Use the keypad ``5'' key (KP5 or ``PREVIOUS TOPIC'') to move to lower topic numbers (e.g. from 2.0 to 1.0 or 2.5 to 1.0) and and the keypad ``2'' key (KP2 or ``NEXT TOPIC'') to move to higher topic numbers (e.g. from 2.0 to 3.0 or 2.5 to 3.0).

7.7.2 Moving Within a Discussion

Use the keypad ``1'' key (KP1 or ``PREVIOUS REPLY'') to move to lower reply numbers (e.g. from 2.5 to 2.4) and and the keypad ``3'' KP3 or ``NEXT REPLY'') to move to higher reply numbers (e.g. from 2.5 to 2.6).

7.7.3 Jumping Around Within a Conference

To jump to a specific note number, just type the note number at the Notes> prompt (e.g. 2.4), using the number keys on the main keyboard (not the numeric keypad!), followed by RETURN. You can also use the letter ``L'' (for last) to reference the last topic in the conference, or the syntax n.L (e.g. 32.L) to reference the last note in a specific discussion, or .L to reference the last note in the current discussion, or ``.'' to reference the current note (e.g., to start reading it again from the first page).

7.7.4 Navigating Your Notebook

Three specific keypad commands are also useful when you are reviewing your notebook listing (the directory listing of your conferences) in that they allow you to open conferences with non-zero unseen counts quickly without having to manually issue an ``OPEN conferencename'' command. Use KP2 or KP5 to move the > pointer at the left side of the screen to point at a conference with a non-zero unseen count, and then KP7 to open that conference.

7.7.5 OneKey VAX Notes Extensions

The technique of using the ENTER key to move between notes is often called one-key noting. Additional software is available which expands on this VAX Notes feature. For instance, when there are no more unseen notes in a conference in standard VAX Notes, you must exit (close) that conference, look for another with unseen notes, and open it. Using the software extensions, the ENTER key automatically picks the next conference with unseen notes and opens it.

These extensions are generally referred to as OneKey Notes (just to confuse you). If you see discussions of it on DECUServe, it is this software addition that is most likely being referred to.

OneKey VAX Notes is optional. See Chapter 8 of this guide or the DECUServe conference VAX_NOTES_UTILITY, topic 222. By default, you are using standard VAX Notes as shipped by Digital Equipment Corporation.

7.8 Adding Your Own Replies Or Topics

After a while you may wish to post a note or two, either to contribute to an existing discussion or to pose a question of your own. Two commands exist to do this. The REPLY command enters a reply at the end of the discussion you are reading (you do not have to be reading the first or last note in the discussion to do this). The WRITE command starts a new discussion. Both of these commands use the editor you chose during your first login session to let you compose your note. Go to Chapter 12 if you need help deciding which editor to chose or help with the keypad layouts and commands when you are in editor mode. If you use REPLY, the text of the note you are currently reading is extracted into your favorite editor for you, unless you use the command REPLY / NOEXTRACT or unless the editor you chose cannot support this feature. This text extraction is often convenient as a guide to composing your reply. You can quote pieces of the original note in your reply to help others establish context. When you quote text in this way you should normally insert some special character (``>'' is often used) in front of each line of original text so that it can be distinguished from the new text you are entering.

For example:

> This is a line from the original note This is my response to that line

Attempt to minimize quoting so other subscribers are not rereading most of a previous note as they read yours.

When you have finished composing your response, exit the editor in the normal fashion (for example, CTRL/Z followed by the command EXIT if you are using the EDT editor). You are then be asked to enter a title for your note. Try to choose a meaningful title so other users can seek out information in your note by searching on titles (more details on this later). There is a maximum length of about 60 characters or a title appears truncated on an 80 column screen. Finally, you are asked if you really want to post the note (Respond N if you've changed your mind.)

VAX Notes always displays your note immediately after you post it, but if you use ENTER to move to the next unseen, it picks up the current thread where you left off. For example, if you posted your reply while reading, say, 124.5 (and the thread goes up to 124.10), your reply is posted and displayed as 124.11. On pressing ENTER, VAX Notes takes you back to 124.6 (where you left off), moves through 124.7, etc. and eventually re- displays 124.11 (your reply).

