Orator V1.14 (c) 1992,1993 by Nick Dyer, EvaWare UK Copyright Orator Copyright (c) 1992,1993 by Nick Dyer of EvaWare UK is being distributed as Shareware. Under this concept you may use the SHAREWARE (unregistered) version for 30 days for evaluation after which you must register your copy or cease to use it. Distribution You are encouraged to distribute Orator provided that all the files contained in the archive are distributed in their original and unregistered state. You are not under any circumstances permitted to distribute a registered copy of Orator. Introduction Orator V1.14 is a new Qwk mail packet reader for Windows V3.1. This programming project was the first undertaken by myself both in the PC market and in Visual Basic (The language the system was written in). I hope that you find it as much fun to use as I found to write. Compared to the work that I have been doing before this really was an interesting program to write. If you find Orator to be useful then please be honest and register this copy. There is an order form included with this Archive. See Registration below. Orator V1.14 features :- Unlimited Conference Quantity Handling. Unique Conference Sorting and Search (No More hunting thru lists) Ansi Viewer Tagline Theft Remote Qmail Door Configuration Orator detects Reply-To: fields and From:fields when replying to EMAIL received over Sparkwares UseNet Gateway. NDX files are no longer needed as opposed to older versions so reconfigure you mail door settings if it currently includes NDX files. Personal Mail is shown under a separate group. New to 1.12 is the introduction of a folders system. This allows you to open your own folders with their titles and archive messages to them. You can then: a) View them and cut them to the clipboard so that you can include them in replies and other applications. b) Print them out. c) Move them between folders if you decide to reorganise them. d) and of course delete them. New to 1.14 is an on-line system for storing InterNet, UseNet, Fidonet and Rime Email addresses for later quick retrieval when replying to correspondents. plus lots more. The unregistered version of Orator V1.14 is fully functional apart from taglines. If Orator is not registered then the following appears at the bottom of all your Mail Messages: _ Orator V1.14 _ [Windows Qwk Reader Unregistered Evaluation Copy] In addition to this there is a screen that appears every time Orator is started prompting you to register the product. This can be eliminated by registration. Included in the archive is a small program called ORATVIEW.EXE. This is the program used together with its PIF file to view files in ANSI format. I myself would confess that this program requires a little bit of work carried out on it and it will be one of the first items to receive attention qhwn time permits. Warranty Although rigorous testing has been carried out, bugs cannot be avoided. I can however guarantee that the worst that Orator could do is not read your mail. Your comments and problems are welcomed as it is only through user participation that this product can be made one of the greats. See contacting the Author below. INSTALLATION 'Unzip' the archive to a floppy or temporary directory on your hard drive. Start Windows and from the File menu (Or File Manager) run the Setup Program on the floppy (Or Temporary directory on your hard drive) The installation is self explanatory and will carry out all work necessary. #### NOTE #### When you first run Orator it will inform you that no Configuration file has been found and that it is about to create one. Click on OK and proceed to Orator Configuration below. Note Orator stops after this initial configuration and must be restarted after configuration has been completed. Orator Configuration A dialog box reveals the following fields to be completed. Note Orator attempts to build defaults into the fields if this is the first time you are running Orator. Make your changes as required and press (ENTER) or click on OK Default QWK Path Enter the full path name including drive name for where Orator can find your QWK packets. Default REP Path Enter the full path name including drive name for where Orator Can find and should place any of your REPly (.REP)files. PKunzip (inc Path) Supply here the full command including path and drive name for your chosen archiver extract command. Use %1 to represent the archive name and %2 to represent the path for the Work files eg C:\PKZIP\PKUNZIP %1 %2 tells Orator that the command PKUNZIP is in library PKZIP on Hard Disk C. When actually unzipping something the value of %1 is replaced with the name of the Archive to be 'unzipped' and %2 is replaced with the path to