Posting an article to a newsgroup

In most cases, the simple posting options (default) will be sufficent. However, if you need more control over how followups or replies are handled, or whether the article should be copied to someone via e-mail, you may want to use the advanced options.

To display the advanced posting options, simply press the Advanced... button in the lower part of the dialog window, and the window will change to the following:

Note: If you post from the main window and there is no newsgroup currently selected, the Newsgroup: field will be empty.

The following describes the use of the fields common to ASCII and HTML articles:

• If you want to temporarily change your e-mail address and/or nickname, change the contents of the From: field
• If replies are to go to an e-mail address other than that in the From: field, specify it in the Reply To: field
• If you want followups to be sent to one or more different groups, specify the group(s) in the Follow Up To: field. If you want followups to be sent to you only, not to any newsgroup, check the Followup via e-mail only box
• Type the subject into the Subject: field
• Indicate the names of the newsgroups the article is to be sent to in the Newsgroup(s): field; by default, the article will be sent to the currently-selected group. To post to multiple newsgroups, type in the group names in the Newsgroup: field, each separated by a comma. Groups names may end in an asterisk, in which case the article will be sent to all groups whose names begin with the characters before the asterisk
• Optionally, enter the e-mail address of someone you wish to copy the article to in the cc: field. To cc: the originator of an included message, check the cc: originator box
• If you have already created a categories file for the group, the Select category... button will be active and you may assign a message category to your article, by pressing the button and selecting a category appropriate to your article
• Enter the URL of a FAQ list for this group, if you know of one, in the Location of FAQ: field. This will cause the data you entered to be included with the article in its header, so that WebReader users will get their FAQ list database automatically updated from your posting. This can help reduce the number of postings for FAQ requests, or for the data contained in the FAQ

What you do next depends on the type of message you will be posting:

• ASCII: For this type of message (no HTML or image files), simply compose your article in the text area; you need not press the Return or Enter key after each line in the article, since the input will automatically wrap at the end of each line

  If you wish, you may also select the following items from the Include menu:

  • Article indented will copy the current article into the text area. Each line will be preceded by the Include indent prefix
  • Article will copy the current article into the text area, without adding the indent prefix.
  • Include file... will prompt you for a file to include in the article:
    

    Just select the directory, the filter to use and a file from the list, and the file will be included in the article when the Open button is pressed or a filename in the Files list is double-clicked on. Binary files will be encoded before being added, thus allowing the inclusion of images and executable files, among other things, in your articles.

• Local or remote HTML: Typically, a user will go through the following steps when posting an article which includes HTML:
  • Create or edit the message using the WebReader integrated HTML editor or an HTML editor of your choice
  • Edit the Subject:, Newsgroup: and optional fields described above for ASCII articles
  • Select the Select WWW files... option under the URL: choice item. This causes a dialog window to be displayed, allowing you to choose which HTML and image files you want included in the posting
  • Select the directory and the filter you wish to use. The Directory: field specifies the directory in which the HTML and image files reside, while the Filter: field allows you to specify which files get displayed in the left-hand list; you may specify one or more filter strings, separated by spaces. Note: all HTML and image files used in a post MUST reside in the same directory
  • Select image and HTML files from the list on the left side of the post dialog window and press the Add resource button. These files will be added to the list on the right side of the window. Files may be deleted from the second list by pressing the Delete resource button
  • Select an HTML file in the right-hand list. This will become your home page, and an ASCII-tized version will be displayed in the text area; this becomes the "synopsis" which Brand X newsreaders will see
  • Click on the Include signature checkbox if you wish to append your signature to the posting. By default, signatures are only included in ASCII postings
  • Optionally, assign a message category to your article, by pressing the Select category... button and selecting a category appropriate to your article

  Alternatively, you may save a number of steps when posting an HTML article if the article already exists on some WWW server. In this case, simply select the Select URL... option under the URL: choice item. A dialog window will appear, allowing you to enter the URL of a page to be fetched when the article is selected by a user. Although this option requires less keystrokes, it generally takes longer to fetch the ASCII synopsis since the page of HTML in question resides on the network, rather than on your local system.

  You may, anytime prior to pressing completion of the posting, replace the synopsis with some other text, either entered manually or included from the Include menu, as above.

In either case, to complete the posting and send the article to the newsgroup(s), press the Deliver button when you are finished. To cancel, the post, select the Cancel button.