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Thank you for trying the best bulletin board software available today. The goal of this document is three-fold: 1) to highlight just a few of the features that set PCBoard apart from the competition. 2) to accompany you in a guided tour of PCBoard's features. 3) illustrate how the interface can be tailored to the level of your callers. NOTE: The full ASCII documentation for PCBoard is available on our support BBS under the filename 150ASCII.ZIP. The full documentation is over 700 pages and covers a wealth of information about how PCBoard operates. You can reach our support system at 801-261-8976 or through the Internet by telneting to either 199.67.41.2 or 199.67.41.252. Leading The Pack =============================================================================== PCBoard is an excellent value for your money. The combination of powerful features and flexibility of system configuration will knock your socks off. To show you what sets PCBoard apart from other BBS packages, we'll talk about some of the powerful features included in every PCBoard package and then how PCBoard can be tailored to match your performance and budget expectations. The Complete Package -------------------- A complete BBS package is one that provides the features you need right out of the box. PCBoard is that complete package because many features other companies charge extra for are included in every package. Let's examine a few: Connectivity ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The name of the game is connectivity. You must be able to effectively connect with the outside world and the inside world. Furthermore, this should be done at a minimal cost to you. PCBoard meets both of these requirements as the following list describes. 1. Internet Access: The Internet is the fastest growing aspect of computer communications today. Contrary to what many believe, the Internet and bulletin board packages are complementary technologies. Bulletin board software can be used to give focus to the wealth of information on the Internet. In fact, PCBoard includes a program in every package for getting e-mail and newsgroups from an Internet provider. Your users can tap the wealth of information available from the Internet by using PCBoard's extensive message reading capabilities. 2. Fidonet: For several years, thousands of bulletin board systems have bonded together and formed a world-wide message and file network. Connecting to Fidonet used to mean buying another software package, letting it answer the phone and finally pass control to the BBS. With PCBoard, however, all of the required software is built-in. Because of this fact, you will not have to worry about messy batch files nor will your users have to endure a two staged login. PCBoard does all of this seamlessly. 3. LAN Logins: Whether you are running a system with just a few concurrent users (nodes), or a large corporate system with a large number of nodes, it is important to be able to support local logins. You will not believe how easy it is to setup PCBoard to allow logins across the LAN by simply running PCBoard from a workstation. Some companies will charge you extra for such capabilities. We do not. 4. Intelligent Serial: The higher demand for speed in online communications has pushed the spotlight over to high-speed communications equipment like intelligent serial ports. PCBoard supports this newer hardware from several different angles: 1) PCBoard can talk to any serial device that has an OS/2 or FOSSIL driver. 2) We provide a communications driver capable of talking to the most popular boards while running under DESQview or Windows. Microsoft Windows(R) Mail Reader ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the unique features of PCBoard is inclusion of a Windows mail reader called PCBMail in every package. The combination of PCBMail and PCBoard is a complete solution both in and out of the office, providing access to your e-mail, files, conferences, discussions, databases, etc. Business type environments where the primary focus is on messages is where PCBMail really excels. Your dial-up customers can continue to access the dedicated machines while employees within the company use PCBMail on their own machine. The net effect is that the employees reading mail do not affect the performance of the dial-in nodes. PCBMail's easy-to-use interface makes what may appear to be a complex task a simple one. For example, PCBMail adds the functionality of mailing lists allowing messages to be quickly sent to departments or groups of employees in the company. PCBMail is not just for company BBSs. SysOps of any size system can benefit from its use since reading messages is something they do quite often. Messages on the system are easily composed and replied to. PCBMail is an innovative and exciting addition to PCBoard. Other Built-In Features ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are other powerful and exciting PCBoard features you should be aware of. In this section, we'll highlight just a few of these features. 