Conference 7.286::digital

    Alfred, I couldn't agree more. As a past Field Engineer (I don't
    feel that `ex-' applies) I have found that a LOT of people can't
    even access DCL! Their system managers have All-in-one captive,
    and there is no hope of doing anything with their account other
    than that. I found that out several times, when I say to `get to
    the dollar prompt' and they say `what's that?'.
    
    I have managed to find some way to use a computer to get my work
    done. We are a computer company, next to the biggest in the World.
    We of all people should maximize the use of our equipment. 
    
    We don't practice what we preach. (in many cases)

        The rule in the field is:
          If you need the training so that you won't look like a complete
          idiot if front of a customer, you *may* get it.  Otherwise
          you're on your own.  
        
        This typically means that non-technical field personnel receive no
        training on the computer whatsoever.  This includes no training
        on any word processing packages, nor training on using the
        mail (ALL-IN-1 usually) system.   These things are usually
        taught to non-technical new hires by those that work with them.
        
        After all, training costs MONEY.
        
       _Mike

        Re: .1
        
        I don't agree that all people should have to learn what to
        do on a VAX from a '$' sign.  After all, computers today are
        supposed to be user friendly.  (Does the '$' sign mean the
        computer wants to extort money from you? :^)  If the person
        can perform their job without the '$', so much the better.
        However, these people haven't even been trained on ALL-IN-1
        (or even a subset of it)!!
        
       _Mike

RE: .3
    
  > I don't agree that all people should have to learn what to do on a
  > VAX from a '$' sign. 
    
    I agree that ALL people shouldn't have to learn what to do on a
    VAX from a $ sign, but is it unreasonable to expect DIGITAL employees
    to know at least a tiny little bit about the equipment we sell???
    
    							Pat

    I work in a manufacturing group in Hudson, Mass (we make semiconductor
    chips). ALL our new employees go through a 1 week orientation that
    includes 2 or 3 days of Computer Skills Training (CST). It covers the two
    shop floor software packages we use in our Business as well as Mail and
    EDT. It does help, but I find that many novices do not absorb much
    (overwhelmed?) until they hit the shop floor. Then they learn what they
    need via the 'buddy system'. We also have the CAI courses for EDT and VMS
    on the cluster but I don't think they're used all that much. Have never
    even seen All-in-one in my 4 � years here in Hudson. DECmail is unheard
    of, although I did use it once to sell some stock...it took me half the
    day to scope out how to access it and use it. Nobody I knew had ever used
    it!
    
    Steve

    RE: .3  Not needing access to DCL is fine, only if the given environment
	    (ALL-IN-1 or whatever) gives you access to ALL the tools that you
	    may need to access to be productive. This includes tools like NOTES
	    that allow an employee access to the rest of the DEC culture, not
	    to mention tons of valuable information and contacts. Too many DIS
	    supported systems don't even know what NOTES and VTX are today.
    
    As for training, add a bit of network topology to go with your org
    charts and support phone list.
    
    I worked in this company for 2+ years before I knew what NOTES was.
    I've been a fan for the last 1 1/2 +. I've done more one-on-one
    training in this office than I can remember since I volunteered
    to be system manager 2 years ago. There are other Software Specialists
    here that still don't know more than that NOTES exist. Field Service
    is at about the same level. Sales doesn't even know that much.
    
    More training would be great, but even better would be metrics that
    measure how well people use the tools they have to accomplish business
    goals.
    
    <MILD FLAME>
    
    What gets me here is the Sales reps that don't even know how to
    log into their ALL-IN-1 account because the Sales secretary prints
    all their mail for them to read. What a waste of paper. I know,
    I know. Sifting through the junk mail takes too much valuable time.
    Why not post those items with mile-long distribution lists in a
    read-only NOTES conference. If you need hardcopy you can still print
    it out.
    
    <FLAME OFF>

    My motto has always been:
    
    	PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH.
    
    - Andy -

    In our office some of the secretaries need to use VAXmail for certain
    things like NEA class registration.  However, it makes them CRAZY
    to have no edit capabilities.  I am a small-town hero for fixing
    their VAXmail accounts to use TPU with the WPS section file - they
    LOVE it!.
    
    Unfortunately, NO amount of training would have enabled them to do that
    themselves.  And for the people who use WPS regularly (ala DECmates),
    if it comes down to learning EDT so you can do more, most people will
    learn to do without.
    
    As for the idea of using Notes instead of mail, I just had this
    discussion with someone.  One problem we have noticed in the district
    is that, in SPITE of electronic mail, frequently the right people
    don't get the right information.  We conceived of using Notes for
    all interoffice communication that wasn't strictly private.  Everyone
    in the district can access anything, and there would be a rtemendous
    savings for ANYTHING sent to a distribution list of two or more
    people (in terms of disk space).
    
    But, none of these wonders matter if people can't figure out how
    to use the stuff.  I am with software, but I continually try to
    educate sales people on Notes (I am known as "Mr. Notes" in our
    district).  My best trick is when a sales person asks me a question,
    I log in, go to the appropriate Notesfile, look up the answer, and
    print it out for them.  Its working, but slowly.
    
    Jim
    
    

re: .0

I very largely agree.  There might be some exceptions such as contract
workers and parts of the wage class 2 (hourly) employees, or perhaps
different levels of training.

However, since we are in the throes of switching from command line
to a DECwindows oriented interface, I would, at this particular time,
postpone any major effort in favor of one when VAXstations are
ubiquitous.

I'm sure many people will want to attack that statement with all the
stories about people who are not given access to even a terminal, or
who are locked into ALL-IN-ONE, and "what a joke" to suggest that
many employees will have workstations available to them.  But those
are really separate topics.  There is a clear trend to supply computer
access to more and more employees, not just at DEC, but at every
large company.  Electronic mail is the prime force moving in this
direction, but spreadsheets and desktop publishing are major elements
as well.  The devices that will be pushed out to employees by this
will more and more be bitmapped and mouse driven, and so any massive
educational effort should presume that trend.

- greg

    To those who may not have known...

    There have been more than a few incorrect references to our
    premier office automation software in the past few replies.

    The trademarked name is ALL-IN-1 (all caps, hyphens, digit 1), not
    All-in-1, or All-In-One, etc., ad nauseum...   One of the
    erroneous spellings is the brand name of a line of pantyhose.

    We must, as Digital employees, make proper use of our own
    trademarked names so that we don't dilute the name into a generic
    meaning, as happened with kleenex and xerox.

    Thank you for your support!

    Al - an ALL-IN-1 delivery/consulting specialist    

>    In our office some of the secretaries need to use VAXmail for certain
>    things like NEA class registration.  
        
        Huh?  If they need WPS or WPS-PLUS because that is the
        editor/keypad they are used to, why don't they just send VAXmail
        from within ALL-IN-1?
        
       _Mike
        
        P.S. Re: an earlier reply. *Most* employees within Digital
        need to know more about our products than Joe Customer, but
        they is a certain population of Digital employees who don't
        *have* to have this knowledge to perform their jobs.  In fact,
        I've met several who I'd never tell more to than necessary.
        They are already quite intimidated by a computer.  And, not
        *having* to know this knowledge means that Digital is not going
        to pay for it.  (sigh) 

    re .10>They are allready quite intimidated by computers
    
    That's the point. I don't see why *every* employee shouldn't
    be enthusiastic about our products. My job classification
    is Warehouser, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy noting,
    or that I can't appreciate Vaxmail.
    
    The idea of employees being *intimidated* by computers should
    have alarm bells ringing somewhere.
    
    Dana

    Quite a large percentage also seem to be intimidated by the
    printed page.  Ideally, formalized training would be nice,
    but many people will not even go so far as to crack a book
    unless they are given the time to do it during work hours.

    I think the woman's note that initiated this string is important in
    that it points out the false sense of security an average user has.
    One assumes, wrongly, that a password, well-protected, will keep
    your data private.  In that sense, it is incumbent on all system
    managers to have a canned "welcome to the new user" message prepared
    for everyone who gets an account on the system.
    
    Marge

    I have to admit I was/am pretty disappointed in how 'we' as a company
    introduced our own users to ALL-IN-1.  The only training that was given
    per site was Electronic Messaging.  Now, I was told that was done
    so the user would not be confused, they will be able to know how
    to access their mail and more training will be done down the road
    to show the user what ALL-IN-1 really is...... I have a strange
    feeling we will be waiting a long time for that last one....
    
    I do not think .... 'just because we are a computer company
    everybody should know something about how our products operate.'
    A lot of the same functions and jobs exist in a Food Company, an
    Auto Company, a Mail Order Company, etc. as they do here at Digital,
    and a lot of them have nothing to do with computers!.    
    
    Vicki

    As a technical writer, I like to think I know something about
    audiences.  I'm willing to bet that even in Digital, the majority
    of employees don't have regular access to computers.  The vast majority
    probably only interact with terminals.  
    
