NEWS.PPE   Ver. 1.3
                            
                                    By
                                    
                             GŽœŽHŽD S™ŸTWŽRδ
                             
                             
        My wife and I were former GAP sysops, and one of the features that
 we liked about that software was its ability to display multiple news 
 files, but only if the news file was new for the user.  PCBoard is able to
 display multiple news files, but not just the the new news files, so I
 decided to write a small PPE to remedy this.  If you have quite a few news
 files that you want to display to your callers, but don't want them to have
 to see all of them each time they log in, this PPE can help.  They'll be 
 able to see only the news files that have been changed since the last time
 they logged in.
 
  
 INSTALLATION
 ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ
 
        First, the only line you need in you NEWS file is the full path
 and file name of the NEWS.PPE, with a /NEW switch included.  For example,
 it could look like this:
 
        !C:\PCB\PPL\NEWS.PPE /NEW        
        
 The /NEW switch allows the PPE to only display the new news files to the 
 user, while typing NEWS from the Main Board prompt will still display all
 the news files.
 
 Also, the NEWS.PPE needs to be added to the CMD.LST file, but WITHOUT
 any switches.  For example, it might look like:
 
        C:\PCB\PPL\NEWS.PPE
        
 This will allow your users to view ALL of the news files if they type in
 NEWS from the Main Board prompt.
 
 Lastly, a NEWS.CFG file needs to be created in the same directory as the 
 NEWS.PPE file.  There are only two lines in the .CFG file.
 
        Line 1:   Your BBS Name
        Line 2:   The number of news files
        
 
 NEWS FILES
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        The current version of NEWS.PPE supports both RIP graphics, as well
 as PCBoard's @X codes.  It checks the graphics mode that the caller is in, 
 and displays the appropriate news file(s).  It doesn't support the NEWS 
 and NEWSG format for ANSI and ASCII files.  We use @X codes exclusively on
 Hare Mail BBS, so I didn't bother to include those as well.
 
        NEWS.PPE searches for news files located in C:\PCB\GEN.  Since this
 is where PCBoard will look for the NEWS file, I decided to let the PPE look
 for all of the news files in the same directory.
 
        The news files MUST be in the form of NEWS-1, NEWS-2, NEWS-3, etc.,
 with the files numbered consecutively and not missing any numbers in 
 between.  For your RIP news files, the format must be NEWSR-1, NEWSR-2,
 NEWSR-3, etc.  For example, if you have the NEWS.PPE configured for 3
 news files, you MUST have all three present in your \PCB\GEN directory.
 If not, you should receive an error message for a missing file. 
   
 
 SUPPORT
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        I can be reached for support in various places.  You can call
 Hare Mail BBS directly at 216-341-6793.  My Internet address is 
 mark.zec@pcohio.com.  I moderate the PPL Programming conference in the
 Intelec network, so I can be reached there.  We also carry U'NI on our
 board, so I can be contacted in various conferences there, including 
 Sysops and the PCB Support conferences.  Lastly, if you'd like to contact
 me via Snail Mail, my mailing address is:
 

        Mark Zec
        6404 Gertrude Ave.
        Cleveland, Ohio 44105
        

        This PPE is being released as "donation"-ware.  It's completely
 free and uncrippled in any way (there are no nag screens, no screens that
 flash UNREGISTERED) but, as always, any and all donations are always accepted.
 If you do choose to send a donation, please keep it small....it's a small
 PPE, and didn't take all that much coding.  I'd be just as happy to receive
 a message letting me know that you're using it, and telling me how you like
 it, or what other features you'd like to see in it.