1. Multiple Languages: We communicate in a global community. As such, it is important for your BBS package to support multiple languages. When a user logs on, PCBoard prompts the user which language to use. If your needs require you to support English, Spanish, French, or many other languages, you can do it! This is possible because we have been fine-tuning our multi-lingual support for nearly 10 years. An additional feature PCBoard has over other packages is that it also observes the language characteristics of DOS and can use the fonts and characters specific to a particular country. That's right, support for double-byte character sets and right-to-left languages is inherited from DOS. 2. dBASE Access: The industry standard database format--dBASE III--is a great way to store and retrieve information. PCBoard can access dBASE files using applications written with the PCBoard Programming Language (PPL). 3. Credit Accounting: With the increasing demand for information, many services are finding that charging for the information is beneficial. PCBoard allows users to pre-pay their accounts, or for you to charge on a pay-to-play basis where they are charged for each item they access or each minute they spend online. You control the rates and define your own peak times and holidays. 4. Multiuser Chat: The ability to communicate real-time is important in a society where information is becoming available on-demand at an increasing rate. PCBoard's chat feature allows several people to communicate in real-time. There are 255 separate channels or topic areas. Furthermore, each channel can be configured to be either public or private depending on your needs. After Your Purchase ------------------- When you purchase PCBoard, you always have access to technical support. This section discusses what you can expect in the way of support and upgrades after you buy PCBoard. Free Support ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every PCBoard customer is entitled to support at all times via our bulletin board, or from any of the world-wide message networks (Internet, Fidonet, etc.) All new PCBoard SysOps receive one year of FREE voice support (further years of support are available at very reasonable rates). Free Upgrades ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In addition to the year of voice support with every new package, you also receive one year of FREE upgrades to PCBoard. It does not matter if the upgrade is considered to be minor or major; all upgrades during this year can be downloaded from our support BBS. You can have upgrades shipped to you for a minimal fee. As with voice support, further years of downloadable upgrades may be purchased at reasonable rates. A Tour of PCBoard =============================================================================== It is one thing to read about features and another thing to actually see them in action. In this section, we will take you on a tour of many of the features discussed previously and also some that were not mentioned. Due to the size of the demo disk and other practical reasons, some of the features are not represented in the demo but are functional in non-demo version. They are: * PCBFido * PCBUUCP (Internet e-mail & newsgroups) * PCBMail * dBASE file access Our tour will be brief but will highlight the major features of PCBoard. Plan on about 30 minutes to complete the tour. What the User Sees ------------------ An important aspect to consider in your evaluation is what the end-user sees when they call into the system. The demo copy of PCBoard is capable of answering phone calls and is one way of getting a feel for what the user sees. Another way is to simulate a login. In this part of the tour, we will demonstrate the core features of PCBoard such as messages, file transfers, bulletins, etc. via a simulated logon. Logon ~~~~~ To load PCBoard, you always use the NODE batch files. For example, to load the first node on your system, use the NODE1.BAT file located in the \PCB subdirectory. Once the system is loaded, you are at the call-waiting screen as this example shows: << PCBoard Professional Bulletin Board >> - Node 1 User - Busy Sysop - Busy DOS - Busy User - Not Busy Sysop - Not Busy DOS - Not Busy Printer is Off Page Bell is Off Alarm is Off It is from this screen that we will logon and simulate what a user will see. Begin by using the cursor keys to move over to the "User - Busy" button and press ENTER. The first question you see asks you which language to use. Press ENTER to select the default. The next question you see asks if your display is in color or not. If you have a color display, go ahead and answer the question with a Y. Otherwise, answer with an N. After the welcoming screen is displayed, enter your name at the "What is your first name?" prompt. The name you enter here corresponds with what you entered as the SysOp record when installing the demo. When prompted, complete the login by typing the password for the SysOp account. Proceed with the login by reading the screens that follow and pressing ENTER when asked to. The login is complete when you see the following prompt: (193 min. left) Main Board Command? If you do not see this prompt, continue to press ENTER until you do. This prompt is known as the conference command prompt. This is where users enter commands