User Manual
Version history
The top has the newest features, the bottom has the oldest.
- More bug fixes
Just some more bug fixes, as well as updates such as a "message size" column available in the message list and dynamically updating message counters.
- Tweaks and bug fixes
Some bugs fixed, including some keyboard navigation problems, as well as adding the number of unread messages to the newsgroup list.
- Newsgroup list context menu
Some menu options can be accessed by right-clicking the newsgroup list.
- Newsgroup list
You can now display the list of newsgroups as a list box instead of a button, if you prefer.
- Multiple servers
Multiple server support finally added.
- MIME attachments
Attachments are now sent as MIME instead of UUencoding, which fixes several problems including MIME headers with UUencoded attachments (causing NewsReader to crash when viewing it's own attachments, and the inability to view the attachments in anything but Outlook Express).
- Attachment Joiner
I broke the Attachment Joiner. It works again!
- French language data
NewsReader now has a French mode, thanks to Didier Bertrand and the French Be User Group!
- Extra options
Some more purge and configuration options.
- German language data
NewsReader now has a German mode, thanks to Helge Philipp.
- Subscribe Window
This has been tweaked to attempt and make it faster. Please let me know if it's worked!
- More menu options
Added various purge options, new option to download messages when you enter a group, and more things have been added.
- More bug fixes
Hopefully some things should work better!
- Several bug fixes
Several bugs have been fixed, including the Cancel buttons work slightly better now, the problem with default key shortcuts in the editor window and the Attachment Joiner should use less memory.
- New Subscribe window
Still not faster (this will be addressed in a future version, as part of preparations for multiple servers) but it is now far nicer and more intuitive to subscribe to/unsubscribe from newsgroups.
- Newsgroup list menu
The newsgroup menu list has now been updated with newsgroups containing unread messages as bold, and completely read newsgroups as plain. The actual number of unread messages is also shown in brackets.
- New key shortcuts
Now includes 2 new key shortcuts - Next newsgroup (default P) and last newsgroup (default O) which can move back and forth through the list of newsgroups. The next unread message key (default space) has also been altered to move to the next newsgroup when it reaches the bottom of the current newsgroup.
- More bug fixes
NewsReader will now not overwrite files if you've got auto-save turned on, and download 2 files of the same name. Now, it should rename the new files in such a way that the original is left untouched. The catch-up-all-newsgroups function now works better, and the attachment joiner auto-search function has been rewritten. Also, the post composer window remembers its position on-screen.
- Subscribe to Newsgroups window
Due to the time it takes this window to load, it no longer automatically displays all the newsgroups. If you still have problems with it taking a long time, please run NewsReader in Terminal, load the window, and once it's done, shut down NewsReader. Paste the output of the Terminal window into an e-mail and send it to newsreader@mice.virtualave.net.
Version 1.36 - I changed this back as I don't think it's the problem. Please continue to send in e-mails with the output of the test, though.
- Multi-language system
Although there are currently no other languages included, it will now be possible for translated versions of NewsReader to be created. If you area interested in translating NewsReader, please send an e-mail to newsreader@mice.virtualave.net and you will be contacted with more information.
- Various bug fixes
Hopefully, several crashing bugs involving attachments, shutting down and more should be fixed in this release
- More speed tweaks
This version should be even faster, with several more tweaks to increase speed.
- Yet more bug fixes
Many problems related to the new storage system have been fixed, and the language support made even better.
- More bug fixes
Many bugs have been fixed, including unknown bugs that were discovered during the re-programming of the newsgroup storage system
- Many tweaks
The menus have been adjusted and several new functions have been added.
- New database
NewsReader now stores data on each newsgroup in a different format, which should make it much faster, and use less memory/CPU when in use!
- Various bug fixes
Several bugs have been fixed, including timezone bugs, text encoding and more.
- Attachment auto-save
You can select a directory where all downloaded attachments will be automatically stored
- Printing
You can now print articles from NewsReader.
- Multi-article selections
You can now select several messages at a time in a newsgroup to delete, mark, etc, more than one article in one go.
- Sent post mode
You may now switch between 8 bit or quoted-printable, depending on what you think will fit, when sending posts.
- Mouse scrollwheel
The support of input devices with scrollwheels has been added.
- New UI adjustments
Thanks to Michelangelo Capraro for the suggestions.
- Auto-download-and-combine
There is now an option that allows you to select any post that it part of a multi-post attachment, and it will auto-search the components, sort and begin downloading them.
- Message deleting
You can delete single messages from any newsgroup if you no longer want to store it, and you may also delete entire threads in this way.
- NewsDownload
NewsDownload is a utility for downloading messages for NewsReader from the command line. See NewsDownload.txt for more information.
- Faster message downloading
The downloading of headers or entire messages has been made much faster, and tweaked.
