Introduction

NBCS supports the nn news reader, a powerful, menu-driven interface to Netnews. With nn, you can read individual articles in newsgroups, respond through electronic mail to authors of articles, remail articles to other users, and post your own articles for local or more widespread distribution. In addition, special nn configuration files allow you to customize the nn environment to suit your own needs and interests.

This user guide describes many of nn's basic features. It is intended primarily for novice users but does include some limited information on advanced commands and customization that may be of interest to those already familiar with the nn software. Individuals desiring more comprehensive information about the nn news reader should consult other NBCS documents available from the OIT/NBCS Help Desk (732-445-HELP), the Campus Computing Centers, or at the NBCS Documentation home page (http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/newdocs/). Users may also consult the nn online help facility (see "Getting Help" below).

Getting Started in nn

The nn software offers numerous options for starting, quitting, navigating, and managing the nn environment. It is not necessary to be familiar with all of these options at first. It's a good idea, however, to memorize a few basics such as how to enter nn commands, how to start and quit nn, and how to get help when you need it.

Starting nn

1. At the system prompt, type nn and press <RETURN>.
2. A message giving the release number and author will appear; something like:
   Release 6.4.12 #3, Kim F. Storm, 1990
   
3. If there are no new articles in the groups you have subscribed to, the message
   No News (is good news)

will appear, and you will return to your prompt.

If there are new articles, which will most often be the case, a message describing the newsgroup will be displayed as you enter each one.

If you ran nn previously, you may be asked whether you'd like to start out where you left off in your previous session. For example, you may see a prompt similar to:

Enter ru.comp.qa (7 unread)?

Answering y will cause nn to go immediately to the newsgroup shown in the prompt rather than the first subscribed group listed in your init or .newsrc file. A negative response, n, will take you to the first group in your presentation sequence that contains unread articles.

The Selection and Reading Modes

nn has two modes, selection mode and reading mode. Selection mode allows you to see a list of the articles posted to a particular newsgroup and to choose the articles that interest you. Reading mode allows you to read the articles chosen in selection mode. When you start nn, you are ordinarily placed in selection mode. Many operations such as quitting, getting help, saving, and posting articles are available in both modes.

Understanding nn's modes is essential to using the software effectively. More will be said about these two modes in the sections Working in Selection Mode and Reading Mode.

Entering nn Commands

Whether in selection or reading mode, most nn commands are executed by pressing a single key and generally do not require confirmation by pressing the <RETURN> key. In addition, most commands are case sensitive. That is to say, a command that is represented by an uppercase character, such as the letter U , must be typed in uppercase in order for the command to have the desired effect. Many commands are also context sensitive and will produce a different result depending on whether you are in selection mode or reading mode.

There is also a special type of nn command that is not tied to a single key. These commands are called extended commands. Extended commands begin with a colon and are followed with a word or phrase. Typing the : character moves the cursor to the bottom of the current display where the rest of the command can be entered. For example, the procedure for posting a new article in nn uses the extended command :post . Extended commands must be confirmed by pressing the <RETURN> key.

Finally, it is important to recognize that nn is an extremely flexible application that can be highly customized. The specific results of many of the commands listed in this user guide can be altered by changing nn's default settings. These default settings are controlled by a large set of variables that can be changed interactively during an nn session or permanently by entering a series of set commands in the nn init file. All of the commands described in this user guide take for granted the defaults normally in effect when you start nn for the first time.

Working in Selection Mode

nn will present newsgroups to you in the order in which they appear in .nn/init. If .nn/init does not exist, nn will use the order in .newsrc . If .nn/init exists and indicates an entire hierarchy, nn will use the order of that hierarchy's groups in .newsrc .

If a new newsgroup has been created, it will typically be added to the end of .newsrc. Unless .nn/init indicates otherwise, it will be presented after all other newsgroups.

However, if the new newsgroup falls under a hierarchy you have indicated a blanket interest in, such as ru* , it will be presented at the end of that hierarchy. Similarly, if the new newsgroup falls under a hierarchy you have expressed no interest in seeing, such as !talk , you will never see the group. See the NBCS document, Customizing the nn News Reader (UNX01401) for further information on declaring interest in entire hierarchies.