    Maybe employees in general are "enthusiastic about computers;" I
    suggest most think of their jobs in more personal terms, though:  "I
    forecast sales," or "I order materials," or "I prepare proposals."
    
    Someone suggested that there isn't anything too technical about setting
    protections on files.  Well, for the average user, I think it's plenty
    technical!  In fact, judging from the percentage of engineers who
    announce the availability of files, but forget to set the protections
    correctly, I'd say it's too technical even for the average computer
    literate.  (I have problems because the Digital scheme is just
    different enough from my former employer's scheme to cause crippling
    cognitive dissonance--you know, old dog, new tricks...)  My personal
    opinion is that file protections are badly implemented and should be
    redesigned, but that's another topic.
    
    It's not a bad sign that people in Digital are intimidated by
    computers.  Welcome to the real world!  What we should be doing
    is monitoring their level of discomfort.  Again, my personal opinion,
    comparing Digital computers to others, is that we make things real
    hard for the new computer user, because we generally assume users
    are experienced.  (I don't document end-user products, but I've
    used a few, and they're no piece of cake, either.)  The difference
    in ease-of-use and user-friendliness between Digital products and,
    say, Apple products is enormous.  If you're a "system manager" type,
    it's much worse.  (The Macintosh doesn't even need the concept,
    not just because it's explicitly a one-user system, but because
    system management tasks are so easy!)
    
    Well, enough bashing for now.  Let's see what other people think.

Here are some j-random comments that I made in the IAMOK::VISION_QUEST
conference. Once of the areas that I touched on was user training and they may
be relevant here. The contents of the conference was supposed to be forwarded to
some high-level DIS types but I'm not sure if it happened as no feedback was
ever given in that file to indicate that they were.


            <<< IAMOK::NOTES$:[NOTES$LIBRARY]VISION_QUEST.NOTE;1 >>>
                             -< DIS_VISION_QUEST >-
================================================================================
Note 18.0       A lack of foundation in the field for the vision       4 replies
CSOA1::ROTH "East Central Area Networks"            168 lines  23-MAY-1988 12:25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, a review of the vision:


================================================================================
Note 4.0              Digital Information Technology Vision           10 replies
DSTR17::JACKSON "BEV JACKSON @VRO"                   16 lines   4-APR-1988 13:14
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                    DIGITAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY VISION
    
    
    
    Information Resources will be provided to employees, vendors, and
    customers through Digital's style of computing enabling them to
    maintain and extend our competitive advantage.
    
    Digital's employees will have global access across time zones to
    people, information, and resources in order to make the best decisions
    and effect the most satisfactory business transactions.
    
    Each employee will be provided with easy, timely, and accurate access
    to the information necessary to effectively perform their job in
    a cost effective manner.
    

================================================================================
Note 5.0                           DIS Vision                         11 replies
DSTR17::JACKSON "BEV JACKSON @VRO"                   15 lines   4-APR-1988 13:14
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                  DIS VISION
    
    
    
    DIS leadership and Digital's style of computing will give Global
    users a seamless integrated information environment.
    
    
    We will have the BEST PEOPLE in the industry to DELIVER the most
    EFFICIENT network and computer SERVICES as well as the HIGHEST QUALITY
    systems which COMMUNICATE effectively.
    

The vision will have trouble achieving the goal in the field  due  to the lack
of a good foundation. Consider the following problems that exist today:
   
   - Not all  employees  have  accounts  on DIS systems (notably most
     Field Service employees do not).
   
   - DIS in this  Area  (East  Central) charges for each account on a
     DIS system.  Charges are based on operating costs divided by CPU
     usage by each account and then  charged  back to each user  cost
     center.
   
   - Some functions (notably  Field  Service)  desire to reduce costs
     and  avoid  having  DIS    machine  accounts  unless  absolutely
     necessary.  For instance, these  functions  would  rather have 2
     accounts at $100 each per month  rather than have 10 accounts at
     $80 each (cost-per-user is lower because there are more users to
     divide the cost among).  This leads to 'account sharing' by more
     that one user.  Although discouraged by DIS this 'sharing' still
     goes on.
   
   - New and current  users  have  no  guide  as  to what services or
     information is available on  DIS systems.  Our Area is too short
     staffed  to create, distribute and  maintain  such  information.
     New users have to find out from others what is available.
   
   - In general, new and current  users  have  no  formal training on
     using products such as ALL-IN-1 and VTX.  'Learn from the person
     next to you' is the typical  way  a  novice  learns  the  bad or
     mis-informed habits of others.  Local branches from time to time
     do conduct training but an overall system of training users does
     not  exist.
   
   - Many users are not  aware  of  what  resources are available via
     tools such as VTX and notes.
      
   - Terminals and  connects  for new users are seldom planned for in
     advance;  new  users  often wait for long periods as connections
     and terminals are put  into  place.   Newer facilities that have
     DECconnect wiring are easing the  connectivity  problem but many
     non-DECconnect facilities  still  exist.    Facility  management
     growls and howls  at having to run wires all over the place each
     time some new person needs a terminal connection.
      
   - DIS  (in  the  East  Central  Area,  anyway)   is  understaffed,
     underfunded  and  undervisioned  to  correct  many of the  above
     problems.  We have no staff to train and  plan and what staff is
     present  is mainly used to 'firefight'.  This situation is  very
     slowly being rectified.

   - DIS is not marketed to internal managers  as  a provider of aids
     or solutions to help their employees be more  productive, thus a
     few  managers  view  DIS  as  a 'necessary evil' rather  than  a
     partner in the success of their business.
        
Here are my suggestions:
   
   - Every new employee gets an account. Period. The user   minimally
     gets  mail  access  so  that  they  may communicate with others.
     [Others may need more that  the  'basics'.    How  to charge for
     additonal services or resources is a problem that I don't have a
     good answer for.]
   
   - DIS  provided  training  on ALL-IN-1, VTX, VAXmail and NOTES for
     all new  and current employees. [Almost daily I am explaining to
     users how to do things that  are  already  documented  or  I  am
     showing them something and they say "Wow,  I  didn't know that I
     could do that.  That will help me a bunch!"]
   
     Function-specific training for function-specific applications in
     sales, sws, fs,  etc.   would be conducted by those within their
     respective organizations (or by DIS is so funded).

   - DIS provided training to make users aware of what resources  are
     available  to those that are now equiped with new tools to  work
     with.
      
   - Cost centers  get  charged  for  computes  by  DIS based on some
     simple algorithm such  as  floor  space  or headcount.  Now all
     employees will have accounts instead of the current situation in
     which some functions have accounts  for a privileged few in order
     to cut costs.
   
   - Terminals are cheap;  stock them  in  the  facility.  VT320's or
     VT220's should be a commodity item to  be put on desks just like
     a telephone.
   
   - Mandatory  DIS-prepared  user's  guide  to  system  and  network
     services to be sent to all users and maintained by DIS.

   - Proper staffing and funding for DIS to do training and planning.
   
   - DIS actively market itself in local  functions  and  groups  and
     become  a  part  of    their    planning  instead  of  being  an
     afterthought.  Few employees have  any  idea  of what DIS is and
     what it is there to do.

   Perhaps  the  situation  in some Areas is different  from  what  I
   outlined  above,  I  do not know.  Until there  are  some  drastic
   changes  in  the  way  things are currently done I cannot  see how
   the 'vision' can be realized.

SET MODE=OPINION
         
   As always, money seems to be the big problem.  But I feel  that  a
   *HUGE* $$$ savings  in  productivity could be realized if we would
   just train the users  on  how  to  use  the products (tools, in my
   opinion) that I mentioned above- ALL-IN-1, VTX, VAXmail and NOTES.
   Couldn't  DIS  funding be increased if DIS training could  improve
   the  productivity of many employees?  (I suspect the problem  here
   is 'productivity increase' is a rather intangible item.)
   
   The author of  a  series of books on edible wild plants once noted
   "They starve due to  ignorance  rather  than  lack  of food." Many
   (but not all) employees have the access but not the knowledge that
   they  need  to  utilize  these  tools.   Train the employees  plus
   implement  a costing system that would allow all employees to have
   access to the tools and we  will  be  well  on our way to having a
   foundation from which to implement the vision.
   
   Lee Roth
   Columbus, Ohio Data Center
   (Been with DEC for 11 years 8 months)
    
    

    Re: [.16]:  Tee hee!  Looks like an argument...
    
    Digital's product line is broad and deep, so I must be careful not to
    speak too generally.  You mentioned my former employer, Honeywell, but
    my memories of MOD 400 are fading after two years here. You also
    mentioned our blue competitor, which has put enormous effort into user
    interfaces, but whose operating system interfaces are--well, *I* never
    understood them.
    