to perform activities such as reading messages, transferring files, etc. One of the most noticeable aspects of this particular menu is that it has so many choices on it. This is due mainly to the fact that we logged in as the SysOp. Had we logged on as a new user, our choices would be more limited. Now that the login was successful, we can proceed with other aspects of the system. Let's begin with one of the most popular areas of the system--the file areas. File Areas ~~~~~~~~~~ Most SysOps soon discover that their file areas are the most attractive part of their BBS; users just seem to find their way to this area. For the purpose of this tour, we will show you how to view a file directory, mark or flag a file for download, and finally how to download the file. We can view a list of file directories active in the current conference/area by executing the F command from the main menu. +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | You have access to the following directories in this conference: | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1 - Demonstration Applications 2 - Sales and Information Brochures From this menu, select file directory 1. When you make the selection, you will be presented with a list of three files beginning with: Filename Size Date Description of File Contents ============ ======== ======== ========================================= ALLFILES.ZIP 744 02-14-94* A listing of all files available on this bulletin board system. Use this list for browsing the file lists off-line. NOTE: This file is compressed. You must use PKUNZIP v2.04+ to uncompress the file. Deciding that we want to download ALLFILES.ZIP, let's mark it for download at a later time. To do this, use the (F)lag command presented at the bottom of the screen. When asked what filename to flag, type ALLFILES.ZIP followed by ENTER. PCBoard notifies you that the file was flagged when it prints: (1) ALLFILES.ZIP 744 bytes, 0.2 minutes (approximate) In the event you mistype the filename, an error message is displayed stating that the filename was not found on disk. Simply type in the filename correctly and the file will be found. With the filename flagged for download, we are prepared to download it. Press ENTER until you are returned to the conference command prompt. To download the file, use the D command. When asked if you want to download flagged files, be sure to answer Y to the prompt. Next, you must pick a protocol to use for the transfer. Since we are logged on locally, let's pick one of the built-in transfer protocols--Xmodem/Checksum. A new box appears at the top of the screen which resembles: +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Local Download Path? ( ) | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ This box is simply asking where you want to put the file. Therefore, enter a subdirectory on your directory where this file can reside. For example, send it to the root directory of drive C by typing C:\ in the box and pressing ENTER. NOTE: If PCBoard does not detect any activity after a brief pause, this window will disappear and the transfer will be considered to be aborted. Simply use the D command to download files again and repeat the process. This concludes the first portion of the tour. Next, we'll move to the message areas which is a center of activity on most bulletin boards. Return to the conference command prompt so we can continue with the tour. Messages ~~~~~~~~ Messages provide a convenient way to communicate with other users on the system or with people around the world when your BBS is hooked up with one of the major mail networks. During this portion of the tour, we will read a couple of messages and reply to one of them. Let's begin by reading new messages on the system. To read messages, we must first use the R command at the conference command prompt. When you do, the "(H)elp, (1-2), Message Read Command?" prompt appears. Reading new messages is as simple as entering S followed by ENTER at the read command prompt. Date: 03-22-95 (12:39) Number: 1 of 2 (Refer# NONE) To: SYSOP From: FRED CLARK Subj: Welcome to PCBoard version 15.21! Read: NONE Status: RECEIVER ONLY Conf: Main Board (0) Read Type: GENERAL (+) The first message seen is addressed to you, the Sysop, and is from Fred Clark. The contents of this message express our thanks for you evaluating PCBoard. Let's reply to Fred using the following steps: 1. Type RE (for reply) at the "End of Message Command" prompt. 2. Press ENTER to accept the default subject. 3. Refuse the question asking if you want a return receipt by pressing ENTER. 4. When asked if you want to use the full-screen editor, enter Y followed by ENTER. 5. At this point, you are in the message editor. Enter any message of your choosing just as you would in a word-processing type program. 