At any time, you can change your mind about subscribing to a hierarchy, subhierarchy, or group. See section Other Useful Reading Mode Commands below.

Selection Mode Screen Layout

When you start nn, you will immediately enter selection mode and will see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 1 (on the next page). This is called a menu page. A header at the top of the screen gives information about the current newsgroup as well as the total number of unread articles in all subscribed groups. The current newsgroup name (comp.text in Figure 1) appears in the top left corner. The numbers following the word Articles: in the upper right corner signify the total number of unread messages in the current newsgroup (28) and the total number of unread messages in all subscribed newsgroups (999 messages in 8 groups).

Beneath the header is a menu listing the articles in the current group. Each article is given a one-line description consisting of four separate fields or elements. Look at the second line in Figure 1 (on the next page) which reads:

a Ken Greer    10 >TROFF For HP/UX

The first field is the article ID (normally a lowercase letter or a number used to select the article). In this case, the article id is 'a'. The second field (Ken Greer) is the name of the author. The third field (10) is the number of lines in the article. And the fourth field, (>TROFF For HP/UX) is the subject of the article.

---

Newsgroup: comp.text                   Articles: 28 of 999/8

a Ken Greer    10 >TROFF For HP/UX
b Dick Dunn    10 >>
c Scott Blachowicz 22 >>
d Mark Biggers   11 are SunOS/Sparc groff binaries available anywhere
e Micah Beck    17 TransFig 2.1.4 Patchlevel 1 Available
f Michael Haardt  5 How do you use german "Umlaute" in different roffs?
g Wolf Paul    43 >
h Zeyd Ben-Halim  4 GROFF for DOS
i Kien Quan     5 Tex to WordPerfect and WordPerfect to Tex converters
j Jay Sekora    19 >RTF/DIF/??? What should I do?
k Brain in Neutral 23 >
l John R. Levine  34 -
m Brain in Neutral 6 >RTF/DIF/??? What should I do? (correction)
n John Carpenter  7 DisplayWrite to WordPerfect
o Chris Phillips  6 Can PostScript be embedded in MS Word?
p Kenneth Knight  13 Full-article data bases
q Chris Lewis  1859 Official Patch 8 for Psroff 3.0
r W C Thompson   12 E-mail addresses for publishers?
s Phil Hughes   13 >

 14:16  SELECT  help:? Top 66%
Text processing issues and methods.

---

Figure 1: The selection mode menu.

If the article subject begins with a greater-than sign (>), the article is a reply to a previous article with the same subject. One or several > signs shown in lieu of the subject means the article has the same subject as the one immediately above it and was written as a reply. (The > is used as shorthand notation for the expression "Re:''.)

A hyphen (-) in the subject field also means that the article has the same subject as the article above it.

Below the listing of articles is a status line showing the current time (14:16), the current mode (SELECT), a reminder that the help key is ?, and an expression indicating what percent of the unread messages in the current group is displayed on the screen. For example, the expression All means that all articles were able to be displayed on a single screen, while Top 66% means that about two thirds of the total unread messages in the group are displayed on the current screen. If a quantity other than All appears on the status line, you must advance through several menu pages in order to see all of the articles in the group.

A brief description of the group appears at the very bottom of the first menu page.

The maximum number of lines on the screen will vary, depending on the capabilities of the terminal you are using. The most common terminal types will present around 24 lines; the article ID's will go no higher than a-s on such screens. However, windowing systems may be able to present more lines. In such cases, the article ID's may extend from a-z and, if more than 26 menu lines can be shown, 0-9. The percentage of undisplayed messages will vary accordingly.

When certain nn commands are executed, the contents of the status line will change. Often it will display a list of choices and request user input.

A brief description of the newsgroup appears in the lower left-hand corner each time you enter a newsgroup. This line is called the message line and is used to provide the user with helpful information and instructions. When working in selection mode, remember to read the status line and the message line, particularly if you are at a loss for what to do next.

If your terminal is capable of reverse video, the newsgroup name and status lines will be highlighted: they will appear the opposite of the rest of the screen. For example, if the body of the screen is light letters on a dark background, the highlighted lines will appear as dark letters on a light background.

Selecting Articles: Moving within a Newsgroup

The commands below can be used for navigating multiple menu pages of a single newsgroup while in selection mode. Note that the <SPACE> and <RETURN> keys serve multiple functions depending on the context in which they are used.

