MAIN FORM

Contains two main parts

1)	Main Bar Menu

2)	Picture Box


Main Bar Menu
BAR MENU (Main Form)

The Bar menu on the main form consists of 3 parts all of which may or may not be enabled dependant upon whether you have a packet open at the moment or not. To select an item place your mouse cursor on the bar menu item required and click.

The three parts are :

1)	File

To Open, Close QWK packets; Configure Orator or Exit Orator.

2)	Window

If a packet is open then this menu will allow you to read your mail, enter replies and could be considered as the main body area of Orator. Packet must be open to be able to use.

3)	Folders

This function enables users to retrieve archived messages from folders and manipulate folders.

4)	Door

Simplifies the routine of remotely programming the Qmail door. Allowing you to enter command to add/drop conferences etc. Packet must be open to be able to use.


Main Form Picture Box
PICTURE BOX (Main Form)

If there is no QWK packet open then this area of the Form is Blank. The example shown above is with a QWK packet open.

The Form title changes to show the file name for the QWK packet that is currently opened. In the above example this is ALMAC.QWK

The fields shown in the Picture Box are as follows:

BBSID

This is the Identification of the BBS where the packet currently open was downloaded.

Telephone No

Telephone Number of the BBS identified above as per the information in the file CONTROL.DAT contained within the .QWK file.

SYSOP

The BBS sysop's name.

CALLER

Your User Id on the BBS

QWK DATE

The date and time the QWK packet currently open was downloaded.


File Menu (Main Form Bar Menu)
FILE MENU (MAIN BAR MENU)

Clicking File on the Main Form Bar Menu produces the above menu. Select the required item by positioning your mouse cursor and clicking the mouse button. Each item on the menu has the following meaning.

OpenTo Open a QWK Packet. If you already have a QWK packet opened then it will be closed before allowing you to choose a new one.

Close Packet

To close a QWK packet.

Orator Configuration

To configure Orator. This option is not enabled if you have a packet open. To select ensure that packet is closed and then click with mouse cursor.

Exit Orator

To exit Orator


Window Menu (Main Form Bar Menu)
WINDOWS MENU (MAIN BAR MENU)

Dependant upon what were the contents of the current QWK packet dictates which options of this menu are enabled. For example if the packet contained no bulletins from the host BBS then the Bulletins option will not be enabled.

The above example shows a Windows menu for a packet that contained Session, Messages and Reply information but did not have a Welcome file, Bulletins, News, New File Information, Services or a GoodBye Screen.

Select the item you want with your mouse.

SEE ALSO Welcome, Session, Messages, Replies, Bulletins, News, Files, Services, Goodbye


Door Menu (Main Form Bar Menu)
DOOR MENU (MAIN BAR MENU)

At the present moment the Door Menu only contains the facility to remotely configure QMAIL doors. Later versions will include remote configuration for other types of mail doors. Select QMAIL to begin configuring the door remotely.

To select QMAIL position mouse cursor and click the mouse button.


Qwk Packet Opening
OPEN QWK PACKET

Accessed by Selecting File on the Bar Menu and clicking with the mouse on Open Packet

This then presents you with a dialogue box to allow you to select a file to delete or open. Alternatively you can select Cancel and abort the process.

The box should automatically default to show the contents of the QWK library as configured in Orator Configuration.

The file required can be chosen for opening by double clicking the filename in the file box list. Alternatively you can type the filename in the File Text box and clicking OK.

Once a File has been selected for opening then Orator will attempt to use the archiver specified by you in Orator configuration to open the packet and extract the files. All the files are placed in a library called WORKORAT. WORKORAT is a sub directory of the Orator Program directory. An information form appears to show you which NDX files are currently being processed and how much time  remains before the packet is ready for reading. A lot of preparation work is carried out at this point to save time when actual mail reading commences.

Some doors allow you to deselect NDX files from a QWK packet. Orator requires NDX files and for that matter the CONTROL.DAT file so ensure that you have your door configuration set-up on the BBS to include these important files.

You may now proceed to read the contents of you Mail Packet.

SEE ALSO Welcome, Session, Messages, Replies, Bulletins, News, Files, Services, Goodbye


WELCOME FILE VIEWING

Views the Welcome file if included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Welcome.

Program will shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


SESSION FILE VIEWING

Views the Session file if included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Session.

Program will shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


Bulletin File Viewing
BULLETINS FILE VIEWING

Views any Bulletin files included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Bulletins. From here select the Bulletin you wish to view.

Program will shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


NEWS FILE VIEWING

Views any News about your BBS included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select News.

Program will shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


SERVICES VIEWING

What are services?

Services are text files (a bit like News) containing information of interest. A good example is News Bytes commonly available on most decent messaging boards.