6. When finished enter your message, press ESC followed by S and ENTER to save the message. Once the message is saved, you are returned to Fred's original message. Let's proceed to the next message by pressing ENTER at the prompt. This message shares some comments from other customers regarding their experience with PCBoard. Press ENTER to continue to each next page until you return back to the main menu. Sub-Menus ~~~~~~~~~ You may have noticed the SysOp menu has a lot of options available at the first screen. This is an attractive benefit for users because it allows them to get to virtually any area of the system with a single command. By using sub-menus, you can customize PCBoard to present less options on the initial screens. If the bulk of your callers are new to bulletin boards, sub-menus are a great way to guide them through your system. Let's look at a sample sub-menu system included with the demo. At the command prompt, issue the SUB command. You will see a screen similar to the following: +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Date: 03-22-95 S a m p l e M e n u Time: 17:02 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | (R) Read messages | | (F) View a list of available files | | (B) Review the bulletins/text files library | | (D) Open a door to a third-party application | | (S) Answer a script questionnaire | | | | (G)oodbye (Logoff the system) (Q)uit to the SysOp Menu | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Go ahead and try a few of the menu options. The first one illustrates the ability for a menu to launch another menu. When you have tried out the commands, you may return to the SysOp menu by choosing the (Q)uit to the SysOp Menu option. Doors (External Applications) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the most flexible aspects of PCBoard is that it can transfer control to an external application. These applications are run by batch files therefore there is virtually no limit to what you can run. When you run applications outside of the BBS, the options of what you can provide your callers are wide open. For a very simple illustration of what a door can do, let's choose the OPEN command from the main menu. Run the only door listed on the menu. When you do, you'll notice a batch file starts to run. This batch file will execute the DOS TREE command. Upon completion of the TREE command, the batch file reloads PCBoard so the caller can continue with other PCBoard commands. As we stated, this is a very simple example. More functional doors are available on our support BBS. These doors let users play games, access databases, read files, etc. Better yet, most of these doors are shareware or freeware, meaning you can try them on your system before purchasing them. If the application suits your needs, these doors can be purchased at minimal cost. Bulletins ~~~~~~~~~ Whether you want to display rules of the system, a little background information, or really just about any other text information, the bulletin area of PCBoard is an excellent place to do it. A bulletin in PCBoard is simply a text file. Therefore, you may use existing text files, or you can also use the PCBEdit program to add screens of colorful and useful information to your callers. Let's take a look at the bulletins installed in this demo by executing the B command at the conference command prompt. You'll see the following menu: +-----+-------------------------------------------------+-------------+ | | B u l l e t i n s | | | | | | | # | Description | Filename | | --- | ----------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | 1 | Pricing information for PCBoard | BLT1 | | 2 | Rules of conduct for this system | RULES | | 3 | Official listing of PCBoard Bulletin Boards | BBSLIST | | | | | +-----+-------------------------------------------------+-------------+ View bulletin #1 by entering that bulletin number at the "(H)elp, (1-3), Bulletin List Command?" prompt. You will be presented with pricing information for PCBoard. Furthermore, the display you see is in color and makes it present the information in a manner that will catch the caller's attention. There are more to bulletins than just displaying text files. Your callers can download a bulletin if it interests them, and they can also search for text within a bulletin. Let's look at both features to get an idea of how they work. First of all, to do download a bulletin, all the caller must do is tell PCBoard to download the bulletin. This is done by adding a D just after the bulletin number. Example: (H)elp, (1-3), Bulletin List Command? 2 D See how easy that is. In fact, try it out right now. As soon as you do, you'll be prompted for a protocol to use for the download. At this point, follow the same instructions we used to download a file earlier in the door; pick a protocol and when asked supply the subdirectory where you want the file to be put. Searching for text is done in much the same manner. The exception is that instead of using a D for download, use an S for searching. Let's search for the word internet in bulletin #3 by doing the following: (H)elp, (1-3), Bulletin List Command? 