Command	Result
>	Go to the next menu page.
<	Go to the previous menu page.
$	Go to the last menu page.
^	Go to the first menu page.
<SPACE>	Continue to the next menu page. If you are on the last menu page of the newsgroup, pressing <SPACE> will put you in reading mode. If no articles were selected, the next newsgroup will be displayed in selection mode. All unread articles will be marked as read and will not be shown the next time you enter the newsgroup.
<RETURN>	Similar to space except all unread articles will remain marked as unread and will be shown the next time you enter the newsgroup.

Finally, if there are no articles in the current group that you'd like to see, you may want to move on to the next group altogether.

Note: Some of the navigational commands described in the following sections may have the additional effect of marking Netnews articles as read, even if you have not actually read them. Certain commands only mark the articles you have actually read as read while others will mark the entire contents of a newsgroup as read. Once articles have been marked as read and you quit nn, these articles will no longer appear in their respective newsgroup menus. The idea behind this feature is that most users do not want to see articles more than once, regardless of whether they have read them or not. Commands that have the effect of marking selected articles or the contents of an entire newsgroup as read will be so noted. In any case, the result of any such command can also be reversed in a variety of ways. For more information on how to control the read or unread status of an article, see the NBCS document, Working with nn Article Attributes (UNX01701).

Selecting Articles: Selecting on Current Menu Page

In order to read articles in nn, you first must select them. The article ID that is, the letter or number in the far left column is used to select articles. Selected articles are either highlighted (displayed in reverse video) or flagged with an asterisk (*) in column 2. (Refer back to Figure 1 for these examples.)

There are several ways to use the article ID to select an article:

• To select a particular article, type the letter or number of the article ID. For example, to select the article with an ID of h , type a lowercase h.
• To select an article and all of its replies, type the letter of the article ID for the first posting on a subject, and then type * to select all of the associated follow-ups. This will also select articles with the same subject on all other menu pages. For example, to select messages a, b, and c in Figure 1 , type a* .
• To select a range of articles, use a hyphen. For example, to read articles j through m, type j-m .
• You can also use any combination of the methods above to select the articles you want to see. So, if you wanted to see articles a through c, i, o, and r and its replies, you could type

a-cior*

• You can also select individual articles by using the up and down arrow keys to move the cursor to the article you want to read. Then type a period (.) to select the article.

If your terminal does not have arrow keys, you can use the comma (,) to move down one article and the slash (/) to move up one article.

Article selection is a toggle function; that is, once you've selected articles, you can use the same procedures described above to unselect them, turning them "on" and "off", in effect.

Once you have viewed all of the article titles on the current menu page, you have the option of reading the articles that you've selected immediately. If the newsgroup articles span more than one menu, you can also move to succeeding pages to select additional articles before viewing them.

Selecting Articles: Moving to another Newsgroup

Command	Result
N	Go to the next newsgroup in the presentation sequence and display the unread articles.
P	Go to the previous newsgroup in the presentation sequence and display the unread articles.
X	Go to the next group and mark all articles in the current group as read. X will only advance to the next group if no selections were made in the current group. If selections were made, pressing X will take you to reading mode immediately.
A	Go forward one newsgroup in the sequence. This command differs from the N command in that it will also display unsubscribed groups and provides an option to see articles that have already been read. If there is no init file in your .nn directory, A will advance one group at a time through the sequence of the .newsrc. When you use the A command, you will first be presented with a prompt similar to: Enter newsgroupname (UNSUB)?(ABGNPy) Press <RETURN> twice to move to the group specified in the prompt or select one of the other options listed in the prompt. These other functions are the same as those described in this section; the y option simply says, "Yes, enter that group."
B	Go back one newsgroup in the sequence. Similar to A in terms of options and procedures.
G	Go to another newsgroup. nn will prompt you for the name of the newsgroup. Enter the complete name of the newsgroup you want to see, or a partial name, and then press <RETURN> twice. If you only enter a newsgroup prefix or the name of a group with multiple subgroups, nn will list the first newsgroup that matches the group name and request confirmation to go to that group. Press y to go to the group displayed in the prompt or n to see the name of the next group that matches the name you typed. This feature allows you to cycle through all of the subgroups belonging to a general subject area. You can also use the G command to go to a folder that you've created by saving one or several Netnews articles. Instead of typing a newsgroup name, enter either ~ or + and the name of the folder you want to see. For more information on folders and how they are named, see the NBCS document, nn Folders (UNX01901).

