QNews Registraion Information

QNews™ Registration Information

Copyright (c) 1995, Robin Davies. All Rights Reserved.

This software is not free. QNews may be used for an evaluation period of 10 days without charge, after which you must pay a registration fee of US$10.00. To find out how to obtain a license to use QNews, see the Order Form.

Please read the License Agreement section of QNews Help for important information on the terms under which you may evaluate, use or distribute this software. Continued use of this software signifies your acceptance of the terms of the License Agreement.

What is QNews

Why should I Register My Copy of QNews?

License Agreement

Order Form

About USENET News

About USENET News

Guide to Basic Nettiquette

How to Use QNews (the Quick-Start Version)

Configuring QNews

Using QNews

How to Use QNews (the Comprehensive Version)

QNews Toolbar Buttons

Using the Newsgroup List Window

Using Newsgroup Message List Windows

Using Thread Message List Windows

Using Message Windows

Using Posting Windows

Using Mail Windows

Using Message Folder Windows

Uploading and Downloading Binary Files

Using QNews with More Than One User or More Than One Server

Commands

File menu

Edit menu

Newsgroup menu

Message menu

Posting menu

Mail menu

Folder menu

View menu

Window menu

Help menu

QNews is a Trademark of Robin Davies.


QNews Help Index

QNews™  Help Index

Copyright (c) 1995, Robin Davies. All Rights Reserved.

What is QNews?

About USENET News

About USENET News

Guide to Basic Nettiquette

How to Use QNews (the Quick-Start Version)

Configuring QNews

Using QNews

How to Use QNews (the Comprehensive Version)

QNews Toolbar Buttons

Using the Newsgroup List Window

Using Newsgroup Message List Windows

Using Thread Message List Windows

Using Message Windows

Using Posting Windows

Using Mail Windows

Using Message Folder Windows

Uploading and Downloading Binary Files

Using QNews with More Than One User or More Than One Server

Commands

File menu

Edit menu

Newsgroup menu

Message menu

Posting menu

Mail menu

Folder menu

View menu

Window menu

Help menu

Registration Information

License Agreement

Order Form

QNews is a Trademark of Robin Davies.


About QNews
QNews Overview

QNews is a Winsock-compliant Online USENET News reader that runs under Microsoft Windows.

Among many other features, it includes:

o	Multi-threaded execution. Messages can be read, or posted while newsgroups and messages counts continue in the background.

o	Archiving of messages to message folders.

o	A full featured state-of-the-art Windows user interface including, print, print preview, button bars, and context-sensitive help.

o	Simple intuitive uploading and downloading of binary files to newsgroups.

o	Graphical display of threaded messages, allowing the user to quickly determine which messages were posted in response to which other messages.

o	Speed! QNews queues multiple commands to the news server in order to ensure maximum-bandwidth communications over SL/IP and PPP lines. QNews also uses XOVER and XHDR server commands, where available, in order to improve efficiency.

o	Unlimited message sizes. QNews correctly handles messages larger than 27k bytes.

o	Only unread message headers are downloaded unless the users specifies that previously read messages should be displayed.

System Requirements

QNews supports TCP/IP, PPP and SLIP connections to the Internet through the Winsock software interface. Winsock is a standard interface to TCP/IP network connections that most TCP/IP, SL/IP and PPP systems running under Windows provide. If in doubt, search for the file WINSOCK.DLL; if it is present, then you will most-likely be able to use QNews. Please note that QNews does not include Winsock DLLs: Winsock services are usually provided by Internet service providers, network vendors or as third party add-ons for Windows. If you currently have access to the Internet, but do not have a valid set of Winsock DLLs, you may want to investigate Peter Tattam's shareware Trumpet Winsock implementation.

QNews uses the Internet standard NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) interface to read news from an USENET News host system. QNews, therefore requires that you have access to an Internet host system running NNTP server software.

QNews also provides the optional capability to send mail messages in response to News messages. To use this capability, you must have access to an Internet host system providing SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) services.

QNews requires that a properly configuredset of Winsock DLLs be present on the system. The Winsock DLLs must support version 1.1 or later of the Winsock Applications Programming Interface specifications.  QNews should operate correctly on the following operating systems: Microsoft Window version 3.1 or 3.11; Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11; Microsoft Windows/NT version 3.1 or 3.5;; IBM OS/2 version 2.1 or Mach.


Configuring QNews

QNews needs to know the following information before you can start reading USENET News: the Internet address of an NNTP (News) server to which you have access; the Internet address of an SMTP (Mail) server to which you have access; and some additional information which is used to fill in standard header fields in USENET News message items that you post to the Internet. If you are not sure what these terms mean, or what the addresses of your servers are, please contact your system administrator or Internet service provider for help.

When QNews is run for the first time, it will display the QNews Setup dialog. If QNews has been previously configured, the Setup dialog may be displayed by issuing the File/Setup... menu command.

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the File/Setup... menu command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

NNTP (News) Server Address

The Internet address of an Internet host computer that provides NNTP services. e.g. news.rdavies.com. If NNTP services are provided on a non-standard port number, the address may be specified in address:nnn format: e.g. news.rdavies.com:4321

SMTP (Mail) Server Address

The Internet address of an Internet host computer that provides SMTP services. e.g. mail.rdavies.com. If this field is not filled in, you will not be able to post e-mail responses to USENET News items. If SMTP services are provided on a non-standard port number, the address may be specified in address:nnn format: e.g. bitbucket.rdavies.com:4321

Real Name

Your name as you would like it to be displayed in messages that you post to the Internet. e.g.: Robin Davies.

E-Mail Address

The Internet E-Mail address to which you would like mailed responses to message that you post to be sent. e.g. rdavies@bitbucket.rdavies.com. If this field is not filled in, you will not be able to post message to the Internet.

Organization

The name of the organization (company, university, etc.) to which you belong. e.g.  Antek Software Consulting. This field will be displayed in the "Organization" header field of any message you post to the Internet. If left blank, the Organization header field will not be sent.

Signature File

This field contains the name of a text file that will be appended to the end of any Internet message that you post. Usually,  this file will contain information such as your phone number, or brief information about yourself. Signature files can be created using the Windows Notepad program. Signature files, should be relatively short. Good nettiquette suggests that your signature file should not be longer than four lines. Note that, according to Internet convention, QNews places a line containing two hyphens in each message before the signature is inserted. This is done to allow automated news processing software to automatically strip signatures. QNews, for example, uses this convention to prevent inclusion of signatures in quoted material.

Data Directory

The directory in which QNews will store news files. QNews stores newsgroup lists and saved messages in this directory. By default, QNews stores files in the Windows directory. Changing this variable only affects where new files are created. The location of existing files are not changed.

Timezone

Syntax: +/-hhmm.

Your local timezone in Internet Standard format.  The timezone speficied as hours after UTC (Greenwhich Mean Time). For example: -430 is 4 hours and thirty minutes early than UTC. +100 is one hour later than UTC. Eastern Standard Time is -500. Pacific Standard Time is -800. This value must be set to the timezone used by your computer's system clock (not your host systems computer clock).

Quote String

This string is added to the beginning of lines quoted from another message when posting a reply message. Usually the quote string is set to >.

Connect Automatically When Loaded

When checked, QNews will automatically open a newsgroup window and connect to the news server. When unchecked, QNews will not do so until the File/Connect menu command is issued.

Use Gray Text

When checked QNews displays previously-read messages, and usubscribed newsgroups in gray text. When unchecked, QNews display previously-read messages and unsubscribed messages with black text, but places an R and U, respectively, in front of each such message. This option is provided because, on some computer systems, (notably many portable computers), gray text is difficult to read.


Using QNews

If you are using USENET News for the first time, you may want to read the section About USENET News before proceeding. This section assumes that you have some prior knowledge of how USENET News works.

This section provides a quick overview of the basics required to use the QNews newsreader. For more detailed information, you may wish to consult the help topics listed at the end of this section. See the section Configuring QNews for instructions on how to configure QNews.

Using QNews for the First Time

Once QNews has been properly configured, QNews will automatically connect to the News server specified in the File/Setup... dialog box, and begin fetching newsgroup information. If QNews fails to do so, check that the NNTP (News) Server address has been properly set in the File/Setup... dialog box.

Usually QNews will connect to the news server automatically as soon as a valid server address for the server is available. If not,

If QNews is being run for the first time, QNews will automatically build a Newsgroup list. QNews will retrieve a full list of all Newsgroups to which you can subscribe from your host system. This only happen the first time you connect. After the first time, QNews will only retrieve those newsgroups which have been newly created since you last connected. This process may take a couple of minutes: there are currently over 8000 USENET Newsgroups with dozens more being created every day, although the actual number of newsgroups that you can access is determined by the system adminstrator of the host system to which you connect.

Using QNews Thereafter

Once QNews has built the newsgroup list, it will connect to the news server automatically every time it is loaded. QNews will display the list of newsgroups (only subscribed or new newsgroups if the View/Unsubscribed Newsgroups menu command is not checked), and then begin retreiving message counts in the background. You can begin reading newsgroups immediately: you dont have to wait for the retrieval of the message counts to complete.

To read a newsgroup or message, double-click on the item you want to read.

To compose messages or replies, use the Message/New Message... menu command, or the Message/Reply... menu command (available only in the Message windows). To compose email replies, use the Message/Reply by Mail... menu command, avialble in Message windows.

General Conventions

In general, the following conventions apply to QNews windows. Double-clicking or pressing the Enter key will open a newsgroup, message or message thread. QNews windows may be closed by pressing the Ctrl and F4 keys simultaneously (Ctrl+F4). The Message/Next and Message/Previous menu commands display the next or previous unread message. Options associated with windows of a particular type are found in the View menu. These options are "sticky": when changed, they will also apply to the next opened window of the same type, and remain in effect the next time QNews is run. The Edit/Search menu command may be used in all QNews windows as can the File/Print... and File/Print Preview... menu commands.

The Newsgroup List Window

The first window that QNews displays is the Newsgroup List window. The Newsgroup List window displays a list of available USENET Newsgroups. Each newsgroup contains messages pertaining to a particular subject. For example: rec.games.backgammon contains messages about backgammon; comp.music contains messages about computer-generated music.

To display a list of messages within a newsgroup, double-click on one of the entries in the Newsgroup List window. If no newsgroups are visible, issue the menu command View/Unsubscribed Newsgroups. This will display a complete list of available newsgroups.

