Installation Tips for Tag-O-Matic This file gives installing tips for the following mailers... Termail / TMail BlueWave Ppoint Generic Generic ======= This is for all mailers not mentioned, and should work with 99% of them. First, you need to write a batch file, or edit one already in use. Let's call it REPLY.BAT, in it we'll simply put the two lines: EDIT %1 T-MATIC TAGFILE.TAG %1 Note that I'm using DOS's EDIT program for this example, but please replace it with your favourite editor. The %1 bit should expand into the name of the message file, if the mailer has half a brain. Some are terminally stupid, however, and if they don't supply the name of the message file (dropfile) then you may have to change this manually. Rename TAGFILE.TAG to the name of your tagfile. You could also call any other programs, before or after, such as a spell- checker or re-formatter. Now, load up your mailer and enter the config/setup part. Hunt through for the string that is used to call your mail program. Change this to REPLY.BAT (or whatever you decided to call the above batchfile) Also, while you're in config, turn off built-in taglines if available. I've not seen a mail program that has the tagline facilities of T-Matic... Try it out, it should work Ok. If your mailer uses the JAM message base format, then T-Matic can steal all the taglines in all your echo's in one command. Please see the docs for more details on this. Text Reformatting ----------------- If your mailer has provision for calling a utility before editing the message, change this to: T-MATIC /T (messagefile) Replace (messagefile) with the macro or filename of the message to be formatted. If it doesn't have provision, then create a batchfile that runs T-MATIC /T before the editor. ie. ---REPLY.BAT--- T-MATIC /T %1 EDIT %1 --------------- Ppoint ====== (Not sure of the versions, but if it doesn't work, try again with Generic) Ppoint allows for a spell-checker to be run on the finished message, which is great! Simply change the filename it asks for to: T-MATIC TAGLINES.TAG (I think, but I'm not sure, that Ppoint supplies the message filename afterwards. If not, include that, or follow Generic setup) Replace TAGLINES.TAG with the filename of your tagfile. Turn off Ppoint's taglines. Very messy and limited, IMO :) Stealing -------- IIRC, Ppoint uses it's own format for storing messages, and it's fairly simple. Mass-stealing can be accomplished by writing a small batch file that calls T-Matic /S on every file in the echo directory. BlueWave ======== The king of Off-Line, non-pointing software... Bluewave has good tag-support built-in, but it's slow and not as fully- featured as T-Matic. It allows for John Hancock as an external tag-util, but for no others (IIRC). You'll have to set up T-matic with a batch file, as outlined in Generic. Keep the tagfile filename the same, then you can adopt tags to the tagfile from within BlueWave. Termail ======= The king of pointing software... (NB, the 1-key adoption routine only works for version 3.0 of Termail as far as I know. I don't think version 1.5 has support for external utilities. This may also apply to the BeforeEdit string. If so, a batchfile may be the answer.) T-Matic has been updated with a strong bias towards Termail, cos it's what I use and I quite like it. Basic ----- Anyway, for basic usage, edit TM.CFG and search through until you find the following. --------------- % % Run any external program after you have written or changed a message. % This could be a batchfile that runs several programs (such as TagDude % or a spell-checker) if you want everything to to look perfectly. % !GROUP will insert the current group name of the area in uppercased % letters: INTER, GERMAN etc. % There is a list of commented-out AfterEdit strings (including one for Tag- Dude, urgh!) Comment out any that might be there, and add, or amend one, to read AfterEdit T-MATIC TAGLINES.TAG TM.MSG --------------- (Replace TAGLINES.TAG with the name of your tagfile) This will call T-Matic with the tagfile: TAGLINES.TAG and will run automatically whenever you edit a message. Personalised Taglines / sigs ---------------------------- Now, you need to make some changes to your template so that when the message is saved by the mail editor, it puts the person's name on the very first line. T- Matic reads this line, and deletes it from the message. If the first word is NOT "~NAME" then T-Matic will not delete that line, although it will attempt to take the name from the line anyway. It will print a warning, but won't abort. This may make any personalised tags incorrect, so keep your eyes peeled? So, if your template contained the line: MsgStart Howdy @F! Change it to: MsgStart ~NAME @F @L@CRHowdy @F! (~NAME First name, last name, new line, normal greeting.) Seperate Tagfiles and Sigfilesets --------------------------------- With version 8.4, T-Matic can now be run before the editor to