Commands A, B, and G above will eventually present you with a prompt:

Number of articles (juasne)(j)

Here, nn wants to know how many of the articles in the group it should show you: all of them, only the unread ones, etc. You respond with a sub-command chosen from juasne . The function of these sub-commands are as follows:

Command	Result
j	Jump to the specified group only if it contains unread articles. This is the default.
u	Jump to the specified group and present the unread articles. If the articles in the group were already read during the current session, the articles that were unread at the time the session was begun are displayed.
a	Jump to the specified group and display all articles in the group, both read and unread.
s	Search the specified group for subjects containing a word entered by the user. When s is selected, you will see the prompt s= instructing you to enter a word. nn will search the subject field of the group and display only those articles containing the word you typed at the prompt. The s command can alternatively be entered as sword, where the variable word is replaced with your search expression.
n	Similar to s except that the author field is searched, rather than the subject field, for articles matching the search expression.
e	Similar to s except that both the subject and author fields are searched for articles matching the search expression.

Entering Reading Mode

If all of the menus of a newsgroup have been displayed and you have selected articles from that group, you can then enter reading mode to view the selected articles. It is also possible to enter reading mode immediately, regardless of whether you have seen all of the menu pages of the current group. The following commands will take you from selection mode to reading mode. For more information on working in reading mode, see the section "Reading Mode" below.

Command	Result
<SPACE>	If you are on the last menu page of a newsgroup, pressing <SPACE> will put you in reading mode. All unselected articles will be marked as read and will not be shown the next time you enter the newsgroup. If you are not on the last menu page of the group, pressing <SPACE> will advance you to the next page and all messages on the previous page will be marked as read.
<RETURN>	Similar to <SPACE> except that all unselected articles will not be marked as read and therefore will be shown the next time you enter the newsgroup.
Z	Enter reading mode immediately (even if the newsgroup contains additional menu pages). After reading selected articles, you will be returned to the same selection mode menu you were in when you pressed Z. Selected articles will be marked as read without affecting the status of unselected articles.
X	Enter reading mode immediately. After all selected articles have been read, you will enter selection mode of the next newsgroup. Both read and unread articles will be marked as read.

Reading Mode:

The Reading Mode Screen In reading mode, the articles you selected are presented one at a time. Figure 2 shows a selected article in reading mode. The author's name and subject of the article appear in the upper left-hand corner and the date and time that the article was posted is given in the upper right.

---

Brain in Neutral: >RTF/DIF/??? What should I do?        23 Jan 92 02:23
From article <1992Jan22.211449.15090@Princeton.EDU>, by js@Princeton.EDU (Jay
Sekora):
> Michael P. Capron writes
>> Thanks to John Levine and the other person who responded to my RTF query:
>> > RTF is painfully verbose and not easy to produce or decode.
>> > For Unix users, there is a pretty nice bunch of RTF code available by FTP
>> > from primate.wisc.edu.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for further help,
>> Mike Capron
>> capron@lareth.uucp
>
> I can't find primate.wisc.edu. There's a uakari.primate.wisc.edu which
> I was able to find an IP address for, but it doesn't seem to accept
> anonymous FTP. What's the IP address of this site? Or are the Unix
> RTF sources available elsewhere? Thanks, j.

There is no machine named primate.wisc.edu; that's just the name of our
domain. Try ftp.primate.wisc.edu (128.104.230.11).

I can't vouch for whether the RTF stuff there is any good, though.
 15:53 comp.text LAST+next help:?Top 46%

---

Figure 2: An article in reading mode.

The status line at the bottom of the screen shows, from left to right: the time, the name of the current newsgroup, the number of articles left to read, a reminder that ? is the help command, and an expression indicating how much of the current article has been displayed. Top 46% means approximately half of the article has been displayed.

As you read each article in reading mode, the article is marked as read and you will not see it the next time you enter nn. And, as was mentioned earlier, depending on the manner by which you entered reading mode, articles in the newsgroup that were not selected may have been marked read as well.

