How to install ABBL-xxD dialing directories
===========================================

As a convenience, the Online Atlanta Society, supplies copies of it's
Atlanta BBS Listings in dialing directory format for most major
communications programs as a supplement to the ordinary text listings.
This allows you to plug the ABBL into your comm. program without having
to type all 300 or so entries in by hand.  This is very convenient for
trying out alot of new boards.  You can just drop the whole list in your
comm. program and tag the ones that sound interesting, and start
dialing.

Ok, so how do I do it?
======================
Note: I assume a basic knowledge of DOS in order to do this, I may
      attempt to write a front-end program or something to make it
      easier for those who aren't comfortable with DOS sometime in
      the future.  Though I'll try to keep this as basic as possible.

It really depends upon your comm. program, but I'll start with the
method that works for *all* comm. programs.  Here's how you do it, step
by step, I'll use Telix as my example:

1) UnZIP the ABBL-xxD.ZIP file into a blank directory, I suggest a
   directory called "TEMP" or something like that.
2) Use the READ.ME file to find out which directory file belongs to
   your comm. program, in the case of Qmodem, that will be TELIX.FON.
   Remember this file, you'll need it later, we'll assume you unZIP'd
   it into a directory called C:\TEMP
3) Now, change into your comm. program's directory, in our example
   we'll say it's C:\TELIX.
4) We dont want to lose your existing directory, so let's just rename
   it to something new.  In our example, from our Telix directory,
   we would type:   RENAME TELIX.FON TELIXOLD.FON
   So, your old phone book is now called "TELIXOLD.FON".  The procedure
   is the same for virtually all comm. programs, but the filename
   changes, for instance with Qmodem, it would be QMODEM.FON.
5) Now we're ready to bring in the new phone book.  Copy it over from
   your temporary directory into your comm. program directory.  In
   our example the command would be:   COPY C:\TEMP\TELIX.FON C:\TELIX
6) That's it, when you run your comm. program, it should come up with
   the ABBL as your dialing directory.  Should you need your old phone
   book back, just rename the files again or perhaps your comm. program
   has an option to load different dialing directories.
7) After you're done, you should clean up by wiping out the TEMP
   directory you created to save the disk space.

Loading multiple directories
============================
The better comm. programs, such as Qmodem, have an option to load
different phone books from within the dialing directory.  This makes
life real easy.  This is especially nice to have if your comm. program,
again like Qmodem, only supports 200 entries in a single phone book.  As
we have around 300 BBSes in Atlanta, you'll find that some comm.
programs have multiple volumes of the phone books.  Dealing with this is
easy if you can just hit "L" (Qmodem again) to load another phone book,
as you can quickly toggle from one half of the ABBL to the other, as
well as revert back to your own hand-created dialing directory when you
need it.

In the absence of an option to load different phone books, your only
alternative is to rename the files each time as we describe above.  If
your comm. program falls into this category, I'd suggest either looking
at some new software, or at the very least calling your software author
to request that it be put on his wish list.