Wind-Mail by NickleWare Wind-Mail is an E-Mail and Bulletin Board system that is designed to keep you and your network users informed. With Wind-Mail you can send messages directly to another Wind-Mail user or post a bulletin on the Wind-Mail bulletin board for all users to read. Wind-Mail is not public domain, nor is it free software. You are granted a limited license to use this product on a trial basis. You are also granted a license to copy Wind-Mail, along with the documentation, for the trial use by other users. If you wish to continue using the product, you must send $25 per workstation to: NickleWare © c/o Bradley Nicholes 15817 130th PL. S.E. Renton, WA. 98058 We encourage you to copy Wind-Mail and share it with anyone who might be interested in better network user communication. Getting Started REQUIREMENTS - Microsoft Windows 2.1 or 3.0 Local Area Network configured with a shared disk drive IBM compatible PC 286/386 (network server and workstations) SERVER SETUP - Wind-Mail's data files must reside on a disk drive that can be accessed by all of your network users. To the workstations, this server drive must appear as if it were another local disk drive. Before proceeding make sure that you have Microsoft Windows correctly installed on the server. Next create a directory called WINDMAIL on the server's shared disk drive and copy the Wind-Mail Administrator software into this directory. Add the following entry into the WIN.INI file which is probably in the same directory where windows is installed. [WINDMAIL] DBPath=[drive]:[path] The key word DBPath is set equal to the [drive] and full [path] including the trailing backslash, where the windmail data file will reside. For example: [WINDMAIL] DBPath=C:\WindMail\ This drive and path must be a shared device on your network as mentioned above. A similar entry to the one above, will also have to be added to the WIN.INI file on each workstation. When the above steps have been completed, Wind-Mail Administrator is ready to be started. Simply start up Wind-Mail Administrator by double clicking on the WMADMIN.EXE file from the Windows MS-Dos executive. Wind-Mail Administrator will then create all of the data files it needs to run, and place them on the drive and path that was specified in the above entry. WORKSTATION SETUP - The workstation setup is much the same as the server setup with the exception that the Wind-Mail data files will reside on server's shared disk drive. First make sure that Microsoft Windows is correctly installed on the workstation. Copy the Wind-Mail executible file into the same directory where Windows is installed. Make the following entry into the WIN.INI file: [WINDMAIL] DBPath=[drive]:[path] The key word DBPath is set equal to the [drive] and full [path] including the trailing backslash, of the shared network server drive where the windmail data files reside. For example: [WINDMAIL] DBPATH=G:\WindMail\ G: is the name of the share drive and \WindMail\ is the full path name to where the Wind-Mail data files reside. After these steps have been completed on the workstation and the data files have been created on the shared server drive, Wind-Mail is ready to be used. STARTING WIND-MAIL FOR THE FIRST TIME - The first time Wind-Mail Administrator is started, all of the necessary data files will be created. At this point the data files are emtpy and Win-Mail Administrator knows nothing about who will be using the application. An address will have to be established for each Wind-Mail user, so that Wind-Mail Administrator will know where to deliver their mail. The first window to appear after starting Wind-Mail Administrator or Wind-Mail, is the LOGON window. A user ID and password are required to access the Wind-Mail application. To enter Wind-Mail Administrator for the first time, you will be required to enter the temporary user ID which is SCOOB (no password is required). With this temporary user ID, you are granted limited access to create user addresses. Once you have created at least one user address and Wind-Mail Administrator is exited, this temporary user ID is no longer valid. Each user will be required to have a user ID and password. The first time a new user logs on to Wind-Mail, they will enter their user ID, leave the PASSWORD field blank and enter a new password in the NEW PASSWORD field. The user will then be prompted to confirm the new password. From this point on the user will be required to log on with their user ID and password. CHANGING A PASSWORD - At any time when a user logs on to Wind-Mail, they may change their password. To change a password, simply enter the user ID and current password, then enter the new password in the NEW PASSWORD field. Wind-Mail will then prompt for the user to re-enter the new password to confirm what was entered the first time. Once the new password has been entered and confirmed, the old password is removed. Getting Around All of Wind-Mail's functionality is accomplished by selecting an ACTION and an ITEM to act on. For example, to create a new topic, you would select CREATE from the ACTIONS menu and TOPICS from the ITEMS menu. This will present the TOPICS entry window. Once all of the data has been entered into the appropriate fields, pull down the ACTIONS menu again and select SAVE/SEND. This action will cause the data to be saved in the database. When an UPDATE or READ action is combined with an item, a list box will be displayed that contains all of the currently defined records for the selected item. After making a selection from the list box, the record is retrieved from the database and presented in an entry window. BULLETIN / MAIL WINDOWS - The BULLETIN and MAIL entry windows contain two push buttons which allow the user to relate a bullentin or mail message with one or more topics or addresses respectivly. The ADD button will present another list box that contains all of the valid selections for current item. The user may choose one or more selections from the list box to relate to the current item. These selections will then