If the View/Unsubscribed Newsgroups menu command is not checked, only those newsgroups to which you are currently subscribed are displayed. If you want to subscribe to additional newsgroups, issue the View/Unsubscribed Newsgroups menu command and subscribe to any additional newsgroups you might want to read on a regular basis.

You may subscribe and unsubscribe from newsgroups using the Newsgroup/Subscribe and Newsgroup/Unsubscribe menu command.

Message List Windows

Newsgroup Message List Windows display a list of messages or message threads that are currently active in a particular newsgroup. A thread  is a list of two or more messages written on the same subject. Usually messages in a thread are written in reply to an original message or other messages in the thread. For example, the newsgroup sci.archaeology might contains a thread of 6 messages entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Southwest".

To display a particular message, double-click on that message. To display the messages within a thread, double-click on the thread.

Thread Windows

The Thread Message List Windows display threaded messages, and show which message was written in response to which other messages. This information can be extremely useful when posting responses, as news messages don't always arrive in the order they were written (it may take days or even weeks for a news message to be propagated throughout the Internet). To read a message in a thread window, double-click on the message you are interested in.

Message Windows

Message windows display the contents of actual messages. You may scroll through the message, print it, or do few other interesting this with it. The Message/Reply menu command creates a new USENET news message that will be sent in response to the currently selected message. The Message/Reply By Mail menu command will create a mail message that will be sent to the original author of the message via email. The Mesasge/Forward menu command will create an email message that can be forwarded to your email account, or to someone elses email account.

USENET news messages on a new subject can be created using the Message/New Message... menu command from any QNews window.

Posting Windows

Posting Windows are used to compose new USENET news messages. Header lines may be added or removed using the Posting/Add Header Line... and Posting/Remove Header Lines menu commands, although USENET novices are advised that header lines must adhere to strict standards: dont modify header lines unless you know what youre doing.

Postings may be posted to the Internet using the Posting/Send menu command.

Mail Windows

Mail Windows are used to compose new email messages. Header lines may be added or removed using the Posting/Add Header Line... and Posting/Remove Header Lines menu commands. USENET novices are advised that mail header lines must follow even stricter standards: dont modify header lines unless you know what youre doing.

Mail messages may be sent using the Mail/Send menu command.

Message Folder Windows

QNews allows newsgroup messages to be saved to folders for permanent reference. To save a message to a folder, display the newsgroup message, and then issue the Message/Save To Folder>/Saved Messages menu command. New folders can be created by issuing the Message/Save To Folder>/New Folder... menu command. from a message window, or Folder/New... from any QNews window. To display saved messages, issue the Folder/Saved Messages menu command. This will open the Saved Messages folder window, containing all messages saved to that folder. Other folders can be displayed by issuing the Folder/<name of the folder> menu command.

For the sake of convenience, the Folder menu is available in all QNews windows.

As with Message List windows, messages are threaded, but this behaviour can be disabled by unchecking the View/Message Threads menu command.

Once a folder window has been opened, messages may be read by double-clicking on messages, selecting the message with mouse or cursor, and pressing the ENTER key, or issuing the Folder/Open Message menu command.

Message Folder Thread Windows

Message Folder thread windows work the same as do thread windows, although some commands are no longer applicable (Message/Mark as Read, for example).

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


QNews Toolbar Buttons


Newsgroup List Window
 The Newsgroup List Window

The first window that QNews displays is the Newsgroup List window. This window provides a list of USENET Newsgroups available through your USENET News server. By default, only those newsgroups to which you are subscribed, and those newsgroups which are new are displayed. The full list of all available newsgroups, including those newsgroups to which you are not currently subscribed, can be displayed by issuing the View/Unsubscribed Newsgroups  menu command when the Newsgroups window is active.

Each time you load QNews, QNews will automatically request a list of newly created newsgroups from the News server. These new newsgroups will be displayed at the end of the newsgroup list. If you dont subscribe to new newsgroups when they arrive, they will not be shown next time QNews is run.

Subscribed newsgroups are displayed as black text on a white background. Unsubscribed newsgroups are displayed as gray text on a white background. New newsgroups are displayed as gray text on a white background, but have an 'n' displayed in the left-hand column.

To subscribe to a newsgroup, select the newsgroup using the mouse or cursor, and issue the Newsgroup/Subscribe menu command (Ctrl+S). To unsubscribe from a newsgroup, select the newsgroup using the mouse or cursor, and issue the Newsgroup/Unsubscribe menu command (Ctrl+U).

Newsgroups may be reordered by dragging Newsgroup item with the mouse, or by using the Newsgroups/Move To Top, Newsgroups/Move To Bottom, and Newsgroups/Sort  menu commands.

QNews will begin fetching the number of unread messages in each newsgroup to which you are subscribed as soon as it connects. You needn't wait until the count has been retrieved before reading the newsgroup. The number of unread messages in each subscribed newsgroup will be displayed in the left-hand column of the Newsgroups window. Please note that this message count may be slightly inaccurate. The displayed message count may include  deleted messages or control message that can't be read with normal newsreaders.

To read a newsgroup, double-click on the newsgroup you would like to read, or select the newsgroup with the mouse or cursor keys, and press the ENTER key. QNews will display a Newsgroup message window, and will start retrieving message headers. You do not need to wait for this process to finish before starting to read messages.

See Also

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


Newsgroup Message List Windows

The Newsgroup Message List Windows display active messages and threads in a particular newsgroup. In addition, QNews groups messages that it believes constitute multi-part messages together.

This is an ordinary message. The information describes the subject of the message, the sender of the message, and the date the message was sent, respectively.

This is a message thread. The information describes the number of unread messages in the thread, the subject of the message, and the date that the last message in the thread was sent, respectively.

This is a multi-part message. Usually multi-part messages contain encoded binary files, rather than readable messages. This multi-part message, for example contains a JPEG image of a car. The displayed information describes the number of parts in the message, the title of the message, the sender of the message, and the date on which the last part was sent.

After a Newsgroup Message List window has been opened, QNews will automatically start retrieving message headers from the server. QNews displays message headers as soon as it receives them from the server system. You can start reading messages before the complete newsgroup message list has been retrieved. QNews first retrieves the subject of each message, and then retrieves the author of the message, and the finally, the date that it was posted. All of this takes place in the background, allowing you to read messages while QNews continues to retrieve information from the server.

To read a message, double-click on the message you would like to read, or select the message with the mouse or cursor keys, and press the ENTER key. QNews will display the message.

To display threaded messages, double-click on a message thread you would like to read, or select the message with the mouse or cursor keys, and press the ENTER key. QNews will display the messages in the thread in a Thread Message List window.

Unread messages are displayed as black text on a white background. Messages that have already been read are displayed as gray text on a white background. Threads which contain one or more unread messages are displayed as black text on a white background. Threads with no unread messages are displayed as gray text on a white background.

Message may be displayed in the order they were received instead of in thread order by unchecking the View/Thread Messages menu command.

If you would like to find a message that you have read in a previous session, issue the View/Previously Read Message menu command. Note that this will only display those messages that are still active on the News server. Most news servers discard news messages after a period ranging from days to weeks depending on how heavy the traffic is on that particular newsgroup.

The Message Menu

Open Message

Open the currently selected message.

New Message

Create a new news message.

Next

Open the next unread news message.

Previous

Display the previous unread news message

Catch Up

Mark all messages up to and including the currently selected message as having been read.

Mark as Read

Marks the currently selected message or messages as having been previously read.

Mark as Unread

Marks the currently selected message or messages as having not having been previously read.

Refresh

Rebuild the list of messages again, asking the news server for the latest information.

Cancel Message

Cancels the currently selected message. You can only cancel messages that you have written, and can only do so once the news server has accepted and displayed your message. The cancel command is sent over the entire USENET to ensure that your message will be cancelled on all systems on which it has been stored.

Download File

Download a binary file encoded in one or more news messages. To download a binary file contained in more than one message, QNews must be able to identify each part of the message before it starts. Therefore, QNews expects the subject of each part of a multi-part message to contain a string of the form 1/7, or 3 of 9. To download files which clearly belong together but dont have matching titles, select each message or group of messages in turn using Control+Left Mouse Click.

QNews currently supports downloading of most UUEncoded files.

Upload File

Upload a binary file to the USENET. The file will be encoded using Uuencoding in order to allow safe transmission of the message over the Internet, and will also split large files into multiple messages as neccessary.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


 Thread Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows display lists of messages that have the same subject. QNews graphically displays which messages were written in response to which other messages.

To read a message within a Thread List Window, double-click on the message or select the message using the mouse or cursor keys, and press the ENTER key. QNews will display the message.

Not all messages in a thread may be connected in the Thread Message List window. This may be because they were written in response to a message that has already been read (or been discarded by the News server), because they were written using a news reader that doesn't properly support threading of messages (most do), or because the message was composed as a new message with the same subject line, rather than as a reply.

Unread message as displayed as black text on a white background. Previously read messages are displayed as gray text on a white background.

The Message Menu

Open Message

Open the currently selected message.

New Message

Create a new news message.

Next

Open the next unread news message.

Previous

Display the previous unread news message

Catch Up

Mark all messages up to and including the currently selected message as having been read.

Mark as Read

Marks the currently selected message or messages as having been previously read.

Mark as Unread

Marks the currently selected message or messages as having not having been previously read.

Refresh

Rebuild the list of messages again, asking the news server for the latest information.

Cancel Message

Cancels the currently selected message. You can only cancel messages that you have written, and can only do so once the news server has accepted and displayed your message. The cancel command is sent over the entire USENET to ensure that your message will be cancelled on all systems on which it has been stored.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


 Message Windows

Message windows display the contents of actual News messages.

By default, only common standard header lines are displayed. Most News messages have far more header lines than are genuinely useful or interesting. Most of these headers are of interest to software programs, rather than humans.To display the complete list of headers for a particular message, check the View/Full Headers menu command.

To compose a reply to the current message, issue the Message/Reply menu command. Please note that this command actually does more than just create a News message with 'Re:' prepended to the subject line: USENET Newsgroup message standards require that reply messages contain a reference  to the original message so that newsgroup readers can thread messages properly. This command will ensure that all appropriate thread information is included in the message.

The Message/New Message menu command will compose a News message on a new subject. You will be given the opportunity to select both the newsgroup on which it will be posted (defaults to the current newsgroup), as well as the subject line.

The Message/Reply by Mail menu command will compose an e-Mail message addressed to the author of the current message. To use this menu command, you must have previously provided the Internet address of an SMTP (Mail) server in the File/Setup... dialog box.

The Message Menu (Message Window)

New

Create a new message on a new subject.