Views any Services included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Services. A small sub menu appears with the names of any valid services available for viewing. Make your choice by clicking on the service with the Mouse.

Orator will then attempt to use your archiver to extract the services and  will then shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


MESSAGE READING

To start reading Mail:

1)  Ensure that you have an opened QWK packet

2)  Select from the Main Form Bar Menu, Windows and then select Messages

A large form appears divided into 3 main areas.

1)  3D label boxes.

At the top of the form there are 3DLabels showing details like Message Sender, Message Recipient, Conference, Message Number etc. There is also a small red field that appears when you are viewing mail contained within the PERSONAL.NDX file or when you are viewing messages related during a search process. In such a case this field appears with the word Personal or Search in black letters. See  Search

2)  Message Text.

A large text box appears with scroll bars to allow you to view the text body of the message. The box is also modifiable to allow you to cut parts of the message out to include in another application. There are also two hand signals down to the right hand side that appear to indicate whether there is any text not shown above or below the message viewing area. Scrolling text up will force the Up hand to appear showing there is more text above the currently visible text.

3)  Controls

See Next,Prev,Print,List,Steal,Search,Reply,Save,Confer


Next Message in Conference
NEXT COMMAND (Message Reading)

Press to view next message in Conference. Number of messages remaining in conference are shown in a 3d box at the top right of the form. The box is labelled Conf:. When you reach the last message in the conference then the next conference is automatically jumped to. The program beeps every time a new conference is opened and every time a message addressed to you is found.


Prev Message in Conference
PREV COMMAND (Message Reading)

Press to view previous message in conference. If you are already viewing the first message in the conference then it will not jump to the previous conference. To return to a previous conference see Confer


Print Message
PRINT COMMAND (Message Reading)

Press to printout the current message on the Windows default printer.


List messages in the conference
LIST COMMAND (Message Reading)

List command reveals a list box showing the contents of the current conference. The list box has one line per message showing the Sender Name, Recipients Name, Subject and a flag whether the message has been read yet. You can select a specific message to read by placing the mouse cursor on the message line and double clicking the mouse button.

Whilst the List box is visible all other controls are disabled.


Steal Taglines
STEAL COMMAND (Message Reading)

Allows user to steal a tagline and add it to Orators Tagline Database, TAGLINE.ORA. Orator may not be able to always find the tagline. The tagline is extracted when the Steal button is pressed. A dialogue box appears on  the screen for the user to edit if they so wish and then press Steal to confirm or Cancel to return to message viewing without stealing the tag.

NOTE

This function will work even though the Reader is not registered. You cannot however use Taglines if the product is not registered.

Stealing Taglines from the middle of messages

You can also steal Taglines from the middle of messages by editing the TAGLINE.ORA file with Notebook editor and then cut and paste the text from the middle of the message to your notebook editor.

For more information about marking and cutting/pasting see your Windows user manual.


Searching for messages
SEARCH COMMAND (Message Reading)

Search allows you to search the message base in the open QWK packet for messages containing a certain text specified by you.

Orator handles searching in a slightly different way to other readers. Orator creates a new active conference called SEARCH in which it places all messages found that match the text required.

To search for messages

Click the Search Button with your mouse. A dialogue box appears

Enter the text that you are searching for in the text box provided.

Search Criteria-1 allows you to select with your mouse what part of each message you want searched for the text sample entered above.

Search Criteria-2 allows you to specify whether the search is to be constrained to just this conference or all conferences.

Note that the text search is totally case insensitive.

Click OK.

Orator then searches as per your instructions and warns you how many matching items were found. If any matches were made then viewing of messages immediately hops to these selected messages irrespective of what conference you were viewing prior to this.

To return to viewing of the previous conference use the Confer button.


Introduction to Selection & Grouping
SELECTING CONFERENCES

For various reasons you may have need to choose a conference.

Whilst configuring the Door you wish to Add/Drop or reset a conference.

Choose a new conference containing messages to read the mail.

Choose a conference to enter a reply into.

Either way Orator has been given some special code to simplify this process especially with the advent of Mega-Messaging boards containing thousands of conferences and multiple networks.

Basically the Dialogue box is divided into 3 main areas.

1) A List box containing numerical groups of conferences.

2) A list box containing the list of conferences contained within the numerical group chosen.

3) A conference search facility to perform a text search on conference names to speed up the location of certain conference names.


Conference Numerical Group List Box
Conference Numerical Groups (Conference Selection)

The list box shows all conferences divided into numerical groups of 250. The first position in the list box contains all 'Active Conferences' (All conferences irrespective of number who contain messages).

If you called conference selection by pressing the Confer button when reading mail then this list box will be disabled as you can only access conferences that are active.


Conference Group Contents & Selection
Numerical Group Contents (Conference Selection)

This list box shows the contents of the numerical group chosen in the list box at the top of the form.

