





                           Getting Started with NUPop 1.1
             (by Eric Martz, Professor, Dept. Microbiology, Univ. Mass.,
                                   Amherst MA USA.
               Send errors or omissions to emartz@microbio.umass.edu)

          Why Electronic Mail?

               Electonic mail (email) is more convenient to send and
          receive than snail-mail, almost as fast as FAX, and costs nothing
          to send anywhere in the world from most universities.

          How Does It Get There? (The Internet)

               Academic email is transmitted over an international
          communications network called the internet.  The internet is
          supported by governments (especially the NSF), businesses, the
          military, and universities.  US internet addresses end in edu (an
          educational institution), gov (e.g. nsf.gov), com (a company),
          org (an organization), or ins (an institution), and sometimes may
          have '.us' tacked onto the end to indicate the country.  Non-USA
          internet addresses may end in one of the above, but always
          followed by a two-letter code for the country (e.g. au=Australia,
          za=Zuid Afrika, uk=United Kingdom, hu=Hungary, de=Deutschland).

               Some (mostly non-university) people use Bitnet or commercial
          email services, such as Compuserve.  Their internet addresses
          must end in .compuserve.com or .bitnet.  There are 'gateways' on
          the internet which transfer email between these networks.

          Why NUPop?

               NUPop is an electronic mail program designed for PC's with
          access to an internet-connected POP-supporting mail server
          computer.  It is perhaps the best such program available.  It was
          developed by staff at Northwestern University (NU), notably Phil
          Burns, and continues to be enhanced by them.  NU has made the
          program available free to the rest of the world, and it is in
          wide use in many countries.  NUPop stands for NU Post office
          protocol.

               One of the major advantages of NUPop is that all mail is
                                                            all mail is
                                                            all mail is
          delivered to, and created on, your PC
          delivered to, and created on, your PC
          delivered to, and created on, your PC.  The files of mail you
          receive and send are disk files on your PC.

               NUPop is for IBM compatible PC's only.  Macintosh users may
          avail themselves of an excellent free program with similar
          advantages called Eudora.

          NUPop Manuals
               There are three manuals for NUPop:

          1. Getting started with NUPop (this document -- start here).
          2. Using NUPop (NU draft document -- more technical and
          comprehensive).


                                          1






          3. NUPop Installation Guide (very technical -- only needed for
          installation).

               "Getting started with NUPop" will take you through some of
          the basic features of the program.  By exploring NUPop's menus,
          you can discover additional features.  You probably won't need to
          look at "Using NUPop".

          Basics

               Before you can use NUPop, you must get your local expert to
          create a mail account for you on the the local mail host
          computer.  All you need to know is the account name
                                                 account name
                                                 account name (typically
          your first initial plus your last name, e.g. aeinstein) plus your
          password
          password
          password.  Choose a password which you can remember easily but
          which others could not guess.  Passwords should have at least 5
          characters and should not be in the dictionary; that is, they
          should have a digit or a capital letter in an unexpected place.
          If you use a digit, use the row of numbers across the top of the
          keyboard; the numeric keypad won't work properly for passwords.
          Don't use function keys in passwords.

               Consult your local expert about what your email address will
          be.  Your return address will automatically be included in all
          mail you send.

               NUPop can be set up so that only one person's mail can be
          handled from one computer.  Alternatively, it is possible to set
          it up so that several people can handle their mail from one
          computer.  The mail files can be kept on the hard disk (in which
          case other people could read your mail), or on a floppy disk
          (more secure), as you wish.  Ask your local expert to install
          NUPop in the mode you need.

               This document assumes that NUPop has been installed and
          tested on your computer.  When you type 'nupop' and press
          <enter>, it should run.

               NUPop can work very nicely with a mouse.  This document will
          be phrased in terms of the keyboard; however, many of the
          operations can be accomplished equally well with your mouse.

               Each menu selection visible on a NUPop screen contains a
          highlighted letter, for example A
                                          A
                                          Acquire, MailB
                                                       B
                                                       Box, Reply
                                                                y
                                                                y.  These
          functions can be activated by holding down the Alt key while
          pressing the highlighted letter; or by using Tab or Shift-Tab to
          move the highlight to the function and pressing Enter; or by
          moving the cursor with the mouse and clicking.  For example, if
          this document says 'press Alt-Y(replY)', you can use any of these
          methods.
               *
               *
               * is used to mark behaviors of NUPop which you can change.
          Many behaviors of NUPop can be turned on or off from NUPop's
          Options -> Preferences menu.  We will assume particular settings,
          but behaviors which can be modified in this way will be marked


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          with *
               *
               *.