If you are contributing to an existing discussion using the REPLY command, avoid digressing into concepts outside of the scope of that discussion. In such cases perhaps starting a new discussion is preferable.

If you are considering starting a new discussion using the WRITE command, make an effort to determine if a discussion on that topic already exists (in which case you should REPLY to it rather than starting a duplicate discussion). Make sure your discussion is within the scope of the conference you are posting (use the content of the 1.* discussion in each conference for guidance). Some topics fit well in several conferences; choose the one which fits best in your judgment. It is perfectly acceptable to just write a question the conference moderators will tell you where to move the note if it can join an existing discussion or can help you find a more appropriate conference. Send mail to the moderators of your chosen conference(s) asking for guidance, if necessary.

7.9 Deleting or Modifying a Note

If you wish to delete a note you have posted, you can do so by issuing the VAX Notes command DELETE n.m where ``n.m'' is the note number assigned to your note.

If you wish to change the title of a note you have posted, you can do so by using the command NOTE/TITLE="new title" n.m.

VAX Notes does not have a facility to directly modify the content of an existing note. However, you can extract the text of a note to a file, delete the note, and then use REPLY or WRITE to put the modified text back into VAX Notes.

7.10 Telling Notes to Pretend You Have Read a Note (SET SEEN)

When you open a conference, VAX Notes presents all unseen notes to you in order. If there are many unseen notes in a conference, this can take time. This is a common problem especially when one starts reading a conference that has existed for many months and contains hundreds or even thousands of notes.

You can use the SET SEEN command while in a conference to alter the unseen map in your notebook without actually having to read notes. Two forms of the SET SEEN command are most useful.

The SET SEEN command all by itself sets all existing notes seen, to be used when you want to see only notes written from now on.

The other form of the command is SET SEEN/BEFORE=dd-mon-yyyy, which sets all notes created before the specified date as seen. In this manner you can reduce or eliminate the number of notes you have to plow through. Use of /BEFORE=dd-mon-yyyy specifying a date a week or two in the past usually lets you capture the flavor of recent discussions without having to read the entire discussions. (If you encounter part of an interesting discussion and you wish to read the whole discussion, use the command .0 to back up to the base note of the discussion, and then proceed through the notes using the ENTER key. Or, if you wish to skip an uninteresting discussion, use KP,.)

For example:

Notes> SET SEEN/BEFORE=01-DEC-1993

Note that if you were prompted during your first login session by the New User Environment Generation Procedure to choose ``areas of interest'' in order to populate your notebook with conferences, SET SEEN/BEFORE=date commands have been issued for you in each conference to give you a reasonable number of unseen notes. You can use SET SEEN yourself to change this if you wish.

If you really want to read all the notes in a conference, for example, issue SET SEEN with a very old date on the /BEFORE qualifier, for example:

Notes> SET SEEN/BEFORE=01-JAN-1900

7.11 Note Ranges

The DIRECTORY and SEARCH commands (discussed next) and other commands in VAX Notes allow a note range as a parameter. A note range is an expression that identifies one or more notes to be operated upon by the command. The following examples demonstrate the syntax of note ranges:

EXPRESSION	MEANING
1.4	Note 1.4 only
1.*	All notes in discussion 1 (1.0, 1.1, ...)
1.4-3.6	Note 1.4 and all remaining notes in that discussion, all notes in discussion 2, and notes 3.0 thru 3.6.
1.*-2.*	All notes in discussions 1 and 2
*	All topic notes (1.0, 2.0, ...)
*.*	All notes in the conference

The notation ``<note range>'' is used elsewhere in this document to indicate places where a note range can be specified in a command. The ``<>''s are not actually typed as part of the note range.

Note that ``*'' does not mean all notes. You must use ``*.*'' to mean all notes. Expressions such as ``2.4,3.6'' to specify two arbitrary notes, or ``2.1-2.6,3.1-3.6'' to specify a list of arbitrary ranges of notes are not permitted.

