Contents
Agent Contents

Agent is a powerful and easy-to-use Usenet newsgroup reader.  It allows you to browse newsgroups both online and offline.  Before you start using Agent, please take a quick look at Getting Started.

For more information about using Agent, see How to Use Agent.

If you’d like to purchase a copy of Agent for a friend, see Ordering Agent.

If you have any comments, questions, or problems with Agent, see How to Receive Technical Support.

To help familiarize yourself with Agent’s Newsgroup window, click on the various components of the picture below.

Copyrights


How to Use Agent

Before you start using Agent, please take a quick look at Getting Started.

Once you’re up and running, check out the topics below for more help using Agent.

How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

How to Send a Binary Attachment

How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment

How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent

Online Menu Commands Explained

About Article Purging

Compacting Agent’s Database Files

Marking Articles Read

Navigating in Agent

Watching and Ignoring Threads

Message Text Display Options

ROT13 Encoding and Decoding

Copying a WWW URL to the Clipboard

How to Get All the Article Bodies in a Group

How Agent Knows Which Articles are New

Printing Articles

Finding Groups or Articles

Frequently Asked Questions


Frequently Asked Questions

This topic answers some of the most common questions users have about Agent.

How to configure Agent for multiple users

Agent forgets settings or loses all its data

Pressing (M)ark or (I)gnore causes Agent to jump around

Errors reported by the news server

Errors reported by Winsock

Pressing any buttons while offline causes Agent to hang

Headers/Articles are marked as read after performing an online task

How to re-send a failed post or email

Agent failed to decode a binary file

Expand Threads doesn't always work

How to restore a deleted group


How to configure Agent for multiple users

Agent stores its settings and data files in the working directory specified by its Program Manager icon.  This allows you to easily share a single copy of the program’s executable files (i.e., agent.exe and agent.hlp) among several users.

To setup Agent for multiple users:

1.	Create a directory for the program files (e.g., c:\agent).

2.	Create a personal directory for each user (e.g., c:\agent\his and c:\agent\hers).

3.	Create a Program Manager icon for each user with the Command Line pointing to the program itself (e.g., c:\agent\agent.exe) and the Working Directory pointing to the user’s personal directory (e.g., c:\agent\his and c:\agent\hers).


Agent  forgets settings or loses all its data

Agent expects to find its setting and data files in the directory in which it runs.  If it can't find them, it assumes it is being run for the first time and displays the license screen. It will also “forget” any preferences, properties, and subscribed groups you have saved.

To correct this problem, select (single click) the Agent icon on your Program Manager desktop.  On the Program Manager menu, select Properties from the File menu.  You will be presented with the Program Item Properties dialog box.  Make sure the Working Directory is set to the directory that Agent stored its data files (usually the same directory where Agent is installed).

If you run Agent from a program that doesn’t allow you specify the working directory, you can pass this information to Agent on its command line.  For example, the command to run Agent may look like this:

c:\agent\agent.exe c:\agent


Pressing (M)ark or (I)gnore causes Agent to jump around

Agent automatically skips to the next unread article when you mark an article for retrieval or ignore a thread. If you don’t like this behavior, you can disable it from the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box by unchecking the “Marking or ignoring an article skips to the next unread article” box.


Errors reported by the news server

This topic will help you track down errors reported by your news server and detected by Agent.

441 400 Bad file number Writing history file - Throttling

441 400 loadav [innwatch.load] 305 gt 300

441 Can't send connect request to server, No such File or Directory

These errors all mean that the news server has an internal problem unrelated to anything you are doing.  Contact your service provider to have it fixed.  When this happens, Agent saves the article you were trying to post in its Outbox  (Window | Open Outbox), so that you can try to send it again later, after your news server is working properly.

441 Can't generate Message-ID Error 0

The error is generated internally by the server either if the server is unable to obtain the current date and time (from itself), or if it is unable to find out its own host name.  All of this happens after Agent has posted the article to the server.  We recommend that you contact your service provider and tell them about the error, since it indicates a problem with their server.

441 Posted in the Future

This error means the date/time on the article, as sent by Agent, is more than 24 hours later than the current date/time on the news server.  You should double-check your PC's date and time, and the time zone setting in Agent (on the System Profile page of the Preferences dialog box).

480 Authentication required for command error trying to post

This error means that your news server requires you to provide authentication before you can post.  You need to check with your service provider to find out exactly what is required.  In most cases, you need to supply the server a user name and password.  Once you get this information from your provider, you can enter it on the User Profile tab of the Preferences dialog box.

500 Command not Recognized

Your news server is not configured to handle a command issued by Agent (usually the XOVER or the XHDR commands for retrieving information about articles).  Agent requires that the server accept one of these commands.  You will need to contact your service provider and see if they can provide a server that honors these commands.

500 Error trying to connect to server

This error  means that Agent is attempting to log you into your news server, but your server doesn't actually require a login.  Go to the User Profile tab of the Preferences dialog box and uncheck the “Server requires authorization login” box.

502 Authentication Error

Check to see if your news server really requires authentication.  If it doesn't or if you are not sure, open the Preferences dialog box, go to the User Profile tab, and uncheck the “Server requires authorization login” option.  If you know that your server does require authentication, double-check your User Name and Password on this dialog box.

502 You are not in my access file

502 You only have permission to transfer

502 You have no permission to talk

These all indicate that you are not properly set up as an authorized user of the news server.  You will have to contact your service provider or news administrator to get this corrected.

550 Addressee unknown

Usually, this means you tried to send an email to someone whose email address was unknown to the email server, and the server refused to try to forward the mail to another server.


Errors reported by Winsock

This topic will help you track down errors reported by your Winsock driver and detected by Agent.

10055 WSAENOBUFS

There is not enough memory available for WINSOCK.DLL to create any buffers for Agent.  The problem is with low memory (memory below 640k), not overall memory.  Free up more conventional memory.

10060 WSAETIMEOUT

This may be a case where Agent loads the WINSOCK.DLL, but the winsock driver fails to load.  Try loading the driver prior to Agent.  If this works, then make sure the winsock driver is in the DOS path.  You may also need to free more conventional memory.

10061 Connection refused by server

This error means that the server is either too busy to accept more connections, or possibly has been taken down for maintenance.

11004 Host Name not Found

This error means that the Winsock driver was unable to find the host name for your news (NNTP) or mail (SMTP) server.  Double-check the name of these servers in the System Profile page of the Preferences dialog box.  Usually, they will be something like "news.company.com" and "mail.company.com", where "company.com" is your provider's domain name.  As a workaround, try entering the numeric (IP) address for the servers.

11004 No Data of Requested type

An error occurred during initialization of the Winsock driver. Check your Winsock driver setup.


Pressing any buttons while offline causes Agent to hang

Agent is designed to make online and offline newsreading as convenient as possible.  When configured for offline use it will automatically connect to your service provider when it needs to go online and disconnect as soon as it is through.  To make this process as efficient as possible, you should have only one copy of the file WINSOCK.DLL on your drive.  Also, it's best to keep all of the Winsock files (e.g., WINSOCK.DLL, TCPMAN.EXE, etc.) in the same directory, and to make sure that this directory is in the PATH= statement of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.


Headers/Articles are marked as read after performing an online task

By default, Agent automatically marks unwanted articles read whenever you retrieve article headers or bodies.  This makes it easy for you to find the new articles because they will be the only ones that are unread. To change this behavior, uncheck the appropriate box on the Marking Read tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.


How to re-send a failed post or email

By default, whenever you post a message or send an email, Agent saves it in the Outbox. This means that if the post fails for any reason, the message is still there and you can try to post it again. To do this, select the Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu.

See Also:

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly


Agent failed to decode a binary file

Agent finds the sections of a binary file by searching for articles with identical subject lines, except for the "[n/m]" or "n of m" part.  If it finds all the parts, it uses the [n/m] to figure out how to sort them.  In most cases, this method works quite well, because most users who post binaries use automated tools (like Agent) that conform to this convention.  But, when some users post binaries, they assign a different subject line to each article.  When this happens, Agent cannot find all the sections automatically.

The message "Unable to locate any sections" means you selected the [0/m] article, which technically isn't part of the binary, and Agent was not able to find articles [1/m] through [m/m].

The message "Only able to locate x of m sections" means that you selected one of the [n/m] sections, but Agent couldn't find all of the other m sections.

The message "No binary attachment found" means the binary may have been posted using an encoding scheme other than uuencoding. In this case, retrieve the articles as normal message bodies, then export the file to text using the Save Article As command from the File menu. The file can then be decoded using one of the widely available decoding programs such as Wincode or UDEC.

See Also:

How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment


Expand Threads doesn't always work

There are two options on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box (Options menu) that determine whether threads are displayed in expanded or collapsed form:

•	Show threads initially Collapsed
When checked, all threads will be shown collapsed when you first open a newsgroup. When unchecked, they will all be shown expanded.

•	Automatically expand threads containing new articles
When checked, threads will be expanded when you jump into them with the Skip to/View Next Unread Article commands.  Note: They are expanded only if you've already retrieved and read the first article in the thread.


How to restore a deleted group

Select Refresh Groups List from the Online menu.  This will rebuild your groups list without confusing the unread counters for your remaining groups.  You won't lose any information by performing this action.

See Also:

Delete Group Command


Copyrights

Free Agent, News Agent, and Agent are trademarks and Forté is a registered trademark of Forté Advanced Management Software Inc.  Copyright © Forté 1995.

The Sentry Spelling-Checker Engine -- Copyright © Wintertree Software Inc.

Microsoft is a registered trademark and MS-DOS and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

PKZIP is a trademark of PKWARE Inc.

Eudora™ is a trademark of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, licensed to QUALCOMM Inc.


TBD - Agent Icons

The following table describes what the icons appearing next to groups and articles represent:

Icon	Meaning

The article is in the process of being retrieved.


How to Receive Technical Support

Agent users are entitled to 90 days of technical support via email.  If you’re having a problem using Agent, you can send us an email by choosing Support Question from the Post menu.  This option will start a properly addressed and formatted a message for your question.  If, for some reason, you cannot post messages from Agent, send your question to agent-support@forteinc.com.  Be sure to include your serial number in the email if you do not send it from Agent.  The serial number can be found on the About Agent screen accessible from the Help menu.

If you have a site-based version of Agent, the Support Question menu option is not present.  Please contact your system administrator if you are having problems.

Information about the latest Agent release and answers to the most frequently asked questions can be found on our Web site at http://www.forteinc.com/forte/.  For those without convenient Web access, we've prepared a downloadable file containing the text (in HTML format) of our web pages.  You can find this file on our FTP site at ftp.forteinc.com/pub/forte/support.zip.

You can also receive support through various newsgroups.

•	alt.usenet.offline-readers

•	alt.winsock

•	news.software.readers

•	WINCON (CompuServe forum)

See Also:

Frequently Asked Questions


Add Signature dialog box
Add Signature dialog box (Signatures dialog box, Options menu)

Use this dialog box to enter the name of a new signature.

Name

Enter the name of the new signature


Use Information From Another Program dialog box

Use this dialog box to select the program from which Agent will acquire its basic setup information.

Program

Select the program from which you wish to get the initialization information.

Copy program’s list of newsgroups

Check this box if you want Agent to use the selected program’s newsgroup list to fill in its own list.  If you have subscribed to newsgroups in the selected program, you will be subscribed to those groups in Agent as well.
Note: If the newsgroup list in the other program is out of date, either uncheck this box or choose Refresh Group List from the Online menu at a later time.


Use Information From dialog box

Use this dialog box to enter the location of the program from which Agent will acquire its basic setup information.

Enter the name of the directory...

Type in the other program’s complete path, including drive.  For example, C:\TRUMPET.


Window Layout dialog box
Window Layout dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to select the layout of the panes in the current window.  You can choose how the panes should be arranged and what the contents of each pane should be.

Layout of Panes

These buttons show all of the available pane layouts.  Click on a button to choose a layout.

Contents of Panes

For the layout you have selected above, these buttons show all of the ways that you can organize the Group Pane, Article Pane, and Body Pane.  The box with black text represents the Group Pane.  Red text represents the Article Pane.  The Body Pane has blue text.  Click on a button to choose an organization.

After you have chosen a layout and pressed OK, the window will update to reflect your selection.  If you desire, resize the panes by dragging the border between the panes.

TIP:  To show only one pane at a time, select Zoom Window from the Navigate menu or press Z.

If you would like to have a particular layout be the one used when you start Agent or open a new Newsgroup window, choose Save As Default Window Layout from the Options menu.  This command saves the pane layout, pane sizing, and whether or not a pane is zoomed.


Preferences dialog box, Attachments tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Attachments Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls how binary attachments sent by you are formatted.  For more information on sending attachments, see How to Send a Binary Attachment.

Send attachment as multiple messages

Select this option to split long attachments into multiple messages.  The size of each attachment is dictated by the number you enter into the Lines per Messages box.

Send attachment as a single message

Select this option to include the entire attachment in one message, no matter how long the attachment is.

Send text as preface message

Select this option to send an additional message ahead of the attachment message(s).  This is useful because it allows people to read a description of the attachment before downloading it.

Send text in first message

Select this option to include the description of the attachment in the attachment’s first message.

Do not send any text

When this option is selected, Agent will only send the attachment.  Any other text or description you enter into the Compose window will be ignored.


Preferences dialog box, Colors tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Colors Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls the color of text in Agent.

Normal Lines

Choose the color for groups and “read” article headers.

Unread Articles

Choose the color for unread article headers.

Highlighted Unread Articles

Choose the color for unread article headers when they are selected.  This is usually the inverse of the Unread Articles color.

Normal Text

Choose the color for body text.

Quoted Text

Choose the color for response text within an article’s body.


Preferences dialog box, Confirmation tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Confirmations Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls the confirmation messages Agent displays.  These messages warn you when you are about to perform an irreversible action.

Delete groups

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you manually delete a group.

Delete articles or article bodies

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you manually delete an article or its body.

Delete outbox messages

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you manually delete a posting or email in the Outbox window.

Close message composition window

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you close a posting or email window without sending the message first.

Stop online tasks

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you cancel an online operation.

Close program while online tasks are running

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message when you exit Agent while it is communicating with the news server.

Mark all articles read or unread

Check this box and Agent will display a confirmation message before marking all the articles in a group read or unread.

Default action in confirm dialogs is YES

Check this box to make “Yes” the default button on all confirmation dialog boxes.  The default button is the one activated when you press the Enter key.


Preferences dialog box, Display tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Display Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls how Agent’s newsgroup window appears and behaves.

Show Toolbar

Check this box to display the Agent toolbar directly below the menubar.

Show Status Bar

Check this box to display the Agent status bar at the bottom of the window.

Tab Spacing

Enter the length of tab stops, in characters.

Quoted Text

Enter the characters that commonly appear in follow-up messages signifying that text on the same line is quoted from the original message.  Agent displays this text in the color defined by the Quoted Text setting on this dialog box’s Colors tab.

Scroll Margins

Enter the number of rows you want to remain visible above or below the highlighted row when scrolling up or down in the Article and Body panes.

Follow-Up Indentation

Enter the amount of space, in characters, that follow-up articles should be indented from their parent in the Article Pane.

Maximum Follow-Up Level

Enter maximum number of response levels (responses to responses) that you want displayed in the Article Pane.  Any responses deeper than this appear at the most indented level.


Preferences dialog box, Navigation tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Navigation Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls how Agent behaves when you are navigating within a Newsgroup window.

Skipping to the next unread article...

Check this box and Agent will keep your focus in the same pane when you skip between articles in different groups.

Marking or ignoring...

Check this box and Agent will automatically skip to the next unread article after you mark an article for retrieval or select a thread to be ignored.

Watching an unread article...

Check this box and Agent will automatically skip to the next unread article after you select Watch Thread (or press W) when an unread article is highlighted.

Skipping to the next unread group...

Check this box to have Agent automatically mark all the articles in the current group “read” when you choose Skip to Next Unread Group.