          Where to Process Your Mail

               It is best to get and send your mail only from one place
                                                    only from one place
                                                    only from one place.
          If you use NUPop from two places, you will end up with part of
          your mail files at one place and part at the other place, and
          different sets of addresses at each place.  This can be a problem
          when you wish to refer to mail you received previously, or when
          you have someone's address at the 'other place but not here'.

          Starting Up NUPop

               The method for starting NUPop may vary depending on your
          installation --consult the person who installed it for you.
          Often, from the DOS prompt, you simply type 'nupop' (without the
          quotes) and press Enter.  After a short pause, NUPop may* ask you
          for your password.  After you enter your password, it may*
          acquire your mail automatically.

               Acquiring your mail involves using a connection between your
          PC and the mail host computer (which needs to run 24 hours/day)
          to download files of mail which you have received.  Once these
          files are downloaded, the only* copy is the copy on your PC.  The
          connection can be via a network cable, or via a serial modem
          device (though the latter may be problematic).

          Sending Mail

               NUPop starts out on the Index screen displaying the contents
          of the IN mailbox.  Since you probably don't have any incoming
          mail, let's send yourself a message.  To switch to the compose
                                                   switch to the compose
                                                   switch to the compose
          screen
          screen
          screen, you can press Alt-C(ompose) (note the second row of menu
          choices, second item from the left) or press F8.  (To remind
          yourself of F8, press Alt-W(indows)).  To escape from this menu
          box, press the Esc key.

               At the To: line, type your address
                                          address
                                          address.  (For more on the Cc:
          and BlCc: lines, see below; ignore them for now.) Then press Tab
          to move to the Subject: line, and type a subject
                                                   subject
                                                   subject.  Although the
          subject can be a full line in length, only the first 25 or so
          characters will be easily visible to the recipient, so make your
          subjects only two or three words long.

               Press Tab to move to the -
                                        -
                                        -Text: box, and type the message
                                                                 message
                                                                 message.
          (See below for editing commands.)  Notice the choices at the
          right end of the second menu line. Typically*, they will be Send
                                                                         d
                                                                         d
          Queue and Q
                    Q
                    Queue.  Since there is a short delay whenever you
          request NUPop to connect to the mail host, it is convenient to
          have NUPop save up outgoing messages in a queue, and transfer
          them to the mail host all at once when you are finished with a
          NUPop session.  For this example, we want to send the message at
          once, so press Alt-Q, then Alt-D.  Then press F9 to return to the
          Index screen.


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               The mail host transfers mail once every 15 minutes, so your
          message to yourself may not be received for up to 15 minutes.  It
          will be difficult to explore some of the features below until you
          have received some mail.  You may want to send yourself several
                                                    send yourself several
                                                    send yourself several
          messages
          messages
          messages to assist in testing other features.

          Your Personal Address Book (Groups)

               NUPop will keep a convenient list of names and addresses for
          you.  From the composer screen, press Alt-G(roups), M(ake
          groups).  Press Alt-N(ew group), and type 'einstein.a', then
          Enter.  Now type into the "Means:" box the corresponding address
          'aeinstein@ias.princeton.edu'.  Press Alt-K(oK) to return to the
          compose screen.

               Now, press Alt-T(o) to be sure your cursor is in the To:
          field, then F5 to select an address
                      F5 to select an address
                      F5 to select an address.  Group names are
          alphabetized, hence we recommend naming them with
          lastname.initial so that they sort by last name.  By typing the
          first letter or two of the last name, the highlight will jump to
          the name you want (even if it is outside of the view box).  Then
          press Enter, and you will return to the compose screen, NUPop
          having inserted the corresponding address in the To: field.

               Groups can also designate multiple addressees
                                         multiple addressees
                                         multiple addressees.  Suppose you
          want to have a group which includes three people.  First, you
          could define three single-member groups for einstein.a,
          clinton.b, jackson.m.  Then you could define a new group named
          bigshots (or g.bigshots, see below).  In the 'Means:' box for
          this group, you could* type 'einstein.a clinton.b jackson.m'. (Be
          sure that Options, Preferences, Messages has the 'Expand group
          names when sending messages' option checked.) Now, when you
          select the addressee bigshots, all three addressees will receive
          the same message.

               You may prefer to prefix with 'g.' (for group) the names of
          all groups which contain multiple addressees.  This makes them
          appear together in the alphabetical list of group names, so it is
          easier to find them.  For example, you may forget whether you
          named it bigshots or famous, but if you named it g.bigshots then
          it will be under 'g...'.

          Cc, Blcc
               The Cc field is used to send copies of a message to
          addressees other than the primary addresse(s) (whose address is
          in the To: field).  Messages sent to Cc recipients show all other
          Cc addresses, so the recipient knows who else got the message.
          Messages sent to Blcc (blind cc) recipients do not show the other
          addressees.

               You can put as many addressees in each category (To, Cc,
          Blcc) as you wish.