    I'll confine myself to a few specific comments.  VMS, like Unix, MOD
    400, and (if I recall correctly) PRIMOS, are generally similar.  If you
    were a computer linguist, you'd call them cousins, if not siblings. And
    general-purpose operating systems are simply not easy for new users to
    learn, especially end users.  (Ref: "The Trouble with Unix," by Don
    Norman, DATAMATION, I forget the year; and I once designed a course
    called "Unix for Office Automation," which I concluded was an
    oxymoron.)  
    
    I'd guess VMS is easier than Unix on the whole, but I'd take the
    Honeywell file system commands any day.  I also think the Honeywell
    file protection mechanism makes a lot more sense, but I cut my teeth on
    it; if I started with VMS I might say the opposite. Then again, I
    repeat my earlier observation that a lot of smart people trip over
    setting file protections here every day.
    
    In the area of system management/administration, I see very few tools
    provided for Digital system managers compared to other vendors.
    Workstation users really have their noses rubbed in it; I'm intimidated
    by my workstation.  The mind-bending use of logicals, the lack of a
    hardware diagnostic interface, the lack even of a clean home directory,
    and the huge number of files in a VMS system make it tough to deal
    with.  Even though Digital workstations are more powerful than
    Macintosh II systems, the ease-of-use issue is a serious handicap.
    
    End users don't expect to see such things, and they are a different
    audience.  Here you're comparing Lotus 1-2-3 to DECalc and Microsoft
    Excel.  I won't comment on individual applications.
    
    Nobody asked; just my opinion.

    ALL-IN-1 is for office automation, but its flexibility makes it
    a premier platform for providing all manner of applications and
    services to end users.
    
    The "complexity" (I would say richness) of the VMS environment isn't
    targeted toward "end-users" as you seem to use the term.  VMS was
    and always will be for programmers.
    
    Don't mean to make it sound like a fraternity, but you are right.
    I haven't thought for a while what it is like trying to get up to
    speed with VMS as a new user.  A lot of the learning curves are
    quite steep.
    
    In terms of intended users, flexibility, sophistication, possible
    applications, etc., Macintoshes and VAX Computers are in two different
    universes.  Maybe ease of use for non-technical people is the price
    you pay, but it is well worth it.
    
    Jim
    

    A DEC salesman would NEVER think of selling an "office automation
    solution" without customer training.  The customers sometimes turn
    him down because of the expense but they know that they will have
    to get training somewhere.  So we SELL training, we SELL software
    support,weSELL documentation.  When faced with the prospect of BUYING
    those items, most cost centers will cut costs.  We are improving.
    It took me 8 years to find out how to screen edit.  I had to learn
    WPS to find out if the customer's were doing anything wrong.  I
    pulled out the salesman's copy of the training documentation and
    did it.  There are stories in trade journals about people who quit
    their jobs rather than learn a new word processing package.  There
    are people in my office who actually USE EDT.  I need something
    that takes care  of the end of the line for me...
    

    Re: .20
    
    "...there are actually people in my office who USE EDT."
    
    (Hmm, that's what I use, so dare I ask?) Do you view that as good or
    bad? 

    Gads, I use both WPS and EDT, depending on what I'm doing.  Does
    that mean I'm a technical wizard, huh, huh, does it, huh, does it?
    
    							Pat

    I've used TECO on the PDP-1, PDP-6, PDP-10, PDP-11, and VAX.
    It's still the editor I use when all else fails.
    (And does anybody know a way, other than TECO, to straighten
    out the line-ending characters after Runoff or DSR is done?)
    

        Me, I use TECO on PDP-11's running XXDP.
        
        greg_t

>    (And does anybody know a way, other than TECO, to straighten
>    out the line-ending characters after Runoff or DSR is done?)
    
1. EDT a new file
2. INCLUDE the .mem file
3. press the COMMAND key
4. type subst/^M^J//whole/notype
5. exit

you can write a DCL/EDT command procedure to do this if you like.
But - to the best of my knowledge, you CAN'T do this in EVE, or the
TPU EDT emulator (or even, I think, SEDT)  

/jw (edt hacker at large)

>        A DEC salesman would NEVER think of selling an "office automation
>    solution" without customer training.  
 
    NEVER?  Happens all the time.  
    
    Bob_who_used_to_work_with_Ed._Services

>But - to the best of my knowledge, you CAN'T do this in EVE, or the
>TPU EDT emulator (or even, I think, SEDT)  
        
        Sure you can!  The "Command:" prompt is just another TPU buffer,
        so if you have "
" in your paste buffer, you can paste it
        on the command line.  Also, if the have the EDT keypad turned
        on in TPU v2.0, you can "special insert" your favorite characters
        there also.
        
        Still, nothing beats TECO for fast removal of this stuff.
        
       _Mike
        

In VMS EMACS, I just type "M-X nuke-trailing-CRs".

I'm glad I'm allowed to use what I consider to be the right tool for the job.
				/AHM

    Today's quiz:
    
    	How many responses can fit into an editor rathole?
    
    Answer:
    
    	Just keep watchin'!	:^|  :^)  8^)  8^}

    Say, can we blow up one myth?  Techies tend to believe that those
    who don't screw around with "what's the latest/greatest editor?"
    or "just do this-and-that in DCL" are all technophobes.  The truth
    is that technophobes are a dying breed.
    
    The standards for "knowledge that would qualify one as a techie"
    are VERY subjective.  I am looked at by my peers in the office as 
    pretty technical; my friends at home think I'm a computer genius 
    (not that I try a lot to dissuade them);  some of you out there could
    blow me away in about 25 seconds of conversation, and conclude that
    I'm an ignoramus.
    
    The truth is that the level of technical prowess to which one aspires 
    is driven by NEED, which takes the form of TIME and EFFORT.
    If I have moderate cusiosity about something (low-level NEED)  I will
    assign it appropriate amounts of TIME and EFFORT.  If
    my job requires little technical know-how (therefore little NEED),
    and I have little TIME to spare anyways because of my other
    responsibilities, correspondingly my real EFFORT will be very
    low.  Maybe your job _demands_ certain skills; you WILL find the
    TIME and put out the EFFORT.
    
    But why have I taken the TIME and put out the EFFORT generate this
    windy REPLY? 
    
    As a salesman with many years industry, and almost one year with
    DEC, I think that people in certain areas of DEC seem to take perverse
    delight in bashing non-technical folks, especially sales people (and
    marketing as well, but then, in some ways, they deserve it...;^)..).
    
    Speaking for sales, most of us, although we may have an interest
    and even an aptitude for skill/knowledge which would allow us to
    be called "techies", alas, we have not the TIME, nor the NEED for
    such.  Should we forget this, we are quickly reminded by a boot
    in the butt to get "out the door and in front of customers" by those
    with the authority to do so.
    
    If you can't understand this, I invite you to contact me @BXO (one
    of those captive ALL-IN-1 systems) and spend a day with me and my
    colleagues.  Don't bring your golf clubs.
    
    
    Tim Hicks (who really should have been out selling all the time
    this was being written...where's that boot...)
        
                                                                      

RE .26 ... In my extended EVE-based TPU I just type [DO]Fix
    
!
! Clean up CRLFs left by RUNOFF and the like.
!
PROCEDURE eve_fix_crlfs
LOCAL
    fix_crlf_range;

ON_ERROR
    IF (ERROR <> TPU$_STRNOTFOUND) THEN
	MESSAGE ("Error (" + STR (ERROR) + ") at line " + STR (ERROR_LINE));
	RETURN;
    ENDIF;
ENDON_ERROR;
!
!   First remove the CRLFs. If they are not at the EOL, add a line break.
!
POSITION (BEGINNING_OF (CURRENT_BUFFER));
LOOP
    fix_crlf_range := SEARCH (ASCII(13)+ASCII(10), FORWARD);
    EXITIF (fix_crlf_range = 0);
    ERASE (fix_crlf_range);
    POSITION (BEGINNING_OF (fix_crlf_range));
    IF (CURRENT_CHARACTER <> "") THEN
	SPLIT_LINE;
    ENDIF;
ENDLOOP;
!
!   Next remove naked LFs. If they are not at the EOL, add a line break.
!
POSITION (BEGINNING_OF (CURRENT_BUFFER));
LOOP
    fix_crlf_range := SEARCH (ASCII(10), FORWARD);
    EXITIF (fix_crlf_range = 0);
    ERASE (fix_crlf_range);
    POSITION (BEGINNING_OF (fix_crlf_range));
    IF  (CURRENT_CHARACTER <> "") THEN
	SPLIT_LINE;
    ENDIF;
ENDLOOP;
!
!   Finally, remove naked CRs. The line containing the naked CRLF is
!   deleted, since it's an overstrike line.
!
POSITION (BEGINNING_OF (CURRENT_BUFFER));
LOOP
    fix_crlf_range := SEARCH (ASCII(13), FORWARD);
    EXITIF (fix_crlf_range = 0);
    POSITION (END_OF (fix_crlf_range));
    IF (CURRENT_OFFSET <> 0) THEN
        MOVE_HORIZONTAL(-CURRENT_OFFSET);
    ENDIF;
    eve$edt_delete_line;
ENDLOOP;

ENDPROCEDURE;

        PLEASE!  Enough about stripping CR-LFs from text files.  It
        has NOTHING to do with the topic at hand, which is training
        for non-technical employees.  It is a RAT-HOLE.
        