Reply

Create a new message in response to the current message. Note that this is not the same as just creating a new message with the subject Re: whatever. Replies also contain special information for newsreader software that allows the message to be properly threaded. If you change the subject heading of the message, then the message will no longer be a reply.

Reply by Mail

Create an email message that will be sent to the original author of the current message.

Forward by Mail

Send the contents of the current message to an email address. The contents of the message are not quoted. This can be useful for forwarding news items of particular interest to colleagues, for example.

Next

Display the next unread message.

Previous

Display the previous unread message.

Rot13

Encode or decode the body of the current message using Rot13 encoding. Rot13 encoding is a simple rotate-by-13 cypher that historically has been used to hide messages from those who dont want to read them. For instance, if you are writing a message that describes the solution to a difficult problem in Myst, or gives away the surprise ending of a popular movie, it might be appropriate to encode the particular passage using Rot13 encoding, and warn others of the contents of the encoded portion of the message in plain text. Rot13 encoding is reversible, so the same command can be used to encrypt or decrypt Rot13-encoded text.

Cancel Message

Cancels the currently displayed message. You can only cancel messages that you have written, and on some servers can only cancel messages when connected to the host on which the message was originally posted. You can only do so once the news server has accepted and displayed your message. The cancel command is sent over the entire USENET to ensure that your message will be cancelled on all systems on which it has been stored.  QNews will only allow you to cancel messages in which the From: or Reply-To header contain your email address as currently set in the File/Setup... dialog box.

Please use this command judiciously. Its better not to have sent a message at all, than to cancel it after the fact.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


Posting Windows

When you reply to a message, or create a new message, QNews will display the new message in a Posting window. Posting windows may be used to edit the message and when done to post the message onto the Internet for everyone to read.

If the Posting window was created by issuing the Message/Reply menu command, QNews will include a copy of the original text of the message being replied to. This is done because replies to News messages may take several days or even weeks to propagate throughout the Internet. Proper Netiquette requires you to include a brief quote from the original message so that those reading your message can understand what you were replying to. Even the original author of the message to which you are replying may not recall the contents of the message to which you are replying without an appropriate quote from the text of the original message. Its considered extremely bad Netiquette to quote the entire message. Quoted material should be edited down so that only the absolute minimum necessary to establish the context of the reply is included in the reply message.

Once written the message can be posted to the Internet by issuing the Posting/Send menu command, or by pushing the Post button that appears on the toolbar when editing a posting.

Header lines may be added to or removed from the message using the Posting/Add Header Line... and Posting/Remove Header Line... menu command. Please note that newsgroup message headers must adhere to strict standards. Violating these standards may mean that your message will not be posted properly on the Internet. Therefore, unless you know what you are doing, you should probably not add or remove header lines from newsgroup messages. QNews does not allow required header lines to be removed from mail messages.

The Posting Menu

Send

Send the current message to the Internet.

Add Header Line

Add a header line to the current message.

Remove Header Line

Remove a header line from the current message. Required header lines can not be removed.

Rot13

Encode or decode the body of the current message using Rot13 encoding. Rot13 encoding is a simple rotate-by-13 cypher that historically has been used to hide messages from those who dont want to read them. For instance, if you are writing a message that describes the solution to a difficult problem in Myst, or gives away the surprise ending of a popular movie, it might be appropriate to encode the particular passage using Rot13 encoding, and warn others of the contents of the encoded portion of the message in plain text. Rot13 encoding is reversible, so the same command can be used to encrypt or decrypt Rot13-encoded text.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Mail Windows

Folder Windows


Mail Windows

Mail windows are used to display the contents of mail messages being posted in reply to newsgroup messages. To get a Mail window, issue the Message/Reply by Mail menu command when displaying a News message.

Mail windows operate very much the same as posting windows, except that when done, the message is sent via Internet E-Mail to the author of the original message instead of being posted for everyone to read as a news message.

The quoted contents of the original message will automatically be included in the Mail window. Please see the section Posting Windows for a discussion of appropriate Internet quoting etiquette.

Once written the message can be posted to the Internet by issuing the Mail/Send menu command, or by pushing the Send button that appears on the toolbar when editing a mail message.

Header lines may be added to or removed from the message using the Mail/Add Header Line... and Mail/Remove Header Line... menu command. Please note that mail message headers must adhere to strict Internet standards. Violating these standards may mean that your message will not be posted properly on the Internet. Therefore, unless you know what you are doing, you should probably not add or remove header lines from newsgroup messages. QNews does not allow required header lines to be removed from mail messages.

Recipients may be specified on any of the To, Cc or Bcc header lines, although at least one recipient should be specified in the To header line. The BCC (blind copy) header line is not sent with the mail message.

The Mail Menu

Send

Send the current message to the recipient named on the To, CC and BCC lines via email.

Add Header Line

Add a header line to the current message.

Remove Header Line

Remove a header line from the current message. Required header lines can not be removed.

Rot13

Encode or decode the body of the current message using Rot13 encoding. Rot13 encoding is a simple rotate-by-13 cypher that historically has been used to hide messages from those who dont want to read them. For instance, if you are writing a message that describes the solution to a difficult problem in Myst, or gives away the surprise ending of a popular movie, it might be appropriate to encode the particular passage using Rot13 encoding, and warn others of the contents of the encoded portion of the message in plain text. Rot13 encoding is reversible, so the same command can be used to encrypt or decrypt Rot13-encoded text.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Folder Windows


Using Message Folder Windows

Message Folders may be used to save copies of newsgroup messages. Unlike newsgroup messages, which disappear eventually as the news server makes room for new messages, messages saved in message folders will stay there until deleted.

Messages can be saved to folders by displaying a newsgroup message, and then issuing the Message/Save to Folder>/Saved Messages menu command available in the message window.

New folders can be created by issuing the Folder/New... menu command, available in all QNews windows, or by issuing the Message/Save to Folder>/New Folder... menu command, available in message windows.

Message folders may be deleted by issuing the Folder/Delete... menu command. Message folders may be renamed using the Folder/Rename... menu command.

To open a message folder, issue the menu command Folder/<name of the folder>. Note that Saved Messages is just a folder provided to get you started. It is no different from other message folders.

Once the message folder has been opened, QNews will display a list of messages saved to that folder that looks remarkably similar to a Newsgroup message list. To display the contents of a message, double-click on the message, or select the message using mouse clicks or cursor keys, and then press the ENTER key. The menu command Message/Open Message also has the same effect.

Messages may be deleted by issuing the Folder/Delete Message menu command. This command will delete all currently selected messages.

By default, QNews will arrange messages in folder windows into threads. To prevent this, uncheck the View/Thread Messages menu command.

See Also

The Newsgroup List Window

Newsgroup Message List Windows

Thread Message List Windows

Message Windows

Posting Windows

Mail Windows


Uploading and Download Binary Files

QNews supports uploading and downloading of binary files to and from newsgroups in UUEncoded format.

Because some host systems can only accept 7-bit data, and because most host systems get thoroughly confused when ASCII control codes are encountered in news messages,  these encoding techniques have been developed to allow safe transmission of binary information across the Internet. The MIME standard is actually an e-mail standard, that has spread onto USENET as well, albeit in a very limited fashion.

Furthermore, many news hosts, and news relays can not accept files larger than 64k.Because of this restriction, binary files are usually split across several messages.

QNews provides automated support for both binary encoding and multi-part messages.

Uploading Binary Files

Binary files may be uploaded by issuing the Message/Upload File... menu command from any of the Newsgroup List, Message List or Thread windows.

QNews will ask for a filename, and then display a posting window in which you may enter a description of the file. If the contents of the posting window are left empty, no description part will be sent.

When the Posting/Send menu command is issued, QNews will automatically encode and split the file into as many peices are required.

Good nettiquette requires that binary files only be posted in newsgroups starting with alt.binaries.. If a file is of interest to members of a particular newsgroup that doesnt fall into the alt.binaries heirarchy, the correct practice is to post the binary to an appropriate alt.binaries newsgroup, and then post a brief announcement describing the binary posting and its location in the target newsgroup.

The presence of huge encoded binary files in normal newsgroups can be very disconcerting for some categories of users: e.g. Internet users who automatically download entire newsgroups over a low-speed modem for offline reading.

Downloading Binary Files

Downloading files can be a little more complicated.

When message threading is enabled, QNews will attempt to group all messages that it thinks are part of multi-part messages together, and display them using the [image] icon

In the ideal case, all you have to do is select the multi-part message (or the single message if it is a one-part binary file), and issue the Message/Download File menu command.

Unfortunately, there is no standard method for identifying individual messages that belong together. As a result, there are a number of reasons why QNews may fail to identify all messages belonging to a multi-part message.

There is currently no standard to do this. Currently QNews identifies the portion of the message that reads 3/32, or 5 of 9, and then checks to see whether the rest of the message subject is identical. If it is, then these messages are grouped together as multi-part messages. Part zero (e.g. 0/5) is considered to be a description of the file, and is not grouped with the rest of the messages. This technique works very well with multi-part messages posted by newsreaders that provide automatic support for uploading binary files. When humans get involved, however, things get more complicated.

Currently a significant number of USENET users post binaries using manually cut-and-pasted messages. As a result, some message headers may be mis-spelled, or may follow unusual conventions (e.g. part 1/9 includes a description, but the remaining parts dont). This may cause QNews to fail to identify some parts of a multi-part message. In addition, manual posts are often misnumbered or incomplete. Subsequent corrections may be posted with different subjects altogether.

If QNews has failed to group messages that obviously belong together, select all the messages simultaneously by pressing the control key, and clicking on each message in turn. Once all the messages have been selected, issue the Message/Download File menu command. In this case, QNews still requires that each message subject carry some kind of part identifier (2/7, or 3 of 5, for example), and that all messages be correctly numbered and present, in order to allow QNews to assemble the parts in the correct order. There is currently no way in QNews to donwload messages that have been misnumbered.


About USENET News

What is USENET News

USENET News is basically a mechanism whereby messages can be propagated to any computer connected to the Internet (and in practice quite a few others as well). Unlike, E-mail, USENET News messages are broadcast to anyone who cares to read them instead of being sent to a particular user or group of users. USENET News functions somewhat like an electronic bulletin board that has 24 million readers.

USENET News messages are organized into newsgroups. Each newsgroup caters to a particular topic of discussion. Topics range from dissemination and discussion of scientific research to discussions of religion; from discussion and development of Internet standards to maintenance of Volkswagen Beetles. Whatever your particular interest, there's bound to be a newsgroup in which to meet other people around the world who share your interest. There are currently over 6000 newsgroups, with dozens being added every day.