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          Signature

               You will probably want to create a standard 'signature'
          which NUPop will append to all messages you send.  Typically,
          this may include your full name, title, snail-mail address, voice
          and fax phone numbers, and anything else you wish.  It is
          convenient to include your email address, although this usually
          appears on the From: line in the NUPop viewer.  However, the
          recipient may not be using NUPop.

               Press Alt-O(ptions), S(ignature) and a box will appear in
          which you can create a signature.  After creating a signature,
          mail a test message to yourself to see how it looks when
          received.

          Enclosures

               As explained below, NUPop can insert the contents of an
          existing DOS/ASCII text file into a message.  Alternatively,
          NUPop allows you to enclose files of DOS/ASCII text.  An enclosed
          file does not appear in the message, but will appear as a file in
          \NUPOP\ENCL.

               NUPop can also enclose word processor files
                                      word processor files
                                      word processor files (which contain
          formatting commands specific to the word processor, hence cannot
          be viewed in NUPop), binary data files
                                      data files
                                      data files, or even programs
                                                          programs
                                                          programs.  When
          enclosing such files (which are not plain DOS/ASCII text), use
          the 'Add Binhex' mode of enclosure.  If you do not, the file will
          be received in a corrupted form, or may cause the entire message
          to be deleted by the mail system.  If the receiving program is
          also NUPop, the file will be decoded and restored to its original
          form automatically at the receiving end, showing up in
          \NUPOP\ENCL.  If the receiving program is not NUPop, this may not
          work.  (There are alternative protocols; one of the most popular
          is called uuencode/uudecode).

               Typically, the recipient would move the received enclosure
          file to another location on their hard disk and then use it with
          the appropriate program (e.g. WordPerfect, MS Word, etc.).

               To try out enclosures, enclose a file in a message to
          yourself.

          Editing in the Compose Screen

               Below is a most-useful subset of the NUPop editing commands.
          Additional commands can be found at the end of the document
          'Using NUPop'.

               NUPop will automatically* wrap
                                         wrap
                                         wrap lines to form a paragraph as
          they are typed. However, if you insert text into the middle of an
          existing paragraph, it does not automatically wrap.  You can
          reform the paragraph with Ctrl-B
                                    Ctrl-B
                                    Ctrl-B.



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           Arrow
           Arrow
           Arrow keys: move cursor.
           Shift-Arrow
           Shift-Arrow
           Shift-Arrow keys: mark block of text.
           Home, End
           Home, End
           Home, End: left or right end of current line.
           PgUp, PgDn
           PgUp, PgDn
           PgUp, PgDn: move up/down one screen.
           Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn
           Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn
           Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn: top or bottom of entire message.

            Backspace, Delete
            Backspace, Delete
            Backspace, Delete: delete characters to left or right;
                delete block (use Shift-Del if you want to paste it!).

           Insert
           Insert
           Insert: toggles between insert and overstrike modes.
           Shift-Insert
           Shift-Insert
           Shift-Insert: paste text block cut with Shift-Del.

           Ctrl-B
           Ctrl-B
           Ctrl-B: reformat current paragraph.
           Ctrl-Q-U
           Ctrl-Q-U
           Ctrl-Q-U: reformat entire document (use with caution!)
           Ctrl-Q-F
           Ctrl-Q-F
           Ctrl-Q-F: find first instance of a word below cursor.
           Ctrl-L
           Ctrl-L
           Ctrl-L: find next instance of same word.



               You can insert the contents of a DOS/ASCII text file
                       insert the contents of a DOS/ASCII text file
                       insert the contents of a DOS/ASCII text file at the
          cursor into a message in the compose screen by selecting Alt-
          M(essage), A
                     A
                     Append file.  (To enclose a word-processed file, see
          Enclosures, above).  A box will appear to allow you to specify
          the name of the text file.  Use the Name line to specify the
          disk, e.g. 'd:\', Enter.  The files box will then show the files
          and subdirectories on d:.  By selecting the correct subdirectory
          (use PgDn to see more), you can move down the tree until the file
          you want appears in the box. Highlight its name and press Enter.
          (Sometimes NUPop reports an error when there is no error; as long
          as the file contained text in plain DOS/ASCII form, there should
          be no problem.)

          Receiving Mail, Replying, and Forwarding

               If you want to check whether you have received mail during
          the current NUPop session, go to the Index screen (F9) and press
          Alt-A(cquire).

               Each message you receive will show up as one line on the
          Index screen. You can view
                                view
                                view the message by highlighting it and
          pressing Enter.

               If you wish to reply
                              reply
                              reply to a message, first View it, then press
          Alt-Y(replY).  This automatically addresses your reply to the
          sender.  The message to which you are replying will appear* in
          the compose box.  This makes it easy to refer to the message
          while composing your reply.  If you don't wish to repeat the
          sender's message in your reply, simply block it and delete it.