place all the files extracted into. PKZip (Inc Path) As above but instead give details for the Archiver Archive Command. %1 will be the Archive file to be created and %2 will be the files inc path to be added to the archive. Signature File Is not obligatory however the contents of this text file are appended to all your replies before any tagline. Such a file might contain your name and USENET address for example. Left Hand Controls Select this if you are an existing user who is used to having the Scroll bar and Prev/Next buttons on the message reading form appearing on the left hand side of the form as opposed to the more standard Windows position on the right. New users should leave this unselected as they will find reading more comfortable. Orator Menu/Commands File This menu is used to Open/Close/Delete packets, Configure Orator or exit Orator. Window Is only active when a packet is open. This menu is otherwise disabled. Submenus to this menu are only enabled if the relevant information is available. For example the Bulletins menu won't be enabled if there are no bulletins included in the packet you just opened. Welcome - Uses ORATVIEW to show the contents of the Welcome File Session - Uses ORATVIEW to show the contents of the Session.TXT Messages - Starts a new form to handle the reading of Mail See Below Replies - Starts a new form to Enter/Delete replies Bulletins - Uses ORATVIEW to read any Bulletins News - Uses ORATVIEW to read any BBS News included. Files - Uses ORATVIEW to view the NEWFILES.DAT file. Services - To read any BBS services with ORATVIEW Goodbye - Uses ORATVIEW to read any Goodbye file DataBases Folders Is used to maintain folders containing archived messages. Folders are created during archiving but can then be manipulated from here allowing archives to be examined or deleted. Email Address List From in here you can create addresses to store for later retrieval when replying to people over Internet, Usenet, FidoNet and Rime. Door Like Window is only active if a packet is open. At the present one can only configure Qmail doors remotely with this however future versions of Orator will definitely include remote configuring of other door types like MarkMail, RoseMail and Kmail to name but just a few. Clicking on Qmail reveals the following menu Add a Conference To choose a new conference for future mail downloading. Drop a Conference Allows you to select a conference to be dropped from future mail scans. Reset a Conference To select a conference and either set it's message pointer to a specific message number to begin future mail scans from or set the pointer to the highest message in that conference. You can also state a number of messages short of the highest that scanning is to begin. A dialog box appears and asks you for the number of messages you would like the pointer to be set to short of the highest message in the conference. Blank means leave the pointer at highest for conference. Set PCBoard City. For those Qmail doors on PCBoard systems this allows you to set the City field in your user profile on the board. Business Phone For those Qmail doors on PCBoard systems this allows you to set the Business phone number field in your user profile on the board. Home Phone For those Qmail doors on PCBoard systems this allows you to set the home phone number field in your user profile on the board. PCBoard Page Length For those Qmail doors on PCBoard systems this allows you to set the page length in lines in your user profile on the board. User Password Allows you to change your password on the BBS remotely. Remember it wont be valid until after your mail packet is uploaded. Set Door Protocol Allows you to change the protocol used by the door to upload and download your mail. READING MAIL Clicking on the Messages item in the Window Bar menu launches a new form for the reading of conferences containing mail. The form contains the following controls: Next/Prev The four Buttons in this frame are to hop forward and back through messages and active conferences (Conferences with messages). The top two buttons hop messages and the lower two hop conferences. Print Prints the current message on the Windows 3.1 default printer. List Lists a summary of all the messages in the current conference. You can then choose from this list a message at random that you wish to read. Steal Orator will attempt to steal the tagline from the current message and will allow you to view it (/amend it) before adding it to its database called Taglines.ORA. Taglines can also be stolen from the middle of messages as follows 1 - Editing the TAGLINES.ORA file with the Windows NotePad 2 - Marking the message part containing the Tagline(s) 3 - Cut