Manual for BulletMaster v1.1 Copyright 1992 David C. Higley LEGAL STUFF BulletMaster v1.1 is being distributed as SHAREWARE! It is not FREEWARE and is the sole property of David C. Higley. You can use BulletMaster for a test period not to exceed 30 days to see if the software suits your needs and is worth registering. At the end of this 30 day trial period, you must either register BulletMaster or stop using it and remove all bulletins generated by BulletMaster from your system. Although I have tested this software and use it myself, I can make no guarantees as to it's fitness or it's compatibility with your system or software. Under no circumstances will David C. Higley accept any responsibility for any damage to any software or hardware, whether direct or indirect, resulting from the use of this software. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! The software and all documentation contained in this package are copyrighted property of David C. Higley. You may distribute this package on your BBS as long as there is no fee directly related to downloading this package. This includes any transfer fees, disk fees, copy fees and the like. It does not include those BBS's that have a "subscription" for the entire BBS. OVERVIEW Now that all that funderfull stuff is over, lets get to it...... BulletMaster is a program designed to put out bulletins in as little time as possible and with as little trouble as possible. I was constantly putting off updating bulletins because I didn't want to load the old one into the ANSI editor, make the changes, correct any boarder malformations, save that, then change all the colors to the mono version, save that then do the ASCII one as well. Sound familiar??? With BulletMaster, this tiresome and boring duty of the ever enduring SysOp has been made VERY SIMPLE. Now, all you need is an ASCII text editor and BulletMaster, the rest is history. Some of the features of BulletMaster are as follows : Will convert any ASCII text file (INCLUDING GRAPHICS!!) that has CR/LF terminated lines (as apposed to LF/CR) into an attractive ANSI color, ANSI mono and ASCII bulletin file Has date and time of bulletin creation included in the bulletins header Has BBS name in the bulletins header Has the SysOp's name and BBS as a signature Has 4 different types of boarders : Double line É » Single line Ú ¿ Double top/ Single side Õ ¸ Single top/ Double side Ö · Can be configured to randomize the boarders between the 4 available SysOp definable colors for the ANSI color bulletin background, text, highlighted and boarder Bulletins can be generated from the command line. INSTALLATION To install BulletMaster, uncompress the BULLETU.EXE into your bulletin directory. Your pretty much installed now! CONFIGURING BulletMaster Configuring BulletMaster is almost as easy as installing it. A little more typing is required, but I'm sure that you can struggle thru it. BulletMaster gets most of it's parameters from a configuration file. This file is BULLET.CFG and MUST BE NAMED BULLET.CFG. BULLET.CFG is just a standard text file with CR/LF terminated lines. The format of the configuration file is as follows : Background color (0-7) Boarder color (0-15) Text color (0-15) Highlight color (0-15) ANSI bulletin extension (must include .) MONO bulletin extension (must include .) ASCII bulletin extension (must include .) Boarder type (0-4) BBS Name SysOp name Scroll stop, page stop, more prompt, whatever you want to call it The colors are entered as a number on thier own line. The colors and numbers are as follows : black 0 blue 1 green 2 cyan 3 red 4 magenta 5 brown 6 light gray 7 dark gray 8 light blue 9 light green 10 light cyan 11 light red 12 light magenta 13 yellow 14 white 15 The bulletin extensions are the extension of the bulletins that are displayed for that particular graphics display. You must include the period in front of the extension. EX. wrong - ANS right - .ANS The boarder types are a single number entered on a line by itself. The boarder types are as follows : 0 - random boarder generation 1 - double line 2 - single line 3 - double lines horizontally, single lines vertically 4 - single lines horizontally, double lines vertically The BBS name is exactly what it says. It will be displayed as entered. The SysOp's name is also exactly what it says and will be displayed as entered. The More Prompt is the character or set of characters that your system uses to put up a More prompt when the end of the bulletin has been reached and you are in the middle of a page. This will prevent the bulletin from clearing to soon if that is a problem. All of these lines MUST BE FILLED IN. If not, an error will occur. RUNNING BulletMaster Running BulletMaster is fairly simple. The way I run it is as follows. Place the BULLET.EXE and the BULLET.CFG in your bulletin directory. While in the bulletin directory, invoke your favorite text editor and type in the bulletin as you wish it to be displayed. IMPORTANT!!!! Format the text file so that the right margin is no more than 74, I use 72 and it works fine.. Once you have the text file worded right and spell checked, save it as the name of the bulletin you are going to generate, but leave off the extension. If I am going to generate BULLET1.XXX, I make the text file BULLET1. Once you are happy with the text file, run BULLET. When BulletMaster comes up, it will ask you for the name of the text file that you want to make into a bulletin. Type in that name (exactly as it is named on disk). Then it will ask for the bullet name that you wish to create. Type that in (just the filename, NO EXTENSION). Then it will ask if you wish to place a "pause" at the end of the bulletin. This is for those bulletins that are longer than one page and you want the more prompt, or whatever, to display at the end. Just answer that "Y" or "N" for yes or no. Next it will ask you if the information given is correct. If it is correct, answer "Y", if not, "N". If it is correct and you answer "Y", then it will check for the text file. If it is not present, it terminates. If it is present, it checks for the bulletins that you want to generate. If they are present, it will ask you if you want to overwrite them. If "Y", it will continue and make the bulletins, if "N", it will terminate. That's pretty much it. You now have the original text file and 3 new bulletins. Keep the text files, they make changing the bulletins allot easier. For example, if you have a subscription fee or membership bulletin and the fee changes. It is allot easier to load up the text file into your text editor and change it there, then rerun BulletMaster than to start it over. REGISTERING BulletMaster Registering BulletMaster has the following advantages : The 5 second delay and the press key to continue goes away The UNREGISTERED at the bottom of all the bulletins goes away Your BBS name will appear on the opening screen instead of the UNREGISTERED Permanent registration to The Next Generation BBS The satisfaction of knowing that you did the right thing A trip to McDonald's named after you! To register BulletMaster, fill out the registration form contained in the package and send it, along with a check or money order for $5.00US, to : David C. Higley 509 West 41st Street Ashtabula, Ohio 44004 When I receive your registration form and fee, I will create a user account for you on The Next Generation BBS. When the check clears, I will leave a message to you telling you how to download your registered copy of BulletMaster. If you wish me to mail your copy, please include $5.00US additional for the disk, shipping and handling. PACKAGE CONTENTS The BulletMaster distribution package contains the following files : BULLETU .EXE - The BulletMaster executable BULLET .CFG - The configuration file I used for the example bulletin BLTMSTR .DOC - Your reading it BULLETIN.ANS - Example ANSI color bulletin BULLETIN.ANC - Example ANSI mono bulletin BULLETIN. - Example text file for example bulletins BULLETIN.ASC - Example ASCII bulletin REGISTER.FRM - Registration form PRODUCT .LST - Software available from David C. Higley HISTORY .DOC - Things that are new and improved since last version REDO .BAT - Example batch file to make generating mass bulletins easier. These are the ONLY authorized files. NO ADVERTISEMENTS ARE AUTHORIZED TO BE DISTRIBUTED WITH THIS PACKAGE. I did the work for this and I don't want others adding there names to MY WORK!! SUPPORT If you have any complains, suggestions or comments or need to reach me for anything, I may be reached by the following : The Next Generation BBS (Support Board) 216-992-8099 RelayNet Programmers or Shareware Forums. Intelec Network Programmers, Turbo Pascal or Shareware Conferences. Leave Messages addressed to David Higley. I will reply as soon as possible to any messages recieved.