Each newsgroup is assigned a name. USENET newsgroup names follow a hierarchical naming convention which helps computer systems broadcast the news across the Internet. For example, rec.games.backgammon is a newsgroup devoted to discussion of Backgammon. It belongs to the rec.games group of newsgroups, which discuss games in general, and to the rec group of newsgroups which are devoted to discussion of recreational activities.

Here is a partial list of the root USENET groups. In addition to these newsgroups, there are a large number of geographical groups. For example, can newsgroups are devoted to discussion of Canadian issues; ont newsgroups are devoted to discussion of issues related to the province of Ontario, Canada.

alt	Alternative discussions. Historically, unlike other categories, the alt newsgroup creation procedure has been informal, so alt tends to accumulate an extremely eclectic range of newsgroups that otherwise wouldn't get sanctioned in more formal categories.

bionet	Groups of interest to professional biologists.

bit	BITNET LISTSERV mailing lists. LISTSERV mailing lists provide the same sort of service as does USENET, but messages are broadcast via e-mail. The chief advantage of LISTSERV mailing lists is that they can be broadcast to systems not necessarily connected to the Internet. Many, but not all LISTSERV mailing lists are broadcast on USENET News as well.

biz	Business, product announcements, corporate propaganda, etc.

clari	ClariNet commercial news service. Provides wire-service news.

comp	Computer-related topics.

gnu	GNU project of the Free Software Foundation.

hep	High-Energy Particle Physics

ieee	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

info	Information. Usually messages last longer in info newsgroups than in other groups. These newsgroups typically hold notices or information likely to be useful over a longer period than the three or four days that high-volume newsgroups typically provide.

k12	Teachers of Kindergarten to Grade 12.

sci	Science news and information

linux	Groups related to the linux public-domain operating system.

misc	Miscellaneous

news	Information and news relating to USENET news itself.

rec	Recreational activities.

relcom	Russian USENET

soc	Sociology.

talk	Talk about interesting or controversial topics.

vmsnet	Groups related to DEC VAX/VMS

USENET Culture

USENET News first started when the Internet was a relatively small network run primarily by universities and scientific research groups. Because the Internet was home to a relatively small group of people with very specific and often highly specialized common interests, the Internet quickly developed a sense of community. USENET News was one of the primary vehicles that fostered the development of online communities on the Internet. It provided a place for people with common interests to congregate on the network and interact socially.

In recent years, as the Internet has been opened up to commercial use, the Internet has been flooded by inexperienced novices many who have not yet learned to appreciate the finer points of the workings of the Internet that allows the sense of virtual community to develop.

For this reason, Internet newbies (as Internet novices are contemptuously referred to) may encounter some difficulty while first learning the ropes. However, by learning a few simple rules, most Internet newbies can avoid antagonizing the more experience members of the Internet community while becoming part of the virtual communities that make the Internet such an exciting place to be. There are no shortage of experienced USENET News users who are happy to lend a helping hand, provided you respect the rules of conduct collectively referred to as Nettiquette that make life online easier for everyone; and the vast majority of USENET News users are willing to be relatively forgiving if you don't flagrantly abuse the rules. After all every USENET News user was a newbie at one point.

It may be worthwhile to watch for a while in order to get the flavor of USENET News before posting messages indiscriminately. Some of the larger USENET Newsgroups have huge amounts of traffic. Sometimes thousands of messages a day are posted in a single newsgroup. Its difficult at the best of times to keep up with the flow of information coursing through the busier newsgroups. Posting of inappropriate messages compounds this problem considerably. In any case, you are strongly urged to read the Guide to Basic Nettiquette included in this document.

An important issue to be aware of is that the original research orientation of many of the USENET newsgroups has gradually deteriorated as more Internet users with non-research backgrounds flood onto the Internet. Recently, there has been a trend toward creation of newsgroups such as sci.astronomy.amateur (note that sci.astronomy is primarily for professional astronomers), or comp.music.research (in this case, comp.music, originally chartered as a newsgroup for discussion of computer music research  has been abandoned to users of soundcards). In general, all sci. soc. and many comp newsgroups were originally chartered as professional newsgroups. alt and rec newsgroups are invariably amateur. Support of amateur interests on USENET is by no means new; however, in general, one should be aware of this difference in orientation between newsgroups. Failure to do so will result in professional communities taking their newsgroups off USENET news and onto Mail servers, resulting in a loss of one of the factors that makes USENET Newsgroup surfing so delightful and interesting.

For the benefit of new USENET users, this document contains a Guide to Basic Nettiquette. New users are urged to read and understand the basic principles of Nettiquette before wasting bandwidth  ;->.


Guide to Basic Nettiquette

1.	Commercial advertising is not permitted on USENET News, and besides being inappropriate can cause you to have your account privileges revoked by your Internet service provider. This is a very political topic on USENET News, and Internet veterans for historical reasons have very little tolerance for broadcasted commercial advertising. The volume of hostile e-mail responses to inappropriate advertising on the Internet has been known to be large enough to take entire commercial Internet systems off-line for weeks at a time.

Advertising personal items of interest to other members of a newsgroup is acceptable,  provided the item is appropriate to the newsgroup, and that the message isn't broadcast to a large number of newsgroups. If in doubt, seek advice from an experienced Internet user.

2.	Be brief, succinct, and to the point. Long messages don't get read. Make sure that you have something to contribute before posting.

3.	Subject headers should be short but descriptive. Messages with subjects such as "Needs Help" won't get read, whereas more descriptive subject headers will usually elicit some response. Many newsreaders won't display more than 30 or 40 characters, so Subject headers longer than that are a problem.

4.	Follow standard formatting conventions. Short un-indented paragraphs should be separated by a blank line of text. Lines should be shorter than 80 characters. Use ASCII text characters only wherever possible. Some heirarchies, such as de.* and fr.* allow posting of accented characters in the body of messages, but never in the header of messages using the ISO-8859-1 character set (supported by QNews). English speaking readers generally, cannot read messages containing accented characters. Use mixed case always. Uppercase text is considered shouting, and, besides being hard on the eyes, is considered rude by most USENET users. Text enclosed in asterisks is *bold* text. Text enclosed in underline characters (above the hyphen on IBM keyboards) is _italic_ text. Blocks of quoted text are marked with a '>' character in the left-hand column (or sometimes, :).

5.	Before asking a question, check the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for the newsgroup. Depending on the newsgroup, FAQs are either News messages that are posted periodically (every two weeks or monthly), or are stored somewhere on the Internet. If the latter is the case, a news message describing how to obtain the FAQ is usually posted periodically. FAQs are composed in order to answer questions that get asked often enough on the newsgroup that it becomes irritating for regular subscribers to the newsgroup to answer the same question over and over. Chances are very good that most questions you might have initially are answered in the FAQ.

5.	Be aware that USENET News as a medium has some serious problems. In particular, its difficult to tell whether remarks are intended to be humorous or not. Failure to clearly indicate that a remark is intended to be humorous may result in hostile responses to your message. Emoticons are ASCII symbols enclosed in text that are used to convey emotions normally carried by the voice that can't otherwise be transmitted in text messages. Most emoticons are graphical pictures of sideways faces. Tilt your head to the left if the meaning of the emoticons are not clear. Here are some useful emoticons to get you started:

:-)	Smile.

;-) 	Wink and a smile.

:->	Devilish smile.

:-(	Frown

:-O	Shouting

=8-O	Horror

:-^)	Tongue-in-cheek.

8-|	Glazed expression of disbelief.

In general, make your intentions abundantly clear to avoid misunderstanding.

6.	For some reason, USENET News is conducive to heated and highly abusive exchanges of opinion. No-one has advanced a clear theory as to why this is so; however, it clearly happens often on USENET. Such exchanges are known as flames, or flame wars. Flaming  is generally considered the mark of an inexperienced USENET News user. USENET News is not as efficient a communication mechanism as voice or face-to-face contact. Because of this, you should make an extraordinary effort to be civil and polite. Be aware that the medium seems to encourage or perhaps amplifies extremes of opinion. If you are not interested in someone else's opinion don't bother responding. If you are offended, try to understand the other persons underlying point. If you still don't understand, ask them to clarify. Flaming is waste of bandwidth (both electronic and human). Don't. If you get flamed, chalk it up to experience, and dont take it personally. Almost everyone on the Internet has been flamed at one time or another.

7.	Be aware that some newsgroups are intended to be for professionals only. Interested amateurs are usually welcome to watch, but you should take great care to post judiciously and appropriately on such newsgroups. Consider yourself a lucky guest in these newsgroups, and try not ask silly questions. Almost all newsgroups in the sci and soc hierarchies as well as some comp newsgroups are professional newsgroups. All newsgroups is the alt, rec, and misc hierarchies are amateur newsgroups. Silly questions are welcome there ;-).

8.	Don't quote e-mail responses to USENET News messages without the author's permission.


Winsock
The Winsock Applications Programming Interface

Winsock is a standard software interface that provides TCP/IP services to Windows programs. The standard was jointly developed by Microsoft and most of the 3rd-party companies providing TCP/IP support for Windows and DOS. The most important feature of the Winsock standard is that it provides a standard software interface for Windows applications that currently works on most major network and modem TCP/IP implementations.

To use the Winsock standard, you must obtain a set of Winsock DLL files. These files implement the Winsock software interface, and are usually provided by the company that provides the TCP/IP implementation that you are using. Winsock support is also built in to Windows/NT, OS/2 Warp, and will be included in Microsoft's forthcoming Windows '95 operating system.

If you are using a TCP/IP, SLIP or PPP connection to the Internet from a Windows machine, chances are pretty good that you already have Winsock support.

If you do not currently have Winsock support, but are have access to TCP/IP, PPP or SLIP services, you may want to investigate Peter Tattam's excellent shareware Winsock implementation, Trumpet Winsock. Trumpet Winsock is widely available by anonymous FTP on the Internet. A word to the wise, though; correct configuration of Winsock packages is somewhat difficult, and will probably require the assistance of an experienced UNIX or LAN System Adminstrator, or assistance from your Internet service provider. There are also currently several excellent commercial TCP/IP Winsock implementations.

QNews uses the Winsock software interface, but does not provide Winsock DLLs. These files must be obtained from a network vendor, Internet service provider, or UNIX or LAN System Adminstrator, or from one of the sources mentioned above.


dragging
Move the mouse cursor to the item to be selected. Press the left mouse button and hold the mouse button down while moving the mouse. Release the button where you would like the item to be moved to.