Show Threads Initially Collapsed

Check this box to initially hide all responses in the Article Pane.

Automatically expand threads containing new articles

Check this box to have Agent automatically expand a thread when skipping to an unread article within a thread.  Agent expands the thread only if you had previously retrieved and read the first article in the thread.

Start a new thread...

Check this box to create a new thread when a follow-up article’s subject is different than the main article’s subject.  When unchecked, Agent attaches follow-up articles to the original even when the subject of the thread changes.

Enable threading by subject

Check this box to have Agent include articles with the same subject under the same thread, even if the follow-up article doesn’t contain a valid reference to the original.  People frequently mispost responses and this helps match follow-ups with the article to which they are responses.

Double-clicking an article launches its binary attachment

Check this box and double-clicking on any article containing an attachment you’ve saved will run the program associated with the attachment’s file type.  For more information, see How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent.

Right mouse button...

Check this box if you want to use the right mouse button to select options from the context menus.  When unchecked, the left mouse button selects context menu options.

See Also:

Navigating in Agent

Watching and Ignoring Threads


Preferences dialog box, Message Posting tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Message Posting Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls how messages that you send are formatted.

Line length

Enter the maximum number of characters that can appear on a single line.  Agent automatically word wraps any lines longer than this.

Save sent messages in outbox

Check this box to save a copy of all messages that you send.  Choose Open Outbox Window from the Window menu to view your saved messages.  For more information on the Outbox window, see Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly.

Include original text

Check this box to include a copy of the original text in follow-up articles or emails.

Quote original text in forwarded emails

Check this box to insert the quote prefix (defined below) in front of each line of text from the original posting when forwarding messages to people via email.

Prefix for quoted lines

For follow-up articles and emails, enter the character(s) that signify that the text on the same line is quoted from the original message.

Follow-Up article introduction

Enter the text to appear just above quoted lines in follow-up articles.

Email reply introduction

Enter the text to appear just above quoted lines in email replies.

Forward email introduction

Enter the text to appear just above quoted lines in forwarded emails.

For more information, see Composing an Introduction String.

Validate email address

When checked, Agent validates all email address fields (To:, Cc:, etc.) before sending messages.  Uncheck this box if you need to enter non-standard addresses.  Note: Agent does not verify that the email address exists.  It simply checks the format to make sure it is a valid Internet email address.


Composing an Introduction String

When you reply to an article, it’s common practice on the Internet to include some of the text from the original article in the reply.  It is also common practice to precede the original text with a line such as “Jessye Lynn Sidell wrote:” You define this introduction string on the Message Posting tab of the Preferences dialog box.

The following table describes the different fields you can include in the introduction string.  When you include a field in an introduction string, Agent automatically replaces that field with its value from the original article.  To include a field in a string, enclose it within percent signs (e.g., %From%).  Note: To include the percent sign in the string, enter two of them next to each other (e.g., %%).

Field	Description

Date	The date the article was sent.

Reply-To	Where the author wanted replies sent.

From	The email address of the person who posted the article.

Sender	The sender of the article.  Note: This may be a different person than the one in the From field if the sender wasn’t the one who actually posted the article.

Full-Name	The full name of the author, extracted from the From field.

Subject	The brief description of the article.

Message-Id	The article’s unique message ID.

Newsgroups	The newsgroup to which this article was posted.  If the article was posted to more than one group, the current group is used.

Followup-To	The newsgroups where the sender of the article wants follow-up articles posted.

Expires	The date the article is scheduled to expire.

References	For follow-up articles, the message IDs of the articles to which this article refers.

Organization	The author’s organization.

Keywords	Optional keywords included by the author to help categorize the article.

Summary	A summary description of the article.

Lines	The number of lines in the article.

You may also use the following to represent special characters:

Character	Description

\n	The newline character

\t	A tab.

\\	The backslash character itself.


Preferences dialog box, Online Operation tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Online Operation Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab controls Agent’s behavior while online.

Use Offline Defaults

Press this button if you want to use Agent as an offline newsreader.  This button optimally configures the remaining controls in this dialog box for offline use.  For more information, see How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader.

Use Online Defaults

Press this button if you want to use Agent as an online newsreader. This button optimally configures the remaining controls in this dialog box for online use.  For more information, see How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader.

Times to retry when server refuses connection

Enter the number of times Agent should attempt to reconnect to the news server when it refuses a connection.  This normally happens when the news server is busy.

Pause between retries

Enter the number of seconds between each reconnection attempt.

Close winsock (hang up) between retries

Check this box to have Agent hang up the modem between reconnection attempts.

Go offline automatically after...

Enter the number of seconds of inactivity that Agent waits before automatically disconnecting from your news server.  If you uncheck this box, Agent will not disconnect from your news server until you close the program or uncheck Online from the Online menu.

If you intend to read articles online, you might want Agent to go offline after a few minutes of inactivity.  This gives you time to read articles, but doesn't leave Agent online too long.  If you intend to read articles offline, you probably want Agent to go offline immediately (0 seconds of inactivity).

Send keep-alive messages every...

When this box is checked, Agent sends a command to your news server periodically in order to maintain the connection to the server.  This option is useful if your computer is connected to the server via a dial-up channel that automatically disconnects after a period of inactivity.

Enter the frequency of keep-alive messages sent from Agent to your news server.  Uncheck this box and Agent won’t send any keep-alive messages.

Enable priority article retrieval

When this box is checked, Agent opens a second channel to the news server when you attempt to retrieve the body of an article while Agent is already busy performing other online operations.  This makes it possible for you to begin reading new articles in one group while retrieving headers in another.

Viewing Unretrieved Articles When Offline

Select the action you want Agent to perform when you are offline and attempt to view an article for which you do not have the body.  This setting affects double-clicking and pressing Enter on articles, as well as the View Next Unread Article and View Next Unread Article in Thread actions on the Navigate menu.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Preferences dialog box, System Profile tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

System Profile Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab defines information that is required to use Agent.

News Server

Enter the name of your news (NNTP) server or its IP address.  If you don't know the name, ask your service provider or system administrator.

Email Server

Enter the name of your email (SMTP) server or its IP address.  If you don't know the name, ask your service provider or system administrator.

Time Zone

Select the time zone you are located in.  Agent uses this setting to convert the times of articles to your own local time.  Also, when you post an article or email message, Agent includes your time zone in the date.

Automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time

Check this box if you live in a locality that observes Daylight Savings Time between April and October.  During these months, Agent automatically adjusts your time zone to compensate for the time difference.


Preferences dialog box, User Profile tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

User Profile Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings that affect how Agent works.  This tab defines information about you.

Email Address

Enter your email address.  When you send a message, this address appears in the "From" field.  For example: lance.boehm@forteinc.com.

Full Name

(Optional) Enter your full name.  This name is included with your email address in messages that you send.  It is helpful to include your full name if your email address does not contain your name.  Also, some news readers, such as Agent, can display an author’s full name rather than his/her email address.

Organization

(Optional) Enter the name of the organization to which you belong.  This name is sent in the "Organization" field of articles that you post.  It is not included in your email messages.

Reply To

(Optional) Enter an email address here if you want people to send replies to an address that is different than your Email Address listed above.  For example, you may use your business address as your Email Address, but would prefer that replies be sent to a personal email address.

Note:  Changing the Email Address, Full Name, Organization, or Reply To value here also changes the corresponding field on the Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Server requires authorization login

Check this box if your news server requires a special user name and/or password to login.  When checked, Agent will automatically fill in your user name when requested by the news server.

User Name

Enter the user name required by your news server for logging in.

Remember password between sessions

Check this box if your news server requires a special password to login and you want Agent to automatically enter that password for you.

Password

Enter the password required by your news server for logging in.  Your password is encrypted and then stored in AGENT.INI.

Note: You must take Agent offline and then back online for changes to the user name or password to take effect.


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Marking Read tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Marking Read Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings for the selected group.  TIP:  If you highlight several groups before opening this dialog box, you will be changing the settings for all the selected groups at once.

This tab controls when Agent marks articles read.  Usually, you'll want to mark all existing articles read each time you retrieve new articles so that only the new articles are marked unread.  That way, it's easy for you to find the new articles.

Override default settings

Check this box to use the settings defined on this tab instead of those defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

New article headers

Check this box to mark all existing articles read each time you retrieve new article headers for this group.

Marked article bodies

Check this box to mark all existing articles in this group read each time you retrieve marked article bodies for this group.  All the new articles Agent retrieves will be marked unread so that you can easily find them.

See Also:

Marking Articles Read


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, Marking Read tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Marking Read Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab controls when Agent marks articles read.

Usually, you'll want to mark all existing articles read each time you retrieve new articles so that only the new articles are marked unread.  That way, it's easy for you to find the new articles.

New article headers

Check this box to mark all existing articles read each time you retrieve new article headers.

Marked article bodies

Check this box to mark all existing articles read each time you retrieve marked article bodies. All the new articles Agent retrieves will be marked unread so that you can easily find them.

See Also:

Marking Articles Read


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Posting tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Posting Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings for the selected group.  TIP:  If you highlight several groups before opening this dialog box, you will be changing the settings for all the selected groups at once.

This tab controls how postings to this group or email replies from this group are handled.  Note: All of these settings can be overriden for a particlular message.  See the Compose Article window and the Compose Email window for details.

Override default settings

Check this box to use the settings defined on this tab instead of those defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.  Note: Checking this box only overrides the “Copy follow-up articles to author via email,” “Signature,” and “Spell Check Language” settings.  Each field in the “Fields” list must be overridden independently (see below for details).

Copy follow-up articles to author via email

When checked, Agent will send a copy of follow-up articles you post to the author of the article to which you are responding.

Signature

Select a signature to use for posting to this group or email replies from this group.

Spell Check Language

(Not available in Free Agent) Select the language dictionary to use when spell checking posting to this group or email replies from this group.  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

Fields

This list contains all the Usenet message fields (and some email ones as well) for which you can set default values.  See Article and Email Fields for a description of each field.  Setting a default value for these fields saves you time when posting articles and sending emails because you don’t have to reenter the common information for each message.  You can even default the Newsgroups field to automatically cross-post articles to several groups.

To change a particular field’s default value, highlight the field, check the “Override default value for field” box, and enter the new value in the “Value for <Field>“ control.

Override default value for field

Check this box to use the default field value defined on this tab instead of the one defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Value for <Field>

Enter the default value for the field selected in the Fields list.  You must check the “Override default value for field” box before you can enter a value here.

See Also:

Compose Article window

Compose Email window

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, Posting tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Posting Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab controls how postings are handled.  Note: All of these settings can be overriden for a particlular message.  See the Compose Article window and the Compose Email window for details.

Copy follow-up articles to author via email

When checked, Agent will send a copy of follow-up articles you post to the author of the article to which you are responding.  You can easily override this behavior for individual follow-ups by removing the author’s name from the Email To field on the Compose Article window.

Signature

Select a default signature for all your postings and emails.  Note: Changing this setting here also changes the Default Signature defined in the Signatures dialog box.

Spell Check Language

(Not available in Free Agent) Select a default language dictionary for all your postings and emails.  Note: Changing this setting here also changes the Default Language defined on the Spelling tab of the Preferences dialog box.  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

Fields

This list contains all the Usenet message fields (and some email ones as well) for which you can set default values.  See Article and Email Fields for a description of each field.  Setting a default value for these fields saves you time when posting articles and sending emails because you don’t have to reenter the common information for each message.  Note: The global defaults for the From, Organization, and Reply-To fields also appear on the User Profile tab of the Preferences dialog box.  Changing these fields here also changes them in that dialog box (and vice versa).

To change a particular field’s default value, highlight the field and enter the new value in the “Value for <Field>“ control below.

Value for <Field>

Enter the default value for the field selected in the Fields list.

See Also:

Compose Article window

Compose Email window

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, What to Purge tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

What to Purge Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings for the selected group.  TIP:  If you highlight several groups before opening this dialog box, you will be changing the settings for all the selected groups at once.

This tab controls which articles Agent automatically purges (deletes).  To control when Agent purges articles, see the When to Purge tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.  For more information on purging in general, see About Article Purging.

Override default settings

Check this box to use the settings defined on this tab instead of those defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Configure Agent’s Hard Disk Usage

The buttons in this box help you define the purging options below.  Agent maintains a database of articles for each group and these buttons provide presets for common configurations.  After pressing one of these buttons, check the other values in the dialog box and change them to meet your specific requirements.

Purge Read Articles Without Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you did not retrieve but marked read.  Usually, these are articles that you are not interested in reading.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge, When the article is older than, and When the article is no longer available.

Purge Read Articles With Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have retrieved and read.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge; On every purge, delete body only; When the article is older than; and Never.

Purge Unread Articles Without Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have not retrieved or marked read.  Usually, you haven’t yet decided if you want to read these articles.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge, When the article is older than, and When the article is no longer available.

Purge Unread Articles With Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have retrieved but not yet read.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge; On every purge, delete body only; When the article is older than; and Never.

Always get complete list of available articles from server

When checked, Agent retrieves a complete list of available articles whenever it gets new headers.  This option is useful (but not required) when you have selected the “When the article is no longer available” option in one of the controls above.  It does, however, increase the time required to get new headers.  For a group containing 500 articles, it increases the download time by about five seconds for a 14.4 kbps modem connection.

When unchecked, Agent purges articles with numbers lower than the range of available articles reported by the news server.  Since there are often gaps in the available range of articles, this setting may cause Agent to keep articles that are no longer available.

See Also:

Marking Articles Read

Compacting Agent’s Database Files


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, What to Purge tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

What to Purge Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab controls which articles Agent automatically purges (deletes).  To control when Agent purges articles, see the When to Purge tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.  For more information on purging in general, see About Article Purging.

Configure Agent’s Hard Disk Usage

The buttons in this box help you define the purging options below.  Agent maintains a database of articles for each group and these buttons provide presets for common configurations.  After pressing one of these buttons, check the other values in the dialog box and change them to meet your specific requirements.

Purge Read Articles Without Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you did not retrieve but marked read.  Usually, these are articles that you are not interested in reading.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge, When the article is older than, and When the article is no longer available.

Purge Read Articles With Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have retrieved and read.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge; On every purge, delete body only; When the article is older than; and Never.

Purge Unread Articles Without Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have not retrieved or marked read.  Usually, you haven’t yet decided if you want to read these articles.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge, When the article is older than, and When the article is no longer available.

Purge Unread Articles With Bodies

This control defines when Agent purges articles you have retrieved but not yet read.  For more information on each option in the list, click On every purge; On every purge, delete body only; When the article is older than; and Never.

Always get complete list of available articles from server

When checked, Agent retrieves a complete list of available articles whenever it gets new headers.  This option is useful (but not required) when you have selected the “When the article is no longer available” option in one of the controls above.  It does, however, increase the time required to get new headers.  For a group containing 500 articles, it increases the download time for each group by about five seconds for a 14.4 kbps modem connection.

When unchecked, Agent purges articles with numbers lower than the range of available articles reported by the news server.  Since there are often gaps in the available range of articles, this setting may cause Agent to keep articles that are no longer available.

See Also:

Marking Articles Read

Compacting Agent’s Database Files


On every purge

Select this option to purge this type of article every time Agent purges any articles from the group.  This option reduces the amount of clutter in the Article Pane, but prevents you from reading articles that you may have overlooked in previous sessions.


When the article is no longer available
When the article is older than

Select this option to purge this type of article when it is older than the specified number of days.


When the article is no longer available

Select this option to purge this type of article when it is purged from the news server’s list of articles.  This setting makes the list of articles displayed by Agent a mirror image of the articles available from the server.


On every purge, delete body only

Select this option to purge the body of this type of article every time Agent purges any articles from the group.  Purging only bodies saves hard disk space while still allowing you to maintain a complete list of articles.


Never

Select this option to prevent articles of this type from being purged.  As an alternative, you may want to consider keeping the important articles (highlight the article and choose Keep Article from the Article menu) and select one of the other purge options.