- Progress bars
NewsReader now shows what it's doing when you select a newsgroup to read.
- NewsMonitor
NewsMonitor has had several bugs fixed, and it's now much smaller.
- Faster downloading
The message downloading for newsgroups has been made faster.
- Attachment Joiner
Attachments spread over several posts can now be decoded.
- Keyboard
The keyboard functionality has been improved, and you may now press the space bar to read the next unread post (please check the Keyboard option in the Edit menu to ensure this is configured correctly).
- Fonts
You can now select what fonts each window use
- Various bugs
Lots of bug fixes in this release, including hopefully the timezone problems.
- Word Services
NewsReader now supports the "Word Services" API, which allows plugin software (e.g. SpellCheckers) to operate on posts you're writing.
- Download Status
When you're downloading messages in online mode, either normal posts or ones with attachments, 2 progress bars will now tell you how far NewsReader has downloaded!
- New UI
Using a new column list view, which can be re-configured. Also including extra icons.
- New documentation
New, better documentation has been started, along with menu options to access them.
- Colours
There are now more colour settings, and 2 Colour "Scheme", with more to follow!
- More multi-threading
You can now click on messages that are not locally stored, and NewsReader will not lock while it retreives them from the server
- Single window mode
You can now have NewsReader come up in a single window
- MIME attachments
You can now view attachments that were encoded using MIME.
- Faster subscribe window
I've increased the speed with which it comes up.
- New icon
I've got a new icon! Thanks to DrtyWpnry of #bedev on Efnet
- Even more multi-threading
You can now read newsgroups while you're downloading messages. If you're reading the newsgroup that's currently being downloaded, the posts will be added at the bottom, and then re-sorted when the download it complete.
- Better multi-threading
There is now much better multi-threading, the NNTP code has been tweaked and you may do other things while NewsReader downloads the list of groups.
- NewsMonitor
Now included is a replicant that allows you to monitor your newsgroups without loading NewsReader, via bar graphs.
- NNTP code
The part of NewsReader for accessing the server is now much faster, after being rewritten.
- Header viewer
The header viewer can now be resized
- Key shortcuts
You can now assign keys to certain common tasks in NewsReader, to allow you to access the newsgroups faster!
- Setup wizard
It is now easier to configure NewsReader for quick access to Usenet.
- Per-group options
You can now specify how you want NewsReader to treat each news group seperately, including the maximum number of messages to download, how long to keep messages before the expire, and whether to download bodies or just headers.
- Newsgroup data file MIME type
You can now double-click on a newsgroup data file, and NewsReader will be launched displaying that news group. If it's already opened in another newsgroup, it will switch to the one you double-click on.
- Syntax colouring
Messages can now be read with quoted material displayed in different colours, making it clearer to read.
- Easy feedback
There are now menu items to allow you to provide me with your thoughts and problems with NewsReader.
- Tooltips
There are now some tooltips on the toolbar buttons
- Newsgroup search
The searching of newsgroups in the Subscribe to Newsgroups window has been improved.
- Replied Messages filter
You can now view only threads that contain posts from you.
- Reply by email button
There is now a button you can press to automatically send an email reply instead of a post.
- Header viewer
The header viewer can now be adjusted.
- Newsgroup subscription sorting
The news groups you're subscribed to can now be sorted.
- Date
The program should now take account of your local timezone better. If it doesn't, please send a bug report back - there was some bother with this part.
- Sorting
You can now sort messages in ascending or descending order by date, poster and subject.
Note that sorting the un-threaded view takes some time!
- Some filtering
You can now select to only view unread messages.
- Inline image viewing
JPEGs, BMPs and any other image formats supported by BeOS (see the DataTranslations preference application for installed formats!) can now be viewed within NewsReader, as you view articles.
- Text Encoding
You can now select which text encoding to use, depending on what language you use.
- Article saving
The headers and body of messages can now be saved (but currently not the attachments in their original text form.
- Word-wrapping
Several word-wrapping problems have been fixed
- Custom header presets
You can now add headers you want to stay the same in every post.
- Custom header addition
Now has a way to add extra headers, as well as user-defined headers, to outgoing messages.
- .sig delimiting
The software will now automatically detect correctly delimited signatures ("-- "(dash dash space, newline)) when replying to posted messages. It now also warns if you attempt to post an empty message.
- Kill-filter
The software will now attempt to kill posters you do not want to receive messages from.
- Reply by email
You can now reply by email and/or post from the program. If you reply and post, the email is attached with a note to say as such.
- Online mode
This allows you to now read the newsgroups by only download headers, and then downloading each message as you want to read them.
- Colours
This function allows you to alter the colours the thread view and message windows appear in.
- Find
This searches entire newsgroups for specific strings
- Drafts
You can save messages without sending them, and finish them at a later date.
NewsReader online documentation
Copyright © 2000 Colin Munro