The following sections describe how to get around in reading mode and some other useful reading mode commands.

Reading Mode: Moving within an Article

Command	Result
<SPACE>	Scroll one page forward. If you are on the last page of the article, the next selected article will be shown and the current article will be marked as read. If you are on the last page of the last selected article, you will be returned to selection mode.
<BACKSPACE>	Scroll one page backward.
d	Scroll one-half page forward.
u	Scroll one-half page backward.
^	Go to the first page of the article.
$	Go to the last page of the article.

Reading Mode: Moving between Articles

Command	Result
n	Go to the next selected article. The current article will be marked as read.
p	Go to the previous article.
a	Go to the next article in the current group, even if it is not selected. The current article will not be marked as read.
b	Go to the previous article of the current group even if it is not selected.
*	Go to the next article with the same subject, even if it is not selected.
l	Leave the current article and continue with the next selected article. The article will be marked with a special attribute. When all of the articles in the current group are read, you will be given the opportunity to view this article again. If you decide not to view the articles that you marked with the l command, these articles will be marked with a permanent attribute that will cause them to continue to be listed with unread articles until they are selected and read or marked as read with the Junk Articles (J) command. For more information on the J command, see the NBCS document, Working with nn Article Attributes (UNX01701).
L	Similar to l except that you will not be given the opportunity to view the article again when all the messages in the current group are read.
k	Kill subject of the current article. The rest of the current article is skipped as are all of the following articles with the same subject. The skipped articles are marked as read.
K	Kill or select a subject permanently or for a designated period of time. For more information on the K command see the NBCS document, Using the Kill Command in nn (UNX02001).

Leaving Reading Mode

Command	Result
=	Return to current newsgroup in selection mode. Read articles will be marked as read.
<SPACE>	Return to selection mode (if you are on the last page of the last selected article). Read articles will be marked as read, and, depending on how you entered reading mode, unread articles may also have been marked as read.
N	Go to the next newsgroup and skip the current selections. Selected articles that have not been read will remain selected for the next nn session and will not be marked as read.
X	Go to the next newsgroup and skip the current selections. All articles in the current newsgroup will be marked as read.

Other Useful Reading Mode Commands

Command	Result
h	Show the article's full header and continue from the top of the article. For more information on headers, see the S command in the section "Commands for Saving Articles" below.
D	Turn decryption on or off for the current article. Some Netnews articles are encrypted to hide potentially offensive material. This command decrypts such articles to make them readable. See the newsgroup rec.humor.funny for examples.
^L	Redraw (or refresh) the screen. (<CONTROL>L) This is useful when the screen becomes garbled.
U	Unsubscribe the current newsgroup. If this is a newsgroup you are currently unsubscribed to, U will subscribe the newsgroup. This command allows you to unsubscribe and subscribe to newsgroups without editing your .newsrc file. The .newsrc file is updated automatically to reflect changes made with the U command. Press <RETURN> at the following prompt (where group.name is replaced by the actual name of the newsgroup): Unsubscribe to group.name ?
C	Cancel (delete) an article in the current newsgroup. Normally users can only cancel their own articles. Cancelling an article prevents anyone else from reading the article and is useful when you notice an error or an omission in an article after you post it.
Y	Provide an overview of all subscribed newsgroups with unread articles.

For information on saving or mailing messages, see the section "Commands for Saving Articles" below.

Commands for Saving Articles

It is possible to save Netnews articles as files both in selection mode and reading mode. The commands to save the articles are the same in both modes, except that they must be typed in UPPERCASE letters in selection mode, whereas in reading mode either uppercase or lowercase is acceptable. The save commands in nn are as follows:

Command	Result
S (s)	Save article including its full header. A full header provides detailed information on the source and status of the message. The header information may include among other things, the full UUCP path to the author, the author's Internet address, the name(s) of the newsgroup(s) to which the article was posted, the date the article was posted, references to other related articles (if the article is a reply), the name of the originating organization, the number of lines in the article, and the subject of the article. By saving an article with its header, you can use the G command to go to and view the files you saved as if they were a newsgroup.
O (o)	Save article with an abridged header. The abbreviated header gives the author's Internet address, the date the article was posted, the name(s) of the newsgroup(s) to which the article was posted, and the subject of the article. By saving an article with its header, you can use the G command to go to and view the files you saved as if they were a newsgroup.
W (w)	Save article without a header. If you choose this option, you will not be able to use the G command in nn to view the files you saved.