               If you wish to forward to a third party a message you
          received, from the viewer, press Alt-R(for
                                                   r
                                                   rward).

          Printing or Deleting Mail.


                                          6







               From the Index screen, you can tag
                                              tag
                                              tag one or more messages for
          operations by highlighting them and pressing the space bar: a
          check mark will appear at the left of tagged messages.  The
          mailBox menu includes options for tagging or untagging (selecting
          or unselecting) all messages in the box.

               Press Alt-P to print tagged messages.  Press Alt-D to delete
          tagged messages (careful -- NUPop doesn't ask for confirmation).

          Saving (Transferring) Mail

               To save a message for future reference, it is best to create
          a "mailbox" named after the person from whom you received it, or
          named after the subject of the message.  It is a good idea to
          create a large number of mailboxes so that you can find old
          messages by looking in the correct mailbox.

               Tag the message you wish to save, and press Alt-T(ransfer).
          A list of mailboxes will pop up.  If you need to create a new
          mailbox, press Alt-N(ame) and type a name of up to 8 characters,
          and press Enter.  If the mailbox already exists, type the first
          letter or two of the mailbox name, and the cursor will jump to
          the matching name (even if it is not in the view box).  When the
          correct mailbox name is highlighted, press Enter.

          Reviewing Old Mail

               You can view the contents of any mailbox.  From the Index,
          press
          Alt-B(mailBox), B (change mailBox), and choose the desired
          mailbox.  When the contents of any mailbox are in the Index
          window, you can delete, print, view, forward, transfer, or reply
          just as when the IN mailbox is in the index.

          Disposing of Your Copies of Sent Mail
               NUPop keeps* a copy of all outgoing mail in the mailbox
          named SENT. Once each day, you should dispose of the contents of
          SENT.  Most of its contents can usually be deleted.  You may wish
          to save these copies of some of your outgoing messages in
          suitably named mailboxes using the Transfer function. By saving
          both incoming and outgoing mail from/to one person in a mailbox
          named after that person, you have a complete record of
          correspondence.

          Bells and Whistles

               NUPop has some convenience features which you may wish to
          explore.  The triple-equal sign menu _ in the far upper left
          corner (press F10 to go to the top menu line, then use left arrow
          to highlight _, press Enter) contains a calculator
                                                  calculator
                                                  calculator and a
          calendar
          calendar
          calendar.

               NUPop's File menu allows you to create or edit DOS/ASCII
                                               create or edit DOS/ASCII
                                               create or edit DOS/ASCII


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          text files
          text files
          text files other than mail messages.  To save and exit, press
          Alt-W(indow), L(cLose).

               The mailBox menu includes options to renumber, or sort in
                                                    renumber, or sort in
                                                    renumber, or sort in
          various possible orders, the contents of a mailbox
          various possible orders, the contents of a mailbox
          various possible orders, the contents of a mailbox.  Also, if
          some message(s) appear to have been lost, try the 'recreate
          message index' option.

               If you wish to perform some DOS functions without
          terminating your NUPop session, you can press Alt-U(tilities),
          J(ump to DOS)
          J(ump to DOS)
          J(ump to DOS).  When you are finished with the DOS operations,
          type 'exit' at the DOS prompt, and Enter.  NUPop will reappear
          where you left off.

          Acknowledgement

               Thanks to George Drake for explaining many aspects of
          networking to me and for specific suggestions about this
          document.





































                                          8






          This extra copy of the most-useful NUPop editing commands can be
          posted in a convenient location.




                       NUPop Editing Keys (Most-Useful Subset)


            Arrow
            Arrow
            Arrow keys: move cursor.
            Shift-Arrow
            Shift-Arrow
            Shift-Arrow keys: mark block of text.
            Home, End
            Home, End
            Home, End: left or right end of current line.
            PgUp, PgDn
            PgUp, PgDn
            PgUp, PgDn: move up/down one screen.
            Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn
            Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn
            Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn: top or bottom of entire message.

             Backspace, Delete
             Backspace, Delete
             Backspace, Delete: delete characters to left or right;
                 delete block (use Shift-Del if you want to paste it!).

            Insert
            Insert
            Insert: toggles between insert and overstrike modes.
            Shift-Insert
            Shift-Insert
            Shift-Insert: paste text block cut with Shift-Del.

            Ctrl-B
            Ctrl-B
            Ctrl-B: reformat current paragraph.
            Ctrl-Q-U
            Ctrl-Q-U
            Ctrl-Q-U: reformat entire document (use with caution!)
            Ctrl-Q-F
            Ctrl-Q-F
            Ctrl-Q-F: find first instance of a word below cursor.
            Ctrl-L
            Ctrl-L
            Ctrl-L: find next instance of same word.































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