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, When to Purge tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

When to Purge Tab

This tab controls when Agent automatically purges (deletes) articles.  To control which articles Agent purges, see the What to Purge tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.  For more information on purging in general, see About Article Purging.

Note: These control affect when all groups are purged, not just the selected one.

Purge - When retrieving new headers

When checked, Agent purges articles from a group when it retrieves new headers for that group.

Purge - When closing Agent

When checked, articles from all groups are purged when you exit Agent.

Compact - After manual purges

When checked, selecting a Purge Articles option from the Group menu also compacts the databases being purged.  Note: A database is compacted only when the percent of disk space saved is greater than the value entered in the “Compact only if wasted space at least...” field below.

Compact - When closing Agent

When checked, Agent will compact all your databases when it closes.  Note: A database is compacted only when the percent of disk space saved is greater than the value entered in the “Compact only if wasted space at least...” field below.

Compact only if wasted space at least...

Before compacting a database, Agent checks to see how much disk space would be saved by the compact operation.  This setting allows you to bypass the operation if only a small amount of disk space would be saved.  Enter the minimum amount of disk space savings, as a percentage of the total size of the database, that will cause Agent to perform an automatic compaction after either a manual purge and/or an automatic purge during exit.

When closing Agent, prompt for confirmation...

When checked, Agent asks for confirmation before purging and/or compacting databases when you close the program.  When unchecked, the Agent will purge and/or compact the databases without asking first.  Note: To purge or compact databases on exit, be sure to check the appropriate box above.

See Also:

Compacting Agent’s Database Files


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, When to Purge tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

When to Purge Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab controls when Agent automatically purges (deletes) articles.  To control which articles Agent purges, see the What to Purge tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.  For more information on purging in general, see About Article Purging.

Purge - When retrieving new headers

When checked, Agent purges articles from a group when it retrieves new headers for that group.

Purge - When closing Agent

When checked, articles from all groups are purged when you exit Agent.

Compact - After manual purges

When checked, selecting a Purge Articles option from the Group menu also compacts the databases being purged.  Note: A database is compacted only when the percent of disk space saved is greater than the value entered in the “Compact only if wasted space at least...” field below.

Compact - When closing Agent

When checked, Agent will compact all your databases when it closes.  Note: A database is compacted only when the percent of disk space saved is greater than the value entered in the “Compact only if wasted space at least...” field below.

Compact only if wasted space at least...

Before compacting a database, Agent checks to see how much disk space would be saved by the compact operation.  This setting allows you to bypass the operation if only a small amount of disk space would be saved.  Enter the minimum amount of disk space savings, as a percentage of the total size of the database, that will cause Agent to perform an automatic compaction after either a manual purge and/or an automatic purge during exit.

When closing Agent, prompt for confirmation...

When checked, Agent asks for confirmation before purging and/or compacting databases when you close the program.  When unchecked, the Agent will purge and/or compact the databases without asking first.  Note: To purge or compact databases on exit, be sure to check the appropriate box above.

See Also:

Compacting Agent’s Database Files


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Retrieving tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Retrieving Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings for the selected group.  TIP:  If you highlight several groups before opening this dialog box, you will be changing the settings for all the selected groups at once.

This tab controls how and what Agent retrieves from the news server.

Override default settings

Check this box to use the settings defined on this tab instead of those defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Retrieve bodies for all new articles

Check this box to have Agent automatically retrieve the bodies for all new articles at the same time it retrieves the headers.  This option is handy if you know you'll always want to read all of the articles in a particular group.  Of course, it takes a lot longer to retrieve the bodies, so you probably don't want to select this option for all groups.

Do not retrieve articles longer than...

Check this box and enter a value to limit the size of bodies that are automatically retrieved by the option above.  For example, you may want to read most of the articles in a particular group, but not necessarily download the group's FAQ every time it is posted.  If you know the FAQ is usually over 200 lines long, limit the maximum size to 200 lines.

Limit number of headers retrieved per session to...

Check this box and enter a value to limit the number of headers retrieved each time you retrieve new headers for the group.  For example, if you limit the number to 100 headers, Agent will retrieve no more than the 100 most-recent articles.  This option is handy if you want to catch up with a busy group, and know you can't possibly read all the messages posted since you last checked.  Note: This setting only affects the Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups and the Get New Headers in Selected Groups commands.  For more information on these commands, see Online Menu Commands Explained.

View Empty Group Action

Select the option corresponding to the action you want Agent to take when you double-click or press Enter on an empty group.

Maximum articles to sample

Enter the maximum number of articles to sample.

Highest article retrieved

This is the highest article number Agent has retrieved for this group.  When you get new headers in this group, Agent will retrieve all articles whose number is greater than this value.  You may never need to change this setting.  To get all the articles in a group, regardless of the high article number, choose Get All Headers in Selected Groups from the Online menu.  To set the high article number to the highest value on your news server without retrieving all the new headers in the group, choose Catch Up With Selected Groups from the Online menu.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, Retrieving tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Retrieving Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab controls how and what Agent retrieves from the news server.

Retrieve bodies for all new articles

Check this box to have Agent automatically retrieve the bodies for all new articles at the same time it retrieves the headers.  This option is handy if you know you'll always want to read all of the articles in a particular group.  Of course, it takes a lot longer to retrieve the bodies, so you probably don't want to select this option for all groups.

Do not retrieve articles longer than...

Check this box and enter a value to limit the size of bodies that are automatically retrieved by the option above.  For example, you may want to read most of the articles in a particular group, but not necessarily download the group's FAQ every time it is posted.  If you know the FAQ is usually over 200 lines long, limit the maximum size to 200 lines.

Limit number of headers retrieved per session to...

Check this box and enter a value to limit the number of headers retrieved each time you retrieve new headers for the group.  For example, if you limit the number to 100 headers, Agent will retrieve no more than the 100 most-recent articles.  This option is handy if you want to catch up with a busy group, and know you can't possibly read all the messages posted since you last checked.  Note: This setting only affects the Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups and the Get New Headers in Selected Groups commands.  For more information on these commands, see Online Menu Commands Explained.

View Empty Group Action

Select the option corresponding to the action you want Agent to take when you double-click or press Enter on an empty group.

Maximum articles to sample

Enter the maximum number of articles to sample.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Attachments tab
Properties for Selected Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Attachments Tab

Use this dialog box to define settings for the selected group.  TIP:  If you highlight several groups before opening this dialog box, you will be changing the settings for all the selected groups at once.

This tab defines the directory where Agent saves binary attachments.

Override default settings

Check this box to use the settings defined on this tab instead of those defined in the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Binary Attachments Directory

Enter the directory where you want Agent to save binary attachments.

See Also:

How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment

How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent


Default Properties for All Groups dialog box, Attachments tab
Default Properties for All Groups dialog box (Group menu)

Attachments Tab

Use this dialog box to define your default group settings.  This tab defines the directory where Agent saves binary attachments.

Binary Attachments Directory

Enter the directory where you want Agent to save binary attachments.

See Also:

How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment

How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent


Find dialog box
Find dialog box (Edit menu)

Use this dialog box to find a group or article.

Find What

Enter the text to search for.

Find First

Press this button to find the first occurrence of the text you entered above.

Find Next

Press this button to find the next occurrence of the text you entered above.

See Also:

Finding Groups or Articles


Licensing Agreement dialog box

This dialog box displays Agent’s licensing terms and conditions.  You must accept the terms and conditions in order to run the program.

Accept

Press this button to accept the terms of the agreement and run Agent.

Decline

Press this button if you do not accept the terms of the agreement.  Agent will not run if you press this button.


Page Setup dialog box
Page Setup dialog box (File menu)

Use this dialog box to control the format of articles printed with Agent.

Margins

Enter the left, right, top, and bottom margins in inches.

No fields (Body only)

Select this option to print only the article bodies.

Newsgroup, subject, author, and date

Select this option to print some of the header information along with the article bodies.

All fields

Select this option to print all of the header information along with the article bodies.

None

Select this option to print articles one after the other.

Between articles

Select this option to insert a page break between each article being printed.

Between threads

Select this option to print all the articles in the same thread one after the other and to insert a page break between articles of different threads.

Font

Press this button to pick the font used when printing articles.

See Also:

Printing Articles


Server Authorization Password dialog box

Use this dialog box to enter the password required to login to your news server.

Password

Enter the password required by your news server.

Remember password between sessions

Check this box if you want Agent to automatically enter that password for you each time you login to the news server.


Refresh Groups List dialog box
Refresh Groups List dialog box (Online menu)

Use this dialog box to update your group list and define what Agent should do with groups it no longer finds on the news server.

The refresh operation retrieves a complete list of all newsgroups available form the server.  It then adds any new groups to Agent’s list of groups, and optionally deletes any groups that are no longer available.
TIP:  If you only want to retrieve new groups added since the last time you updated your group list, choose Get New Groups from the Online menu.

Note:  Since this operation retrieves a complete list of groups, it can take several minutes to complete.

Keep all extinct groups

Select this option to maintain groups even if they no longer exist on the server.

Delete extinct groups that are empty

Select this option to maintain groups that no longer exist on the server if the group contains articles.

Delete all extinct groups

Select this option to delete any group which no longer exists on the server.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Rename Signature dialog box
Rename Signature dialog box (Signatures dialog box, Options menu)

Use this dialog box to change the name of a signature.

New Name

Enter a new name for the signature.


Save Articles As dialog box
Save Articles As dialog box (File menu)

Use this dialog box to save one or more articles to a text file.  Note: Agent only saves articles whose bodies have been retrieved.

Select all the articles you want to save before choosing this menu option.  If you select a collapsed thread, Agent will save all articles in the thread.

File Name

Enter the name of the file you want to save to, or select a file from the list of files.

Directories

Select the directory where you want to save the file.

List of File Types

Select the type of file you want to display in the list of files.

Drives

Select the drive where you want to save the file.

No fields (Body only)

Select this option to save only the article bodies.

Newsgroup, subject, author, and date

Select this option to save some of the header information along with the article bodies.

All fields

Select this option to save all of the header information along with the article bodies.

Append to Existing File

Check this box if you want to append the articles to an existing file.  If you uncheck this option and save the articles to an existing file, Agent will erase the current contents of the file.

See Also:

Printing Articles


Agent Setup dialog box

Fill in this dialog to provide Agent with the basic information needed to read articles and post messages.  If you don’t want to post articles or emails, you only need to supply the name of your news server and your time zone.  You can enter the other information later in the Preferences dialog box.

Use Information From Another Program

If you’re already using one of the listed programs, Agent can get most of its basic setup information from the other program's configuration files.  Press this button to select the program you use.

News (NNTP) Server

Enter the name of your news (NNTP) server or its IP address.  If you don't know the name, ask your service provider or system administrator.

Email (SMTP) Server

Enter the name of your email (SMTP) server or its IP address.  If you don't know the name, ask your service provider or system administrator.

Email Address

Enter your email address.  When you send a message, this address appears in the "From" field.  For example: john.doe@forteinc.com

Full Name

(Optional) Enter your full name.  This name is included with your email address in messages that you send.  It is helpful to include your full name if your email address does not contain your name.  Also, some news readers display full names, when available, rather than email addresses.

Time Zone

Select the time zone you are located in.  Agent uses the time zone to convert the dates of articles to your own local time.  Also, when you post an article or email message, Agent includes your time zone in the date.

Automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time

Check this box if you live in a locality that observes Daylight Savings Time between April and October.  During these months, Agent automatically adjusts your time zone to compensate for the time difference.

Spell Check Language

(Not available in Free Agent) Select the default language dictionary to use for spell checking messages.  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

Exit Agent

Press this button if you don’t have the basic information available.  The next time you run Agent, this dialog box will be displayed again.


Signatures dialog box
Signatures dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to define the signatures you wish to use in your own postings and emails.

Names

This is a list of the signatures you have defined.  To edit a signature, select it in this list and enter the new text in the controls below.

Add

Press this button to create a new signature.

Rename

Press this button to rename the signature highlighted in the Names list.

Delete

Press this button to delete the signature highlighted in the Names list.  If you accidentally delete a signature, press the Cancel button to close the dialog box and cancel all of your changes.

Default Signature

Select the signature you wish to use by default.  Select [None] if you don't want to have a default signature.  When you post an article or send an email message, Agent automatically uses your default signature.  You can choose a different signature to be the default for each group (see the Posting tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box) or override the signature used for a specific message (see the Compose Article window).  Note: Changing this setting here also changes the signature set on the Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Text

Enter the text of the signature highlighted in the Names list. If you want a blank line or other separator to appear between the rest of the message and the signature, you need to include it here.  To insert a TAB in the text, press Ctrl+TAB.

TIP:  A common convention on the Internet is to begin your signature with a line containing two dashes.  For example:

--
Dave Chin
Forte, Inc.

Use existing file

If you want to share a signature file with another program, enter the name of the file that contains the signature.  When you have entered a valid file name, the dialog will display the contents of the file in the Text field.  Any changes you make to the signature in this dialog box will be saved to the file, so changes here also affect any other program that is using the same file.

TIP: The name of the signature file for the Eudora email program is SIGNATUR.PCE, and it is stored in the directory where you installed Eudora.

Browse

Press this button to browse for a signature file.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Signatures

A signature is one or more lines of text that Agent automatically places at the bottom of articles and email messages that you send.

You can define as many signatures as you wish.  When you create a new message, you can select which signature to use with that message.  For example, you can define a "personal" signature and a different "business" signature.


Save Binary Attachment dialog box
Save Binary Attachment dialog box (File menu)

Use this dialog box to manually save an attachment when Agent can’t automatically find all the articles composing the attachment.  For more information on retrieving attachments, see How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment.

Articles

This is a list of all the articles you selected before opening the dialog box.  If this list does not contain all the articles in the attachment, press Cancel and select the remaining articles by holding down the Control key and clicking on them.  If the articles are out of order, press the Up and Down buttons to get them in order.

Up / Down

Press these buttons to move the highlighted article up or down in the list.  Before launching or saving an attachment, you must make sure that the articles are in the correct order.

Launch

Press this button to view the attachment.  Agent first saves the attachment (see below for more information) and then passes it to the application associated with the attachment's file type.  For more information, see How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent.

Save

Press this button to save the attachment as a file.  Agent saves the attachment in the directory specified in the Attachments tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

If you are offline and have not yet retrieved the attachment’s articles, Agent will immediately go online to download and decode the attachment after you press Launch or Save.


View Empty Group dialog box

This dialog box is displayed when you double-click or press Enter on a group with no articles and your View Empty Group Action in the Retrieving tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box is set to “Prompt for action.”

Sample 50 Article Headers

Press this button to retrieve a maximum of 50 article headers for this group.  Note: The number you see may not be 50.  The sample size is defined in your Default Properties for All Groups dialog box on the Retrieving tab.

Get All Article Headers

Press this button to retrieve all article headers in this group.

Subscribe to Group

Press this button to subscribe to the group.  You can retrieve article headers later by choosing Get New Article Headers in Subscribed Group from the Online menu.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Select Signature File dialog box
Select Signature File dialog box (Signatures dialog box, Options menu)

Use this dialog box to find a signature file on your hard disk.

File Name

Enter the name of the signature file, or select a file from the list.

Directories

Select the directory where you want to select the file from.

List of File Types

Select the type of files you want to display in the files list.

Drives

Select the drive where you want to select the file from.


Save Attachment File dialog box
Save Attachment File dialog box (View Binary Attachment dialog box, File menu)

This dlg is obsolete.

Use this dialog box to save an attachment as a file.

File Name

Enter the name of the file.

Directories

Select the directory where you want to save the file.

List of File Types

Select the type of file you want to save the attachment as.

Drives

Select the drive where you want to save the file.


Attach Binary File dialog box
Attach Binary File dialog box (Compose window)

Use this dialog box to attach a binary file to a message.  Agent will automatically uuencode the file for you.  Note: If you want to insert a text file into the message, choose Insert Text File from the File menu instead.