the marked text 4 - Paste the marked text at the end of the Taglines.ORA Search Allows you to search the message base for messages containing a text sample given by you. The messages found are stored under the active conferences for you to be able to read them. The current conference is automatically dropped and the found messages are shown. See the on-line help for more information. See also Conference Hopping below. Reply To enter a reply to the current message. Confer See Conference Hopping below. Cancel Quit reading Mail CONFERENCE HOPPING Either by pressing the Confer button while reading messages or by pressing the 3D conference control whilst entering a Reply launches a form for selecting conferences. The form is divided into two main parts. 1 - A list box called Numerical Conference Groups 2 - Group contents a search button is also on the form. Numerical Conference Groups Shown here are all the conferences available on the BBS where this packet was downloaded divided into numerical groups of 250 conferences. Show also in the first position is an Active group which contains a summary of all conferences containing messages. You can select a certain conference group by positioning the mouse over the group title and clicking the button. If you launched this form by pressing the Confer button whilst reading mail then this list box is disabled as you may only select conferences from the active section. Group Contents Shown here is the contents of the numerical (or active) group you selected in the above List Box. You can then choose a conference to enter your reply or read messages in by finding it in the list and selecting it and clicking your mouse button. Search Facility Search facility prompts for a text sample to find a conference. All conference groups are searched but only the first match is shown. REGISTRATION Orator Copyright (c) 1992,1993 by Nick Dyer of EvaWare UK is being distributed as Shareware. Under this concept you may use the SHAREWARE (unregistered) version for 30 days for evaluation after which you must register your copy or cease to use it. To register send a cheque or money order for 15.00 pounds sterling (17.50 pounds sterling if you live outside UK or Eire) to Nick Dyer EvaWare UK No 5 Grosvenor Court Louth Lincolnshire LN11 9LT ENGLAND When your registration form is received we will despatch a Key file and the latest version of the product on diskette to you. Alternatively you could register this product by calling the following BBS systems and using your credit card: ALMAC BBS, Scotland int+44-324-665371 V32/V32bis Galway On-Line, Ireland int+353-91-27454 V32/V32bis GREATER Chicago On-Line, USA 1-708-895-4042 V32/V32bis NOTE THE REGISTRATION AT GREATER CHICAGO ON-LINE is 30.00 US Dollars. Set your communcation software to 2400 Baud 8 databits 1 stop bit and No-Parity. V32/V32bis is also supported. Being honest and registering this product will help me to be able to afford development of the next version. Contacting the Author Obviously I can be contacted by post to the address shown above but I shall be maintaining a presence in the OFFLINE and SHWARE conferences of ILINK. I can also be contacted at USENET E-Mail address nick.dyer@almac.co.uk. ****** EVAWARE BBS ******* EvaWare UK now has a BBS to support Orator and is currently available on Telephone int+44-507-608645 or on FidoNet 2:252/158. Call now for the latest versions. NOTE We cannot take credit card registrations. Please call the above boards for that service. I would very much like to hear your comments about the package as user feedback will enable me to know what areas are most important to off-line users today. Thanks For Help Have to go foremost to ALMAC in Scotland for such a great board whose telephone number by the way is Int +44 (0)324 665371. They put up with me uploading various spurious messages whilst testing was going on and not to mention pointed me in the right direction with regard to major requirements of a mail reader. So Thanks Guys!!! Thanks also have to go to Michael Stewart in the Win.App.Dev conference on Ilink for helping me with a routine to convert 4 byte Basic Real to long numbers. Thanks Michael! Thanks also to my wife Anette for putting up with my long hours of absence from the family home during this time of development. And finally.. thanks to you for downloading this product. Copyrights and trademarks. Orator Nick Dyer EvaWare UK Qmail Sparkware. MarkMail Mark Turner. TomCat Greg Hewgill. RAMail Randy Blackmond. PKZip/PKUnzip Phil Katz. ARC System Enhancement Associates. PAK NoGate Consulting. Zoo Rahul Dhesi. Lha/Lharc Haruyasu Yoshizaki. MS-DOS Microsoft Corporation. MicroSoft Windows Microsoft Corporation.