        Paul, how would we train a non-technical employee to use the
        TPU extension you posted?
        
        Tom

    
    RE -.2  sales 
    
    Unfortunately for Mr. Hicks he is getting a bad name in some
    circles. *8)
    
    Not Mr.hicks personally of course, but the sales force as a generic
    entity , BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE.
    
    It does absolutely no good for a sales person to get in front of
    a customer and promise him the starship enterprise and tell him
    he will be able to fix it himself if it breaks when the actually
    all that can be supplied is a paper airplane that requires 10 years
    training in origami to fold.
    
    A radical description of the situation and a radical concept that
    the people who sell the product should know it's potentials and
    limitations. The sales force should also be able to tell a customer
    if they really need the product and if it can be made to work in
    there environment/application. 
    
    The service group is being handed contracts on product that we do
    not build, don't have documentation for, and can't get parts for.
    The support organizations are getting calls about product failures
    or worse because the field engineer is untrained on a product and
    the customer who may be even less technical than a sales person
    has tried to install or fix a product.
    
    I understand that the sales force is measured on how much they sell
    and field service on how much repair revenue they bring in - BUT -
    when a product is down more than up because the customer was led
    to believe it would do something it can't or shouldn't and he tries
    to fix it when he is not supposed to and was told he could it makes
    a lot of other peoples work load bigger and makes the corporation
    look bad.
    

    Re: .34                                             
    
    You can call me Tim.
    
    OK, lets blow-up another illusion.  Of the people who have the
    authority to put their pen to a contract, or at least make a firm
    recommendation, for $100K-and-up worth of hardware, software and
    services, 99% care NOTHING for the nitty-gritty technical
    details of how it works.  
    
    The problems you described aren't due to lack of technical knowledge 
    on the part of the salesman, but rather that s/he didn't follow
    through in getting someone who HAS that knowledge (and responsibility) 
    to check-out the proposed H/W & S/W configuration for accuracy, 
    completeness, etc.  I don't think any computer company wants to 
    provide sales people ALL the training necessary to prevent 
    every possible kind of delivery screw-up!  Remember that old theory
    about division of labor?  A good sales person gets the right software
    and services people involved as a team.  NOBODY sells a computer
    by themselves! 
    
    Again, the kind of people that a DEC salesman _should_ be talking
    to don't give a rat's tail about the technical aspects of DEC's
    hardware or software!!!  S/HE HIRES OTHER PEOPLE TO WORRY ABOUT
    THAT!  All they care about is whether it will FIX a PROBLEM, and
    whether it's cost is justified by the benefit it will provide to the
    organization for which s/he is responsible.  And, believe it or
    not folks, this even applies to working with MIS people.  If a sales
    person really needs to answer technical questions in front of a
    prospect, s/he can (usually, given the right circumstances, position
    of sun and moon, etc.) get support people for the answers.
    
    Most of the time, a customer will trust that the sales person will
    deliver on promises.  They don't ask us to do impromptu presentations
    on DCL programming, Ethernet performance tuning, how to fix carriage 
    returns and line feeds in a file, similarities between SNA LU6.2 APPC
    and DECnet program-to-program capabilities, etc, etc.  This may 
    surprise you, but I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the time,  DEC 
    sales people know more about the product than the customer does.  And 
    as long as the solution arrives working as promised, the customer really
    doesn't care about the other 10%.
    
    Hey, fellow sales people, am I gonna get any help on this?  Or are
    you all too busy chasin' deals to defend yourselves? 
                                                  

    Tim, you don't need any support.  You have told the raw and complete
    truth about how a professional computer salesperson should operate. 
    
    In the old days Digital sales people knew many of the technical details
    of our products.  However, they were dealing with VERY technical
    customers selling much more technical tools than we sell today. 
    
    I suspect that most of current customers would be distrustful of a
    salesperson who did know the techie details of our products. Our
    customers want a business partnership and need to trust us. Developing
    this bond of trust is the most important mission for any professional
    salesperson. 
    
    Just as techies tend to distrust people who aren't techies (as has been
    shown in many of the replies in this note), human beings tend to
    distrust techies.  Human beings are the people who are buying our
    systems, today.  They are our future.  Human beings don't care about
    computer literacy.  They care a lot about solving business problems. 
    
    Our sales force is providing the bridge between the humans and the
    techies.  Let us hope that they do a great job.  Let's all try to
    understand that humans are good for us even if they are irrational and
    don't do VAX Notes.  Maybe they are more rational than we realize.
    
    Keep the faith,
    
    Don

    The last few replies reiterate a most important point:
    
    	People do NOT buy computers to have computers!
    
    	People buy computers to solve BUSINESS problems!
    
    The computer is just a part of the solution, and usually the least
    visible part.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    re: .35

>                                               Remember that old theory
>   about division of labor?  A good sales person gets the right software
>   and services people involved as a team.  NOBODY sells a computer
>   by themselves! 
    
    Unfortunately, there's not enough software and services people *left*
    in our office for this system to work.  I am the sole SWS support
    person right now for about 12 sales reps, what with the current
    downsizing of the Sales Support organization.  Basically, if a rep
    needs help in my office, and it's not already on my to-do list,
    then the rep has about a 2-4 week waiting time.  If he's willing
    to deal with two sets of managers, he may be able to get me at
    an earlier date, but only because some other poor guy is getting
    *his* support jerked out from under him at the last minute.
    
    The sales reps in our office are learning the hard way that they
    must be more self-reliant, because the support just isn't there
    anymore.  I'm not talking about feeds and speeds, hey, most of 
    the SWS people I know don't keep up with that stuff anymore.
    I'm talking about business solutions, compatability and 
    integration issues, and competitive analyses.  These are not
    things that a customer will just take a sales rep's word on
    whether or not they work, they want concrete informantion.
    And I'm starting to see reps walk away from business where
    they know they will not be able to provide that information
    in any sort of timely manner.
                                                  
    Again, I'm not saying that every sales rep should be trained
    in DCL, DBMS, and ALL-IN-1.  What I will say is that the sales
    force is going to have to spend some time learning to use the
    in-house tools like SOFTBASE and CIS and some of the document
    preparation tools because there aren't going to be many Support
    people left to help them out.

    Geoff

    re .36

    So if I consider myself a "techie", does that mean I'm not human?
    (I get your point, but it was indelicately phrased)

    re .35 and .38
    
    How does this philosphy fit with p3 (plan to *DECREASE* ratio of
    sales support people to sales people to 3-to-1)?
    
    Jim
    

    RE: .33  "RAT-HOLE ALERT"
    
    It has been my experience, as a non-technical person meeting with
    "engineers", that any time I raise what they deem to be a stupid
    question, it gets declared a "rat-hole" and the discussion moves on. 
    
    I'm never sure whether this is elitism on their part or merely an
    inability to express themselves in plain English.
    
    

                Re .40
                
                As one of those engineers, let me say that the majority
        of the usage of Rat-Hole is to prevent the current meeting from
        getting too far off track, especially on a subject that has been
        beaten to death at (a) previous meeting(s). This can be hard to
        take for the person(s) who haven't attended all the meetings and
        really do not understand that they are bringing up one of those
        "dead" topics, especially if that topic is important to the
        person(s). In most cases, we are not trying to put down the
        person who brought up the subject, just trying to avoid
        rehashing a subject that has already been hashed too much. I'm
        afraid that there is no easy answer to all this, except for all
        involved to try to understand where the other person(s) is/are
        coming from. Sometimes an off-line discussion after the meeting
        with a few people can settle the "fears (which often are real)"
        of the one(s) being effectively told to "shut up".
                
                /s/     Bob

    re: .39
    
>    How does this philosphy fit with p3 (plan to *DECREASE* ratio of
>    sales support people to sales people to 3-to-1)?

    Huh?  Even at the height of staffing, our unit did not have a 3-1
    sales support to sales rep ratio, and now we are at 1/3 strength.
    I guess if you threw in *all* of the SWS managers, program managers,
    and other assorted staff, then we would come close to 3-1.
    
    Of course, most of the reductions I've seen in Sales Support have
    been at the specialist level, while we've been *adding* manager
    positions in my district and area.  I wonder what most of these
    managers are going to do when there's no one left to manage, but
    there's always those juicy program manager positions ...

    Geoff

    Training for non-technical employees.  Great idea.  What kind of
    training do we have in mind?  What's the problem?
    
    Are we supposed to teach DCL (or per chance MCR ...) and maybe EMACs or
    TECO to sales people? That in itself may prove to be a useful endeavor
    if there is an advantage to using a VMS system to better preform their
    job. 
    