appear in the item's display box at the top of the entry window. To close the selection list box, simply click on the system menu icon in the left-hand corner of the selection list box window and choose CLOSE. The selection list box may be displayed and closed as necessary. Any one of the selections that are displayed in the item's display box, may be removed by highlighting the selection and clicking on the REMOVE push button in the entry window. READ/BULLETIN - After choosing READ from the ACTIONS menu and BULLETIN from TOPICS menu, the TOPICS list box is presented with all of the currently defined topics. Choose a topic by highlighting the selection and clicking on the SELECT push button. The BULLETINS list box will then be presented with all of the bullentin titles that currently have the selected topic assigned to them. Choose a bulletin in the same manner as described above for TOPICS. The complete bulletin will then be displayed in the BULLETIN display window. At any time the TOPICS list box or BULLETINS list box may re-displayed by clicking on the LIST or BULLETIN on the menu bar. NEW MAIL - Whenever mail is sent to a user, the receiver's Wind-Mail application title bar will begin to flash. They can read the mail by selecting READ from the ACTIONS menu and MAIL from the ITEMS menu. The NEW MAIL list box will be displayed with the most recent mail displayed first. To read or reply to the mail, highlight a selection by clicking on it, and then click on a READ or REPLY push button. If the READ push button is selected, the READ MAIL display window will be presented. This window will display the mail message as well as who sent it and the time and date the mail was sent. The REPLY push button will present the CREATE/MAIL window with the ADDRESS list box containing reply address and the RE: field containing the mail subject. The may then enter a reply and send the reply mail message as described above. Advanced Features CLIPBOARD - The CLIPBOARD is a convienent way of transfering data between WIND-MAIL and other Windows application or between different WIND-MAIL windows. To use the CLIPBOARD functions simply highlight any text that is displayed in an entry field, pull down the CLIPBOARD menu and choose COPY or CUT. The COPY function will place a copy of the highlighed text on the Windows clipboard. The CUT function also places the highlighed text on the clipboard and also removes it from the entry field. To restore text from the clipboard, place the I-beam cursor at the position inside an entry field where the clipboard text should be inserted or appended. The pull down the CLIPBOARD menu and choose PASTE. The clipboard text will then be placed in the entry field and the cursor position. BULLETIN CROSS REFERENCE - WIND-MAIL's ability to assign more that one TOPIC to a BULLETIN allows the user to cross reference the bulletins for easier access and greater information availability. For example, the following BULLETIN/TOPIC assignments could be made: BULLETIN #1 ---> TOPIC #1 TOPIC #2 TOPIC #3 BULLETIN #2 ---> TOPIC #2 TOPIC #3 BULLETIN #3 ---> TOPIC #1 Selecting READ/BULLETINS, as described above, will present the TOPICS list box containing TOPIC #1, TOPIC #2 and TOPIC #3. If TOPIC #2 is choosen from the list box, both BULLETIN #1 and BULLETIN #2 will be displayed in the BULLETINS list box. If BULLETIN #1 is choosen for reading, the complete bulletin will then be displayed including all of the other topics that have been assigned to it. Notice above that BULLETIN #1 and BULLETIN #3 have TOPIC #1 assigned to them. This means that further information could be found by reading all bulletins (which includes BULLETIN #3) that are related to TOPIC #1. Actions CREATE - Select CREATE to create a new Topic, Bulletin, Mail Message or User Address. UPDATE - Select UPDATE to update an existing Topic, Bulletin, Mail Message or User Address READ - Select READ to read an existing Topic, Bulletin, Mail Message or User Address. SAVE/SEND - Select SAVE/SEND to save a newly created or already existing Topic, Bulletin or User Address, or to send a mail message. DELETE - Select DELETE to delete an already existing Topic, Bulletin, Mail Message or User Address. CLEAR - Select CLEAR to clear all of the window entry fields during a CREATE selection or restore the original values during an UPDATE selection. CLOSE - Select CLOSE to close an entry window. PRINT - Not implemented in this release. RE-INDEX - Select RE-INDEX to recreate the Wind-Mail indexes. EXIT - Select EXIT to exit Wind-Mail. ABOUT - Select ABOUT for more information about Wind-Mail. Bulletin Board TOPICS - Topics are used to categorize all of the bulletins placed on Wind-Mail's bulletin board. A user can create as many different topics as necessary. BULLETINS - Bulletins are public messages that are posted for all users to read. Each bulletin is assigned one or more topics. By relating a bulletin to more than one topic, the bulletin's topic list can be used as a cross reference to other bulletins. Mail MAIL - MAIL messages are private messages sent to a particular user address or group of addresses. These messages can only be read by the addressee. ADDRESSES - User addresses describe each Wind-Mail user and tells Wind-Mail where to send the user's mail. ClipBoard UNDO - Select UNDO to undo user input. CUT - Select CUT to cut the selected text from an entry field to the clipboard. COPY - Select COPY to copy the selected text from an entry field to the clipboard. PASTE - Select PASTE to paste clipboard text at the current cursor position. CLEAR - Select CLEAR to clear the selected text from an entry field. SELECT ALL - Select SELECT ALL to select all of the text in an entry field. Other Selections LIST - Select LIST during an UPDATE or READ operation to return to the selection list box. BULLETINS - Select BULLETINS during a READ/BULLETINS operation to return to the bulletins selection list box for a particular topic. This documentation must accompany the Wind-Mail software. NickleWare Copyright (C) 1990 Bradley Nicholes