Marconi is an off-line reader newsgroup, that is a programme which permits to fetch internet news and to read it off-line. Marconi permits not only to fetch all the news from a certain newsgroup, but also some selected pieces of news only Marconi requires 2048Kbytes on Marcintosh and 3072Kbytes on PowerMacintosh.
Marconi has been tested on the following computers:
Macintosh LC II;
Macintosh Duo 230;
Macintosh Quadra 700;
"Open Trasport Ready" because it has been tested with OT v1.0.8
Let's try to explain very simply the operations of Marconi by which you can fetch the news.
They can be resumed as follows:
1) SET UP MARCONI;
2) FETCH THE LIST OF THE NEWSGROUPS PRESENT IN YOUR NEWS-SERVER;
3) SELECT A NEWSGROUP;
4) SET UP EACH NEWSGROUP CHOSEN;
5) FETCH NEWS;
6) IMPORT THE NEWS FETCHED AND READ IT.
Ñ SET UP MARCONI
You have to set up Marconi the first time you use it. After starting Marconiyou will see the "Subscribed Newsgroup Index" card. As you can see on the left (vertical) there is a button bar with several buttons. To set up Marconi click on the ">>SET UP<<" which will take you to the "Configuration Card".
In this card you have to insert:
1) Your first name and family name in the field:"Your Real Name";
2) Your internet address in the field:"E_Mail address";
3) the news server you fetch the news from in the field:"News-Server".
These are the data necessary for Marconi to work, the data present in the other fields may be considered optional.
Ñ FETCH THE NEWSGROUP LIST
After setting up Marconi click on the ">INDEX<" button to go back to the "Subscribed Newsgroups Index" card if you're still in the "Configuration Card". Now you'll have to fetch the list of the newsgroups present in your news-server. Click on the "Newsgroup list" button from the "Subscribed Newsgroup Index" card: this way you'll go to the card containing the list of the newsgroups availlable in your news-server. Marconi contains already a list of the newsgroups present in the news-server of Ca' Foscari University of Venice: you'll you have to update the list simply click on the "Fetch all groups" button. Marconi itself will fetch the list of the newsgroups present in the server and will show it to you.
Ñ SELECT A NEWSGROUP
To select a newsgroup ans so to subscribe it, click on the name of the newsgroup you wish. Marconi will open the files necessary for the subscription, and the name of the newsgroup will appear on the "Subscribed Newsgroups Index" card, preceded by a little black circle indicating that the newsgroup has been subscribed. If the newsgroup selected has already been subscribed, Marconi will let you know and will not subscribe the newsgroup.
Ñ SET UP A NEWSGROUP
Each newsgroup can be set up ad one pleases. You may wish to fetch all the news of a newsgroup because you think it's all important if the newsgroup is very used, you may wish to import only the list of the news contained in that newsgroup and decide later on which pieces of news to fetch, or also you may wish to read only the 100 most recent pieces of news. To do all this, each newsgroup must be set up. To set up a newsgroup you must be in the "Subscribed newsgroup Index" card. Click on the ">>SETUP<<" button which will take you to Marconi's configuration card and there click on the "Newsgroup config" button. This way you'll get to the section containing all the configuration cards of a subscribed newsgroup. Now you just have to follow the software interface to decide how to set up each newsgroup, among the configuration cards by using the arrow on the right and on th left, which allow you to go from one configuration card to another.
Ñ FETCH NEWS
To fetch news you have to be in the "Subscribed Newsgroup Index" card and there click on the "Check News" button. From this moment on, Marconi fetches news or only the list of the news present in the various newsgroups subscribed by following the configuration you have given. Two rectangular buttons will appear:"STOP FETCHING" and "NEXT GROUP". Click on the former to stop fetching news whenever you think it's necessary; on the latter to fetch next newsgroup.
Ñ IMPORT NEWS
After fetching news and hanging up the modem, a rectangular button called "IMPORT NEWS" will appear on the bottom of the "Subscribed Newsgroup Index" card. Click on it and Marconi will import news or the news list of the newsgroups choosen.