    Alas, A MAC may prove to be easier to use, more adapt at proposal
    generation, and require less training time.  So much for DCL.  Maybe
    a message about our product mix in this area.
    
    Sales people are in the same business as, many of our engineers.
    They are give an abstract and often ill defined problem, a time
    frame and tools and pieces that can be used to construct an acceptable
    solution.
    
    In the technical case we provide training on how to use a give
    programming language, how to use CASE tools, how to utilize the
    operating system calls, etc.
    
    We do not teach general purpose courses on how to write any given
    compiler, how to develop CASE tools and how to write an operating
    system, requiring that they be taken before you can use the results.
    
    The non-technical aspects should be given the same level of coverage.
    We need to provide courses and materials on how NOTES, VTX, VMS,
    DCL, ALL-IN-1, etc. etc. can be used as componets of an overall
    solution.
    
    In fact we even do this.  Why the misconceptions in both directions?
    
    Engineers are dealing with very large, very complex problems.  The
    hard part of many of these problems is integration of existing pieces
    into the final outcome.  We have a hard time doing this since it
    has become near impossible to know ALL of the pieces that we have
    created over the years and what they would offer to the overall
    solution. 
    
    The sales and marketing people are always asking why not just put
    an X and a Y together, write a little code and call it a Z.  Seems
    obvious to them.
    
    Salespeople are dealing with a different aspect of the same problem.
    How do the many, many pieces go together to make an optimal solution.
    
    The technical people look and say, why not use an A and a B, wrap
    some services around it and call it a C.  Seems obvious.
    
    We need courses that deal with integration.  We need to be able
    to understand how to abstract componets in a manner that makes them
    useful without requiring vast amounts of DETAILed knowledge.  
    
    Same problem.  Same need.
    
    
    

    re .42
    
    Several years ago, after a successful pilot in the Washington DC
    area, it was determined that the optimal ratio of sales people to
    pre-sales people was two-to-one.  That is, each pre-sales person
    would be responsible for two sales people.  
    
    After this discovery, there was a massive push, along with the normal
    sales hoopla to hire, hire, hire and get that ratio down!  Software
    managers were going INSANE with stealing people from delivery to
    give to sales (sometime without consulting the specialist first).
    
    P3 represents a NEW discovery that the ideal ratio is not two-to-one
    as previously believed, but three-to-one.  I guess it was discovered
    that pre-sales specialists were sitting idle, or that sales volumes
    had increased beyond acceptable limits.
    
    Jim
    

    Despite the protestations of [.41], I agree with [.40].  In some
    cases, questions deemed uninteresting by the majority are labeled
    "ratholes" and ignored.  However, usually that treatment is accorded
    to pointless digressions that threaten to derail the meeting, or
    to points previously discussed.
    
    If your next question gets the rathole treatment, see if you can
    get it "offline" (someone will answer it afterwards).

    Unfortunately, declaring something a "rathole" is also used as a
    technique to put down ideas disagreed with. One man's rathole is
    another man's goldmine.

    
    Tim,
 
    
    To paraphrase you, somewher out in the DEC blue yonder is someone
    willing to help. A sales person does not have to be an engineer
    - a tech does not have to know everything- they just need to know
    where to get the info for the job at hand.
    
    For a sales person it should be the system manger not the treasurer
    for a tech it could be a manual. The Customer Support Centers and
    local environmental support teams are an excelent source of information
    
    Keep on selling - but please don't promise Star Ship Enterprise
    when all we have available is the Spirit Of St. Louis.
    
    Steve
    

Re: last few replies

The problem that I see (here in the field, anyway) is that mgmt (with a few
exceptions) is not willing to spend the $$$ for users to learn how to use our
core day-to-day do-our-job products (VTX, ALL-IN-1, VAXnotes).

Would be nice if there were a once-every-other month all day training session
at some facility within 2 hours driving distance of the users.

Would be nice if they would run somthing on DVN that would teach this stuff.
Then it could be taped and viewed later.

No funding, no training.

Lee

    By strange coincedence, at our most recent District meeting, the
    powers-that-be decided that "mini-seminars" could be regularly scheduled
    for customers and sales people (or whoever) to learn basics on the
    use of some software products.  Sort of fits nicely into the NEEDS
    described here.
    

The following document was assemble by Guy Gauvin,  a Software Specialist
from ISWS (Internal Software Services) in Marlboro.

Finding that many of the non-technical users on a previous contract were
faced with  what seemed to them  heavy technical roadblocks, Guy put this
together.

As you will see,  it is not meant to be a  Be-All-and-End-All  type of 
document.  
But, as it has help others, it may prove beneficial to your associates, 
customers, etc...



	The attached is an attempt to help office personnel become more
productive in their daily activities by taking advantage of the computer's
capabilities.  I have put together a menu of some office productivity tools
that I believe will help to accomplish this.  As there is a very wide range
of users and their knowledge of computers in every organization, this may be
more useful to some users, particularly new employees, than it would be to
other more experienced computer users.  It is not meant to be an all encompass-
ing document teaching you everything there is to know about all of these tools.
It is meant to help novice users get a quick working knowledge of at least the
basics of each of these tools.
	The attempt is two-fold.  The major piece is the attached documentation
which explains how to use these tools.  The other is the Office Productivity
Menu software itself, which simply allows you to select each of these tools from
a menu.  This menu selection will help users by not requiring them to remember
the appropriate commands needed to invoke each of these tools as well as saving
them a few keystrokes in the process.
	I hope this helps some of you in an at least one way or another.  I'm
always open to recommendations on how to improve this document.  Should you
have any suggestions or would like to have this software installed within your
account I can be reached via VAXmail at CYGNUS::GAUVIN.  Thank you for your
time and consideration.


Regards,

Guy Gauvin


























		OFFICE  PRODUCTIVITY  MENU


		  TRAINING DOCUMENTATION


























								Guy J. Gauvin

								August 16, 1988











			  TABLE OF CONTENTS




							PAGE

		INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW			  1


		VAXMAIL					  3


		EDITOR (EDT)				  9


		DECSPELL				 16


		PERSONAL PRINTER SPOOLER UTILITY	 18


		CALCULATOR				 19


		DIGITAL COMMAND LANGUAGE (DCL)		 20


		EMPLOYEE LOCATOR FACILITY (ELF)		 30


		APPLICATION SOFTWARE			 31


		REFERENCE APPENDIX			 32

									Page 1

	INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW


	High-level management, and many other office personnel today do not
	have time to pour through reams of documentation to understand how to
	utilize computers to enhance their daily office productivity.

	The intent of this document and related software is to quickly give
	these people a working knowledge of some very helpful office automation
	tools that will enhance their productivity within the office environ-
	ment.

	This document is a compilation of excerpts from existing Digital
	Equipment Corp. documentation and the content of some of the on-line
	help available within each of these tools.  I do not attempt to explain
	every option available for each tool.  There are many more advanced
	features of each tool that can be learned over time.  For this reason
	I've included at the back of this document a list of the documentation
	referenced to create this document and for you to use as future 
	references.

	Upon logging into your account the following screen will be displayed;


  +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                                                                            |
  | 2 new Mail messages    OFFICE   PRODUCTIVITY   MENU	    28-JUN-1988 09:45  |
  |                                                                            |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          1. VAXmail                                        |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          2. Editor (EDT)                                   |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          3. DECspell                                       |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          4. Personal Printer Spooler Utility               |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          5. Calculator                                     |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          6. Digital Command Language (DCL)                 |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          7. Employee Locator Facility (ELF)                |
  |                                                                            |
  |                          8. Application Software                           |
  |                                                                            |
  |                                                                            |
  |                       Select Function                                      |
  |                       ---------------                                      |
  |                                                                            |
  +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


	This menu based application is comprised of several tools that will
	enhance a person's productivity in their everyday work environment.
	You may either enter the corresponding option number to access each
	of these tools or enter X to exit the system altogether.  The tools
	that make up this menu and a brief description of each are listed on
	the following page.  In addition each time the menu is displayed your
	VAXmail will be checked for any unread messages.  A message will always
	be displayed in the top left hand corner of your screen notifying you
	of how many new messages you have.

									Page 2



	1. VAXMAIL

		Used to electronically communicate with fellow DEC employees.
	This is also very helpful in helping us to cut costs as a corporation
	in striving to become a "paperless society".


	2. EDITOR (EDT)

		To be used in developing memos and assorted other documentation
	that may be generated on a daily basis.  There is much productivity to
	be gained here by using this to develop any document versus the tradi-
	tional method of writing on paper, scratching things out, rewriting,
	then handing the finished draft to a secretary to have it typed up and
	then distributed.


	3. DECSPELL

		Another helpful tool in helping to create any form of documen-
	tation.  This tool will help you find and correct spelling errors
	before distribution of the materials created.