3 S Enter the Text to Scan for (Enter)=none? Internet You'll know when a match is found because PCBoard highlights it. No matches are found on the first screen of bulletin #3 so press ENTER to go to the next screen. On the next screen we have several matches. Thanks to the highlighting, finding matches is a breeze! The non-demo version of PCBoard does include a feature we were not able to include with the demo version of PCBoard. This exciting feature automatically determines when it is dealing with records of data. As you look at the bulletin board list presented in bulletin #3, you see it has several different entries. By separating it into records, only matching records are shown. Here is how our same search looks when run with the non-demo version of PCBoard: ******************************************************* * Official WorldWide PCBoard Listing as of 03-17-95 * ******************************************************* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (609)-232-1245 Compu-Data, Turnersville, NJ PHIL GORDEMER /1 12/24/96-USR32 32 Nodes, 10GB of Files, Internet, and thousands of conference ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (215)-443-9434 DSC BBS Ivyland, PA RON BRANDT /1 12/24/96-USR32 10 Networks - 1,500 Conferences, Internet / Usenet 6 Gigs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (702)-359-2666 InterComm/Reno/NV PAT FURRIE /1 12/24/96-UNK32 6 19.2kbs ZyXEL modems, 66,000+ files, all Fido cnfs, Internet ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice that only the matching records were displayed this time. PCBoard still highlights the matching text, but the caller does not have to wade through screens of data looking for a matching portion. This is a wonderful way to present information to your callers! Questionnaires ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Script questionnaires provide an excellent way to get feedback or information from your callers. With PCBoard you can choose between two different methods of getting the information. 1) Using the simple questionnaire format where a question is asked, and the user is given one line to respond, or 2) Write a customized questionnaire with the simple to use PCBoard Programming Language (PPL). This demo illustrates both, so let's take a look at each. First, select the S command from the Main Menu to go to the script questionnaire area of PCBoard. There you will see: +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | S c r i p t s | | | | # | Description | | --- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | 1 | Your modeming habits | | 2 | Your usage of this system. | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ The first questionnaire uses the standard question and answer method, while the second runs a program written in PPL. Let's begin by answering the first questionnaire by entering 1 at the "Questionnaire # to Answer (Enter)=none?" prompt. The questions are presented in the following format: How long have you been modeming ? ( ) The space between the parentheses is the area where the caller can respond. Notice that the answer is in free-form format. If you want more control over the format of the question or what the user is allowed to enter, use PPL to do the questionnaire. Let's quickly finish answering this first script, return back to the script menu, and answer script #2. Remember, the S command from the main menu takes you to the script questionnaire menu. Questionnaire # to Answer (Enter)=none? 2 ==== Message Bases ==== 1. Every call 2. Frequently 3. Rarely 4. Not at all Which option best describes your use of the message bases on this system? (4) Notice how the user is now given choices of how to answer the question. This gives you more control over their response and even allows functionality like suggesting default responses. With PPL and PCBoard, your imagination is the limit! Logoff / Disconnect ------------------- This concludes our tour of what a user sees while connected to PCBoard. Next, let's take a look behind the scenes. Our final two stops on the tour look at the setup program and also illustrate how file maintenance is done. To logoff from PCBoard, type G at the main menu and press ENTER. This command will disconnect us from the system and return us to the call waiting screen. Configuring Your System ----------------------- To get an idea of how to configure a PCBoard system, select the "PCBSetup" button from the call-waiting screen. You will be presented with the Main Menu which looks like this: +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Main Menu Use w/ PCB 15.2| +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | A Sysop Information | | B File Locations | | C Modem Information | From this menu, nearly every aspect of PCBoard is configured. Going through each individual item would be out of the scope of this tour. Therefore, we'll focus this stop on the tour on four aspects: 1) General Configuration Overview, 2) Accounting Configuration, 3) Fido Configuration, and 4) UUCP Configuration. The first stop will give you a general feel for how PCBoard is configured. The rest of the areas focus on showing you the areas of PCBSetup which configure features of PCBoard that are not represented in this demo copy. General Overview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To get a quick glimpse of how configurable PCBoard is, let's select "Configuration Options" from the Main Menu. Next, select "Messages". On this screen, we see options and configurations questions dealing with the messages / electronic mail. Use the cursor keys to move between the various fields. to get more information