Saving Articles in Selection Mode

In selection mode, it is possible to save one or several articles with a single command. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Select the article IDs of the articles you want to save. If the newsgroup has several menu pages, you can select items on more than one page. For instructions on selecting articles, refer to the section "Selecting Articles" above.
   
2. Press S or O or W to save the selected articles. You will see a prompt similar to:
   Save on (+~|)
   
   Enter the name of your choice and press <RETURN>. The symbols +~| in the prompt are not needed for simple file saving; these symbols are described in the NBCS document, nn Folders (UNX01901)
   
   
3. If the directories and/or filename do not exist, nn will ask you to confirm that you want to create the file.

Create "filename"?

Type y to confirm. You will be then be asked whether you want to save only the articles on the current menu page or on all menu pages:

Save /path/filename Article (* +):

* selected articles on this page, + all selected articles

Type * to save the selections on the current page or + to save the selections on all menu pages.

4. All of the selected messages will be written to the file with the name you accepted or specified. If the file already existed prior to the save, nn will append your current selections to the existing file. nn refers to saved files containing one or multiple Netnews articles as folders , and such folders can be viewed with nn as if they were newsgroups. See the NBCS document, nn Folders (UNX01901) for more information.

Saving Articles in Reading Mode

To save articles in reading mode, follow steps 2-4 in the above section, "Saving Articles in Selection Mode". Only the currently displayed article will be saved. As in selection mode, if the target filename already exists, the article will be appended to the end of the existing file.

Posting, Following Up, Mailing, and Replying to Articles

Much of this document has focused on selecting, reading, and saving Netnews articles. Once you are comfortable with nn, you will probably want to participate actively in newsgroup dialogues by replying to articles and even posting your own articles. The instructions below describe how to post your own articles. Because creating a posting may involve considerable text editing, you should already be familiar with the basic functions of Emacs. Also, before posting an article, see the OIT document Guidelines for Electronic Communication, (GEN00201) to familiarize yourself with some general do's and don'ts for posting and replying to articles.

The basic commands for posting, following up, replying to, and mailing copies of articles are given below. As with the commands for saving articles, commands given in selection mode must be typed in UPPERCASE, while those in reading mode can be in either uppercase or lowercase.

Commands for Posting Articles

Command	Result
R (r)	Reply through electronic mail to the author of the article. This is the preferred way to respond unless you think your reply will be of general interest to the readers of the newsgroup.
F (f)	Follow-up with an article in the same newsgroup. The distribution of the follow-up article will be the same as the original article.
M (m)	Mail an article to a single recipient. This option is normally used to forward an article that you think may be of interest to another party.
:post <RETURN>	Post a new article to any newsgroup. nn will prompt you for the answers to several questions before you can actually type your article.

When you execute one of the commands above, you will be prompted for various types of information and then placed in emacs, where you can compose your reply or article. While the procedure for each command is fairly intuitive if you read the message line and prompts, detailed instructions on how to post a new article, the most complicated of the four procedures, are given below.

Posting a New Article

The procedure for posting a new article involves responding to a series of prompts, entering the text of your article using emacs, and then confirming the posting. To post an article, follow these steps:

1. While in selection or reading mode, type the extended command :post and press <RETURN>.
2. You will see the prompt: POST to group

Enter the full name of the newsgroup to which you would like to post your article and press <RETURN>. If you do not know the name of the newsgroup you want to use, press ? and nn will display the names of all groups and a summary of their contents.

3. You will be prompted to enter the following information: subject, keywords, summary. Type a descriptive subject for your posting, but keep it under 55 characters so that it can be readily displayed in the selection mode menu and then press <RETURN>. Entering keywords and/or a summary is optional. If you do not wish to add such information, simply press <RETURN> at the prompt. The subject, keyword, and summary information will be listed in the header of your article.
   
4. After you have entered information at the summary: prompt, or bypassed it by pressing <RETURN>, you will be prompted to enter the distribution of the article. The distribution will determine to which sites your article will be sent. The following distribution options are available at Rutgers University: ru (Rutgers campuses), nj (New Jersey), usa (United States), na (North America), and the default, world.