	4. PERSONAL PRINTER SPOOLER UTILITY

		This little utility is used for printers attached to your term-
	inals.  It will allow you to print memos, etc. using a variety of
	printer types as well as setting printing characteristics such as char-
	acters per inch and number of copies.


	5. CALCULATOR

		This simple program is used to do everyday addition, subtrac-
	tion, division, and multiplication.


	6. DIGITAL COMMAND LANGUAGE (DCL)

		These are a very useful set of commands to be used for file
	manipulation, printing, and account/directory maintenance.


	7. EMPLOYEE LOCATOR FACILITY (ELF)

		Another handy utility used to get information about fellow
	DEC employees.  Information such as site location, phone number, and
	electronic mail address can be obtained via this utility.


	8. APPLICATION SOFTWARE

		This option, if applicable, will allow you access into your
	particular software application(s) that you may frequently run.
		
									Page 3


I	VAXmail


	The VAX/VMS Mail Utility (MAIL) allows you to send messages to other
	users on your system or an any other computer that is connected to
	your system by means of DECnet-VAX. You can also read, file, forward,
	delete, print, and reply to messages that other users send to you.

	Messages that you receive are stored in files called mail files.  Your
	default mail file, called MAIL.MAI, is created in your default direc-
	tory the first time you receive a mail message.  You can also create
	other mail files to accompany MAIL.MAI.

	All mail files are subdivided into folders.  By default, your mail file
	(MAIL.MAI) contains a folder named MAIL. The MAIL folder contains
	messages that you have already read.  When you receive new mail messages
	they automatically enter a folder named NEWMAIL.  After you read the
	messages in the NEWMAIL folder, they automatically move into the MAIL
	folder.  The NEWMAIL folder disappears after you have read all new
	messages and either SELECT another folder or EXIT from MAIL.

	When you delete a message it automatically moves into the WASTEBASKET
	folder.  Deleted messages will collect in the WASTEBASKET folder until
	it is emptied. The WASTEBASKET folder is automatically emptied, or
	deleted, when you EXIT from MAIL.

	You will always know which folder you are currently in because the name
	of the folder is displayed at the top right corner of the screen when
	you enter the READ or DIRECTORY commands.  You can enter the DIRECTORY
	/FOLDER command to see a display of the existing folders in the current
	mail file.  You can remove a folder by deleting all the messages it
	contains.




	The following diagram attempts to show the structure of MAIL with its
	hierarchy of file, folders, and messages.



	 MAIL.MAI   (the actual file that would reside in your directory)
	 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
	 |        MAIL        WASTEBASKET     PERSONAL        NEWMAIL      |
	 |     +--------+     +--------+     +--------+      +--------+    |
	 |     |  *  *  |     |        |     |   *    |      |        |    |
	 |     |  *  *  |     |   *    |     |  *  *  |      |        |    |
	 |     |  *  *  |     | *   *  |     |  *  *  |      |        |    |
	 |     |  *  *  |     | *   *  |     |  *  *  |      |   *    |    |
	 |     |  *  *  |     | *   *  |     |  *  *  |      | *   *  |    |
	 |     +--------+     +--------+     +--------+      +--------+    |
	 |                                                                 |
	 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

	* = individual MAIL messages


									Page 4
			     VAXMAIL COMMANDS/QUALIFIERS

READ [n]  This command displays your messages.

	Pressing the RETURN key is the same as entering the READ command.  If
	you issue the READ command or press RETURN immediately after MAIL is
	invoked, MAIL displays the first page of your oldest unread message in
	your NEWMAIL folder.  If there are no unread messages MAIL displays the
	oldest message in the MAIL folder.  Each time you enter the READ
	command, or press RETURN, MAIL displays the next page, or the next
	message if there are no more pages in the current message.  You may
	also specify the number of the message that you wish to read with
	the READ command.


NEXT	Skips to the next message and displays it.

	This command is useful if, while reading through your messages, you
	encounter a long message that you would like to skip over.


REPLY (ANSWER)	Sends a message to the sender of the message you are currently
	reading.

	If you do not specify the name of a file to be sent as your reply, you
	will be prompted for the text of your reply.  You can use the REPLY
	command and the ANSWER command interchangeably because they work the
	same way.

	/EDIT	Invokes the EDT editor to edit the reply you are sending.
	When you EXIT from EDT, the edited message is sent. To cancel the send-
	ing of the message, enter the EDT command QUIT.


HELP	Allows you to obtain information about the MAIL Utility.

	To obtain information about all of the MAIL commands, enter this
	command.  This will display topics of help available to you.  To
	obtain information about individual commands or topics, enter HELP
	followed by the command or topic name.


SEND (MAIL)  Sends a message to another user(s).

	MAIL prompts you first for the name of the user(s) to receive the
	message.  You reply with the user name(s) or with the file name of a
	distribution list file.  The destination is in the following format;

	NODENAME::USERNAME

	Next , MAIL prompts you for the subject of the mail.

	/SUBJECT You can avoid the "Subj:" prompt by specifying the /SUBJECT=
	qualifier with the SEND command.

	You can include a file specification with the SEND command.  If you
	specify a file with the SEND command, the text in that file is sent to
	the specified user(s).  If you do not specify a file, MAIL prompts you
	for the text of your message.

	Enter the message that you want to send, then press CTRL/Z.  Note that
	once you have typed a line and pressed RETURN, there is no way to edit
	it.  If you decide not to send a message you are typing but want to stay
	within the MAIL Utility, press CTRL/C to abort the message.  You will
	then receive the MAIL> prompt. CTRL/Y exits you from MAIL altogether.

									Page 5

	/EDIT	Determines whether the EDT editor is invoked to edit the
	message you are sending.  Having entered the /EDIT qualifier the editor
	is invoked displaying the text of the message you are editing.

	/SELF	Determines whether MAIL sends a copy of the message you are
	sending back to yourself.

	You can use the SEND command and the MAIL command interchangeably
	because they work the same way.


FORWARD	Sends a copy of the message you are currently reading (or have
	just read) to a user(s).

	MAIL prompts you for the name of the user or users to whom you want to
	forward the message.  If you change your mind about forwarding a
	message after you have already entered the FORWARD command, enter
	CTRL/C to abort the message.  The MAIL> prompt will be displayed.

	/EDIT	Determines whether the EDT editor is invoked to edit the
	message you are forwarding.

EXIT	Allows you to exit from the MAIL Utility.

	You can also exit from MAIL by pressing CTRL/Z.  When you enter the
	EXIT command, any messages in the WASTEBASKET folder are deleted.


EXTRACT	Places a copy of the current message into a file.

	Entering the EXTRACT command will cause MAIL to prompt you for the
	name of the file that the message is to be copied to.


DELETE	Deletes the message you are currently reading and moves it to the
	WASTEBASKET folder.  This should be used whenever possible to keep your
	account clean and save on disk space.
	
	When you enter the EXIT or PURGE commands, your WASTEBASKET folder
	empties automatically.  To recover a message accidentally deleted
	(while it is still in the WASTEBASKET folder), SELECT the WASTEBASKET
	folder, READ the desired message, and FILE it to another folder.
	

SELECT	You can use the SELECT command to move from one folder to another.

	If you select a folder that doesn't exist, MAIL displays the follow-
	ing message:

	%MAIL_E_NOTEXIST, folder [foldername] does not exist


FILE (MOVE)  Moves the current message to the specified folder.

	If you enter the FILE command, press RETURN, supply a foldername at
	the prompt, and then decide (before pressing RETURN again) that you
	do not want to file the message, enter CTRL/C. CTRL/C will abort the
	operation and keep you within MAIL.

	(Note that the FILE command deletes the message from the original folder
	unlike the COPY command, which leaves a copy.)

	You can use the FILE command and the MOVE command interchangeably
	because they both work the same way.

									Page 6


DIRECTORY  Displays a list of the messages in the current mail folder,
	including message number, sender's name, date, and subject.

	If "foldername" is omitted, MAIL displays a directory of the currently
	selected messages.  If there are no currently selected messages, MAIL
	displays a directory of the messages in the NEWMAIL folder (if unread
	messages exist) or the MAIL folder if not.

	/FOLDER	Displays a listing of all folders contained in the current
	mail file.

	/BEFORE=date	Displays a listing of all the mail messages
	received before the specified date.


	/SINCE=date	Displays a listing of all the mail messages
	received on or after the specified date.



PRINT	Queues a copy of the message you are currently reading for
	printing.

	The file(s) created by the PRINT command are not actually released
	to the print queue until you exit from MAIL, so that multiple messages
	will be concatenated into one print job.

	/QUEUE=	The name of the queue to which a message is to be sent.  If
	the /QUEUE qualifier is not specified, the message is queued to the
	SYS$PRINT printer.  If you enter the PRINT command more than once
	specifying a different queue-name, any previously queued messages are
	released to the print queue.

	/COPIES=n Indicates the number of copies to be printed.