Timezone
Setting the Timezone

The timezone must be specified in Internet Standard Timezone format. The timezone setting is used by Internet USENET News servers to determine such things as when the message should expire, and by USENET newsreader programs to sort message by date and time. This value must be specified to ensure that your message are handled properly by USENET News software.

Syntax: +/-hhmm.

The value specifies how many hours and minutes should be added to your local time to convert to UTC (Greenwich Mean Time). For example: +430 is 4 hours and thirty minutes later than UTC (Greenwich Mean Time). Eastern Standard Time is -400. Pacific Standard Time is -800. This value must be set to the timezone used by your computer's system clock (not your host systems clock).


License Agreement

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software. Use of this software indicates your acceptance of these terms and conditions. If you do not agree with them, do not use the software.

Shareware Version

You are hereby licensed to: use the Shareware Version of this software for a 10 day evaluation period; make as many copies of the Shareware version of this software and documentation as you wish; give complete and exact copies of this Shareware version of the software and documentation in its unmodified form via electronic means. Copies must contain all files included with the original distribution. There is no charge for any of the above.

Compilers of Shareware collections are asked (but not required) to contact the author before including QNews in such collections in order to determine the most recent version of QNews.

Unregistered use of QNews after the 10-day evaluation period is in violation, of Canadian, US, and international copyright laws.

Evaluation and Registration

This is not free software. You may use this software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 10 (ten) days. If you use this software after the 10 day evaluation period you must purchase a license to use QNews. A single license for QNews costs US$10.00. Terms of payment are given in the Order Form. To print an order form, see the Order Form section of the help file.

When payment is received, you will be sent an authorization code that will remove the opening Shareware dialog, and will be registered as a licensed user of QNews.

Single License Terms Of Use

One license to use QNews must be purchased for each computer on which QNews is run, or for each user of QNews according to the following condition: use of a licensed copy of QNews should be considered like use of a book. As long as you can reasonably ensure that QNews is being run only one computer at any given time, then the terms of this license agreement are satisfied. For example: A computer at home and a computer at work, only you use it: 1 license required. A computer at home and you and your wife use it: 1 license required. A computer at home and a computer at work, and other people use your work copy while you are at home: 2 licenses required.

What could be more reasonable than that? Please show the author the same courtesy.

LAN-licensed and site-licensed copies of QNews may be obtained by contacting the author directly at rdavies@magi.com.

For information on site license or bulk license discounts, please contact the author directly.

Licenses to Distribute Pre-Licensed Copies of Qnews

Internet service and connectivity providers, or other large organizations may obtain licenses to distribute Qnews. The purchase of a single distribution license entitles the purchaser to distribute pre-licensed copies of FIBS/W subject to certain restrictions.

Distribution license pricing for QNews works as follows: one license must be obtained for each 100km radius area of service provided by the licensee.  Licensees will be provided with a diskette containing a pre-licensed copy of QNews which may be redistributed by the Licensee.

The copy of QNews that will be provided will include a pre-configured NNTP server address that can not be changed by the user. This allows the licensee to redistribute the distribution-licensed copy of QNews via anonymous FTP, for example. If this arrangement is not appropriate, alternate arrangements can be made provided suitable guarantees can be made that pre-licensed copies of QNews will be distributed carefully and appropriately.

Licensees may request distribution-licensed copies of QNews with updated server addresses for up to two years after the purchase of the original license.

Distribution licenses cost US$3,000 for each 100km radius of service.

The complete terms of the distribution license are available upon request from Robin Davies (rdavies@magi.com, 1-(613)-231-2783). In cases where this text, and the text of the actual distribution license contract differ, the distribution license contract shall be considered authoritative.

Please contact Robin Davies directly to arrange for distribution licenses.

Governing Law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario.

Disclaimer of Warranty

This software and the accompanying files are licensed on an "as is" basis, without warranties as to performance, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. You may test QNews to see if it works during the 10 day evaluation period to see if it meets your needs. However, the entire risk as to the software's quality and performance is with you, both when using the evaluation copy, and when using licensed copies of the software.

Because of the various hardware and software environments in which QNews may be run, no guarantee can be made as to whether QNews will continue to operate correctly.

Although the author has taken reasonable precautions in accordance with current common software development practice to ensure that QNews will not cause damage to your computer system or data, the author also cautions you that because of the state of software development as a discipline, reasonable precautions do not assure that such damage will not occur, and that the entire burden of risk rests upon the user rather than the author, and that the author assumes no liability for incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of QNews.

In states, provinces or countries where such disclaimers of liability are prohibited by law, the total liability assumed by Robin Davies shall not exceed the cost of purchase of the license, or US$5.00 where no license has been purchased.

QNews may not be used in jurisdictions where such waivers of liability or limitations of liability are prohibited by law.

Technical Support

Problem reports or technical support requests may be e-mailed to Robin Davies, rdavies@magi.com, although no guarantee can be made as to whether reported problems will be corrected or not. The author regrets that technical support can not be provided by telephone.


Order Form
QNews Order Form

To print this form, select Print Topic from the File menu.

Send this order form and a cheque or money order to  Robin Davies, 224 3rd Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1S 2K3. In return, you will be sent instructions via e-mail on how to remove the Nag Screen, and will be registered as a licensed user of QNews.

All prices are stated in US dollars. Please make payments in US or Canadian dollars where possible. Payments in currencies other tha US$ must apply the prevailing currency conversion rate as of the day the registration form is mailed.

Ontario residents must add 7% sales tax and 8% GST. Canadian residents must add 7% GST.

QNews single license:   qty ___ @  US$10.00 ea.=  _________

QNews 10 user license:  qty ___ @  US$50.00 ea.=  _________

Ontario residents add PST                       + _________

Canadian residents add GST                      + _________

                                  Total payment   _________

            Name: ________________________Date:___________

         Company: ________________________________________

         Address: ________________________________________

City, State, Zip: ________________________________________

         Country: ________________________________________

       Day Phone: _______________  Eve:  _________________

Electronic Mail address: _________________________________

Comments:


The Newsgroup Menu (Newsgroup Window)
The Newsgroup Menu

Open Newsgroup

Display the contents of the currently selected newsgroup.

Subscribe

Mark the currently selected newsgroups as subscribed. Subscribed newsgroups are displayed by default on startup.

Unsubscribe

Mark the currently selected newsgroups as unsubscribed. Unsubscribed newsgroups are not displayed by default on startup.

Move To Top

Move the currently selected newsgroups to the top of the newsgroup list.

Move To Bottom

Move the currently selected newsgroups to the bottom of the newsgroup list.

Sort

Sort newsgroups in alphabetical order. Subscribed newsgroups are placed ahead of unsubscribed newsgroups.

Catch Up

Mark all messages in the currently selected newsgroups as having been read.

Refresh

Check for newly arrived messages in each of the currently selected newsgroups.


Setting the Timezone

Syntax: +/-hhmm.

The timezone must be set to your local timezone as specified in Internet Standard format. The timezone is specified as hours and minutes after UTC (Greenwhich Mean Time).

For example: -430 is 4 hours and thirty minutes earlier than UTC (Greenwich Mean Time). +100 is one hour later than UTC.

Eastern Standard Time is -500. Pacific Standard Time is -800.

This value must be set to the timezone used by your computer's system clock (not your host systems computer clock).


Why Should I Register My Copy of QNews?

QNews is distributed using a marketting scheme commonly referred to as Shareware Marketting. Under this scheme, fully functional copies of QNews are distributed electronically via a variety of channels. Although there is no charge to use an unregistered copy of QNews for evaluation purposes, you are expected to purchase a valid license to use QNews if you find that QNews is useful and if you intend to keep using QNews; if you do not find QNews to be useful, or if you dont intend to keep using QNews, you are expected to remove QNews from your computer.

Shareware marketting provides benefits both to customers and the authors of shareware packages. Shareware distribution provides a cheap and effective method of direct distribution for authors of software packages. On the other hand, shareware distribution provides customers with an opportunity to try before they buy, and the lower cost of shareware marketting in many cases makes commercial quality software available at a price that could not be matched in conventional distribution channels.

The author of QNews sincerely hopes that you will find QNews to be an example of the best that shareware marketting has to offer: commercial quality software provided at a ridiculously reasonable price. Significant effort has been made by the author to address a distinct need of the Internet community, and to address that need with a solution that combines ease-of-use, carefully thought out features and functionality, with commercial quality and reliability.

The author has also made an effort to share the benefits of shareware distribution with you, the user of QNews. The cost of registration for QNews reflects the fact that Shareware Distribution is a cheap way to market software, and that the returns on shareware-marketted software provide a significantly higher margin of profit to the author than do conventional distribution methods.

If you find the cost of registration trivial or frivolous, let me take the time to assure you that it is not. The cost of this package has been chosen to reflect the fact that it should be relatively easy and pain-free to take the time to register this software. However, the success of this software rests on the hope and belief that a high percentage of users will do the right thing. The cost of development of this software package was not trivial or frivolous, and the only way the author can recover his costs is if you, personally, take the time to register your copy of QNews.

Strictly speaking, you are legally required to register your copy of QNews if you intend to keep using it. Although there are ways that the author could force you to register the software if you intend to continue using it, the author feels that such methods are potentially harmful to the interest of the customers of this software, so these methods have not been used in QNews. As a result, the author of this software package must rely to a certain extent on your honesty.

There is no way to compel you to register this software, but the author hopes that you will extend the same kind of consideration to the author that the author has extended to you.

Please take the time to register this software if you find it useful.

Thank you,

Robin Davies.


Using QNews With More Than One User or More Than One Server

QNews can be configured to support more than one user or more than one news server, although a basic understanding of where QNews stores information is required.

Most of QNews configuration information is stored in the file C:\WINDOWS\QNEWS.INI. This file contains all of the information in the File/Setup... dialog box, plus extra information used to identify the newsgroup data base file associated with each news server.

Newsgroup database files are stored in the C:\WINDOWS directory by default. The first database file is named C:\WINDOWS\NEWS.RCN, and subsequent database files are assigned sequential names of the form NEWS1.RCN, NEWS2.RCN, etc. A separate database is maintained for each server address. This is neccessary because newsgroup database information is specific for a given server: the list of available newsgroups, and the message numbers assigned to messages in the newsgroups vary from server to server. As a result, if a new server address is provided in the File/Setup... dialog box, QNews will create a new newsgroup database file. The original database file is left intact, and will be used again if the name of the server is changed back to what it was originally. The association between the NEWSx.RCN file and the server address is maintained in the QNEWS.INI file.