7.12 SEARCH

The search command lets you search for an arbitrary string in a conference you have opened. Type SEARCH string at the Notes> prompt; if the string contains spaces, you must enclose it in double quotes:

Notes> SEARCH MODEM Notes> SEARCH "DISK SHADOWING"

VAX Notes presents the first note that it finds containing the specified string; to proceed to the next note containing that same string, issue the SEARCH command again without a parameter:

Notes> SEARCH

Searching conferences for strings can be slow, especially in large conferences. You can sometimes make use of the /NOTES=``<note range>'' qualifier of SEARCH to restrict the range of notes being searched. A quicker, but sometimes less effective, method for seeking out information in a conference is to use the DIRECTORY command described in the next section.

7.13 DIRECTORY

The DIRECTORY command is used within an opened conference to display the titles of some or all of the notes in a conference. It also is useful for locating information in a conference; it is quicker than SEARCH but not as thorough. (If you want to search for information across many conferences use the title search facility described later.)

• DIRECTORY ``<note range>''
  • Lists the titles of all notes in the specified note range. In all DIRECTORY commands, * (NOT *.*) is the default note range if none is specified. The command DIRECTORY L-1 lists all the topic titles in reverse chronological order; in a large conference this may be useful for locating recent discussions on ``hot'' topics.
• DIRECTORY/SINCE=dd-mon-yyyy ``<note range>''
  • Lists all notes in the specified note range written on or since the specified date.
• DIRECTORY/BEFORE=dd-mon-yyyy ``<note range>''
  • Works similarly to list all notes written before the specified date.
• DIRECTORY/AUTHOR=username ``<note range>''
  • Lists all notes in the specified note range written by the specified user.
• DIRECTORY/TITLE="string" ``<note range>''
  • Lists all notes in the specified note range with titles containing the specified string. This differs from the SEARCH command in that SEARCH will find notes with the ``string'' anywhere in the body of the note; DIRECTORY/TITLE only looks at the title (and hence is much faster than SEARCH).

In your first login session, an initial set of conferences is established in your notebook, either by the New User Environment Generation Procedure or by your use of ADD ENTRY commands. You are free to add new conferences to your notebook at any time, or to delete conferences from your notebook when you are no longer interested in them. (Changes in conferences are announced in the CONFERENCE_OF_CONFERENCES conference and in the messages that appear during your login to the system.)

Use the command ADD ENTRY EISNER::conferencename to add a new conference and DELETE ENTRY conferencename to delete a conference from your notebook. (Note that in the DELETE command, the string EISNER:: must not be specified!). Use of the UPDATE command is recommended after altering the contents of your notebook to eliminate misleading or confusing information in the notebook display.

7.15 VAX Notes HELP

You can use the HELP command at the Notes> prompt to browse through the online help for VAX Notes. Also, while at the Notes> prompt, pressing PF2 (not KP2) on the keypad or the key labeled HELP (if your keyboard has such a key) will bring up a keypad diagram which shows what all of the keys on the keypad do.

From the ``$'' prompt or from within Notes, the command HELP DECUSERVE will give additional help on using the system.

7.16 Title Search Facility

It is possible to search a database of note titles for all conferences from the VMS ``$'' prompt. This is a quick and reasonably reliable way of locating information on a specific topic. The command is shown below:

$ SEARCH DECUSERVE_TITLES string

The string can be a single word, or a phrase contained in double quotes:

$ SEARCH DECUSERVE_TITLES MODEM ALL-IN-1 26 17-FEB-1988 3 What modems can be used w/ALL-IN-1? ALL-IN-1 20-FEB-1990 310.1 Need MNP modem to dial mnp from All-In-1 $ SEARCH DECUSERVE_TITLES "DISK SHADOWING" VMS 205 23-MAY-1988 23 Disk Shadowing Question

Each line of output from SEARCH identifies a specific note with a title containing the string you specified.