KEYPAD USE

		Now that you've mastered all of these VAXmail functions and
	commands let me tell you about a short-cut to using most of these
	commands.  Rather than spelling in the appropriate command you can
	instead use the numeric keypad on the right of your keyboard.  Hitting
	the appropriate key(s) will execute the same commands.  See the keypad
	layout on the following page.  Hitting one of the keys, by itself will
	execute the command listed on the top line of that key.  Hitting the
	GOLD key and then another keypad key will execute the command listed at
	the bottom of that specific key.


									Page 7


	   +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	   |PF1           |PF2           |PF3           |PF4           |
	   |              |     HELP     | EXTRACT/MAIL |    ERASE     |
	   |     GOLD     |              |              |              |
	   |              |  DIR/FOLDER  |    EXTRACT   | SELECT  MAIL |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	   |7             |8             |9             |-             |
	   |     SEND     |     REPLY    |    FORWARD   |   READ/NEW   |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   |   SEND/EDIT  |REPLY/EDIT/EXT| FORWARD/EDIT |   SHOW NEW   |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	   |4             |5             |6             |,             |
	   |   CURRENT    |    FIRST     |     LAST     |   DIR/NEW    |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   | CURRENT/EDIT |  FIRST/EDIT  |   LAST/EDIT  |   DIR/MAIL   |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	   |1             |2             |3             |ENTER         |
	   |     BACK     |     PRINT    |     DIR      |              |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   |   BACK/EDIT  |PRINT/PR/NOTIF|DIR/STAR 99999|              |
	   |              |              |              |              |
	   +--------------+--------------+--------------+              |
	   |0                            |.             |              |
	   |            NEXT             |     FILE     |              |
	   |                             |              |    SELECT    |
	   |          NEXT/EDIT          |    DELETE    |              |
	   |                             |              |              |
	   +-----------------------------+--------------+--------------+



OTHER HELPFUL FEATURES:


SET COPY_SELF

	Sets the default for determining whether the SEND or REPLY  commands
	return a copy of the message being sent back to the user sending the
	message.

	By specifying NOSEND or NOREPLY with the SET COPY_SELF command,  you
	can  clear  any  default  copying  you have established with the SET
	COPY_SELF command.

	The SHOW COPY_SELF command displays the established copying.

	Format:

		SET COPY_SELF command [,command]
		SHOW COPY_SELF

									Page 8
SET FORWARD

	Sets a forwarding address for your mail.  After you  enter  the  SET
	FORWARD command, the address you specify will receive mail messages.

	The default you establish with the SET FORWARD  command  remains  in
	effect until you enter the SET NOFORWARD command.

	The  SHOW  FORWARD  command  displays  the  name  of  the  specified
	forwarding address.

	Format:

		SET [NO]FORWARD address
		SHOW FORWARD

COMPRESS

	Makes a mail file smaller.  When you compress a file, the following
	four steps occur:

	1  A temporary file named MAIL_nnnn_COMPRESS.TMP is created.
	   (nnnn is a unique, four-digit number.)

	2  The contents (of the file to be compressed) are copied to
	   the temporary file and compressed.

	3  The original (uncompressed) file is renamed with a file
	   type of .OLD.

	4  The newly compressed file is renamed from
	   MAIL_nnnn_COMPRESS.TMP back to its original name.

	Format:

		COMPRESS [file-spec]

CREATING DISTRIBUTION LISTS

	By using an editor you can create distribution lists for sending out
	mail.  This could save you plenty of time if for any reason you period-
	ically send out communications to the same group of people.  To create
	a distribution list file simply enter each person's node name, followed
	by two colons (::), and the person's last name, usually.  Distribution
	list files should also have a file extension of .DIS.  Below is a sample
	distribution list file.

	NODEA::GAUVIN
	NODEA::STOREY
	NODEB::ROMANO
	NODEC::ATTER

	To use a distribution list, simply type @, followed by the name of
	the distribution file you have created, in response to the TO: prompt.
	For example: @BUDGET_MGRS, would send copies of a mail message to
	each person listed in a file named BUDGET_MGRS.DIS.  Please note that
	you do not have to specify the file extension if the distribution list
	was created with a .DIS extension.

									Page 9


II	Editor (EDT)


	EDT is an interactive text editor that has distinct editing modes:
	keypad, line, and nokeypad.  Both the keypad and nokeypad modes are
	screen editors for use on CRTs.  Line mode can be used on any type of
	terminal - hardcopy or screen.

	NOTE: FOR THIS DISCUSSION I WILL ONLY BE DISCUSSING KEYPAD MODE.

	With the EDT editor you can create and edit almost all types of text
	files.  When you are editing a file, you can add or delete text, move
	or copy text from one place to another, save or discard your editing
	work.

	From the system menu selecting option 2 will cause the system to prompt
	with "Enter filename to EDIT:".  Upon responding to this prompt the
	editor will respond in one of the following two ways.  If the file that
	you specified did not already exist the system will display the message
	"Input file does not exist" and you will be in insert mode to create
	this file.  If the file did exist then EDT puts a copy of the file into
	the MAIN buffer in your EDT session.  Then EDT will display the first
	page of text and you will also be in insert mode to modify this file.

	You can use EDT's online HELP facility any time during your editing
	session.  The HELP command provides information on using the HELP
	facility and a list of topics that you can get help on.  When you are
	in keypad mode, press the HELP key (PF2 on VT100-type terminals).
	EDT displays a diagram of the keypad, a list of other keypad editing
	keys, and tells you to press the key you want help on.

	Keypad mode uses the numeric keypad located to the right of the main
	keyboard on VT100-type terminals.  On terminals with LK201 keyboards,
	there are two keypads to the right of the main keyboard. The numeric
	keypad at the right edge of the keyboard corresponds to the VT100 key-
	pad.

	The arrow keys on VT100-type terminals are considered to be part of the
	keypad.  On terminals with LK201 keyboards, the arrow keys are located
	at the bottom of the second keypad.

	Four keyboard keys have special keypad editing functions: BACKSPACE,
	DELETE, LINEFEED, and TAB.  The BACKSPACE and LINEFEED keys are located
	in the row of function keys across the top of the keyboard. (BACKSPACE
	is key F12; LINEFEED is key F13.)

	Most keypad keys have two editing functions associated with them.  To
	use the upper (primary) function (for example, FNDNXT) simply press the
	indicated key.  To use the lower (alternate) function (for example,
	FIND), first press the GOLD key (PF1 on VT100) and then the keypad key.

	See the keypad layout, on the following page for all available functions
	that are provided for your use.

									Page 10


	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	    |^             ||             |<-            |->            |
	    ||             |V             |              |              |
	    |      UP      |     DOWN     |     LEFT     |    RIGHT     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+

	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	    |PF1           |PF2           |PF3           |PF4           |
	    |              |              |    FNDNXT    |    DEL L     |
	    |     GOLD     |     HELP     |              |              |
	    |              |              |     FIND     |    UND L     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	    |7             |8             |9             |-             |
	    |     PAGE     |     SECT     |    APPEND    |    DEL W     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    |    COMMAND   |     FILL     |    REPLACE   |    UND W     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	    |4             |5             |6             |,             |
	    |   ADVANCE    |    BACKUP    |     CUT      |    DEL C     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    |    BOTTOM    |     TOP      |    PASTE     |    UND C     |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
	    |1             |2             |3             |ENTER         |
	    |     WORD     |     EOL      |    CHAR      |              |
	    |              |              |              |    ENTER     |
	    |   CHNGCASE   |   DEL EOL    |   SPECINS    |              |
	    |              |              |              |              |
	    +--------------+--------------+--------------+              |
	    |0                            |.             |              |
	    |             LINE            |    SELECT    |              |
	    |                             |              |     SUBS     |
	    |          OPEN LINE          |    RESET     |              |
	    |                             |              |              |
	    +-----------------------------+--------------+--------------+

			       EDT COMMANDS/QUALIFIERS

CTRL/Z	Pressing the CTRL/Z shifts EDT from keypad mode to line mode.

	Having pressed CTRL/Z, the line mode asterisk prompt (*) appears indi-
	cating that EDT is ready to accept line mode commands.  To resume keypad
	mode editing, use the line mode CHANGE command (or C for short).

EXIT	The EXIT command ends your editing session.  It can only be used in line
	mode at the asterisk (*) prompt.

	When you type EXIT, EDT creates an external file and copies the contents
	of the MAIN buffer into that file.  The file created will be of the
	same name you specified when you started the EDT session with a differ-
	ent version number.  You may alternatively specify a different name for
	the output file to be created on the EXIT command line.

QUIT	The QUIT command ends an EDT session without copying any text to
	an external file.  Only a copy of the original file as it was before you
	started your EDT session exists.  There is no copy of the edited text.
	If you use EDT to create a new file and you type QUIT to end your edit-
	ing session, no copy of the text will exist in any directory.  It also
	can only be used in line mode at the asterisk (*) prompt.