Type a distribution appropriate to the subject and audience of the article and press <RETURN>. For example, an article concerning an event or service at Rutgers would be more appropriate for the ru or nj distribution than the na or world distribution.

Note: There is currently no way to send to multiple distributions; for example, nj, pa, ny. You will have to resend your message to each distribution instead.

5. Once you have entered the distribution, you will be placed in emacs. Type the body of your article and then save it with ^X^C (hold down the <CONTROL> key and type X, then hold down the <CONTROL> key and type C).

To send an article that has already been saved into a file, use the command ^Xi (hold down the <CONTROL> key and type X, then release the <CONTROL> key and type i) to insert that file's contents into your emacs window. After typing ^Xi, you will be prompted below the window for the file's name.

Insert file:~

The ~ character stands for your home directory. If you are in a subdirectory, the prompt will be expanded to include that subdirectory. You can edit the prompt to replace it with the full file name (including subdirectories, if any) of the file you want to insert:

Insert file:~/News/myarticle

Type <RETURN> after completing the file name. The contents of the file will be inserted after the cursor's position. You may now make additional changes to the inserted file, without changing the original file the text came from. You will still need to type ^X^C to save the to-be-posted article and exit emacs.

6. After you save the article, you will see the prompt:

a)bort e)dit h)old m)ail r)eedit s)end v)iew w)rite
Action: (post article)

Press <RETURN> to accept the default action (post article) and your article will be posted, or choose one of the other options described below:

Command	Result
a	Abort the posting and throw away the article. You will be asked to confirm with y .
e	Edit the article again.
h	Hold onto the article for later completion. To complete the message later on, enter reading mode and type the command r for reply. nn will notice that an incomplete posting exists and ask you if you want to complete it.
m	Mail a blind copy to someone. You will be asked for the e-mail address of the recipient. This is a simple way to retain a copy of what you post. (Another way is through the record variable, as described in the NBCS document, Customizing the nn News Reader (UNX01401).) Once the copy is sent, you will be prompted for another action.
r	Edit the original text of an edited article. For example, if you saved an article and then chose option e, option r would permit you to return to the version of the article prior to making your changes with e.
s	Send, or post, the article.
v	View the article through the default pager (i.e., one screenful at a time).
w	Save or append the article to a file before posting it.
<RETURN>	Choose the default (post article).

Leaving nn

nn keeps careful track of which messages have been read during a session and ordinarily updates several nn record keeping files (including your .newsrc file) so you won't see the same articles over and over again. Whether these files get updated or not depends specifically on how you exit the nn software.

To quit nn and update your nn record keeping files, simply type Q. This command works both in selection mode and reading mode.

To quit nn without updating the .newsrc file, use the extended command :q!<RETURN>. You will be asked Are you sure? Respond y to confirm. You will then be asked if you want to Restore selections? Answer y to prevent your .newsrc file from being updated.

Getting Help

nn offers several kinds of online help ranging from one page command summaries to exhaustive descriptions of each nn feature. The following help commands will produce the results described:

Command	Result
?	Displays a one page summary of commands. The actual page displayed will depend on whether you are in selection mode or reading mode when the help is requested.
:help <RETURN>	Displays a list of help commands.
:help subject	Displays help on the subject specified by the word substituted for the variable subject. For example, typing :help extended <RETURN> lists all of nn's extended commands and their functions. The following subjects may be substituted for the variable subject : Command Result commands lists and describes commands that can be bound to keys. extended lists and describes extended commands. map lists key mappings and explains how to remap the nn keyboard (not the keyboard for your terminal emulation program). set explains how to use the :set command to change variables. show explains how to use the :show command to see the current values of variables. variables lists all variables used by nn. :man isplays an online manual in a format similar to nn's selection mode. For instructions on how to use the online manual, see the sections "Working in Selection Mode" and "Reading Mode" above.

For More Information

Questions on nn should be directed to the OIT/NBCS Help Desk (732-445-HELP). You can also send electronic mail to the address help on any OIT system (e.g., help@eden.rutgers.edu or help@rci.rutgers.edu) or post a message to the newsgroup ru.comp.qa.news .