File Name

Enter the name of the file to attach, or select a file from the list.

Directories

Select the directory where you want to select the file from.

List of File Types

Select the type of files you want to display in the files list.

Drives

Select the drive where you want to select the file from.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Insert Text File dialog box
Insert Text File dialog box (File menu)

Use this dialog box to insert a text file into a message.

File Name

Enter the name of the file to insert, or select a file from the list.

Directories

Select the directory where you want to select the file from.

List of File Types

Select the type of files you want to display in the files list.

Drives

Select the drive where you want to select the file from.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Browser Font dialog box
Browser Font dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to pick the font that groups and articles are displayed in.
Note: Article subjects are displayed in the font controlled by the Article Subject Font dialog box.

Font

Type or select a font name.

Font Style

Select a style. To use the default type style for a given font, select Regular.

Size

Type or select a size.

Sample

Shows a sample of the font as it will appear in the window.

See Also:

Message Text Display Options


Article Subject Font dialog box;Options
Article Subject Font dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to pick the font that article subjects are displayed in.
Note: The other items in the Article Pane (e.g., number of lines and author) use the font controlled by the Browser Font dialog box.

Font

Type or select a font name.

Font Style

Select a style. To use the default type style for a given font, select Regular.  Article subjects can be easier to read if you select a bold font style.

Size

Type or select a size.

Sample

Shows a sample of the font as it will appear in the window.

See Also:

Message Text Display Options


Variable-Pitch Body Font dialog box
Variable-Pitch Body Font dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to pick the variable pitch font that article bodies are normally displayed in.

Font

Type or select a font name.

Font Style

Select a style. To use the default type style for a given font, select Regular.

Size

Type or select a size.

Sample

Shows a sample of the font as it will appear in the window.

See Also:

Message Text Display Options

Fixed-Pitch Body Font dialog box


Fixed-Pitch Body Font dialog box
Fixed-Pitch Body Font dialog box (Options menu)

Use this dialog box to pick the fixed pitch font that article bodies are displayed in when you choose Fixed Pitch Font from the Article menu.

Font

Type or select a font name.  Courier and Courier New are two examples of fixed pitch fonts.

Font Style

Select a style. To use the default type style for a given font, select Regular.

Size

Type or select a size.

Sample

Shows a sample of the font as it will appear in the window.

See Also:

Message Text Display Options

Variable-Pitch Body Font dialog box


Printer Font dialog box
Printer Font dialog box (Page Setup dialog box, File menu)

Use this dialog box to pick the font that articles will print in.

Font

Type or select a font name.

Font Style

Select a style. To use the default type style for a given font, select Regular.

Size

Type or select a size.

Sample

Shows a sample of the font as it will appear in the window.


How to Send an Attachment
How to Send a Binary Attachment

Attaching files to articles and emails is quick and easy with Agent.  Since the Usenet only supports text postings, agent automatically translates (uuencodes) all non-text attachments to a standard text-based format.  Follow the steps below to attach a file to a message:

1.	Create a new article or email message.

Select one of the options on the Post menu to create the message.  Click here for more help sending articles and emails.

2.	Attach the desired file.

Press the Attachment button to browse for the file, or type the file’s name directly into the Attachment box.  You can control your attachment options with the Attachments tab on the Preferences dialog box.

3.	Add a text message (optional).

You can include a message along with the attachment.  The message appears before the attachment. If you include a message, Agent also includes your signature.

4.	Send the message.

If you use Agent on line, press Send Now to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.

If you use Agent off line and you have other messages you want to send, press Send Later.  Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.
Send Later Note:  Agent does not make a copy of the attached file prior to sending it.  If you press Send Later, make sure that the file stays around until you transmit it.

See Also:

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly


How to Retrieve an Attachment
How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment

Many newsgroups are devoted to the distribution of binary files, typically pictures and sounds.  These binary files are posted as text attachments to one or more articles.  Agent makes quick work of translating (uudecoding) the text attachments into their binary equivalent.  To retrieve an attachment, follow the steps below.

1.	Select any article in the attachment.

In most cases, Agent will be able to find all the articles which compose the attachment.  If it can’t, usually because the attachment was not posted in one of the standard ways (see How Agent finds all the parts of an attachment), follow the steps under “To manually save a binary attachment” below.

If you select articles from more than one attachment, Agent will retrieve all the attachments that have any articles selected.

2.	Retrieve and/or view the attachment.

Choose either Save Binary Attachments or Launch Binary Attachments from the File menu.  Agent saves all attachments in the directory entered in the Attachments tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

If you are configured for online use (see the Online Operation tab of the Preferences dialog box for details), Agent will immediately begin downloading and decoding the attachment.  Also, if you selected the Launch option, once the file has been saved, Agent will run the Windows application associated with the attachment's file type (see below).

If you are configured for offline use, Agent will mark all parts of the attachment for retrieval.  The next time you select Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu, Agent will download and decode the selected attachments (but not automatically launch them).

Once an attachment is retrieved, the Binary Article icon [image] appears next to all the articles in the attachment.  To view the attachment, simply double-click or press Enter on any one of its articles.  This causes Agent to launch the application associated with the attachment's file type.  The file type is determined by the attachment's filename extension.  For example, "foo.gif" is a GIF file.  For more information, see How to Configure a GIF or JPG Viewer to Work with Agent.

After you have viewed an attachment, you may decide that you want to remove it from your hard drive.  Although you can obviously do this in another program such as File Manager, Agent makes it easy for you to remove attached files.

To delete a binary attachment:

1.	Select any article in the attachment.

2.	Choose Delete Selected Binary Attachments from the File menu.

Occasionally, you may find multi-part attachments whose subject lines do not match standard convention (e.g., they don't include the typical [1/2], [2/2] notation).  To decode such files, you must tell Agent about all of the attachments components.

To manually save a binary attachment:

1.	Select all the articles that contain the attachment by clicking on one article and then, with the Control key depressed, clicking on the remaining articles.

2.	Choose Manually Save Binary Attachment from the File menu.

3.	Make sure the articles are in order.  If they are not, use the Up and Down buttons in the Save Binary Attachment dialog box to order them.

4.	Launch or save the attachment by pressing the corresponding button.  If you are offline and have not yet retrieved the attachment’s articles, Agent will immediately go online to download and decode the attachment.


How Agent finds all the parts of an attachment

Agent finds the sections of a binary attachment by searching the current group for articles with identical subjects, except for the “[n/m]” or “n of m” part.  In most cases, this works quite well because people generally use automated tools (like Agent) to post attachments.  Unfortunately, some people assign different subjects to each article (e.g., “foo.jpg [8/8] -- last one!!”).  When this happens, you can still save the attachment by selecting all of its sections and choosing Manually Save Binary Attachment from the File menu.


Getting Started

Getting up and running with Agent is simple.  Just follow the steps below and you’ll be reading articles in no time.

1.	Set your online preferences.

Choose Preferences from the Options menu and select the Online Operation tab.  If you wish to stay online with your service provider while using Agent, press the Use Online Defaults button.  If you wish to minimize your time online, press the Use Offline Defaults button.

2.	Get a list of groups.

If you did not copy the list of newsgroups from another program or retrieve a complete list when you first started Agent, select Refresh Group List from the Online menu.  Since there are several thousand groups, this may take a while.  Once the groups are retrieved, Agent will display them in the Group Pane.

3.	Subscribe to groups.

Scan through the list of groups for ones you want to follow regularly.  To find a particular group, choose Find from the Edit menu.

When you find a group that may be of interest, double-click on it.  If you want get a feel for the group before subscribing, press the Sample 50 Article Headers button.  If you know you’re interested in the group, press the Subscribe to Group button.

If you decide later that you’re interested in a group, you can subscribe to it by selecting Subscribe from the Group menu.  A newspaper [image] appears next to each subscribed group.

To unsubscribe from the group, choose the Subscribe menu option again.

4.	View only subscribed groups.

From the Group menu, choose Show Only Subscribed Groups.  Now your group pane is filtered to show only the groups you’re interested in.  To view all groups again, select Show All Groups from the Group menu.

5.	Retrieve article headers in your subscribed groups.

Choose Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups from the Online menu to download all the article headers in all your subscribed groups.

There may be several hundred new articles for each group so this operation may take a while.  But, since Agent retrieves articles in the background, you can use your computer for other tasks while Agent is working.

6.	Browse the article headers.

Once the article headers are retrieved, browse them to see which ones interest you.  If you’re using the online defaults, simply double-click or press Enter on an article to retrieve it (see How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader for more information).  If you’re using the offline defaults, mark all the articles your interested.  To mark an article, select it and press “M” or choose Mark for Retrieval from the Article menu.  When an article is marked, the download arrow [image] appears next to it.

7.	Retrieve marked articles.

If you’re using the offline defaults you marked several articles in the previous step.  To retrieve the full text of all marked articles, select Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu.  See How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader for more information.

TIP: Clicking the right mouse button in a Newsgroup window displays a Context menu, a context-sensitive list of common operations.  Simply select an option from the list to quickly perform that action.

See Also:

How to Use Agent


Toolbar

The toolbar contains buttons which give you fast access to the most common actions in Agent.

To see what a particular toolbar button does, move the mouse cursor over the button in Agent and a ToolTip box will appear with the button’s name.


Group Pane

This is where a list of newsgroups is displayed.  In this pane you can view all newsgroups, only subscribed newsgroups, or only new newsgroups.  To change which groups are displayed, choose the appropriate option from the Group menu.

TIP: You can also change which groups are displayed by clicking on the header for the group list pane (the gray area just above the list).


Article Pane

This is where the articles in the selected group are displayed.  To view articles in another group. select that group in the Group pane.


Unread Counter

This number shows you how many articles in the associated group you have not yet read.


Ignore Thread Icon

When this icon appears next to an article, Agent will not retrieve new responses to the article.  To switch between ignoring and not ignoring a thread, select Ignore Thread from the Article menu.


Expand Thread Icon

Click this icon to show the article’s responses.


Collapse Thread Icon

Click this icon to hide the article’s responses.


Number of Responses

This is the number of responses to the article.  To view the responses, click the Expand Thread icon [image].


Number of Lines

This is the number of lines in the article.


Article Body Icon

This icon tells you that the body of the article has been retrieved.


Article Body Not Available Icon

This icon tells you that the article has been deleted from your news server and is no longer available for retrieval.


Retrieval Icon

This icon tells you that the body of the article is currently being retrieved.


Watch Thread Icon

This icon tells you that Agent will automatically retrieve the bodies of new responses to this article when retrieving new article headers.  To switch between watching and not watching a thread, select Watch Thread from the Article menu.


Unread Article

When an article header is displayed in this color it means that you have not yet viewed the article’s body.


Read Article

When an article header is displayed in this color it means that you have already viewed the article’s body.


Mark for Retrieval Icon

This icon tells you that the body of the associated article will be retrieved the next time you select Retrieve Marked Articles from the Online menu.

When this icon appears next to a group, one or more articles in the group are marked for retrieval.

To mark or unmark an article, select Mark for Retrieval from the Article menu.


Keep Article Icon

This icon tells you that Agent will not automatically delete (purge) the article.  To prevent an article from being automatically purged, select Keep Article from the Article menu.  To undo the Keep status, select Keep Article again.


Body Pane

This is where an article’s text is displayed.  To view a different article’s body, select the article in the article pane.


Status Bar

This area displays information about Agent such as the online status (online or offline), the current task, and the number of queued tasks.


Zoom Button

Press this button to maximize the Group, Article, or Body pane.  To restore the window back to showing all three panes, press the button that looks like this [image].


Subscribed Group Icon

This icon appears next to subscribed groups.  To switch between subscribing and unsubscribing to a group, select Subscribe from the Group menu.  To view only your subscribed groups, select Show Only Subscribed Groups from the Group menu.


New Group Icon

This icon appears next to new groups.  To get the list of groups that have been added to your news server since the last time you retrieved groups, select Get New Groups from the Online menu.


Response Article
Follow Up Articles

These articles are responses to the one above them.  Since follow ups have the same subject as their parent, only the author is shown.


Binary Attachment Icon

This icon tells you that the article contains a binary attachment that has already been decoded.  Double-click the article to view the attachment.


Article with Attachment

This article contains a binary attachment.  To decode an attachment, choose Launch Binary Attachments from the File menu.


Groups

These are the Usenet newsgroups.  To retrieve article headers in a group, select the group and choose Get New Article Headers in Selected Groups from the Online menu.


Thread

A thread is a series of related articles grouped together.  For example, when people post responses to a question, the question and all responses together are called a thread.


Follow Up Article

A follow up article is a response to another posting.  Follow ups generally have the same subject as the original and appear indented below it.


How to Post Articles

Reading newsgroups wouldn’t be much fun if you couldn’t contribute as well.  Fortunately, posting articles with Agent is just as easy as reading them.

1.	Select the group you wish to post to.

A group is selected when it is highlighted in the Group pane or when you are viewing articles for it in the Article pane.

2.	(Optional) Select the article you are responding to.

If your article is a follow up to another posting, select that article first so that your posting is properly formatted.

3.	Open a new Posting window.

From the Post menu, choose New Article or Follow Up Article, depending on the type of posting you want.

4.	Fill in the Posting window’s fields.

If you selected a group (and article) before opening the Posting window, most of the fields should be filled in for you.  When posting a follow up article, it is common practice on the Internet to send a copy of your response via email to the original article’s author.  To do this, simply select the author’s email address from the Email To list.  If you want to override the default signature, press the All Fields button and select the desired signature in the Signature list.  For more information filling in this window, see the Compose Article window topic.

5.	(Optional) Attach a file.

If you want to attach a file to the new article, enter the file name next to the Attachment button or press the Attachment button to browse for the file.  For more information on attaching files, see How to Send a Binary Attachment.

6.	Send the article.

If you use Agent on line, press Send Now to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.

If you use Agent off line and you have other messages you want to send, press Send Later.  Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.
Send Later Note: Agent does not make copies of attached files prior to sending them.  If you attach a file and press Send Later, make sure that the file stays around until you transmit the message.

See Also:

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

How to Send Email

Article and Email Fields

Spelling dialog box

About Agent’s Dictionaries.

ROT13 Encoding and Decoding


How to Send Email

With Agent, sending email to people is a snap and sending email replies to articles is even easier.

1.	(Optional) Select the article you are responding to or forwarding.

If you’re replying to or forwarding a posting, select that article first so that your email is properly formatted.

2.	Open a new Posting window.

From the Post menu, choose New Email, Reply via Email, or Forward via Email depending on the type of email you want to send.

4.	Fill in the Posting window’s fields.

If you selected Reply via Email, the required fields should be filled in for you.  Otherwise, fill in at least the To and Subject fields.  Press the All Fields button to send “carbon copies” to other people, select a different signature, or define other information associated with the message.  For more information filling in this window, see the Compose Email window topic.

5.	(Optional) Attach a file.

If you want to attach a file to the email, enter the file name next to the Attachment button or press the Attachment button to browse for the file.  For more information on attaching files, see How to Send a Binary Attachment.

6.	Send the email.

If you use Agent on line, press Send Now to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.

If you use Agent off line and you have other messages you want to send, press Send Later.  Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.
Send Later Note: Agent does not make copies of attached files prior to sending them.  If you attach a file and press Send Later, make sure that the file stays around until you transmit the message.

See Also:

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

How to Post Articles

Article and Email Fields

Spelling dialog box

About Agent’s Dictionaries.

ROT13 Encoding and Decoding


Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

When you first start using a new program, you probably want to make sure it’s doing what you told it to do.  To make sure your articles and emails have been successfully sent, choose Open Outbox from the Window menu.  By default, all the articles and emails you send with Agent appear in this window (see the Message Posting tab of the Preferences dialog box for details).  The icons next to each message tell you the status of that message:

Icon	Meaning

The message was successfully sent.

A problem occurred sending this message.  Double-click on the message to make sure all the fields are filled in correctly and then press Send Now or Send Later to re-send the message.