about the fields, press 1 to access online help. When you are finished looking around, press ESC to return to the previous menu. Pressing ESC twice takes you back to the Main Menu. One thing you will need to do quickly and easily is to edit files displayed to your callers. For example, when you want to display a welcome file to your new callers, how easy is that to do with your BBS software? With PCBoard, this is a very simple task. Let's go find out just how easy. Begin by selecting File Locations from the PCBSetup main menu followed by selecting the Display Files menu item. At this point you see a screen similar to the following: Name/Loc of WELCOME File : C:\PCB\GEN\WELCOME Name/Loc of NEWUSER File : C:\PCB\GEN\NEWUSER Name/Loc of CLOSED File : C:\PCB\GEN\CLOSED Name/Loc of WARNING File : C:\PCB\GEN\WARNING Name/Loc of EXPIRED File : C:\PCB\GEN\EXPIRED Name/Loc of Conference Join Menu : C:\PCB\GEN\CNFN Name/Loc of Group Chat Intro File : Name/Loc of Group Chat Menu : C:\PCB\GEN\CHTM Name/Loc of NOANSI Warning : C:\PCB\GEN\NOANSI Move the cursor down to the NEWUSER file and press F2 to edit the file. At this point, PCBoard has loaded the PCBEdit program where you can customize this screen any way you want to. Feel free to make a few changes and play around with the editor. When you are finished, press ALT-X to return to the PCBSetup configuration screens. Accounting System ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next, let's take a quick glance at some of the features not represented in the demo. We cannot see how they operate, but we can see how they are configured. From the main menu, select "Account Configuration". On this screen we have just a few general options for the accounting system. You can view more information about how much to charge per activity by moving the cursor down to the "Name/Loc of Account Configuration File" field and pressing F2. Here you will see the following screen: New User Starting Balance : 10,000 Balance Warning Level : 1,000 Charges: Per Logon : 10 Per Minute Online : 1 Per Minute Online Peak Time : 1.5 Per Minute in Group Chat (Added) : 0 Per Message Read : 0 Per Message Captured (QWK/c/d/z) : 0 Per Message Written : 0 Per Message Written (Echoed) : 0 Per Message Written (Private) : 0 Per File Downloaded : 75 Per 1K-Bytes Downloaded : 0 Pay Back: Per File Uploaded : 25 Per 1K-Bytes Uploaded : 0 Feel free to move the cursor between the various fields and use 1 to get more details about any particular field. Press ESC twice to return to the Main Menu. UUCP & Fido ~~~~~~~~~~~ For the final stop of the tour in PCBSetup, try looking through the Fido and UUCP configuration options on your own. Remember the critical keystrokes: ESC Return to the previous menu. F1 Access on-line help for the current item. When you are done looking around, return to the Main Menu and press E twice to return to the PCBoard call-waiting screen. File Maintenance ---------------- Exchanging files on a bulletin board is an extremely popular activity. With people sending (uploading) files to your system, you must be able to move them around to their appropriate place. To accomplish this, we include a copy of PCBFiler in every PCBoard package. Let's load PCBFiler and move a file between two directories to illustrate how it works. From the call-waiting screen select the "PCBFiler" button where after a brief pause you will see the Main Menu: +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Main Menu Use w/ PCB 15.2| +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | A Edit DIR Files | | B Sort all DIR Files | | C Create Files List | | D Scan for Duplicate/Missing Files | To move the file we want to move, follow these steps: 1. We must edit the DIR (file directories) files, therefore press ENTER. 2. We want to edit the files available in the Main Board conference so press ENTER again. 3. Select directory #1 to edit so we can begin moving files. 4. Press ENTER twice to accept the defaults to the two questions you are asked. 5. At this point, you are in the directory editor. While in the directory editor, we can change a description, describe files which do not have descriptions. We can also move files between subdirectories. Before we show you how to move the file, let's take a quick look at what we see so you understand more about the editor: +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Edit DIR File Line 3 of 19 | | | | Status File Name Date Description Demonstration Applications | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Filename Size Date Description of File Contents | |============ ======== ======== ========================================= | | ALLFILES.ZIP 02-14-94 A listing of all files available on this | | | bulletin board system. Use this list for | | | browsing the file lists off-line. | | | NOTE: This file is compressed. Use | | | PKUNZIP v2.04+ to uncompress the file. | | | CALGUIDE.ZIP 02-14-94 An ASCII version of the Caller's Guide for| | | | PCBoard. Intended to guide your callers | | On this screen you will see a list of files in the directory. Notice that you have a highlighted bar you can move around using either the cursor keys or the TAB key. When you first enter the