QNews supports multiple .INI files. To get QNews to use a different .INI file, the name of the .INI file must be provided on the QNews command-line when the program is initially run.

      Syntax:   QNEWS -i C:\PATH\FILENAME.INI.

The easiest way to change the command-line used to start QNews is to modify the properties of the QNews icon in the program manager.

1,	Select the QNews icon in the program manger by clicking on it

2.	Press Alt+Enter.

3.	In the resulting dialog, enter the new command line in the Command Line field. For example:
 C:\QNEWS\QNEWS.EXE -i C:\WINDOWS\RDAVIES.INI

When QNews is launched by clicking on the modified icon, it will use the file C:\WINDOWS\RDAVIES.INI instead of C:\WINDOWS\QNEWS.INI, creating the file if neccessary, and filling in any default information as required.

Because control information associating a particular news server with a particular NEWSx.RCN file is stored in the .INI file, when the new .INI file is used, a new newsgroup database file will be created even if there is already an existing NEWSx.RCN file for the specified server.

Thus, to create QNews icons in the program manager for more than one user, its sufficient to modify the icon properties as described, supplying a unique filename for each user of QNews.

To create QNews icons for separate news servers, the same procedure can be used to create a separate .INI file for each news server.


File menu commands

The actual contents of the file menu vary depending on what type of window is currently active. The File menu offers the following commands:

Connect	Connects to the news server, and creates a new view of the Newsgroup List.
Disconnect	Disconnects from the news server. All news windows are closed.
Close	Closes an opened window.
Setup	Displays a dialog containing configuration options for QNews.
Save Copy As	Saves the contents of a window as a text file.
Print	Prints a document.
Print Preview	Displays the document on the screen as it would appear when printed.
Print Setup	Selects a printer and printer connection.
Page Setup	Selects the page layout for printed pages. Each type of window in QNews has independent page setup parameters..
Exit	Exits QNews.


Edit menu commands

The Edit menu offers the following commands:

Undo	Reverse the previous editing operation.
Redo	Redo the previous editing operation.
Cut	Deletes data from the document and moves it to the clipboard.
Copy	Copies data from the document to the clipboard.
Paste	Pastes data from the clipboard into the document.
Find	Find occurences of a particular text string in the currently active view..
Find Next	Find the next occurence of a particular text string, as last set by the Find menu command,in the currently active view..


Newsgroup menu commands

The newsgroup menu is displayed when the Newsgroup List window is active.

Open Newsgroup	Display the contents of the currently selected newsgroup.
Subscribe	Mark the currently selected newsgroups as subscribed, and move them to the list of active newsgroups.
Unsubscribe	Mark the currently selected newsgroups as unsubscribed, and remove them from the list of active newsgroups.
Move to Top	Move the currently selected newsgroups to the top of the newsgroup list.
Move to Bottom	Move the currently selected newsgroups to the bottom of the newsgroup list.
Sort	Sort the newsgroup list. Subscribed newsgroups sort ahead of unsubscribed newsgroups.
Catch Up	Mark all messages in the currently selected newsgroups as having been read. This command may not be used before the message counts for the selected newsgroups have been retreived.
Refresh	Re-fetch the number of messages in all currently selected newsgroups. This command can be used to see whether any news messages have arrived since QNews last fetched the number of messages.


Message menu commands

The contents of the message menu vary depending on the type of the currently active window.

All Windows

New Message	Create a news message on a new subject.
Next	Display the next unread message.
Previous	Display the previous unread message.
Cancel Message	Cancel the currently selected message. The message will be deleted from all USENET news servers currently connected to the Internet. Only one message can be cancelled at a time, and that message must have been sent by the user currently specifed in the E-Mail Address field of the File/Configure... dialog box. Some News host systems may require in addition, that the message can only be cancelled from the host system on which it was originally posted.
Upload Binary Files	Create a message with an attached binary file. The binary file will automatically be UUENCODED and split into as many messages as are required to safely post the message on USENET.
Message List and Thread Message List Windows

Open Message	Display the contents of the currently selected message or thread.
Catch Up	Mark the currently selected message and all previous message in the current newsgroup or thread as having been read.
Mark as Read	Mark the currently selected messages as having been read without actually reading the messages.
Mark as Unread	Mark the currently selected messages as not having been read.
Refresh	Refetch the messages for the current newsgroup. Check to see whether any new messages have arrived.
Cancel Message	Cancel the currently selected message. The message will be deleted from all USENET news servers currently connected to the Internet. Only one message can be cancelled at a time, and that message must have been sent by the user currently specifed in the E-Mail Address field of the File/Configure... dialog box. Some News host systems may require in addition, that the message can only be cancelled from the host system on which it was originally posted.
Download Binary File	Attempt to read UUEncoded binary file data from the currently selected message or messages. QNews will always attempt to download a single message. If multiple messages are selected, or if a Multi-Part message is selected, then each part message must be clearly marked in the Subject field of the message (must contain part indicators of the form 1/3 or 2 of 9).
Message Windows

Reply	Create a news message reply to the currently selected news message.
Reply by Mail	Create an e-mail message reply to the currently selected news message. By default, the message is addressed to the author of the news message.
Forward by Mail	Send the contents of the current message to an email address.
Save to Folder>	Save the contents of the current message to a message folder. The flyout menu provides a list of available folders to which the message can be saved. If the New Folder... menu item is selected, QNews allows you to select create a new folder into which the message will be saved.
Rot13	Encode or decode the contents of the current message using ROT13 encoding. ROT13 encoding is a simple shift-by-13 encoding scheme sometimes used on USENET to hide information from those who dont want to read it (Its not at all adequate to protected information from people that you  dont want to read it). For example, if you post a message that gives away the ending to a currently popular movie, or describes how to solve a particularly difficult problem in Myst it would be appropriate to use ROT13 encoding for that portion of the message.

Folder Windows and Folder Thread Windows

Delete Message	Delete the currently selected message or messages.


Posting menu commands

The Posting menu is displayed whenever a Posting window is the currently active window. Posting windows are created by either the Message/Reply or Message/New menu commands.

Send	Send the current document.
Add Header Line	Add a header line to the current document.
Remove Header Line	Remove a header line from the current document.
Save to Folder>	Save the contents of the current message to a message folder. The flyout menu provides a list of available folders to which the message can be saved. If the New Folder... menu item is selected, QNews allows you to select create a new folder into which the message will be saved.
Rot13	Encode or decode the contents of the current message using ROT13 encoding. ROT13 encoding is a simple shift-by-13 encoding scheme sometimes used on USENET to hide information from those who dont want to read it (Its not at all adequate to protected information from people that you  dont want to read it). For example, if you post a message that gives away the ending to a currently popular movie, or describes how to solve a particularly difficult problem in Myst   it would be appropriate to use ROT13 encoding for that portions of the message.


Mail menu commands

The Mail menu is displayed whenever a Mail window is the currently active window. Posting windows are created by either the Message/Reply by Mail menu command.

Send	Send the current document.
Add Header Line	Add a header line to the current document.
Remove Header Line	Remove a header line from the current document.
Save to Folder>	Save the contents of the current message to a message folder. The flyout menu provides a list of available folders to which the message can be saved. If the New Folder... menu item is selected, QNews allows you to select create a new folder into which the message will be saved.
Rot13	Encode or decode the contents of the current message using ROT13 encoding.


View menu commands

The contents of the View menu varies depending on the type of the currently active Window. All View menu settings are "sticky". they apply to the current window, and all newly-created windows of the same type, and remain in effect the next time QNews is loaded.

The View menu offers the following commands:

Newsgroup List Window

Unsubscribed Newsgroups	Shows or hides unsubscribed newsgroups. By default, only new newsgroups and subscribed newsgroups are displayed.
Newsgroup Message List Windows

Message Threads	When checked, messages with the same subject are grouped into threads. When unchecked, messages are displayed in the order in which they were received by the news server.
Previously Read Messages	Shows or hides previously-read messages.
Message Windows

Full Headers	Toggles whether all message headers will be displayed. By default, only headers which are normally of interest to humans (rather than newsreader software) are displayed.
All Windows

Set Default Window Position	Sets the default window position for windows of the same type as the currently active window. New windows of the same type will be place in the same position as the currently active window, or slightly offset from this position if a window already exists at this exact position.
Set Font	Sets the font used to display the contents of the currently active window, and all new windows of the same type as the currently active window.
Toolbar	Shows or hides the toolbar.
Status Bar	Shows or hides the status bar.


Window menu commands

The Window menu offers the following commands, which enable you to arrange multiple views of multiple documents in the application window:

New Window	Creates a new window that views the same document.
Cascade	Arranges windows in an overlapped fashion.
Tile	Arranges windows in non-overlapped tiles.
Arrange Icons	Arranges icons of closed windows.
Window 1, 2, ...	Goes to specified window.


Folder menu commands

The Folder menu offers the following commands, which enable you to manage message folders.

The initial entries in the folder menu are the names of existing message folders. Selecting one of these entries will open that message folder.

Folders 1, 2, 3...	Display the contents of the named message folder.
New...	Creates a new folder.
Delete...	Delete an existing folder and all messages contained in that folder.
Rename	Rename an existing folder.


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance on using QNews:

Index	Offers you an index to topics on which you can get help.
Using Help	Provides general instructions on using help.
About	Displays copyright information and the version number of this application.


File New command
New command (File menu)

Use this command to create a new Newsgroup List window.


File Close command
Close command (File menu)

Use this command to close the currently active window. If the windows contains a newsgroup posting or mail message document, QNews will suggest that you send the message before you close it.  If you close a document without sending, you lose all changes made.

You can also close a document by using the Close icon on the document's window, as shown below:


View Toolbar command
Page Setup (File menu)

Use this command to modify the page layout used when printing windows of the current type.


File Save As command
Save As command (File menu)

Use this command to save the active document to a text file.  QNews displays the Save As dialog box so you can name the text file into which the document will be saved.


File Save As dialog box

The following options allow you to specify the name and location of the file you're about to save:

File Name

Type a new filename to save a document with a different name.  A filename can contain up to eight characters and an extension of up to three characters.  QNews adds the extension you specify in the Save File As Type box.

Drives

Select the drive in which you want to store the document.

Directories

Select the directory in which you want to store the document.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


File Exit command
Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your QNews session.  You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu.  QNews prompts you to send messages that have not been sent.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


Connect (File menu)

Use this command to connect to the news server.