The message is queued for uploading (you pressed the Send Later button after creating the message).  To send the message now, choose Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu.

The message is in the process of being sent.


Watching and Ignoring Threads

As you probably already know, some groups on the Internet are very active.  There can be several hundred new postings a day.  To help you cut through some of this noise, Agent provides you with two very powerful yet very simple features: Watching threads and Ignoring threads.

Watching Threads

When you’re browsing though article headers and come upon one that you know you’ll be interested in responses to, select Watch Thread from the Article menu or press “W.”  The Watch Thread icon, [image], will appear next to the article.  Agent automatically retrieves the bodies of all responses to watched threads when retrieving article headers.

Note: When you watch a thread with unretrieved articles, Agent automatically marks all the unretrieved articles in the thread for retrieval and, if the selected article is unretrieved, skips to the next unread article (outside of the current thread).  To retrieve the marked articles, select Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu (for details, see How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader).  To keep Agent from skipping to the next unread article, uncheck the “Watching an unread article skips to the next unread article” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Ignoring Threads

The opposite of watching threads is ignoring threads.  When you run across an article that you know you won’t be interested in responses to, select Ignore Thread from the Article menu or press “I.”  The Ignore Thread icon, [image], will appear next to all the articles in the thread.  Agent automatically marks the article and any responses to it, even those retrieved in later sessions, read.  This can significantly reduce the number of new, unread articles presented to you each time you get new article headers.

Note:  After you ignore a thread, Agent automatically skips to the next unread article.  To turn this behavior off (keep the focus on the current article), uncheck the “Watching an unread article skips to the next unread article” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

See Also:

Navigating in Agent

Marking Articles Read


Compose Article window
Compose Article window (Post menu)

Use this window to create an article to post in a newsgroup.  For more information, see How to Post Articles

Newsgroups

Enter the name of the newsgroup you wish to post to.  To post the same article on multiple groups (cross-post), enter the names of all the groups separated by commas (e.g., alt.usenet.offline-reader,alt.winsock).

Subject

Enter a brief phrase describing the article.

Email To

(Optional) Enter the email addresses of people you wish to send copies of your posting to.  If you are posting a follow-up article and want to email a copy of your posting to the original article’s author, select his/her email address from the drop-down list.  To send an email to more than one person, enter all the email addresses separated by commas (e.g., john.doe@forteinc.com,jane.doe@forteinc.com).
Note: If you usually copy the original article’s author when posting follow-ups, check the “Copy follow-up articles to author via email” box on the Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box to initialize this field accordingly.

Attachment

(Optional) Enter the name of the file to attach to the article or press the Attachment button to browse for the file.  For more information, see How to Send a Binary Attachment.

All Fields

Press this button to show and change the other fields that apply to the article.  Press this button again to hide the extra fields.

Fields

This is a list of all the fields that apply to the article.  See Article and Email Fields for a description of each field.  To change a particular field’s value, highlight the field and enter the value in the “Value for <Field>“ control below.  If a field has “Default” next to it, it’s using the default value defined on the Posting tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

Value for <Field>

the desired value for the field selected above.  If you change a field’s value and later decide to revert back to its default value, check the Use Default box to the right of this control.

Signature

Select the signature to place at the bottom of this article.  Choose [None] if you don't want a signature added to the article.  You can view, modify, or create signatures with the Signatures dialog box.  You can also define a different default signature for each group with the Posting tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

Send Now

Press this button to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.  This button appears dim when the Newsgroups field is blank.

Send Later

Press this button if you use Agent off line and you have other messages you want to send.  This button appears dim when the Newsgroups field is blank.

Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.  Note: Agent does not make a copy of the attached file prior to sending it.  If you press Send Later, make sure that the file stays around until you transmit the message.

Save

Press this button to save your article without sending it.  The article will appear in your Outbox.  To view your Outbox, choose Open Outbox Window from the Window menu.  You can double-click the article in the Outbox to edit and/or send it.

See Also:

How to Send Email

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

Message Text Display Options

Spelling dialog box

About Agent’s Dictionaries.

ROT13 Encoding and Decoding


Compose Email window
Compose Email window (Post menu)

Use this window to create an email.  For more information, see How to Send Email

To

Enter the recipient’s email address.  To send the same email to more than one person, enter all the email addresses separated by commas (e.g., john.doe@forteinc.com,jane.doe@forteinc.com).

Subject

Enter a brief phrase describing the email.

Attachment

(Optional) Enter the name of the file to attach to the email or press the Attachment button to browse for the file.  For more information, see How to Send a Binary Attachment.

All Fields

Press this button to show the other fields that apply to the email.  Press this button again to hide the extra fields.

Fields

This is a list of all the fields that apply to the message.  See Article and Email Fields for a description of each field.  To change a particular field’s value, highlight the field and enter the value in the “Value for <Field>“ control below.  If a field has “Default” next to it, it’s using the default value defined on the Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Value for <Field>

Enter the desired value for the field selected above.  If you change a field’s value and later decide to revert back to its default value, check the Use Default box to the right of this control.

Signature

Select the signature to place at the bottom of this article.  Choose [None] if you don't want a signature added to the article.  You can view, modify, or create signatures with the Signatures dialog box.

Send Now

Press this button to immediately transmit your message to the Internet.  This button appears dim when the To field is blank.

Send Later

Press this button if you use Agent off line and you have other messages you want to send.  This button appears dim when the To field is blank.

Once you have composed all your messages, select Post Articles and Emails from the Online menu to transmit them to the Internet.  Note: Agent does not make a copy of the attached file prior to sending it.  If you press Send Later, make sure that the file stays around until you transmit the message.

Save

Press this button to save your email without sending it.  The message will appear in your Outbox.  To view your Outbox, choose Open Outbox Window from the Window menu.  You can double-click the message in the Outbox to edit and/or send it.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

Message Text Display Options

Spelling dialog box

About Agent’s Dictionaries.

ROT13 Encoding and Decoding


Article and Email Fields

The following table describes the various fields available to you when composing an article or email.

Field	Description

Bcc	A list of email addresses (separated by commas) of people to receive a copy of the message without the primary recipients (the ones listed in the To and Cc fields) knowledge.  If you enter a value for this field when posting an article, it will cause Agent to also post an email message to the specified recipients.

Cc	A list of email addresses (separated by commas) of people to receive a copy of the message.  If you enter a value for this field when posting an article, it will cause Agent to also post an email message to the specified recipients.

Distribution	(News only) This field is used to alter the distribution scope of the message.  It is a comma separated list similar to the "Newsgroups" field.  User subscriptions are still controlled by "Newsgroups", but the message is sent to all systems subscribing to the newsgroups on the "Distribution" line in addition to the "Newsgroups" field.  For the message to be transmitted, the receiving site must normally receive one of the specified newsgroups AND must receive one of the specified distributions.  Thus, a message concerning a car for sale in New Jersey might have headers including:

Newsgroups: rec.auto,misc.forsale

Distribution: nj,ny

so that it would only go to persons subscribing to rec.auto or misc. for sale within New Jersey or New York.  The intent of this header is to restrict the distribution of a newsgroup further, not to increase it.  A local newsgroup, such as nj.crazy-eddie, will probably not be propagated by hosts outside New Jersey that do not show such a newsgroup as valid.  A follow-up message should default to the same "Distribution" line as the original message, but the user can change it to a more limited one, or escalate the distribution if it was originally restricted and a more widely distributed reply is appropriate.

Expires	(News only) The date you want the article to expire.

Followup-To	(News only) The newsgroups where you want follow-up articles posted.

From	The email address and optional full name of the person who posted the article or sent the email.

Keywords	Optional keywords to help categorize the article or email message.

Organization	(News only) Your organization, company, school, etc.

Reply-To	The email address where you want replies sent.  If you normally want replies sent to your From email address, you can leave this field blank.

Sender	The name of the entity responsible for submitting the article or email message to the network.  Normally, this field is blank, to indicate that the From field also names the submitting entity.  For example, if Rennie Mitchell is visiting George Mitchell and wishes to use his computer to post an email message, George would temporarily set his Sender field to his own email address and set the From field to Rennie's email address.  This indicates that the messages are being submitted by George on Rennie's behalf.

Summary	(News only) An optional summary description of the article.

See Also:

Compose Article window

Compose Email window

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


ROT13 Encoding and Decoding

Some Internet messages contain text encoded with a scheme called ROT13.  ROT13 encoded text cannot be read without first decoding it.  For example, “Hello World” encoded with ROT13 looks like this:  Uryyb Jbeyq

To decode a ROT13 message:

Select the encoded text and choose Apply ROT13 from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+R.

To encode a ROT13 message:

Select the text to encode and choose Apply ROT13 from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+R.

Note: When you decode text in an article you have retrieved, the decoding only affects your display.  If you come back to this article later, you will again see the original, encoded text.  Encoding text in a message you're creating, on the other hand, affects the actual text.  If you then post the message, other people will see it with the text encoded.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Copying a URL to the Clipboard
Copying a WWW URL to the Clipboard

Many Internet messages contain addresses of World Wide Web (WWW) pages.  Although Agent doesn’t directly support Web browsing, it makes it easy for you to copy these addresses, called URLs, to the Windows Clipboard for pasting into another program like Mosaic or Netscape.

To copy a WWW URL to the Clipboard:

While viewing an article with a URL, choose Copy WWW URL from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+U.  Agent will scan the article starting at the cursor’s current location, highlight the first URL it finds, and copy it to the Clipboard.  To search for another URL, simply press Ctrl+U again.  If Agent can’t find the URL, you may need to customize the URLPattern setting in AGENT.INI.

To paste a WWW URL into Mosaic:

Launch Mosaic and choose Open URL from its File menu.  Click in the URL field and press Ctrl+V.

To paste a WWW URL into Netscape:

Launch Netscape and choose Open Location from its File menu.  Click in the edit field and press Ctrl+V.


Common Internet Acronyms

<BG>	Big Grin
<g>	Grin
BRB	Be right back
BTW	By the way
CP	Copy protection
FUBAR	Fouled up beyond all recognition (or repair)
FWIW	For what it's worth
FYI	For your information
GD&WVVF	Grinning, ducking, and walking very, very fast
GR&D	Grinning, running, and ducking
IAE	In any event
IANAL	I am not a Lawyer
IMHO	In my humble opinion
IMO	In my opinion
IOW	In other words
LOL	Laughed out loud
LZ	Loser!
OIC	Oh, I see
OTOH	On the other hand
PITA	Pain in the Ass
PMJI	Pardon my jumping in
PMFJI	Pardon me for jumping in
ROFL	Rolling on floor, laughing
ROTFL	Rolling on the floor laughing
ROTFLMAO	Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
RSN	Real soon now
RTFM	Read the f@%# manual (or message)
SNAFU	Situation normal, all fouled up
TIA	Thanks in advance
TPTB	The powers that be
TTFN	Ta ta for now


How to Get All the Article Bodies in a Group

Agent provides you with two ways to retrieve the bodies of all the articles in a group:

To always retrieve all the bodies in a particular group:

1.	Select the group(s) for which you want to retrieve bodies.

2.	Choose Properties for Selected Groups from the Group menu.

3.	Select the Retrieving tab on the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

4.	Make sure the “Override default settings” box is checked.

5.	Check the “Retrieve bodies for all new articles” box.

To retrieve all the bodies in a group on an ad-hoc basis:

1.	Select any article in the Article Pane of the group for which you want to retrieve bodies.

2.	Choose Select All from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+A.

3.	If you are online, choose Get Selected Article Bodies from the Online menu.  If you are offline, choose Mark for Retrieval from the Article menu.  You can later retrieve the marked articles by selecting Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu.

See Also:

How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

Online Menu Commands Explained


How to configure a GIF or JPG viewer to work with Agent

The Internet contains a wide variety of graphic images which are usually stored in GIF or JPG formatted files.  Although Agent doesn’t display these images directly, you can view them from Agent if you have a GIF or JPG viewing program like LVIEW.  To configure your system for viewing graphics from Agent:

1.	Run File Manager.

From Program Manager, double-click the File Manager icon.

2.	Open the Associate dialog box.

Choose Associate from File Manager’s File menu.

3.	Create an association.

In the Associate dialog box, enter GIF or JPG into the Files with Extension box.  Enter the full path of your graphics viewer into the Associate With box or press Browse to search for the viewer on your hard drive.

See Also:

How to Retrieve a Binary Attachment


How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

If you pay an hourly rate for your Internet connection, an Offline newsreader can save you lots of money by minimizing the time you are connected to your service provider.  To use Agent as an offline reader, follow the steps below:

1.	Make sure you are configured for offline operation.

Choose Preferences from the Options menu and select the Online Operation tab.  Press the Use Offline Defaults button and Agent will automatically configure itself for offline use.

2.	Get headers for new articles.

To retrieve the headers of all the new articles in all your subscribed groups, choose Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups from the Online menu.  If you only want the new headers in a particular group, select that group and choose Get New Headers in Selected Groups from the Online menu.

Agent will now go online and retrieve the new headers.  As soon as it is done, it will go offline so that you are no longer incurring connect charges.

All the article headers Agent retrieved will be colored red (assuming you’re using Agent’s default color scheme - see the Preferences dialog box, Colors Tab).  This signifies that the article is new, or “unread.”

3.	Mark articles for retrieval.

Browse through the article headers just retrieved and look for ones that interest you.  When you find one, highlight it and do any one of the following:

•	Click the Mark for Retrieval toolbar icon

•	Choose Mark for Retrieval from the Article menu

•	Press the M or Enter key

•	Double-click on the article

Repeat the above step for each article whose body you wish to retrieve.

4.	Get marked article bodies.

Once you’ve marked all the interesting articles in all your groups, choose Get Marked Article Bodies from the Online menu.

Agent will now go online to retrieve the full text of all your marked articles and go offline as soon as it’s done.

5.	Read the retrieved articles.

Any articles you did not mark in the previous step will automatically have been marked read when you retrieved marked article bodies in the previous step (see Marking Articles Read for details).  You can now use the options on the Navigate menu to quickly find and read the articles you just retrieved.

See Also:

Navigating in Agent

How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

About Article Purging

Online Menu Commands Explained

Watching and Ignoring Threads

Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Retrieving tab


How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

If you don’t pay an hourly rate for your Internet connection, you probably want to remain connected to your service provider while using Agent.  To use Agent as an online reader, follow the steps below:

1.	Make sure you are configured for online operation.

Choose Preferences from the Options menu and select the Online Operation tab.  Press the Use Online Defaults button and Agent will automatically configure itself to stay online.

2.	Get headers for new articles.

To retrieve the headers of all the new articles in all your subscribed groups, choose Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups from the Online menu.  If you only want the new headers in a particular group, select that group and choose Get New Headers in Selected Groups from the Online menu.

Agent will now go online if you’re not currently connected to the news server.  It will remain online until you manually go offline (by exiting the program or deselecting Online from the Online menu) or it detects an extended period of inactivity.

All the article headers Agent retrieved will be colored red (assuming you’re using Agent’s default color scheme - see the Preferences dialog box, Colors Tab).  This signifies that the article is new, or “unread” (see Marking Articles Read for more information).

3.	Read articles.

To read an article, select it and choose View Selected Article from the Navigate menu.  You can also read an article by simply double-clicking on it or highlighting it and pressing Enter.  To read the next unread article, use the View Next Unread Article (Ctrl+N) or View Next Unread Article in Thread (Ctrl+T) commands on the Navigate menu.  These commands jump to the next unread article and retrieve its body at the same time.

See Also:

Navigating in Agent

How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

About Article Purging

Online Menu Commands Explained

Watching and Ignoring Threads

Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, Retrieving tab


Article Header

A brief description of an article.  An article’s header contains key information about the article, such as its author and subject, but does not include the text, or “body,” of the article itself.


Article Body

The actual text of an article.  The other components of an article, such as its subject, author, etc., are called the article’s “header.”


