M A I N M E N U O P T I O N S [M]............Message Menu The MESSAGE menu is displayed for entering, reading and other mail manipulation. [F]..............Files Menu Takes you directly to the file menu where file uploads and downloads are available. [C]...Comments to the Sysop This choice enables you to enter a private message to the system operator. WILDCAT! makes these comments an integral part of the message base for easy reply by the sysop, if desired. [B]...........Bulletin Menu When the B option is selected, the Bulletin Menu is displayed. The Bulletin menu could be considered a sub-menu of sorts, in that it presents you with the options of reading one or more bulletins by selecting a bulletin number, re-listing the bulletins that are available for display, or simply returning to the MAIN menu. If any bulletins have been updated since your last logon, you will be presented a listing of those bulletins by number. [P]..........Page the SYSOP This selection is used for you to page the system operator. The response of the local system may vary depending on whether the current time is within the sysop's paging hours, whether the page override toggle is on, and whether the page bell is turned on or off. Pages are only made if the time falls within the sysops defined paging hours. [I]..Initial Welcome Screen Contents of the HELLO files are re-displayed to you, with screen pauses determined by your user settings and the respective files. This option allows you to review the contents of these entry-level display screens without having to logoff and then call again. [Q]...........Questionnaire You are presented with a menu screen containing numbered listings of questionnaires made available by the sysop. Select the desired questionnaire to answer. [V]...........Verify a User A search can be made on any portion of any user name on the system. Pressing V brings up a sub-prompt - "Search for what string?" At the sub-prompt, enter all (or portion of) a name. The more information that is provided at this prompt, the more detailed the resulting search. A search of "Jim" would find every user named Jim on the system, along with their calling city and state, and the date of their last call. A search of "jim h" would find, for example, both Jim Hightower and Jim Harvey, plus any others whose first name was Jim and whose last name begins with the letter "H". Notice in this example that the search is also insensitive to case. [Y]...........Your Settings You are allowed to make changes to certain information in the User database with this option. When [Y] is selected, a complete screen of your personal settings is displayed. From the sub-menu, you may alter the entries in many areas, but other items are maintained by the system or the system operator, and are provided as information only. [S].......System Statistics This menu choice displays the contents of a file containing statistical information about this system. It may be a simple summary of the number of callers and the date the system began, or may go into extreme detail with percentages of callers at each baud rate and include graphs of system time usage. [U]............Userlog List You are presented with the entire user list of the system, displayed in alphabetical order, along with the date they last called and their calling point of origin. The usual screen pauses are in effect while using this option. [D]...................DOORS The door feature in WILDCAT! allows you to run other programs made available by the sysop through a menu choice. Doors can be almost any type of program from a database to games. [N]..............Newsletter This menu choice displays the contents of the NEWSLTR.BBS file with screen pauses. The sysop may have placed any type of information in this file for your review. It is very much like a bulletin file, but may be read directly from the menu. [G].......Goodbye & Log-Off Terminates the current connection and disconnects. If your current help level is set to the NOVICE mode, choosing the Goodbye option gives you a way to "back out" of the command, and entering this command brings up a friendly question, "Are you sure you want to logoff?". If you respond with a "Y", then normal logoff procedures are begun. Otherwise, WILDCAT! will assume the command has been entered in error, and will return to the then current menu. Once you have changed help levels to REGULAR or EXPERT, this extra prompt will no longer be displayed. WILDCAT! assumes that the you know the commands well enough to deliberately wish to logoff. The Goodbye command is available in ALL major menus and performs exactly the same in each of them. [H]..............Help Level WILDCAT! supports three different levels of menu prompts. The first and the default value for new users is the Novice level. At this level, the user is presented with full dynamic menus, .BBS plain menus or .SCR color menus, and a command line prompt containing the name of current menu area (MAIN, MESSAGE, FILE, SYSOP), and the first character for a particular option in the current menu. The characters presented agree with the letter designator selected for that option. The second level is the Regular level. At this level, only the command line is presented with the name of the current area of the system and the first letter option designators. No menus are displayed at this level. The final and highest level is the Expert level. At this level, only the particular area of the system is indicated. No menus or letter designators are included. The HELP LEVEL command is available in ALL major menus and the usage is exactly the same in each of them. [?]............Command Help Displays this Help information screen. [W]......Who else is ONLINE Selecting this choice in a multi-line system presents you with a list of the names of users logged on to other nodes sharing the system. If a node is not being used but is UP it is reported as Waiting for Calls. [T]...Talk with other Node(s) If a multi-node system is in operation this choice will allow you to enter into private or public group chat with other callers on other nodes. A sub-menu is presented with further details and its own help screen. [J].........Join Conference Used to change conferences. Each conference contains ONE message section and may also have a number of file areas available. Conference descriptions are displayed when this command is selected, and additional help files in that area fully explain procedures for changing conferences.