If you called Conference Selection whilst reading mail, by pressing the Confer button then this box will show all active conferences. To select a conference simply position your mouse cursor on the conference required and bouble click the mouse button. Or if you are using a keyboard locate the conference required and press (ENTER).

If the Conference you require in this numerical group is not visible then use the scroll bars on the right hand side of the list box to locate it.


Searching Conference List
SEARCHING FOR CONFERENCE

This is a useful facility when trying to locate a conference but are not sure of its number. Simply enter a piece of text that exists in the name and press OK. The first match located will be shown on the List box for you to select. The Search facility is not restricted to the current numerical group with Orator searching it's total Conference Base for the information.


Save Message
SAVING MESSAGES

From Ver 1.12 onwards Orator was given the facility to maintain folders.

In essence this facility involves the user creating one or more folders/files to which mail messages can be saved for later retrieval (See Folder handling).

How to Save

1.	View the message you wish to save and click with your mouse on the SAVE button.

2.	A new dialog box appears with a list box showing all the folders you have created.

See Folder Creation for how to create folders if you have none showing.

3.	Select the folder you wish to save you Message to by clicking on the title with your

mouse and then clicking on the Save button shown in the bottom left of the dialog

form. The screen should return to the viewing of messages.


CREATE FOLDER

How to Create Folders

If when you selected the Save button when viewing message your dialog box appears with no Folders in which to save then to create folders do the following.

1.	Select the Create button with your mouse and the listbox will dissappear revealing a single field for completion. Enter here the title of the Folder you wish to create for archiving messages to.

2.	Select the Create button again to create the folder with the name you entered in  Point 1 or select Cancel  to exit without creating the Folder.

3.	The Dialog box clears revealing the listbox again now complete with the newest folder you just created.


File Viewing
FILES VIEWING

Views any details about new files included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Files

Orator will then attempt to  shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


GOODBYE FILE VIEWING

Views any Goodbye file included in the Open QWK packet. Select Window on Main form Bar menu and then select Goodbye.

Program will shell out to DOS and start the ANSI Viewer ORATVIEW. ANSI characters will not be shown unless you have ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. For more information about ANSI.SYS consult you DOS Users Guide.


Reply Creation Amendment and Deletion
REPLY CREATION AND HANDLING

Selecting Replies from the Main Form Bar Menu produces a form with a list box showing all replies entered so far. For each reply in the list box is shown, the conference, message recipient, and subject. Any reply marked Private will have "{P}" preceding the recipients name.

Select a reply with your mouse and press Delete to Delete the reply, or press Re-Edit to re-edit the reply.

See also Reply Details , Reply Text Editing


REPLY HEADER DETAILS

This Dialogue form is used to supply Orator with the details of the message about to be edited. Fields requiring information are : If you arrived at this screen by pressing Confer button whilst reading mail then most of the details will already be completed by the reply inheriting the details of the original message.

TO:

Enter here the recipients name or ALL to enter a message to all in the conference. Entering USENET GATEWAY here is the same as selecting the Personal Email option. Read below.

SUBJ:

Enter using the keyboard a max 25 character subject of the message about to be entered.

CONF:

The conference number in which the message is to be entered. To change it Click with your mouse on this 3D box and a conference selection box will appear. If you are using a keyboard press the Conf button. (or press ALT+C)

Private/Public

Click with you mouse to indicate whether the message is Private or Public. Making the message Private will ensure the message is not received by any other person reading the conference.

You can also select here that the reply will be private Email for transmission over the UseNet/InterNet networks. To do this select the Personal Email option.  Using this function will force Orator to request an Email Address when you click on the OK button and Orator will then ensure that a line is inserted at the top of your reply to tell the UseNet gateway where to send the message.

WARNING: Some networks do not allow private mail. Ensure that the conference accepts private mail before attempting to send such information.

FidoNet Tags

FidoNet does not like messages ending with 'Tear-Lines' and as such if the conference selected is on the FidoNet then ensure that you select this item.

Taglines

This function is only valid if your copy of Orator is registered. Orator randomly selects a tagline to end your message with however if you wish to choose another then click the down arrow to the right of the box and choose for the list box that appears.

Alternatively you could type in a new one. WARNING If you type in a tagline here it is not saved. To add taglines to the tagline database either use the Steal facility or edit the tagline file in Orator's program directory TAGLINE.ORA using an editor (Like Windows Notebook) and entering them there.

Click OK when you are ready to begin entering the Reply text, or press ENTER.

Click CANCEL to quit without replying.


REPLY TEXT

After entering Reply Header details like Message Recipients Name etc then a dialogue box appears allowing a maximum of 64K characters of message data to be entered.

The box conforms to a normal Windows Text box standard and allows all the usual editing functions. The Bar menu has only two functions.