Marking Articles Read

New articles you retrieve are initially marked unread.  When you view the article’s body, Agent then marks that article read.  Since you probably don’t read all the articles whose headers you retrieve, Agent automatically marks the articles you don’t care about as read.

To control when Agent automatically marks articles read:

By default, Agent automatically marks unwanted articles read whenever you retrieve article headers or bodies.  This makes it easy for you to find the new articles because they will be the only ones which are unread.  To change this behavior, choose Properties for Selected Groups from the Group menu and select the Marking Read tab.

To manually mark articles read:

Select the articles you want to mark read and choose Mark Article Read from the Article menu.  To mark all the articles in a group read, select the group and choose Mark Selected Groups Read from the Group menu or Mark All Articles Read from the Article menu (these two commands are equivalent).  To mark all the articles in all your groups read, choose Mark All Groups Read from the Group menu.

To manually mark an article unread:

Select the articles you want to mark unread and choose Mark Article Unread from the Article menu.  To mark all the articles in a group unread, select the group and choose Mark All Articles Unread from the Article menu.

See Also:

Watching and Ignoring Threads


About Article Purging

In general, Agent automatically deletes, or “purges,” old articles for you.

When does Agent purge articles:

There are three times when articles can be purged:

•	When retrieving new headers

Agent can purge a group’s old articles whenever it retrieves new article headers for that group.  To turn this feature on, check the “When retrieving new headers” box on the When to Purge tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

•	When closing Agent

Agent can purge old articles from all groups when exited.  To enable this option, check the “When closing Agent” box in the When to Purge group on the When to Purge tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

•	On demand

You can manually purge old articles by selecting one of the options from the Purge Articles flyout on the Group menu.  Or, to immediately delete an article without purging the other articles in the group, select the article and, from the Article menu, choose either Delete Article (to remove the entire article) or Delete Article Body (to remove the article’s text while continuing to display its header in the Article pane).  A message will appear asking you to confirm the delete action.  To turn off the delete confirmation message, see the Confirmations tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Which articles does Agent purge:

Agent provides you many options when deciding which articles to automatically purge.  You can purge articles once you’ve read them or after a certain period of time.  You can even setup Agent to mirror your news server - so you’ll only see articles that are available for retrieval.  To define which articles get purged, see the What to Purge tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

How to prevent Agent from purging an article:

Occasionally you will come across an article that you don’t want Agent to automatically purge.  To prevent Agent from deleting an article, regardless of the group’s purge settings, highlight the article and choose Keep Article from the Article menu or press the Keep Article toolbar button [image].  The Keep Article icon, [image], will appear next to the article.  To remove the Keep Article icon, choose the Keep Article command again.

Note: When the Keep Article icon appears next to an article, you cannot manually delete the article or its body.  You must remove the Keep Article icon first.

See Also:

Compacting Agent’s Database Files


Purge Articles Flyout

Subscribed Groups - Purges articles from all your subscribed groups.

Selected Groups - Purges articles from the current group or highlighted groups.

All Groups - Purges articles from all your groups.


Compacting Agent’s Database Files

So that Agent can work quickly and efficiently, it does not always ensure that its database files are as small as possible.  If disk space is at a premium, there are two ways that you can compact your databases to remove the wasted space that may accumulate.

To manually compact the database files:

Choose Compact Databases from the File menu.  Agent will scan the databases to determine how much disk space you will save.  After the scan is complete, you may choose to either proceed with the compaction or cancel without affecting any files.

To automatically compact the database files:

You define when Agent should automatically compact your databases with the When to Purge tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.  In general, you probably don’t need to compact your databases automatically.  Compacting after you change your purge settings should be sufficient for most people.

See Also:

About Article Purging


Navigating in Agent

Agent provides you with a rich set of tools for moving between newsgroups and articles.  Most of these tools can be accessed from the Navigate menu, the toolbar, and the keyboard.  Although you probably won’t use all the available options, this topic will make you familiar with them so that you can choose which navigation techniques best suit you.

Moving between panes

As you probably already know, Agent is composed of three panes: the Group pane, the Article pane, and the Body pane.  You can view all three panes at the same time, or, to maximize the information you see on-screen, Zoom the newsgroup window to expand the current pane to fill Agent’s window.

To Zoom a newsgroup window:

•	Select Zoom Window from the Navigate menu

•	Press “Z”

•	Click the Maximize icon [image] in the pane you wish to expand.

To view all three panes at the same time (turn Zoom off):

•	Select Zoom Window from the Navigate menu

•	Press “Z”

•	Click the Restore icon [image].

You can easily move the focus between the panes with both the mouse and the keyboard.

To move between panes with the mouse:

•	When viewing all three panes, simply click on the desired pane.

•	When zoomed in on a pane, click the tab for the pane you wish to view:

To move between panes with the keyboard:

•	Press the Tab key to move from the Group pane to the Article pane to the Body pane.

•	Press Shift+Tab or Escape to move in the reverse order.

Moving between articles

Moving between articles is probably the single most common action you perform in Agent.  That’s why Agent provides you so many different ways to do this.

To move to the previous or next article:

•	From the Article pane, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move between articles.

•	From the Body pane, choose Up to Previous Article (or press “U”) or Down to Next Article (or press “D”) from the Navigate menu.  Note: These commands also work in the Article pane.

To move to the next unread article:

•	Press “N” or the Skip to Next Unread Article toolbar icon [image] to skip to the next unread article.  By default, if the next unread article is in a different group, skipping to the next unread article causes Agent to open that group and select the first unread article.  If you would prefer Agent to move you to the Group pane instead (so that you can more easily tell when you’re done with a group), uncheck the “Skipping to next unread article jumps to first unread article in next group” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

•	Press “T” or the Skip to Next Unread Article in Thread toolbar icon [image] to skip to the next unread article in the current thread.  This action is handy because when you reach the last follow-up article, Agent stops navigating, telling you that the thread is over.

•	Press “S” or the Skip to Next Unread Group toolbar icon [image] to skip to the first unread article in the next group.  By default, this action marks all the unread articles in the current group as read before skipping to the next group.  This is a convenient way to tell Agent that you have read all the interesting articles in the current group.  You can disable this behavior by unchecking the “Skipping to next unread group marks all articles in current group read” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Navigating and retrieving articles at the same time

Since you need to retrieve an article before you can read it, Agent allows you to skip to an unread article and retrieve it (or mark it for retrieval) in one step.  Note: Whether Agent retrieves the article or marks it for later retrieval is controlled by the Viewing Unretrieved Articles When Offline radio buttons on the Online Operation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

To retrieve the next unread article:

•	Press Ctrl+N or the View Next Unread Article toolbar icon [image] to skip to the next unread article and retrieve it (or mark it for retrieval).  Note: The action is controlled by the same preference settings affecting “N” (see above).

•	Press Ctrl+T or the View Next Unread Article in Thread toolbar icon [image] to skip to the next unread article in the current thread and retrieve it (or mark it for retrieval).

When configured for offline use (see the Online Operation tab of the Preferences dialog box for details), you generally mark all the desired articles for retrieval and then retrieve marked article bodies.  By default, Agent skips to the next unread article (performs the “N” action) when you mark an article for retrieval.  You can turn this behavior off by unchecking the “Marking or ignoring an article skips to the next unread article” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Expanding and collapsing threads

Agent displays follow-up articles indented under the original article.  To save screen real-estate, these threads are initially shown collapsed, so only the top-most article is visible.  When a thread is collapsed, the Expand Thread icon [image] appears next to it.

To expand a thread:

•	Click the Expand Thread icon.

•	Select the article and press the “+” key.

•	To expand all the threads in a group, hold down the Shift key while pressing the “+” key.

When a thread is expanded, the Collapse Thread icon [image] appears next to it.

To collapse a thread:

•	Click the Collapse Thread icon.

•	Select the article and press the “-” key.

•	To collapse all the threads in a group, hold down the Shift key while pressing the “-” key.

Agent can also automatically expand threads for you.  By default, Agent expands threads when you skip to them.  Note: Agent will automatically expand the thread when skip to it only if you have already retrieved the body of the original article.  To prevent Agent from expanding threads when you skip to them, uncheck the “Automatically expand threads containing new articles” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.  If you always want all threads expanded, uncheck the “Show threads initially collapsed” box on the Navigation tab of the Preferences dialog box.

See Also:

Watching and Ignoring Threads

How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

Online Menu Commands Explained


Printing Articles

Agent allows you to print one or more articles in a single group with one command.

To print articles:

1.	Define how you want the printed articles to appear (margins, fonts, etc.) with the Page Setup dialog box.

2.	Select all the articles to print.  If you select a collapsed thread, Agent will print all articles in the thread.  Agent only prints articles whose bodies have been retrieved.

3.	Choose Print from the File menu.  Press OK on the Print dialog box to start printing the articles.

See Also:

Save Article As dialog box


Finding Groups or Articles

Agent allows you to search for groups by the name of the group and for articles by the article’s subject or author.

To find a group:

1.	Make sure the focus is in the Group pane.  Note: You can do this by selecting any group in the Group pane.

2.	Choose Show All Groups from the Group menu.

3.	Choose Find from the Edit menu.

4.	Enter any part of the desired group’s name in the Find dialog box.  For example, if you enter win into the Find dialog box, Agent will find, among others, alt.winsock, alt.sewing, and rec.crafts.winemaking.

5.	Press Find First to find the first group in the Group pane with this text in its name.  Press Find Next to find the first group below the currently selected one with this text in its name.

6.	If the found group isn’t the one you were looking for, press F3 or choose Find Next from the Edit menu to search for the next group with the text you entered.

To find an article:

1.	Make sure the focus is in the Article pane of the group you want to search.  Note: You can do this by selecting any article in desired group.

2.	Choose Find from the Edit menu.

3.	Enter any part of the desired subject or name in the Find dialog box.

4.	Press Find First to find the first article whose subject or author contains the text you entered.  Press Find Next to find the first article below the currently selected one with this text in the subject or author fields.

5.	If the found article isn’t the one you were looking for, press F3 or choose Find Next from the Edit menu to search for the next article in this group that contains the text you entered.


How Agent Knows Which Articles are New

When you select either Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups or Get New Headers in Selected Groups, Agent only retrieves the articles that have been posted to the groups since the last time you checked for new articles.

How does Agent know which articles are new and which ones you’ve previously retrieved?  Every time an article is posted to a group, the news server assigns it a number that is one higher than the last article posted to that group.  Each time you retrieve headers for a group, Agent keeps track of the highest article number retrieved.  This number is stored in the “Highest article retrieved” field on the Retrieving tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.  The next time you tell Agent to retrieve new headers for a group, it will retrieve only the headers of articles whose number is greater than the “Highest article retrieved” value.

You can reset the high article number by selecting the desired group and choosing Catch Up With Selected Groups from the Online menu.  This causes Agent to connect with the news server and query it for the highest article number without retrieving any new headers.

See Also:

Online Menu Commands Explained


Online Menu Commands Explained

The Online menu contains the commands which cause Agent to interact with the Internet.  This topic describes these actions in detail and provides links to related Help topics.

Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups

Retrieves all the article headers that have been posted to your subscribed groups since the last time you checked for new articles.  By default, Agent marks a group’s existing articles read before it retrieves new headers for that group.  To change this behavior for all your groups, uncheck the “New article headers” box on the Marking Read tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Get New Headers in Selected Groups

Retrieves all the article headers that have been posted to the selected groups since the last time you checked for new articles.  By default, Agent marks a group’s existing articles read before it retrieves new headers for that group.  To change this behavior for a particular group, select that group and uncheck the “New article headers” box on the Marking Read tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box.

See Also:

How Agent Knows Which Articles are New

How to Get All the Article Bodies in a Group

Marking Articles Read

Retrieving tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box

Get Marked Article Bodies

Retrieves the bodies of all the articles you marked for retrieval.  Articles from all groups with marked articles are retrieved with this command (not just ones from the selected group).  Also, by default, articles that were not marked for retrieval are made read when Agent retrieves marked article bodies for that group. To change this behavior, uncheck the “Marked article bodies” box on the Marking Read tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

See Also:

How to Use Agent as an Offline Newsreader

Get Selected Article Bodies

Retrieves the full text of the selected article(s).  You can also retrieve an article’s body by double-clicking on the article or by highlighting it and pressing Enter.  Note: Even if you are configured for offline use (see the Online Operation tab of the Preferences dialog box for details), selecting this menu command causes Agent to go online and retrieve the selected articles.

See Also:

How to Use Agent as an Online Newsreader

Sample 50 Headers from Selected Groups

Retrieves article headers for the 50 most recently posted articles in the selected groups.  This command is useful when you are looking at new groups and don’t want to get stuck retrieving hundreds of headers for a group you may not be interested in.  Note: You can change the number of articles retrieved when you sample a group with the Retrieving tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

If, after sampling some of the headers, you decide that you are interested in the group, choose Get All Headers in Selected Groups to retrieve the remaining articles.

See Also:

View Empty Group dialog box

Get All Headers in Selected Groups

Retrieves article headers for every article in the selected groups.  In general, you should use one of the Get New Headers commands to retrieve articles because they retrieve only the articles you haven’t seen.  This command is useful, however, after you’ve sampled some headers from a group and want to retrieve the remaining ones.  You can also use this command to retrieve articles that you manually deleted or that were automatically purged.

See Also:

About Article Purging

Catch Up With Selected Groups

Retrieves the highest article number for the selected groups without retrieving any article headers.  The next time you get new headers for the groups, Agent will only retrieve articles posted after you did the catch up.

Note: Some other newsreaders employ a slightly different implementation of catch up.  When you “catch up” in those programs, they do not retrieve the highest article number.  Instead, they simply mark read the articles you previously retrieved.  You can achieve the same behavior in Agent with the Mark Selected Groups Read command on the Group menu.

See Also:

Marking Articles Read

Post Articles and Emails

Transfers any queued articles and emails to the Internet.

See Also:

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email

Making Sure Articles and Emails Were Sent Properly

Get New Groups

Retrieves all the newsgroups which were added to your news server since that last time you updated your group list.  The new groups Agent retrieves will have the New Group icon, [image], next to them until the next time you get new groups.  To view just the new groups, choose Show Only New Groups from the Group menu.  Note: On rare occasions, a group may be added to your news server in such a way that Get New Groups will not retrieve it.  For this reason, you may want to periodically use the Refresh Groups List action instead.

Refresh Groups List

Retrieves a complete list of groups from the news server.  Use this command when you want to recover a group you previously deleted or when you want to purge groups that are no longer available on the news server.

See Also:

Refresh Groups List dialog box

Stop All Tasks

Causes Agent to immediately abort the current and any pending online tasks.

Online

Toggles Agent’s Online status.  When this menu option is checked (the toolbar button appears illuminated), Agent is online and selecting it will take Agent offline.  When this menu option does not have a checkmark next to it (the toolbar button appears as above), Agent is offline and selecting it will cause Agent to connect to your service provider.  You can also press the toolbar button to toggle Agent’s online status.


Delete Group command
Delete Group command (Group menu)

Use this command to remove a group from your group list.

To remove a specific group from your group list:

Select the group and choose Delete Group from the Group menu.

To remove all extinct groups from your group list:

Choose Refresh Group List from the Online menu.  On the Refresh Group List dialog box, select the “Delete all extinct groups” option.

To recover groups you deleted:

Choose Refresh Group List from the Online menu.


Cancel Article command
Cancel Article command (Article menu)

Use this command to remove an article you posted.  Canceling an article sends a message to your news server asking it to delete the article.  This message is also passed along to the other news servers on the Internet so that they can delete the article as well.

To cancel an article:

1.	Select the article and choose Cancel Article from the Article menu.  You can only cancel your own articles.  Note: Cross-posted articles only need to be canceled from one of the cross-posted groups.

2.	In the Compose Article window, press Send Now or Send later to transmit the message to your news server.  You should not make any other changes to the message.

After sending the message, the article will continue to appear in Agent until it’s automatically pruned or you delete it (see About Article Purging for details).  Since some news servers do not accept cancel requests, you may want to verify that the posting was actually deleted.

