POW - Powerline Offline reader for Windows v1.03 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Minimum System Requirements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IBM AT 286 Compatible or better. (VBRUN300.DLL Dated 12-May-93 for 286) 3Mb Memory minimum, preferably 4Mb or more. Windows v3.1. Terminal Font must be installed in Windows. BBS Settings ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The BBS must be set up to provide QWK files as follows:- Packet type - QWK Archiver - ZIP Index Files (.NDX) - ON CONTROL.DAT - ON Usually the default. POW will display the following, if turned on in the BBS mail door:- Bulletins News NewFiles Welcome Goodbye Session Text Late News ~~~~~~~~~ This is a Maintenance Release mainly to cure overflow errors. For more info see HISTORY.TXT. ___________________________________________________________________________ The internal editor will recognise SpelMate spelling checker if appropriate files are found in the C:\WINDOWS directory (SPELMATE.DLL and dics). Text in the edit box is spell checked except for quoted text which is left alone (etiquette suggests that text quoted from another msg should not be altered other than formatting). SpelMate requires about 1Mb extra memory. SpelMate is Shareware by James Herron (Aciran Software). The Shareware Principle. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POW is released under the Shareware principle. You may use the program for up to 60 days for evaluation. Please register POW if you find it useful. Registration will remove the opening and closing Shareware registration reminders, and provide funds to allow continued development of POW. Registered users will receive high priority for suggestions for improvements. When passing POW on to others or uploading please include all files in the ZIP without modification. Registered users:- Do NOT distribute the POW.INI file containing your registration details. For registration details please see POW.WRI or the on-line Help. Registration forms are provided in DOS and Windows format text. The Windows form may be accessed from within POW and completed/printed. Registration addresses for UK and USA are provided. A registration code is sent to you which removes the registration reminder screens. Also, the words "On trial" in the tagline of messages you write are replaced by your registered serial number. The following files should be found in POW.ZIP:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POW.EXE The POW program. POW.HLP Help file in Windows Help format. POW.WRI Documentation in Windows Write format. POW.ICO Alternative icon for launching POW from Program Manager. ReadMe.TXT Last minute changes and other information. (This file) Register.ASC Registration form in DOS text format. Register.TXT Registration form in Windows text format. GRID.VBX Visual Basic Grid library. Goes in Windows\System dir. CMDIALOG.VBX VB interface to Windows Common Dialogs. " File_ID.DIZ Description of POW for BBS file lists. Taglines.POW Some sample Taglines. Put it in the Data directory. (PD) History.TXT Update history. GRID.VBX and CMDIALOG.VBX should be put in the Windows\System directory, making sure you do not replace a newer version. POW uses COMMDLG.DLL (Windows DLL for Common Dialogs) which is provided with Windows 3.1 and should be in your Windows\System directory. You will also need a copy of VBRUN300.DLL, the Visual Basic v3.0 runtime library plus PKZIP.EXE & PKUNZIP.EXE v2. These may be obtained from most Bulletin Boards. Make sure that the PK progs are in a directory on your DOS Path (as specified in AUTOEXEC.BAT). The VBRUN300.DLL file should be put in the Windows\System directory. The version dated 12-May-93 (or later) is required for a 286 computer (bug in earlier version). Taglines playing on the initials of POW were kindly supplied by Bob Aldridge a Beta tester and one of the first to register POW. Thanks Bob. Getting Started (see POW.WRI for Installation.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I addition to the icon in POW.EXE, an alternative icon for use in Program Manager is provided (POW.ICO). Notes & Known Bugs:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If a Font other than Terminal (the default) is selected for message display or in the editor, the formatting may be incorrect and ASCII chars above 128 may not display correctly. For correct display a fixed font with the ASCII(OEM) char set is required. Fixed pitch (monospaced) fonts such as FixedSys or Courier New (TrueType) using the ANSI char set may be satisfactory if high ASCII chars are not used. A fixed font is also recommended for printing messages to give the right formatting (eg. Terminal or a Printer Font). We are currently in the process of adding support for more mail doors in the Add/Drop Conference feature. Hopefully all mail doors that use the "old style" control messages will now be fully supported and display the appropriate buttons. POW has been tested on Tomcat, Cam-mail, MarkMail and JCQWK mail doors. Mail doors that will only use the "new style" control mesages such as QMail4 are not yet fully supported and only the list of conferences in the CONTROL.DAT will be displayed. Disclaimer ~~~~~~~~~~ This is a Maintenance Release of POW provided to cure problems reported by users. Whilst every effort is made to correct problems, no guarantee is given or implied that there are no further problems waiting to be found. Please report any problems to the author, Gina Davis (see doc/help). ________________________________________________________ POW - Powerline Offline reader for Windows - v1.02. Copyright (c) 1993/94 Gina Davis & Powerline Systems Ltd. All rights reserved.