QNews will open a connection with the news server, and create a new Newsgroup List window.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+N


Disconnect (File menu)

Use this command to disconnect from the news server.

QNews will close the connection with the news server, and close all windows that use that connection.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+F4


Undo command (Edit menu)

Use this command to reverse the last editing action, if possible.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+Z or

ALT-BACKSPACE


Redo command (Edit menu)

Use this command to reverse the last undo command (restoring the last editing action) if possible.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+Y or


Cut command (Edit menu)

Use this command to remove the currently selected data from the document and put it on the clipboard.  This command is unavailable if there is no data currently selected.

Cutting data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+X


Copy command (Edit menu)

Use this command to copy selected data onto the clipboard.  This command is unavailable if there is no data currently selected.

Copying data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+C


Paste command (Edit menu)

Use this command to insert a copy of the clipboard contents at the insertion point.  This command is unavailable if the clipboard is empty.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+V


Open Newsgroup (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to display the messages in a the currently selected newsgroup.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ENTER

Mouse:	Double-click


Subscribe (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to subscribe to the currently selected newsgroups.

Newsgroups can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+S


Unsubscribe (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to unsubscribe from the currently selected newsgroups.

Newsgroups can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+U


Move to Top (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to move all currently selected newsgroups to the top of the Newsgroup List.

Newsgroups can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+T


Move to Bottom (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to move all currently selected newsgroups to the bottom of the Newsgroup List.

Newsgroups can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+B


Sort (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to sort all newsgroup items in alphabetical order. Subscribed newsgroups sort before unsubscribed newsgroups.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+R


Catch Up (Newsgroup menu)

Use this command to mark all messages in the currently selected newsgroups as having been read without actually reading them.

Newsgroups can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+K


Next (Message menu)

Use this command to display the next unread message. If there are no more messages in the current thread, QNews will close the Thread Message List window, and search for the next unread message in the current newsgroup. If there are no more unread messages in the current newsgroup, QNews will close the current newsgroup window, and search for the next newsgroup with unread messages in it.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+Down Arrow Cursor Key


Previous (Message menu)

Use this command to display the next unread message. If there is no previous message in the current thread, QNews will close the Thread Message List window, and search for the previous unread message in the current newsgroup. If there is no previous unread message in the current newsgroup,  QNews will close the current newsgroup window, and search for the next newsgroup with unread messages in it.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+Up Arrow Cursor Key


New Message (Message menu)

Use this command to create a new News message. You will be given an opportunity to edit the message. Once you are done, press the Send toolbar button to actually post the message on USENET News.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+N


Open Message (Message menu)

Use this command to display the contents of the currently selected USENET News message.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ENTER


Reply (Message menu of Message windows)

Use this command to reply to a message with a USENET News posting. Please note that does more than simply creating a new message with the same subject, since USENET News message must provide reference information to the original message when formulating true replies. This command automatically inserts the Reference information into the newly created message.

This command is only available when a Message window is the active window.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+R


Reply by Mail (Message menu of Message windows)

Use this command to reply to a message with an e-mail message. The message is created, and the Subject and To header lines are filled in as appropriate for the currently active Message window.

This command is only available when a Message window is the active window.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+Y


Save to Folder flyout menu commands(Message menu of Message, Posting and Mail windows)

The Save to Folder flyout menu is used to save a copy of the contents of the current message to a message folder. The flyout menu contains a list of available message into which the folder can be saved. If the New Folder...  menu command on the Save to Folder flyout is selected, QNews will ask for the name of a new folder, will create that folder, and will then save the message to the new folder.

Folders 1, 2, 3...	Copys the contents of the current message to the named message folder.
New...	Creates a new folder and then saves a copy of the current message to the new folder.


Folder Names (Save to Folder flyout of the Message menu of Message windows)

Selecting one of the folder names on the Save to Folder flyout menu saves the contents of the current message to the named folder.

Shortcuts

None


New Folder (Save to Folder flyout of the Message menu of Message windows)

The New Folder menu command is used to save the contents of the current message to a new message folder.

QNews will ask for the name of a new folder, will create that folder, and will then save a copy of the contents of the message to the new folder.

Shortcuts

None


Folder Names (Folder Menu)

Selecting one of the displayed folder names at the top of the Folder menu will open the named message folder.

The contents of the message folder will be displayed in a new window.

Shortcuts

None


New Folder (Folder Menu)

This menu command is used to create new message folders.

QNews will display the New Folder dialog, and create a new message folder with the supplied name.

Shortcuts

None


Delete Folder (Folder Menu)

This menu command is used to delete message folders, as well as all messages contained in those folders.

QNews will display the Delete Folder dialog, and then delete the specified message folder.

Shortcuts

None


Rename Folder (Folder Menu)

This menu command is used to rename existing message folders.

QNews will display the Rename Folder dialog, and then rename the specified message folder.

Shortcuts

None


Delete Message (Message menu of Message Folder and Folder Thread windows)

This menu command deletes the currently selected message or messages from the message folder.

Shortcuts

None


Catch Up (Message menu)

Use this command to mark the current message and all previous messages in the message list as having been read without actually reading them.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+K


Mark as Read (Message menu)

Use this command to mark all selected messages as having been read without actually reading them.

Messages can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon to the selection. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+R


Mark as Unread (Message menu)

Use this command to mark all selected messages as not having been previously read.

Messages can be selected using the mouse or by scrolling with the cursor keys. Clicking on a newsgroup item with the mouse while holding down the SHIFT key will add all newsgroups between the newsgroup at the current cursor and the item clicked upon to the selection. Clicking on an item while holding down the CTRL key will add the item clicked upon to the selection without removing already selected items.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+U


Send (Posting menu and Mail menu)

Use this command to send the current News or mail message. QNews will start sending the message. The window containing the current message will be minimized and displayed as an icon until the news server has confirmed receipt of the message.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+S


Add Header Line (Posting menu and Mail menu)

Use this command to add header lines to the current message. Please be aware that both USENET News messages and mail messages must follow strict standards for header information sent with the message. Use this command only if you understand the standard headers required by USENET News and Internet mail messages.


Remove Header Line (Posting menu and Mail menu)

Use this command to remove header lines from the current message. QNews will not allow you to remove header lines required by USENET News or Internet mail standards.


Send (Mail menu)

Use this command to send the current Mail message. QNews will start sending the message. The window containing the current message will be minimized and displayed as an icon until the mail server has confirmed receipt of the message.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+S


Configure (File menu)

Use this command to change application-wide configuration options.

See the Configuration dialog box for details.


Unsubscribed Newsgroups (View menu of Newsgroup List Windows)

Use this command to display and hide unsubscribed newsgroups. By default, only new and subscribed newsgroups are displayed in the Newsgroup List window. A checkmark appears next to the menu item when unsubscribed newsgroups are displayed.


Full Headers (View menu of Message windows)

Use this command to display all message headers or just common message headers. This command is provided because most message headers are intended for computer use rather than human use. A checkmark appears next to the menu itme when full headers are displayed.


Message Threads (View menu of Newsgroup Message List windows)

Use this command to group messages into threads, or to display messages in the order they were received by your Internet news server. A checkmark appears next to the menu itme when message threads are displayed. When checked, messages with the same subject are grouped together into threads, allowing you to read related messages together, and allowing you to determine which messages were written in response to which other messages. When unchecked, messages are not grouped into threads, allowing you to read the messages in roughly chronological order. Note that the actual order is not strictly chronological, as messages may take several days or even weeks to propogate over the Internet after they have been posted.


Previously Read Messages
    (View menu of Newsgroup List Windows)

Use this command to display and hide previously-read messages in the Newsgroup and Thread Message List windows.  A checkmark appears next to the menu item when unsubscribed newsgroups are displayed.

QNews will not fetch message headers for previously read messages if this menu item is unchecked, thereby greatly reducing the time required to fetch message headers.


Page setup
Toolbar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Toolbar, which includes buttons for some of the most common commands in QNews, such as File Open.  A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Toolbar is displayed.

See Toolbar for help on using the toolbar.


View Status Bar Command
Status Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed.

See Status Bar for help on using the status bar.


Status Bar

The status bar is displayed at the bottom of the QNews window.  To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the View menu.

The left area of the status bar displays the current status of the active window. Messages will be displayed that indicate how far the window has progressed in retreiving information from the news server. When all information has been retreived, the left area of the status bar will display the message 'Ready'.

The left area of the status bar also describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus.  This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them.  If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button.

The right areas of the status bar indicate which of the following keys are latched down:

Indicator	Description

CAP	The Caps Lock key is latched down.

NUM	The Num Lock key is latched down.

SCRL	The Scroll Lock key is latched down.


New command (Window menu)

Use this command to open a new window with the same contents as the active window.  You can open multiple document windows to display different parts or views of a document at the same time.  If you change the contents in one window, all other windows containing the same document reflect those changes.  When you open a new window, it becomes the active window and is displayed on top of all other open windows.


Cascade command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows in an overlapped fashion.


Tile command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows in a non-overlapped fashion.


Tile Horizontal command (Window menu)

Use this command to vertically arrange multiple opened windows in a non-overlapped fashion.


Tile Vertical command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows side by side.


Window Arrange Icons Command

Use this command to arrange the icons for minimized windows at the bottom of the main window.  If there is an open document window at the bottom of the main window, then some or all of the icons may not be visible because they will be underneath this document window.


1, 2, ... command (Window menu)

QNews displays a list of currently open document windows at the bottom of the Window menu.  A check mark appears in front of the document name of the active window.  Choose a document from this list to make its window active.


Index command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help.  From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using QNews and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the opening screen.


Using Help command (Help menu)

Use this command for instructions about using Help.


About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the copyright notice and version number of your copy of QNews.


Help Using Help Command
Context Help command

Use the Context Help command to obtain help on some portion of QNews.  When you choose the Toolbar's Context Help button, the mouse pointer will change to an arrow and question mark.  Then click somewhere in the QNews window, such as another Toolbar button.  The Help topic will be shown for the item you clicked.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+F1


Title Bar

The title bar is located along the top of a window.  It contains the name of the application and information about the contents of the active window.

To move the window, drag the title bar.  Note: You can also move dialog boxes by dragging their title bars.

A title bar may contain the following elements:

Application Control-menu button

Document Control-menu button

Maximize button

Minimize button

Name of the application

Name of the document

Restore button


Scroll bars

Displayed at the right and bottom edges of the document window.  The scroll boxes inside the scroll bars indicate your vertical and horizontal location in the document.  You can use the mouse to scroll to other parts of the document.