To verify that the article was deleted:

1.	Highlight the article you canceled.

2.	Delete the article’s body by selecting Delete Article Body from the Article menu.

3.	Try to retrieve the article’s body again by choosing Get Selected Article Bodies from the Online menu.  If the cancel request was accepted, the Article Body Not Available icon [image] will appear next to the article.


Message Text Display Options

The following settings control the appearance of message text:

Normal Font

The standard font used to display message text is defined in the Variable-Pitch Body Font dialog box.

Fixed Pitch Font

You can also display message text in a fixed-pitch font. Many people on the Internet have fancy ASCII-graphic signatures.  These signatures will look like a jumble of lines and letters unless they are displayed in a fixed-pitch font.  To display messages you’ve retrieved in a fixed-pitch font, choose Fixed Pitch from the Article menu.  To display messages you’re composing in a fixed-pitch font, choose Fixed Pitch from the Compose window’s Message menu.  To return to the standard, variable-pitch font, select the Fixed Pitch menu option again.  You define which fixed-pitch font you want Agent to use in the Fixed-Pitch Body Font dialog box.

Word Wrap Lines

Occasionally you will see messages with very long lines that don’t fit on your screen.  When this happens, simply select Word Wrap from the Article menu and Agent will break these lines at the end of the window.

Messages you send are automatically word wrapped at the length defined in the Message Posting tab of the Preferences dialog box.  If your Compose window is narrower than this value, select Word Wrap from the Message menu and Agent will wrap your lines when they reach the end of the window.  Note: This wrapping is for your display only.  When the message is sent, each line is wrapped at the value defined in the Preferences dialog box.

Display Header Fields

Usenet articles can have many fields associated with them, only a few of which are important (e.g., Subject and Author).  Since you generally don’t care about the remaining fields, Agent hides them from.  To see these remaining fields, select Show All Header Fields from the Article menu.  For a description of what these fields represent, see Article and Email Fields.

See Also:

Compose Article window

Compose Email window


Spelling dialog box
Spelling dialog box (Message menu)

Use this dialog box to check the spelling of your message before sending it.

To spell check the entire message:

•	Make sure no text is highlighted in the message’s body before starting the spell check.  Note: Agent only checks the body of the message for spelling errors.

To spell check only a portion of the message:

•	Highlight the desired text before starting the spell check.

Not in Dictionary / Repeated Word

This control shows the misspelled or repeated word.  The word will also be highlighted in the Compose window.  TIP: If you want to edit the word, click this box to copy it to the Change To box.

Change To

Enter the word’s correct spelling or pick the correct spelling from the Suggestions list.  If you want to remove the word from the message, delete the text from this box and press the Delete button (which appears in place of the Change button when you delete all the text here).

Suggestions

This is a list of possible replacement words.  If the list is empty, press the Suggest button.  To have Agent automatically make suggestions, press the Options button and check the Always Suggest box.

Ignore

Press this button to leave the found word as-is and continue checking the message.  If you don’t want Agent to flag this word again, press either the Ignore All or Add buttons (see below for a description).

Ignore All

Press this button to leave the found word and any other occurrences of it as-is.  Agent will not stop on this word again until you close the program and restart it or you press the Reset Ignore All button on the Spell Checking Options dialog box.  Note: Press Options to open the Spell Checking Options dialog box.

Start

Press this button to continue the spell check after editing the message.  Note: This button appears only after you edit the message.

Change / Delete

Press this button to replace the found word with the one in the Change To box.  Note: This button is labeled “Delete” when the Change To box is empty.

Change All / Delete All

Press this button to replace all occurrences of the found word with the word in the Change To box.  Note: This button is labeled Delete All when the Change To box is empty.

Add

Press this button to add the found word to your custom dictionary.  For more information about your custom dictionary, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

Suggest

Press this button to fill the Suggestions box with a list of possible replacement words.  To have Agent automatically make suggestions, press the Options button and check the Always Suggest box.  TIP: If you edit the Change To text, you can press this button to spell check the new word.

Options

Press this button to open the Spell Checking Options dialog box.  This dialog box allows you change the language dictionary, edit your custom dictionary, and modify other settings that affect how the spell checker behaves.


Spell Checking Options dialog box
Spell Checking Options dialog box (Spelling dialog box, Message menu)

Use this dialog box to define various settings that affect how the Agent spell checker behaves.  Except where noted, changing a setting on this dialog box also changes it on the Spelling tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Language

Select the language dictionary to use while spell checking this message.  Note: Changing this setting only affects the current message.  To specify a default language for all messages, pick the desired language from the Default Language list on the Spelling tab of the Preferences dialog box (Options menu).  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

Always Suggest

Check this box to have the spell checker automatically suggest possible replacements words.

Check for repeated words

When checked, the spell checker will stop when it finds the same word twice in a row.

Words in UPPERCASE

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words composed of all uppercase letters.

Words with numbers

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words containing numbers.

Quoted lines

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words which appear on lines beginning with a quote character (as defined by the Quoted Text setting on the Preferences dialog boxes’ Display tab).

Reset Ignore All

When you press the Ignore All button during a spelling check, Agent adds the selected word to a temporary Ignore All dictionary so that it won’t flag the word again.  Normally, this dictionary is cleared when you close Agent.  Press this button to immediately clear the Ignore All dictionary.

Custom Dictionary for...

The controls in this group allow you to add and remove words from your custom dictionary.  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

To add a word to your custom dictionary:

1.	Enter the word into the Edit box.

2.	Press the Add button.

To remove a word from your custom dictionary:

1.	Select the word from the list.

2.	Press the Delete button.

To remove all the words from your custom dictionary:

•	Press the Clear button.


Preferences dialog box, Spelling tab
Preferences dialog box (Options menu)

Spelling Tab

Use this dialog box to define various settings that affect how the Agent spell checker behaves.

Default Language

Select the default language dictionary to use for spell checking messages.  You can choose a different language to be the default for message to each group (see the Posting tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box) or override the language used for a specific message (see the Spell Checking Options dialog box).  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.  Note: Changing this setting here also changes the Spell Check Language set on the Posting tab of the Default Properties for All Groups dialog box.

Always Suggest

Check this box to have the spell checker automatically suggest possible replacements words.

Check for repeated words

When checked, the spell checker will stop when it finds the same word twice in a row.

Words in UPPERCASE

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words composed of all uppercase letters.

Words with numbers

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words containing numbers.

Quoted lines

Check this box to have the spell checker ignore words which appear on lines beginning with a quote character (as defined by the Quoted Text setting on the Preferences dialog boxes’ Display tab).

Reset Ignore All

When you press the Ignore All button during a spelling check, Agent adds the selected word to a temporary Ignore All dictionary so that it won’t flag the word again.  Normally, this dictionary is cleared when you close Agent.  Press this button to immediately clear the Ignore All dictionary.

Custom Dictionary for...

The controls in this group allow you to add and remove words from your custom dictionary.  For more information, see About Agent’s Dictionaries.

To add a word to your custom dictionary:

1.	Enter the word into the Edit box.

2.	Press the Add button.

To remove a word from your custom dictionary:

1.	Select the word from the list.

2.	Press the Delete button.

To remove all the words from your custom dictionary:

•	Press the Clear button.


About Agent’s Dictionaries

Agent’s spell checker supports the following languages:

•	American English

•	International English

•	French

•	German

•	Italian

•	Spanish

To install a dictionary for another language:

1.	Download the desired language’s dictionary file from our FTP site.  The dictionary files are located in ftp.forteinc.com/pub/forte/dictionaries/.

2.	Unzip the dictionary file into your Agent directory.
(E.g., pkunzip german.zip c:\agent)

After restarting Agent, you can spell check messages in any of the installed languages.

To spell check a message:

While composing the message, choose Spelling from the Message menu.

To set the default language for all messages:

On the Spelling tab of the Preferences dialog box, select the desired language from the Default Language drop-down list

To set the default language for all messages to a particular group:

Select the group and then, on the Posting tab of the Properties for Selected Groups dialog box, pick the desired language from the Spell Check Language drop-down list

To override the default language for a particular message:

Press the Options button on the Spelling dialog box to open the Spell Checking Options dialog box.  Then, select the desired language from the Language drop-down list.

You can also add your own words to Agent’s dictionaries.  The spell checker supports one custom dictionary for each language.  When you press the Add button on the Spelling dialog box, Agent adds the selected word to the current language’s custom dictionary (press the Options button to see what the current language is).

To remove words from your custom dictionary:

1.	Open the Spelling tab of the Preferences dialog box (Options menu).

2.	In the Default Language drop-down list, choose the language associated with the custom dictionary.

3.	Select the word to delete in the Edit list.

4.	Press the Delete button.

See Also:

Compose Article window

Compose Email window

How to Post Articles

How to Send Email


Forté Agent Registration dialog box

This dialog box is displayed the first time you run Agent.  You must enter the registration key you received via email into the entry box.  If you have not received your registration key within 24 hours of placing your order, please send email to order-question@forteinc.com.

Since registration keys can be very long, you will probably want to copy it from your email program and paste it into this dialog box.

To paste the registration key from a standard Windows email program:

1.	Highlight the registration key in the email message.  Be sure to highlight the entire key and nothing else in the message.

2.	Choose Copy from the Edit menu to copy the key to the Clipboard.

3.	Run Agent.

4.	In this dialog box, click in the entry box and press Ctrl+V to paste the key.


Forté Agent Registration dialog box

This is the shrink-wrapped registration dialog box.


Ordering Agent

For a limited time only, Forté is offering a pre-release version of Agent, called Agent .99, to individuals who wish to purchase our commercial newsreader product.  Agent .99 includes all the features of Free Agent plus a multilingual spelling checker and 6 months of technical support via email.  By purchasing Agent .99 now, you will also receive a free upgrade to Agent 1.0 when it’s available.  For more information on this special offer, please see our home page at <http://www.forteinc.com/forte>.

You can purchase Agent .99 in any of the following ways:

1.	Through the World Wide Web.  This is the fastest and easiest way to get Agent.  Forté’s ordering page is on a secure Netscape Commerce Server, ensuring that your confidential information remains confidential.  For details on ordering Agent through the Web, please see our home page at <http://www.forteinc.com/forte>.

2.	If you don’t have convenient Web access, the next best way to order Agent is by fax or mail.  Simply print out and complete the Agent Order Form and either fax it to Forté’s Agent Order Desk in Carlsbad, California at 619.431.6497 or mail it to:
Agent .99
c/o Forté
2141 Palomar Airport Road
Suite 100
Carlsbad, CA 92009

3.	If neither of the above methods are suitable, you can call the Agent Order Hotline at 619.431.6496.  The Hotline is open from Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.


AGENT.INI

;=====================================================================

[Profile]

FullName=

;Your full name as you want it to appear in your messages.

;You may leave this blank.

EMailAddress=

;Your email address.

ReplyTo=

;Where replies to your messages should be sent,

;if different from your email address.

Organization=

;Your organization.

;You may leave this blank.

DoAuthorization=0

;When non-zero, perform authorization login to news server.

SavePassword=1

;Save authorization password between sessions.

UserName=

;News server authorization username.

Password=

;News server authorization password (encrypted).

IsLicensed=1

;User has accepted the license agreement.

IsRegistered=1

;User has registered Free Agent.

EnableSupportMenu=0

;System administrators for site-based copies of Agent can turn this

;parameter on to display the Post | Support Question menu option.

;=====================================================================

[View]

AutoOpenMode=1

;Automatically maintain positioning in subsidiary browsers when

;the highlight in a browser changes.

ShowToolBar=1

;Display the toolbar at the top of the screen

ShowStatusBar=1

;Display the status bar at the bottom of the screen

StatusBarFont=MS Sans Serif, 80, 0, 0, 0,0,0

;Font used for text in the status bar.

InitialView=1

;Specifies the initial view for the Group Pane:

;	0 - All Groups

;	1 - Subscribed Groups

;	2 - New Groups

MainWindowPosition="0 1 -1 -1 -4 -4 86 57 875 677"

;Initial screen position of the program's main window

BrowserPosition="3 3 94 347 -4 -23 15 18 663 348"

;Initial screen position of the browser

;=====================================================================

[Browser]

NormalFont=Arial, 80, 0,0, 0,0,0

;Font for normal items

;<fontname>, <points*10>, <bold>, <italic>, <red>,<green>,<blue>

BoldFont=MS Sans Serif, 80, 1,0, 0,0,0

;Font for special items( e.g. first article in thread)

;<fontname>, <points*10>, <bold>, <italic>, <red>,<green>,<blue>

ScrollMargin=2

;The minimum number of lines to maintain above and below the

;highlighted item when scrolling with the cursor keys.  This keeps the ;highlight from getting pinned at either the top or bottom screen rows.

FollowUpIndent=4

;Amount to indent follow-up articles in the article list pane,

;in characters.

MaxNestLevel=6

;The maximum indentation level for response articles in the article

;list browser.  The absolute maximum level allowed is 15.

CollapseThreads=1

;Initially collapse threads in the article list pane.

ExpandNewThread=1

;When positioning on a new article, automatically expand the thread

;if the article is a follow-up and if the first article in the thread

;has been retrieved.

SubjectThreading=1

;Use subjects to combine articles into threads, in addition to message

;references.

ArticleListColumns=147,745

;Offsets of the left edges of the columns in the article browser pane,

;in units of 10x the average character width.

;The edge of the left-most column is always 0, so is not included here.

OutBoxColumns=87,432,697

;Offsets of the left edges of the columns in the outbox browser,

;in units of 10x the average character width.

;The edge of the left-most column is always 0, so is not included here.

NewSubjectStartsNewThread=1

;When set, a follow-up article that contains a different subject than

;its referenced article starts a new thread.  When this option is not

;set, Agent includes the follow-up in its referenced article's thread.

SpeedMenuRightButton=0

;When non-zero, the right mouse button selects options from the context

;menu.  When 0 (the default), the left button must be used.

WatchSkipsToNextUnread=1

;When this option is on (the default), watching an unread article

;causes Agent to skip to the next unread article.

;=====================================================================

[Article]

VariableFont=MS Sans Serif, 100, 0,0, 0,0,0

;Variable-pitch font for the article body viewer

;<fontname>, <points*10>, <bold>, <italic>, <red>,<green>,<blue>

FixedFont=Courier, 100, 0,0, 0,0,0

;Fixed-pitch font for the article body viewer

;<fontname>, <points*10>, <bold>, <italic>, <red>,<green>,<blue>

UseFixedFont=1

;Use the fixed-pitch font for articles

WordWrap=1

;Word wrap articles

ShowHeader=1

;Show all header fields in articles

QuotedTextMarkers=>:|}

;The characters that mark a quoted line of text in an article.

;If a line begins with any of these characters, it is assumed to be

;quoted.

URLPattern=[a-zA-Z]+:/[^ \t\r\n>)\]"']*[a-zA-Z0-9/]

;A regular expression defining the pattern for URLs

TabSpacing=3

;Tab spacing for articles.

SaveArticleFields=2

;Controls which header fields to save when writing an article to a text file

;	0	No fields

;	1	Subject, author, and date only

;	2	All fields

SaveArticleAppend=1

;If the file to which an article being saved already exists, append to

;it.  Otherwise, overwrite the file after prompting for verification.

PageDownMode=0

;Controls the behavior of the PageDown key in the Body Pane.

;When the option is non-zero, Agent will not page down if the last

;line of the article is visible.  The default setting is zero.

;=====================================================================

[Groups]

LastUpdate=

;The most recent date and time at which the program retrieved a list

;of new Usenet groups, in GMT.  When the program retrieves a list of

;new groups, it asks for all groups created after this date.

;

;Setting this to blank forces the program to retrieve a list of all

;groups.

;=====================================================================

[Servers]

NewsServer=

;The name of the NNTP news server

MailServer=

;The name of the SMTP mail server

NNTPPort=119

;Winsock port to use for connecting to the NNTP news server.