editor, the bar is located on the first file. This is the file we want to move so press A-M to move it. We now see the following box: +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Select a new location by changing the conference or directory numbers | | Press the F2 function key to display a list of directories | | | | Conference Number : 0 Main Board | | Directory Number : 1 Demonstration Applications | | Days After Upload : 0 | | Move or Copy (M/C) : M | | Move File Offline : N | | | | Press ESC to Return | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ To move the file, simply enter the new directory number in the appropriate field. Let's move it to directory 2 by entering a 2 in the "Directory Number" field and pressing ESC to return to the editor. You'll notice that the filename now has a "MOV" next to the side. This identifier signifies that the file is marked for moving when you exit the editor. Let's exit the editor so we can watch the file being moved. Press ESC and confirm that you really do want to leave when asked. You'll see the following question: +--------------------------------------------------------+ | | | There are files that are marked for processing today. | | | | Do you want to process them now ? N | | | +--------------------------------------------------------+ We want to process the move immediately so confirm that you do want to process the files now. The screen will clear and you will be presented with one last screen: Y)es, perform operation on files in ..\FILES1\ N)o, modify text DIR listings only leaving physical files alone A)ll, perform operation on files found in ALL download paths Perform operation (Move/Rename/Delete) on marked files ? Y Check for duplicate files in each text DIR listing processed ? N Set FILE DATE when moving files (T=Today,O=Oldest,R=Recent,N=No)? N Accept the default answers. Once you have answered the final question, you'll see that the file is actually moved to directory #2. That's all there is to moving a file or a group of files. A nice aspect about PCBFiler is that virtually no additional steps are necessary to move a large group of files. Therefore, once you know how to move one file, you know how to move many and you'll have one less thing to worry about as your system continues to grow. This concludes our tour of the PCBoard package. We hope it has been beneficial in helping your get a better understanding of how the best bulletin board software operates! Please feel free to try any of the features of the system. Since the demo can be upgraded easily to the release version, all the changes you make now are carried through when you buy PCBoard. The last section of this document will talk a little about customizing your system to meet the needs of your callers. Meeting the Needs of Your Users =============================================================================== What is meant by the phrase "Meeting the Needs of Your Users?" We are talking about being able to customize the way screens and information is presented to make the system easier to use. To illustrate how PCBoard meets this need, we will discuss ways you can customize display files, and how the entire interface can be altered to be more graphical in nature by using our RIPKit product. Display Screens --------------- Much of PCBoard's interface is presented by reading text files off of the disk. The user menu you use when you logon in addition to the news file, and welcome screen are all files stored on disk. These screens are created and edited using the PCBEdit utility included in each package. This program is easy to use because it is similar in design to other popular BBS screen design packages. The true beauty of the PCBoard interface is that the default is to use one display file for every caller. As your needs dictate, you can make different display files for each language or security level on your system. Because PCBoard operates this way, you have more flexibility in the information presented to the callers of your system. RIPscrip Support ---------------- RIPKit is a FREE add-on that provides a RIPscrip graphical interface for your callers. The interface uses a mouse with a combination of buttons and other graphical elements to make it easier for callers to navigate your system. We've pre-installed RIPKit in your demo copy of PCBoard. You can call into the system using a RIPscrip compatible terminal program and see in your BBS in a whole new light. We should note that some elements of the RIPKit are missing in this installation simply due to the limitations of the demo. For example, the pop-up calendar that displays on the screen allowing users to choose a date for beginning a new scan could not be included. This functionality is available with the non-demo version. Go ahead and try out the RIPscrip capabilities of PCBoard. You will be impressed. How To Order =============================================================================== For information about ordering PCBoard, we can be reached at any of the following: Voice Orders: 800.356.1686 Clark Development Co., Inc. Voice Office: 801.261.1686 PO Box 571365 Fax: 801.261.8987 Murray, UT 84157-1365 Internet e-mail sales@saltair.com