correctly set your tagfile and sigfile for that group. A new file is supplied, T-MATIC.TMP, a sample template file for this feature. Have a look at it, it's fairly self-explanatory. Edit it in the format: Groupname (Max. 8 chars) SigfileSet Tagfile Comment Eg: %ÄGroupÂÄSigfilesÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄTagfileÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄComment (Unused)ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ B_BAR BAR-SIG BARNET.TAG BarNet from BackYard S_FIDO SIGFILE TAGS.BW Fidonet from Satellite The first is the name of the group. This MUST be in capital letters, as Termail will export it that way. The second is the filename (Note, no extension - allowing for random sigfiles means that the numerical extension (1 to the limit set in Setup) is added automatically, along with the "." seperator. The third is the name of the tagfile for that group. The forth is simply a comment so you can remember which is which. Now, you must again edit TM.CFG. Hunt through for the BeforeEdit string. Change this to: BeforeEdit T-MATIC /G !GROUP T-Matic will search the template file, T-MATIC.TMP for a match to the supplied group. If it finds it, it will create a small file; T-MATIC.DIT containing the new sigfileSet and tagfile names. This will be loaded when T-Matic is run after the message and will default to the new names, over-writing any supplied tagfile on the command line. T-MATIC.DIT is then deleted. If a match isn't made, it will resort to the given tagfile supplied on the command-line. Text reformatting ----------------- T-Matic /T (reformat) should be run BEFORE the message is edited, just in case it screws it up. It can be run afterwards, but it might reformat bits you didn't want it to touch. For some reason, the !MSG macro is unreliable when used in BeforeEdit, so the full filename of the dropfile has to be entered. For Termail 1.5 this is TMAIL.MSG, and for 3.0 it is TM.MSG. So, change the "BeforeEdit" string in TM.CFG to BeforeEdit T-MATIC /T TM.MSG (or TMAIL.MSG if using 1.5) It will reformat the message, to no wider than the right margin set in T-Matic's Setup. (See entry in T-MATIC.DOC for more info) Text Reformatting AND Group Macros ---------------------------------- Becuase both of these options need to be run prior to editing the message, and because there's only one BeforeEdit string in Termail, you'll need to write a small batch file that calls both of them. I'll call it BEFORE.BAT ---BEFORE.BAT--- T-MATIC /G %1 T-MATIC /T TM.MSG ---------------- Edit the BeforeEdit string in TM.CFG to read: BeforeEdit BEFORE.BAT !GROUP Auto Tag-Adopt for Termail -------------------------- Nifty little feature this. Works similarly to BlueWave's adopt-tag key (ALT+A). Since TerMail allows for external utilities, then it's fairly simple to put this into effect. Edit TM.CFG. Scroll, or search through until you find this bit: % % External utilities which can be run directly from TerMail by pressing % Shift F1..F12. Press F2 to view all available external utilities and % select the one to run. % Now, edit one of the twelve selections. For this example, I'll use SHIFT + F1 % |--| |--------------------------------------| ShiftF1 Adpt T-MATIC /S TAGS.BW !MSG NB. TAGS.BW should be replaced with the filename of your tagfile. NB2. You can add !W at the end of this to pause, as it flashes past quite quickly. This is an excerpt from my TM.CFG: % Desc Utility % |--| |--------------------------------------| ShiftF1 Adpt T-MATIC /S TAGS.BW !MSG !W ShiftF3 Manl T-MATIC /S TAGS.BW ShiftF4 Dupe T-MATIC /D TAGS.BW ShiftF5 JAMs T-MATIC /J TAGS.BW \TERM\TERMAIL\ECHO Shift F1 adopts the tagline from the current message. Shift F3 Will run T-Matic in manual steal mode. This will prompt you for a tagline, which you would type in and it's then appended to your tagfile. Shift F4 Makes T-Matic dupe-check the tagfile. Shift F5 Runs T-Matic on JAM steal mode, and nicks all the tags from the \TERM\TERMAIL\ECHO jambase directory. Now save TM.CFG and re-run Termail. When you press SHIFT + F1, Termail will shell out and call T-Matic who will search the file for a tagline. If it finds it, it will compare it against all the tags in your tagfile (if dupe is configured in Setup) If it doesn't find a match, it will then append the tagline to the end of your tagfile. Simple! The file can be as large as you wish. If you wanted to nick all the tags in an specific echo, then it's easy! (From Termail) 1. Mark every message. 2. Press 'W' to write the messages. 3. Write to file, all marked files, give it a unique filename. Say "ALLMSGS" 4. Shell to DOS. 5. Type T-MATIC /S TAGS.BW ALLMSGS (Or you could assign this to a key) T-Matic will then scan through the entire file and nick every tag it finds, and check them against the existing tagfile for dupes. If you want to scan more than one echo, then please see T-MATIC.DOC for the information on JAM steal.