;When this value is the standard news server port number (119), Agent

;first asks the winsock driver for the port number to use.  If that

;call (getservbyname) fails, Agent then tries to use this port number.

;When this value is *not* the standard news server port number, Agent

;uses it instead of the asking the winsock driver for the port number

;to use.

SMTPPort=25

;Winsock port to use for connecting to the SMTP mail server.

;When this value is the standard mail server port number (25), Agent

;first asks the winsock driver for the port number to use.  If that

;call (getservbyname) fails, Agent then tries to use this port number.

;When this value is *not* the standard mail server port number, Agent

;uses it instead of the asking the winsock driver for the port number

;to use.

;=====================================================================

[Online]

AutoDisconnect=1

;Disconnect from news server after <NoActivityTimeout> seconds of

;inactivity.  Zero means never disconnect.

NoActivityTimeout=300

;Period of no activity after which the program should disconnect

;from the NNTP server (seconds).

MailAutoDisconnect=1

;Disconnect from mail server after <MailNoActivityTimeout> seconds of

;inactivity.  Zero means never disconnect.

MailNoActivityTimeout=5

;Period of no SMTP activity after which the program should disconnect

;from the SMTP server (seconds).

SendKeepAliveMsgs=1

;Send "keep alive" messages to the news server.

;This keeps the dial-up connection alive.

KeepAlivePeriod=60

;How often, in seconds, to send a keep alive message during periods of

;inactivity.

XHdrOnly=1

;When non-zero, use XHDR commands to request article header information

;from the news server, rather than XOVER.  Some servers do not support

;the newer XOVER command, which is faster than XHDR.  The program

;automatically detects whether the server recognizes XOVER and falls

;back to XHDR if it doesn't.  But, you can also use this option to

;force it to always use XHDR.

EnablePriorityTask=1

;When non-zero, enable priority tasks for retrieving article bodies.

;This allows the program to open two channels to the news server,

;with one reserved as a priority channel for retrieving articles.

AutoView=0

;What to do when you double-click on an article without a body

;	0	Retrieve the article's body

;	1	Mark the article for later retrieval

;	2	Retrieve the body if online, mark for retrieval if offline

;	3	Do nothing

RetryConnectAttempts=0

;How many times to retry connecting to the server after getting

;any of the following errors:

- Connection refused (winsock error 10061)

- Operation timed out (winsock error 10060)

- 400 Service not available

;If the parameter is zero, Agent reports an error after the first

;attempt.

RetryConnectPause=30

;How long to wait, in seconds, between connection attempts when

;retrying.

RetryConnectCloseWinsock=0

;When non-zero, Agent closes winsock after each connection failure and

;reloads it before retrying.  If you are using a winsock dialer, this

;causes the dialer to hang up the modem between connection attempts.

UseGetHostName=0

;By default, Agent uses winsock function WSAAsyncGetHostByAddr() to

;obtain the name of the PC itself, for use when logging into SMTP

;servers.   Setting this option to non-zero causes Agent to use

;function gethostname() instead.  This option can be used as a

;workaround for winsock drivers that do not support

;WSAAsyncGetHostByAddr().

;=====================================================================

[Timing]

GetHostByNameTimeout=30

;Timeout period for looking up the host's name (seconds)

ConnectTimeout=10

;Timeout period for connecting to host (seconds)

ResponseTimeout=120

;Timeout period for waiting for a response from the host (seconds)

SendTimeout=60

;Timeout period for sending a command to the server (seconds).

;This is the maximum time the program will wait during a blocked

;transmission, not the total time allowed to send a message.

PostTimeout=60

;Timeout period for posting an article or email message (seconds).

;This is the maximum time the program will wait during a blocked

;transmission, not the total time allowed to send a message.

SplashTime=5

;Minimum time to display the splash screen (seconds)

PostResponseTimeout=360

;How long, in seconds, Agent will wait for an acknowledgment from the

;server after posting an article or email message.

;=====================================================================

[TimeZone]

MinutesFromGMT=-480

;The local timezone, in minutes from GMT.

;If ObserverDST is true, this should be the offset for standard time.

ObserveDST=1

;Automatically adjust the timezone offset to account for DST

;between April and October.

AssumeLocal=1

;If a downloaded article does not specify a timezone in its Date field,

;assume local time.  When this option is not set, Agent assumes GMT.

TimeZoneName=5

;A number that uniquely identifies the timezone name as selected on

;the Preferences | System Profile dialog box, used to identify the

;particular name selected for zones with multiple choices.

;=====================================================================

[Message]

UseFixedFont=1

;Use the fixed-pitch font for outgoing messages

WordWrap=1

;Word wrap outgoing messages in the display window

IncludeOriginalText=1

;Automatically include the text of the original article when creating

;a follow-up article or email reply.

QuotePrefix="> "

;String used to quote text from the original article when creating

;a follow-up article or email reply.

FollowupString=%from% wrote:\n

;The string used to generate the first line(s) of a follow-up article.

;This value should be defined directly from Agent.  For more

;information, see Composing an Introduction String.

;If the string is blank, no first line is generated.

;

;Text enclosed in %...% are the names of fields from the original

;article.  Two %% represent a single % literal.

;

;In addition to the standard article fields, the program supports these

;special fields:

;	%Full-Name%	Full name of author

;

;You may also use the following escape sequences:

;	\n	newline

;	\t	tab

;	\\	the backslash character itself

MailReplyString=On %date%, you wrote:\n

;The string used to generate the first line(s) of an email reply.

;If the string is blank, no first line is generated.

;Uses the same formatting commands as FollowupString.

LineLength=70

;The maximum line length for outgoing messages.

;The program word-wraps longer lines.

;Setting this to zero disables word-wrap in outgoing messages.

SaveSentMessages=1

;Save messages that have been successfully posted in the outbox.

SendTagLine=0

;When non-zero, the Free Agent advertisement tag line is included at

;the bottom of messages.

GMTDates=1

;When non-zero, post all articles and emails in GMT format as opposed

;to your local timezone.

CurrentGroupOnly=1

;This option controls which newsgroups are included by default for

;follow-up posts.  If the referenced article includes a Followup-To

;field, Agent always lists the groups from that field, independent of

;this option.  If the referenced article does not contain a Followup-To

;field, and this option is set, Agent includes just the name of the

;group that was selected when the follow-up message was created.  If

;this option is not set (the default), Agent includes all groups listed

;in the referenced article's Newsgroups field.

ValidateAddresses=1

;When non-zero, Agent tries to validate all email address fields (To:,

;Cc:, Bcc:, From:, Reply-to:, and Sender:) in messages that you send.

;Set this value to zero if you need to enter non-standard addresses.

ShowAllFields=0

;When non-zero, Agent allows editing of the Control and Approved

;message fields.

;=====================================================================

[Directories]

Attachments=C:\AGENT\, *.txt, 0

;Default directory and file type for saving and sending attachments.

;The third parameter is the listbox index of the file-type filter

;(e.g.,"*.TXT") that was last selected in the dialog box.

Files=C:\AGENT\, *.txt, 1

;Default directory and file type for importing and exporting text files

;The third parameter is the listbox index of the file-type filter

;(e.g.,"*.TXT") that was last selected in the dialog box.

Signatures=C:\AGENT\, *.txt, 1

;Default directory and file type for signature files

;The third parameter is the listbox index of the file-type filter

;(e.g.,"*.TXT") that was last selected in the dialog box.

Home=

;The directory where Agent’s database files and custom dictionaries are

;stored.  If this parameter’s value is blank (the default), Agent looks

;for these files in the directory containing AGENT.INI.  Note: Changing

;this setting does not move your files.  Use File Manager to move all

;the files (*.IDX, *.DAT, and CUST*.TLX) to the new location and then

;restart Agent for this change to take effect.

Shared=C:\AGENT

;The directory where Agent’s help file and master dictionaries are

;stored.

;=====================================================================

[Confirm]

DeleteGroup=1

;Confirm group deletions

StopTasks=1

;Confirm actions that would cancel active online tasks

DeleteArticle=1

;Confirm article deletions

DeleteOpenMessage=1

;Confirm closing message composition window if the user has modified

;the message

DeleteOutboxMessage=1

;Confirm message deletions in the outbox

CloseWithTasks=1

;Confirm program close when tasks are running

DefaultAction=0

;Default key in confirmation dialogs, 0=NO, 1=YES

MarkAllRead=1

;Confirm the Mark All Articles Unread and Mark All Articles Read

;commands.

;=====================================================================

[Colors]

BrowserNormalColor=0,0,0

;Color for normal articles

;<red>,<green>,<blue>

BrowserUnreadColor=128,0,0

;Color for unread articles.

;<red>,<green>,<blue>

BrowserSelectedUnreadColor=255,255,0

;Color for unread articles that are selected (highlighted).

;Normally, this should be the inverse of the Control Panel’s highlight

;color.

;<red>,<green>,<blue>

ArticleNormalColor=0,0,0

;The color for normal text in articles.

ArticleQuotedColor=0,0,255

;The color for quoted text in articles.

;A line is quoted if it begins with one of the QuotedTextMarkers.

;=====================================================================

[Attachment]

PartitionMode=1

;Controls how attachment messages are partitioned:

;	0 = Partition into messages (AttachmentPartitionSize controls size)

;	1 = Do not partition (send as a single message)

PartitionLines=900

;When attachment messages are partitioned, the maximum number of lines

;of data to send per message.  Each line contains 45 bytes of data,

;and consists of 63 characters.

TextMode=0

;Controls if and how text is sent with attachments

;	0	Send text as separate preface message

;	1	Include text at beginning of first partition message

;	2	Send no text

FileMode=644

;UNIX file mode for attachment files.  This is a string.

;This is the mode that is included at the top of the uuencoded file.

;=====================================================================

[Print]

LeftMargin=75

TopMargin=75

RightMargin=75

BottomMargin=75

;Margins for printing, in 1/100 inch increments.

Fields=1

;Header fields to include in printed messages

;	0	No fields

;	1	Subject, author, and date only

;	2	All fields

PageBreaks=0

;Where to put page breaks

;	0	None

;	1	Between articles

;	2	Between threads

Font=Times New Roman, 100, 0,0, 0,0,0

;Printer font

;=====================================================================

[Purging]

;The parameters in this section can be modified within Agent from the

;What to Purge tab on the Default Group Properties dialog box and the

;When to Purge tab on the Default Group Properties dialog box.

PurgeByNumber=1

;This option controls how Agent's purge operation determines whether

;an article is no longer available.

;	0 = Purge based on article range reported by the server.

;	1 = Always download headers and purge based on those.

PurgeOnNewHeaders=1

;Purge articles when getting new headers.

PurgeOnExit=1

;Purge articles when exiting Agent.

ConfirmPurgeOnExit=1

;Prompt for confirmation before doing a purge on exit.

CompressOnPurge=0

;When non-zero, selecting a Purge Articles option from the Group menu

;also compacts the databases being purged.  Note: A database is

;compacted only when the percent of disk space saved is greater than

;the value of the CompressPercent parameter.

CompressOnExit=0

;When non-zero, Agent will compact all your databases when it closes.

;Note: A database is compacted only when the percent of disk space

;saved is greater than the value entered in the “Compact only if

;wasted space at least...” field below.

CompressPercent=20

;Before compacting a database, Agent checks to see how much disk

;space would be saved by the compact operation.  This setting allows

;you to bypass the operation if only a small amount of disk space

;would be saved.  Enter the minimum amount of disk space savings, as a

;percentage of the total size of the database, that will cause Agent

;to perform an automatic compaction after either a manual purge

;and/or an automatic purge during exit.

ConfirmPurgeOnExit=1

;When this option is non-zero, Agent asks for confirmation before

;purging and/or compacting databases when you close the program.

;When this option is zero, the Agent will purge and/or compact the

;databases without asking first.  Note: To purge or compact databases

;on exit, be sure to enable PurgeOnExit and/or CompressOnExit.

AlwaysPurgeUnavailable=1

;When this option is on (the default), and you have selected one of

;the "When the article is no longer available" purge options, Agent

;will always purge articles that are no longer available during get

;new headers, even if you have turned off the "Purge when retrieving

;new headers" option.  This parameter cannot be set within Agent.

;=====================================================================

[Spelling]

;This section is not available in Free Agent.

AlwaysSuggest=1

;When non-zero, the spell checker will automatically suggest possible

;replacement words.

CheckRepeatedWords=1

;When non-zero, the spell checker will stop when it finds the same word

;twice in a row.

IgnoreNumeric=1

;When non-zero, the spell checker will ignore words containing numbers.

IgnoreUpperCase=1

;When non-zero, the spell checker will ignore words composed of all

;uppercase letters.

IgnoreQuotedLines=1

;When non-zero, the spell checker will ignore words which appear on

;lines beginning with a quote character (as defined by the Quoted Text

;setting on the Preferences dialog boxes’ Display tab).

;=====================================================================

[Languages]

;This section is not available in Free Agent.

;This section is not included in AGENT.INI by default.  You can add it

;if you want to customize the spell checker’s dictionaries, however.

;Each parameter in this section has the following format:

;<id>=<name>,<apostrophe-flag>,<custom>,<master1>[,...<masterN>]

;

;<id> is a three-letter language ID, which uses the same convention as

;WIN.INI.  Here are the current ids:

;	enu	English (American)

;	eng	English (International)

;	frn	French

;	ger	German

;	itn	Italian

;	spn	Spanish

;

;<name> is the name of the language as displayed in Agent.

;

;<apostrophe-flag> is a 0/1 flag indicating whether apostrophe should

;be considered a word separator.  When this flag is true (1), if a word

;containing embedded apostrophes is not found in any dictionary, Agent

;treats the apostrophe as a word separator and checks each sub-word

;individually.  Normally, this flag is set only for French, in which it

;is common to create new words by combining words with apostrophe.

;

;<custom> is the name of the custom dictionary.   By convention, this

;file is named CUST<id>.TLX.  If the filename has no path, Agent looks

;for the file in the Home directory.  If the file does not exist, Agent

;creates it.

;

;<master> is the name of one or more master dictionaries.  You can list

;up to 12 files.  When checking words, Agent searches the dictionaries

;in the order listed.  By convention, the common words file is named

;MAIN<id>.TLX and the compressed words file is named MAIN<id>.CLX.  If

;the filename has no path, Agent looks for the file in the shared

;directory.  If none of the master dictionaries for a given language

;exist, Agent assumes that the language is unavailable, and removes it

;from the list of available languages in the UI.

;=====================================================================

[Debugging]

ShowUID=0

;When non-zero, Agent shows the group UIDs in the Group Pane.  This

;number is the base filename for each group's IDX and DAT files.

VerboseLog=0

;When non-zero, include extra information in the log window, including

;a script of Agent's conversation with the news server, and task state

;machine transitions.

FileLog=0

;When non-zero, Agent writes log output to AGENT.LOG.  The contents of

;this file are erased at the start of each Agent session.

TraceLog=0

;When non-zero, send log output to the Windows debugging console, so

;that it appears in programs like DBWIN.

TraceHelp=0

;When non-zero, send a debugging statement to the Windows debugging

;console each time Agent sends a request for online help.

ShowArticleDetail=0

;When non-zero, show some detailed information about articles at the

;bottom of the article body pane.   In particular, this shows the

;article's number as reported by the news server.

ShowMemUsage=0

;When non-zero, show the total number of allocated blocks in the status

;bar.  This option is used to check for memory leaks.

EnableTrace=0

;When non-zero, enable debugging trace statements to be sent to the

;Windows debugging port.

WinsockLog=0

;When non-zero, all winsock calls are written to AGENT.LOG.

EnableMenu=0

;When non-zero, Agent displays the debugging menu options.  You can

;also toggle the display of the debug options by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D

;in Agent.

ShowBuild=0

;When non-zero, Agent displays the build number in the title bar and

;About dialog box.


Release Notes

There are currently no release notes for this version of Agent.