Ñ SUBSCRIBE THE SINGLE PIECES OF NEWS
After importing news:
1) either you have fetched directly news, so go and read it in the newsgroups you wish by clicking on the name of the newsgroup present in the subscribed Newsgroup Index" card.
2) or you have fetched the list of the news present in certain newsgroups, so you may wish to read it and select the pieces of news you wish in order to fetch them at the next logging up.
Ñ SELECT NEWS
To select news, click on the "Subscr. News Index" button, which will take you to the news list. The list shows the name of a newsgroup, and the list of the messages present sorted by subject in the next field to select a message or a group of messages, select one or more messages from the list: Marconi itself will select them for you. The pieces of news in bold type have already been subscribed, those which aren't in bold type haven't to unsubscribe the pieces of news subscribed, do the same operation: Marconi will realize the piece of news is subscribed and will mark it "to be subscribed" by typing in plain style.
After this bird's eye view of how to fetch news, let's give some information interesting for the user. The most of Marconi documentation is present in the shape of ballonn help, so if you don't know the function of a certain button or of a list, switch on the balloon help and go with your mouse to the part of window you wish: Marconi will tell you what it is for and explain the function of the zone detected.
As far as the "Subscr. News Index" card is concerned, the newsgroups subscribed can be unsubscribed as well. There are two ways to unsubscribe a newsgroup:
1) PARTIAL UNSUBSCRIPTION: Keep clicked on the "option" key when you click on the name of a newsgroup. The flag will charge from "Ñ" to "-", which means that the newsgroups is no longer active and when you make a "Check news", Marconi won't make a check on that newsgroup. It's possible to reactivate a newsgroup unselected by doing the same operation. Marconi will change the flag from "-" to "Ñ".
2) TOTAL UNSUBSCRIPTION: keep held down the "shift" key when you click on the name of a newsgroup, so the newsgroup completely disappears from the newsgroup list.
Ñ HOW TO WRITE A PIECE OF NEWS
You can write a piece of news either replying to a message or because you wish to communicate something to the others apart from one of their previous messages. Click on the "Reply Index" button from the "Sub. News Index" card (or from any other where the button we are going to talk about is present), you'll go to the card containing the index of the replies, click on the "New Message" button: the card of the message already containing your data will appear. Now you have to:
1) State in which newsgroup you wish to write messages. To do so you can either type the name of the newsgroup, or click on the "Newsgroups" button. The list of all the newsgroups present in the "Sub. News. Index" card will appear. Select from that list the newsgrop/s you wish (you can send messages even to more newsgroups at the same time). Write the text of the message and when you finish... well, you decide what to do of the message just written!
Ñ NEWS INDEX
The "News Index" environment is the index of the news fetched by Marconi. The options available are:
">INDEX<": it takes you to the "Sub. News Index" card
"Refresh Index": it permits to re-update the status of the index to see which pieces of news have still to be read (thos marked by "Ñ") and which ones have already been read (those without "Ñ").
"Reply Index": it takes you to the index of replies.
"Clean Up": It deletes the news already read from the newsgroup.
"Go Back button": it takes you to the last piece of news read, of any newsgroup.
Please note that by clicking on the name of the newsgroups you go to the "Configuration card of that newsgroup".
Ñ NEWS READING ENVIRONMENT
In the news reading environment it's useful to point out the following buttons:
"News Index": it takes you to the news index of that newsgroup.
"Reply": it permits to reply to a piece of news; by selecting a part of a text before the reply this will be taken directly to the reply (this operation is called quoting).
"Archive News": it permits to archive news as text files.
"Print News": it permits to print news.
The two buttons "Unread" and "Read" are very important as well. They show if a piece of news have been read or not. Besides, the "All news" and "Unread news" buttons permit to choose if you want to move only among the cards already read or among those which haven't been read yet.
This is the end of our short guidebook. You'll find out the rest by using Marconi and the balloon help.