Save

Allows you to save your message when you are completed. Any signature file (See ConfigMain) contents and tagline supplied are appended to your message before it is saved.

Spell

This will invoke the spell check command that you have in your Orator Configuration. You must have installed correctly a third party spell checker for this to work correctly. See Orator Configuration for more information on the insertion of the Spell Check Command.

Exit

Allows you to exit without saving your message. Be warned that if you are Re-Editing a Reply then the original reply will be lost if you Exit.


ORATOR CONFIGURATION

This is entered by selecting File on the main bar menu and selecting Configuration. Or alternatively if this is the first time you have run Orator then you would have received a warning that no configuration file was present and then Configuration was automatically started. If the latter is the case then you MUST complete this correctly for Orator to work.

Basically several fields appear in Configuration:

Default QWK Path:

Enter the  fully qualified drive name and path to the library where Orator may find your QWK packets downloaded from the BBS.

Default REP Path:

Enter the  fully qualified drive name and path to the library where Orator may place your replies in their REP archives for uploading to the BBS.

PKunzip (inc Path)

This  is where you give the full extract command for your archiver. (NOTE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE PK(un)ZIP). In the command line use %1 to signify the name of the archive and %2 to signify the name of the Work directory to where the archiver should place any files extracted.

If this is the first time you have run Orator then Orator tries to complete this field with a PKUNZIP command.

PKZip (inc Path)

Same as above except supply the fully qualified Archive command using %1 as the name of the created archive and %2 as the name of the path where the archiver can find the files for addition to the archive.

Spell Check Command

Enter here the command to start your third party spell checker. Enter here the command to start using %1 to represent the filename containing your reply for spell checking. eg:

c:\spell\spellchk.exe %1

would tell Orator to call a program called SPELLCHK.EXE in library SPELL on drive C passing  the reply text in a filename where the characters %1 are shown.

Signature File.

The contents of the text file whose name appears here are added to your Replies. This field is not mandatory.

Click OK  to save the details entered or alternatively select CANCEL to exit without saving any changes.


Email Addresses

If the reply you enter is entered with the To: field as TO: USENET GATEWAY or you selected the Personal Email option then Orator will ask you for the Email Address for the recipient. If you are replying to a message received over the USENET GATEWAY then Orator will also have tried to find the Email address itself and will merely want you to confirm that it is correct.

Orator will place the contents of this field at the top of your message that you enter on the next page as follows:

TO: Text.you@entered.here.onthisbox


FOLDER MAINTENANCE

Accessed by selecting Folders from the Main bar menu a dialog box appears allowing the user to Select Folders to:

1.	View the Contents of messages archived to folders

2.	Delete archived messages within folders

3.	Delete empty folders.

4.	Move messages from one archive folder to another.

5.	Pack Message archives.

View Messages in an Archive

1.	In the list box at the top of the form select the archive folder you require by clicking on it with your mouse and then clicking on the Choose button.

2.	The Lower listbox then shows all messages currently archived to the folder you selected. If there are no messages archived then a message to that affect appears and you will be forced to choose another folder.

3.	Select the message you wish to view by clicking on it in the lower list box with your mouse. Then Click on the Show button. Orator will start the Windows Notepad system to view the message you select.

Delete Messages from an Archive

1.	In the list box at the top of the form select the archive folder you require by clicking on it with your mouse and then clicking on the Choose button.

2.	The Lower listbox then shows all messages currently archived to the folder you selected. If there are no messages archived then a message to that affect appears and you will be forced to choose another folder.

3.	Select the message you wish to delete by clicking on it in the lower list box with your mouse. Then Click on the DELETE button.

Delete an Archive folder

1.	In the list box at the top of the form select the archive folder you require by clicking on it with your mouse.

2.	Click on the Del Folder button to delete the the Folder. If the folder is not empty then you will get a warning advising you to empty the folder first.

Move messages from one archive to another

1.	In the list box at the top of the form select the archive folder you require by clicking on it with your mouse and then clicking on the Choose button.

2.	The Lower listbox then shows all messages currently archived to the folder you selected. If there are no messages archived then a message to that affect appears and you will be forced to choose another folder.

3.	Select the message you wish to move by clicking on it in the lower list box with your mouse. Then Click on the Move button. Orator will clear the lower list box and ask you to select a folder to move the chosen message to.

4.	Select the destination Folder and click Choose

Pack Folders

This function should be done periodically to keep the folders tidy. It involves the purging of deleted records from the message database and it rebuilds indexes. Processing time is entirely dependant upon how many messages are in the archives.


FOLDER MAINTENANCE

You need to choose on this screen the destination folder to move the message to. Make your selection by clicking on the Folder with your mouse and then clicking the CHOOSE button or alternatively Cancel to exit without moving the message.