Size command (System menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can size the active window with the arrow keys.

After the pointer changes to the four-headed arrow:

1.	Press one of the DIRECTION keys (left, right, up, or down arrow key) to move the pointer to the border you want to move.

2.	Press a DIRECTION key to move the border.

3.	Press ENTER when the window is the size you want.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximize the window.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Drag the size bars at the corners or edges of the window.


Move command (Control menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can move the active window or dialog box with the arrow keys.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximize the window.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F7


System Minimize Command
Minimize command (application Control menu)

Use this command to reduce the QNews window to an icon.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the minimize icon [image] on the title bar.

Keys:	ALT+F9


Maximize command (System menu)

Use this command to enlarge the active window to fill the available space.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the maximize icon [image] on the title bar; or double-click the title bar.

Keys:	CTRL+F10 enlarges a document window.


Next Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the next open document window.  QNews determines which window is next according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F6


Previous Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the previous open document window.  QNews determines which window is previous according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+CTRL+F6


Close command (Control menus)

Use this command to close the active window or dialog box.

Double-clicking a Control-menu box is the same as choosing the Close command.

Note:  If you have multiple windows open for a single document, the Close command on the document Control menu closes only one window at a time.  You can close all windows at once with the Close command on the File menu.

Shortcuts

Keys: 	CTRL+F4 closes a document window

ALT+F4 closes the QNews application.


Restore command (Control menu)

Use this command to return the active window to its size and position before you chose the Maximize or Minimize command.


Switch to command (application Control menu)

Use this command to display a list of all open applications.  Use this "Task List" to switch to or close an application on the list.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+ESC

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the Switch To command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

Task List

Select the application you want to switch to or close.

Switch To

Makes the selected application active.

End Task

Closes the selected application.

Cancel

Closes the Task List box.

Cascade

Arranges open applications so they overlap and you can see each title bar.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Tile

Arranges open applications into windows that do not overlap.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Arrange Icons

Arranges the icons of all minimized applications across the bottom of the screen.


Choose Font Dialog
Choose Font dialog box

The Choose Font dialog box is used to select the font in which the contents of windows are displayed.

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the Set Font command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

Font

The name of the font to use.

Font Style

The style of the font to use.

Size

The size of the font to use, specified in pixels.

Sample

The sample window displays a sample of the font as selected by the other options in the Choose Font dialog box. No options can actually be set with the Sample window.


Edit Find Command
Find command (Edit menu)

The Find command display the Find dialog box which is used to search for matching text within the contents of a QNews window.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F3


Edit Find Next Command
Find Next command (Edit menu)

The Find Next menu command finds the next occurrence of the last text specified in the Find dialog box. For more details see the description of the Find Command (Edit Menu) and Find dialog box.

Shortcut

Keys:	F3


Find Dialog
Find dialog box

The Find dialog box is used to search for matching text within the contents of a QNews window.

When

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the Find command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

Find What

The text to search for within the contents of the QNews window.

Match Case

When checked, the text must match exactly. When unchecked, the text may upper- and lower-case characters are considered to be equivalent.

Direction

When the Up option is checked, QNews will search backward in the current window. When the Down option is checked, QNews will search forward in the current window.

Find or Find Next

Find the next occurrence of matching text within the window.


Modifying the Document

<< Write application-specific help here that provides an overview of how the user should modify a document using your application.

If your application supports multiple document types and you want to have a distinct help topic for each, then use the help context i.d. generated by running the MAKEHELP.BAT file produced by AppWizard.  Alternatively, run MAKEHM as follows:

makehm IDR_HIDR_,0x2000 resource.h

If the IDR_ symbol for one of your document types is, for example, IDR_CHARTTYPE, then the help context i.d. generated by MAKEHM will be HIDR_CHARTTYPE.

Note, AppWizard defines the HIDR_DOC1TYPE help context i.d. used by this help topic for the first document type supported by your application.  AppWizard produces an alias in the .HPJ file for your application, mapping HIDR_DOC1TYPE to the HIDR_ produced by MAKEHM for that document type. >>


Refresh (Newsgroup Menu)

Use this command to update the list of messages available on the news server. QNews will re-fetch the list of available messages from the server. If new messages have been received by the news server since the newsgroup lists were last checked, they will be displayed.

Shortcuts

None


No Help Available

No help is available for this area of the window.


No Help Available

No help is available for this message box.


Upload Binary File (Message Menu)

Use this command to upload a binary file as one or more USENET messages.

Binary files may be sent via USENET as long as two restrictions are met: (1) the files must be encoded to prevent non-ascii characters from being sent across the USENET; (2) No message can be longer than 64k due limitations of some news gateway software.

USENET binary files are usually encoded using an encoding name UUEncoding. The UUEncoded data is then split into one or more messages as required, and sent in multiple messages.

This menu command will perform both of these tasks automatically.

QNews will first prompt for a filename.

Once the filename has been given, QNews will display a posting window in which a description of the file may be typed. The description of the file is sent, according to USENET convention, as part 0 (zero) of the file. If the description is left blank, no description part will be sent, although, under most circumstances, it would be best to provide a description.

Good nettiquette dictates that binary files should only be posted in newsgroups belonging to alt.binaries.* heirarchy. If you are tempted to post somewhere else, post the file in an appropriate alt.binaries.* newsgroup, and then post an announcement in the non-alt.binaries newsgroup. The reason for this is that some news systems are unable to deal with the large volume of traffic generated by alt.binaries.* newsgroups, and do not subscribe to these newsgroups for this reason. Posting binary files to non-alt-binaries.* newsgroups just makes life difficult for those who (for very good reasons) may not wish or be able to participate in or host alt.binaries.* newsgroups.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Download Binary File (Message Menu)

Use this command to download a binary file from one or more USENET messages.

Select the message or messages which contain the binary file, using Ctrl+Click to select more than one disjoint message, and then issue the Download Binary File menu command.

QNews will prompt for a directory in which to save the file.

The name of the file is specified in the message. If a file of the same name already exists, QNews, will automatically append the suffix -1, -2, etc to the filename.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Rot13 (Message Menu, Posting Menu, Mail Menu)

Use this command to encode or decode the contents of the current message using ROT13 encoding.

ROT13 encoding is a simple shift-by-13 encoding scheme sometimes used on USENET to hide information from those who dont want to read it (Its not at all adequate to protected information from people that you  dont want to read it).

For example, if you post a message that gives away the ending to a currently popular movie, or describes how to solve a particularly difficult problem in Myst   it would be appropriate to use ROT13 encoding for that portions of the message.

Shortcuts

None


Cancel Message (Message Menu)

Use this command to delete the currently selected message from all USENET news servers currently connected to the Internet (this may take a few days to occur). A USENET cancel message, indicating the currently selected message, is sent to the news server, which will then forward the message to all USENET news servers.

This command may only be executed on messages which you have sent. In addition, some News servers may also require that the message can only be cancelled from system on which it was originally posted.

Shortcuts

None


Set Font (View Menu)

Use this command to set the font used to display the contents of the current window, and all subsequently created windows of the same type.

The font is remembered from session to session.

Shortcuts

None


Set Default Window Position (View Menu)

Use this command to set the default window position for windows of a given type.

All subsequent windows of the same type as the currently active window will be placed as close as possible to the position of the currently active window. If a window already exists at that position, new windows will be offset slightly.

Each type of window may be placed separately.

This setting is remembered from session to session.

Shortcuts

None


Move To Top (Newsgroup Menu)

Use this command to move the currently selected newsgroup or newsgroups to the top of the newsgroup list.

Shortcuts

CTRL+T


Move To Bottom (Newsgroup Menu)

Use this command to move the currently selected newsgroup or newsgroups to the bottom of the newsgroup list.

Shortcuts

CTRL+B


Forward by Mail (Message Menu)

Use this command to forward the contents of the current message to an email address.

Shortcuts

None


Open Newsgroup (Newsgroup Menu)

Display the contents of the currently selected newsgroup.

Shortcuts

ENTER


File Print command
Print command (File menu)

Use this command to print a document.   This command presents a Print dialog box, where you may specify the range of pages to be printed, the number of copies, the destination printer, and other printer setup options.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+P


Print dialog box

The following options allow you to specify how the document should be printed:

Printer

This is the active printer and printer connection.  Choose the Setup option to change the printer and printer connection.

Setup

Displays a Print Setup dialog box, so  you can select a printer and printer connection.

Print Range

Specify the pages you want to print:

All	Prints the entire document.
Selection	Prints the currently selected text.
Pages	Prints the range of pages you specify in the From and To boxes.
Copies

Specify the number of copies you want to print for the above page range.

Collate Copies

Prints copies in page number order, instead of separated multiple copies of each page.

Print Quality

Select the quality of the printing.  Generally, lower quality printing takes less time to produce.


Print Progress Dialog

The Printing dialog box is shown during the time that <<YourApp>> is sending output to the printer.  The page number indicates the progress of the printing.

To abort printing, choose Cancel.


File Print Preview command
Print Preview command (File menu)

Use this command to display the active document as it would appear when printed.  When you choose this command, the main window will be replaced with a print preview window in which one or two pages will be displayed in their printed format.  The print preview toolbar offers you options to view either one or two pages at a time; move back and forth through the document; zoom in and out of pages; and initiate a print job.


Print Preview toolbar

The print preview toolbar offers you the following options:

Print

Bring up the print dialog box, to start a print job.

Next Page

Preview the next printed page.

Prev Page

Preview the previous printed page.

One Page / Two Page

Preview one or two printed pages at a time.

Zoom In

Take a closer look at the printed page.

Zoom Out

Take a larger look at the printed page.

Close

Return from print preview to the editing window.


File Print Setup command
Print Setup command (File menu)

Use this command to select a printer and a printer connection.  This command presents a Print Setup dialog box, where you specify the printer and its connection.


Print Setup dialog box

The following options allow you to select the destination printer and its connection.

Printer

Select the printer you want to use.  Choose the Default Printer; or choose the Specific Printer option and select one of the current installed printers shown in the box.  You install printers and configure ports using the Windows Control Panel.

Orientation

Choose Portrait or Landscape.

Paper Size

Select the size of paper that the document is to be printed on.

Paper Source

Some printers offer multiple trays for different paper sources.  Specify the tray here.

Options

Displays a dialog box where you can make additional choices about printing, specific to the type of printer you have selected.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


File Page Setup Command
Page Setup command (File menu)

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