Subj : Heeeeellllp
To   : Martin Foster
From : August Abolins
Date : Tue Mar 12 2019 20:35:07

Hello Martin,

On Tuesday 11:50:00, you wrote:

 MF> I'm confused!

 <g> Let me retry explaining.

Since there was no way to fetch an UPPERCASE version of the arealist, I was 
prepared to manage the list manually - somehow.

I happend to notice a file in:

C:\home_directory_for_winpoint\WinPoint\MsgBase

...and looked inside the file: "2.221.1.0.EchoAreas" with notepad.

I noticed that it only contained UPPERCASE text that corresponded to my prior 
feeble attempts to use Winpoint's "Use message as Arealist" function.  The top 
section of the arealist *did* have some uppercase words, but they were the 
usually "hidden" header strings like MSGID and such. When I scrolled over those 
top lines, some of the uppercase strings ended up in the Winpoint's internal 
arealist.

Those "strings" matched exactly what was in the "2.221.1.0.EchoAreas" file 
mentioned above.  I also noticed that each line started with a "dot", then a 
space, and then the weird string.

So I replaced the weird/bad strings with the area names I wanted.  I saved the 
file, RELOADED Winpoint and noticed that the area names I entered showed up in 
the Manage Areas section, properly!

Then, from that control screen, I proceeded to select the area names I wanted, 
to move them over to the  right-side panel.  After that, those areas then were 
listed in WinPoint's main screen folders section.

Then I took another look inside the "Zone.Net.Node.0.EchoAreas" file and 
noticed a difference.

The same areas were there as before, but each line started with an asterisk, 
then a space and then the area name.

BEFORE:

.. 1stAREANAME
.. 2ndAREANAME
.. 3rdAREANAME

AFTER:

* 1stAREANAME
* 2ndAREANAME
* 3rdAREANAME

Therefore, the asterisk represents the areas that have been "activated" to show 
up in the WinPoint folders panel.

This means that I can build my own area list by first changing all the original 
lower-case text to uppercase, add a dot and a space just before the area name, 
and save that as my complete "Zone.Net.Node.0.EchoAreas" file to use.

Maybe you can add a section to your fine manual about this uppercase/lowercase 
issue, and provide an explanation with a workaround as above.

WinPoint seems to be quite a fine all-in-one program for supporting echomail 
access without needing any other fancy FTN support programs.   I am currently 
switching back and forth between WinPoint and the newsgroup (nntp) method with 
Thunderbird. Both have advantages and disadvantages.  I was thinking of writing 
up a comparison of those.

Anyway.. I hope this rewrite has cleared some of the original confusion.

Once again.. great job of tackling a manual for WinPoint!


.../|ug

--- WinPoint Beta 5 (359.1)
 * Origin: My Winpoint (2:221/1.58)

.