saver at any point. Alt-W - Toggles the Wordskip option on or off. Alt-X - Hot-key version of the main menu command E. It will exit POST and keep the current session, if a session was open. Cursor Up - Moves the text up one line when reading messages. Cursor Down - Moves the text down one line when reading messages. Cursor Left - Moves the cursor left one position when editing strings. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 22 Cursor Right - Moves the cursor right one position when editing strings. PageUp - Scrolls the text up one page when reading messages. PageDown - Scrolls the text down one page when reading messages. Home - Moves to the first message in the file when reading messages. Moves to the first position in a string when editing string. End - Moves to the last message in the file when reading messages. Moves to the last position in a string when editing strings. Delete - Deletes the current message when reading messages and the user has SysOp rights on the current board. Deletes the current character when editing strings. BackSpace - Deletes the previous character when editing strings. Ctrl-BackSpace - Clears the input string when entering names etc. Ctrl-K - Edit LOGS.PST-file Ctrl-L - View/Edit one of the predefined logfiles. See section 2.2.5. Ctrl-N - Edit the CONVBBS.PST-file 4 Registration POST is a Shareware program. This means that you are allowed to use POST for a 30 day trial period without pay. If you find the program useful and intend to use it after the trial period, you should register your copy. To register your copy you have to fill in the registration form (PREGIS.FRM) and send it and the registration fee to the programmer. State your name and address in the form, so that the registration key can be sent back to you. Unlike many other shareware programs, with POST you only have to pay once as your registration key will be valid in all the future versions as well. The registration fee for POST is 50 FIM (Finnish Mark) and it must be deposited to the following bank account: Merita Vantaa-Hakunila 229320-39519. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 23 The email address where you should send your registration form is: otm@mikrobitti.fi You can choose the way you want to receive your code. Fastest way is a message at the Omsoft Support BBS which will be there the same day as your registration form arrives. Of course you have to be a user in the system in order to receive you code in there. Other choices are email via Internet and normal mail. 4.1 Registering your copy Once you have received your registration code you must use the POSTREG.EXE to patch your copy of POST. Run POSTREG in the same directory with POST.EXE. It will ask for your name. Make sure you don't make any mistakes entering your name. After that you must enter the registration code. Again, no mistakes! POSTREG will then patch the information to the POST.EXE and the next time you use POST, you will have a registered copy at your service. If you made a mistake with your name or the registration code, there will be a special text on the welcome screen telling about: "Invalid registration attempt". If this happens, just copy an unpatched version of POST.EXE over the patched one and use POSTREG again. --- POST v3.50 documentation --- Page: 24 5 User Support Support BBS for POST: Name: Bachelor Box Phone: +358-0-8751443. Modem: V.32bis/HST MNP5/V.42/V.42bis Open: 24 hours a day Setup: 8N1 You can find the latest versions of all the Omsoft products there and ask any questions or give your comments directly to the programmer. File Requesting is not possible, but we come close. You can log in with the name of "John Doe" and you will find yourself in the Omsoft support menu. There you can download any of the Omsoft as well as some other related software easily and fast. No additional questions asked. Thank you for your attention!