• The conference is always indicated at the far left. The conference name is truncated if it is longer than 20 characters.
• If a number appears between the conference name and the date, then this specifies a topic note. Probably most or all of the notes in that discussion relate to your topic of interest. (For example, the first match in the search for MODEM is note 26.0.)
• If no number appears between the conference name and date, then the number to the right of the date specifies the matching note. (310.1 for the second match in the search for MODEM).
• Output from SEARCH can be paused and resumed using CTRL/S and CTRL/Q, and safely interrupted via CTRL/Y at any time.

You can sometimes narrow your search by specifying multiple strings (separated by commas) and including the /MATCH=AND qualifier to the SEARCH command. With this qualifier, only notes having titles containing all of the specified strings will be listed:

$ SEARCH/MATCH=AND DECUSERVE_TITLES MODEM,DECSERVER DEC_NETWORKING 29-JUL-1987 16.2 PASTHRU on DECserver with XMODEM DEC_NETWORKING 18-JUL-1987 7.0 DECserver 200/Modem Control Issues

7.17 Sending Mail To Conference Moderators

Every conference on DECUServe has one or more moderators (also known as conference managers) who are a resource for any questions regarding conference content (for example, if you are unsure if a given question is appropriate for a given conference). To send mail to all moderators of a given conference, use the SEND/MODERATOR command at the Notes> prompt after opening the conference. You will be prompted for the CC: addresses and a subject line for your message and will then be placed into your default Notes editor to compose your mail message. Exit the editor to send your message, or QUIT from the editor to abandon the mail message.

7.18 Sending Mail To The Customer Service Representative

If you have any questions or problems while using the system, use the MAIL utility to send mail to the DECUServe Customer Service Representative. This can be done by issuing the MAIL command at the $ prompt (i.e. when you are not inside VAX Notes).

$ MAIL MAIL> SEND To: @ASSIST Subj: I need help! Enter you message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, or CTRL/C to quit: I keep getting garbage on my screen every time I enter VAX VAX Notes. [CTRL/Z] MAIL> EXIT $

You can use CTRL/Z to end your message or CTRL/C to cancel the message. If you want to use the EDT editor to compose your note, use SEND/EDIT instead of SEND.

7.19 Sending Mail to the DECUServe Executive Committee

If you have a private comment about the system, you can use MAIL to send mail to the DECUServe Executive Committee, the group of people who manage and set policy for the system. Use the same steps as you would use to send mail to the DECUServe Customer Service Representative, but send mail to @XCOM instead of @ASSIST.

You are welcome to participate in the DECUSERVE_FORUM conference, where subscribers discuss DECUServe management and policy issues.

7.20 Notes on the Callable EDT Editor

If you get a * prompt when you first enter the editor type CHANGE (or just a C) followed by RETURN to enter screen mode. You can now type text, or use the arrow and numeric keypad keys to move around in your text and manipulate it.

When you are done editing, use CTRL/Z to get the * prompt and then use either the EXIT command to save your editing work and exit, or QUIT to discard all of your work (if you're really sure you want to do that).

Here are the common editor commands; remember that KPX means press the ``x'' key on the numeric keypad, and that you should not press RETURN after these command keys.

Key	Function
Right Arrow	Move cursor right one character.
Left Arrow	Move cursor left one character.
Up Arrow	Move cursor up one line (tries to stay in same column).
Down Arrow	Move cursor down one line (tries to stay in same column).
KP0	Move to beginning of next line.
PF1 then KP0	Insert a blank line above the current one (make sure you are at the beginning of a line before using it).
KP1	Move to the right one word.
KP2	Move to the end of the current line.
PF1 then KP5	Go to the beginning of the editing buffer.
PF1 then KP4	Go to the end of the editing buffer.
KP,	Delete a character.
PF1 then KP,	Undelete last deleted character.
KP-	Delete a word.
PF1 then KP-	Undelete last deleted word.
PF4	Delete a line.
PF1 then PF4	Undelete last deleted line.
PF2	Display help text.

Additional information on this and the other editors available within VAX Notes may be found in Chapter 12 of this guide.