									Page 11	
DELETE	Pressing the DELETE key deletes the character to the left of the
	cursor.  If the cursor is at the beginning of a line, pressing DELETE
	deletes the preceding line terminator.

	When a character is deleted using the DELETE key, that character is
	placed in the delete character buffer.  The contents of the buffer are
	overwritten each time a character is deleted either by the DELETE func-
	tion or by DEL C. Use the UND C to restore or insert the contents of the
	delete character buffer into the text you are editing.

	Use the DELETE key to edit the text you type in response to EDT prompts
	such as Search For: or Command:.  These deleted characters are not
	stored in the delete character buffer.


LINEFEED  Pressing LINEFEED deletes the word or characters in a word to the
	left of the cursor up to the beginning of the previous word. If the
	cursor is on a space when LINEFEED is pressed, the word preceding the
	space is deleted, usually leaving two spaces in a row.  If the cursor
	is at the end or in the middle of a word, all characters in that word
	to the left of the cursor are deleted.  The letter that the cursor is
	on remains in the text.  When the cursor is at the beginning of a word,
	the preceding word and space are deleted by LINEFEED.  If the cursor is
	at the beginning of a line, LINEFEED deletes the preceding line termin-
	ator.

	All characters deleted by LINEFEED are stored in the delete word buffer.
	Each time DEL W or LINEFEED is used, the contents of the delete word
	buffer are overwritten.  Use UND W to insert or restore the contents of
	the delete word buffer into your text.


HELP	Pressing HELP (the PF2 key), provides information on EDT's pre-
	set keypad and control functions.  Using HELP puts you in touch with
	EDT's HELP facility; it has no effect on your editing session.  When
	you exit from HELP, the screen is redrawn exactly as it was before you
	pressed HELP and the cursor is in the same position as before.

	When you press HELP, EDT displays a diagram of the keypad functions and
	a list of preset control key functions.  For help on a particular keypad
	function key, press the appropriate keypad key.  For information on a
	GOLD/keypad sequence, press both the CTRL and keyboard keys after you
	are in the keypad HELP facility.  For help on a GOLD/keyboard key
	sequence, press only the keyboard key; do not press GOLD.

	To exit from HELP, press the spacebar.


CTRL/W (CTRL/R)	Pressing CTRL/W or GOLD/W refreshes the screen display.  This
	function has no effect on the text you are editing; it simply clears and
	redraws the screen, eliminating any extraneous characters or messages
	that have appeared on the screen but are not part of the current text
	you are editing.  Note that CTRL/W performs the same function as CTRL/R
	in keypad mode.


LEFT ARROW  Pressing the Left Arrow moves the cursor one character to the
	left, regardless of EDT's direction.  If the cursor is at the first
	character position of a line, pressing Left Arrow moves the cursor to
	the line terminator of the previous line.

RIGHT ARROW  Pressing the Right Arrow moves the cursor one character to the
	right, regardless of EDT's direction.  If the cursor is on a line
	terminator, Right Arrow moves the cursor to the first character on the
	next line.

									Page 12

UP ARROW  Pressing the Up Arrow key moves the cursor up one line toward the
	top of the buffer regardless of EDT's direction.

DOWN ARROW  Pressing the Down Arrow key moves the cursor down one line toward
	the bottom of the buffer regardless of EDT's direction.

ADVANCE	Pressing ADVANCE sets the direction for subsequent editing work to
	forward (to the right of the cursor and down toward the end of the
	buffer).  ADVANCE is the default direction and remains in effect until
	you press BACKUP.

BACKUP	Pressing BACKUP sets the direction for subsequent editing work to back-
	ward (to the left of the cursor and toward the beginning of the buffer).

WORD	Pressing WORD moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word
	in the current direction (forward or backward, depending on whether
	ADVANCE or BACKUP is in effect).


EOL (End of Line)  Pressing EOL moves the cursor to the end of the current line
	if the direction is forward.  If the current direction is backward, the
	cursor moves to the end of the previous line.


BACKSPACE  Pressing BACKSPACE causes the cursor to move to the beginning of
	the current line.  If the cursor is already at the beginning of a line,
	pressing BACKSPACE moves it to the beginning of the previous line.


LINE	Pressing LINE moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line
	if the direction is forward or to the beginning of the current line if
	the direction is backward.  If the cursor is at the beginning of a line
	and the direction is backward, the cursor moves to the beginning of the
	previous line.

	
SECTION	Pressing SECTION moves the cursor one section,16 lines, toward the end
	or beginning of the buffer, depending on EDT's current direction.  The
	cursor is always placed at the beginning of the new current line regard-
	less of its previous position.

PAGE	Pressing PAGE moves the cursor to a position at the right of the
	next page marker in your text.  The cursor will always be located after
	the page marker, but the direction that EDT moves to find the page
	marker depends on the current direction.  In order to use PAGE, the text
	you are editing must have PAGE boundary markers.  The default page
	marker is the form feed character (CTRL/L, displayed by EDT as <FF>).

CTRL/L	Pressing CTRL/L inserts a form feed character (<FF>) into your
	text.  You can also use CTRL/L to enter a form feed in search strings.


TOP	Pressing TOP (GOLD+5) moves the cursor to the first character
	at the beginning of the buffer.  TOP has no effect on EDT's current
	direction.

BOTTOM	Pressing BOTTOM (GOLD+4) moves the cursor to the end of the buffer,
	after the last character position in the buffer.  The cursor is now
	positioned at the end of buffer ([EOB]) mark.

									Page 13

FIND	Pressing FIND sets up a search procedure.  When you press GOLD and then
	FIND (PF3), EDT displays the prompt "Search for:" at the bottom of the
	screen.  Type the string you want to locate.  Then push the ENTER
	key to process the search in the current direction.

	After you have typed in your search string, you can press ADVANCE in-
	stead of ENTER to search toward the end of the buffer or you can press
	BACKUP to search backward toward the top.  The direction you use to
	process FIND becomes EDT's current direction.

FNDNXT (Find Next)  After a search string has been established by FIND, you can
	use FNDNXT to locate the next occurrence of that string.  The direction
	for FNDNXT is always the current EDT direction.  The search string
	established by FIND remains in effect until you use FIND again or some
	other EDT function that overwrites the contents of the search buffer.


DEL C (Delete Character)  Pressing DEL C deletes the character on which the
	cursor is positioned.  The cursor stays in the same position, but the
	remaining characters on the line shift one position to the left.

	The deleted character is stored in the delete character buffer.  Only
	one character at a time can occupy that buffer.  Each time you delete
	a character with the DEL C or the DELETE function, the contents of the
	delete buffer are overwritten.

	Use UND C to restore or insert the contents of the delete character
	buffer into your text.


DEL W (Delete Word)  Pressing DEL W deletes words or parts of words.  When the
	cursor is at the beginning of the word, the entire word and the space
	following it are deleted.  If the cursor is in the middle of the word,
	only the character that the cursor is on and those to the right of the
	cursor, up to and including the following space(s), are deleted.  The
	characters to the left of the cursor in that word remain in the text.

DEL L (Delete Line)  Pressing DEL L deletes everything on a line starting with
	the character that the cursor is on up to and including the line termin-
	ator.  The cursor position remains unchanged on the screen.  If the cur-
	sor is on the first character of the line, the entire line is deleted.
	The cursor is now positioned on the first character of the following
	line.

	The characters deleted by DEL L, DEL EOL, or CTRL/L are stored in the
	delete line buffer.  Each time a line or piece of line is deleted, the
	contents of the delete line buffer are overwritten.  Use UND L to re-
	store or insert the contents of the delete line buffer into the text
	you are editing.

DEL EOL (Delete to End of Line)  Pressing DEL EOL deletes everything on a line
	from the character the cursor is on up to, but not including, the line
	terminator.  The cursor remains in the same position as it was before
	DEL EOL was pressed.  If the cursor is on a line terminator, DEL EOL
	deletes that line terminator and all the text up to the next line
	terminator.

	The characters deleted from the line are placed in the delete line
	buffer.  Each time DEL EOL, DEL L,or CTRL/U is used, the contents of
	that buffer are overwritten.  Use UND L to restore or insert the con-
	tents of the buffer into your text.

									Page 14

UND C, UND W, UND L  Each of these commands will insert the current contents of
	the appropriate buffer (i.e. character, word, or line) to the left of
	the cursor.  The cursor character, as well as the text to the right of
	cursor, moves to the right, or in the case of UND L, moves to a new line
	below the current line, if the buffer contents end with a line termin-
	ator.

CUT and PASTE	The process of cutting and pasting is a four step process;

	1. SELECT

		Pressing SELECT sets up a select range for use with the CUT
	keypad function.  You start by positioning your cursor at one end of the
	text you want to move.  Next press SELECT to mark that position as the
	beginning of the select range.  Then, using the arrow keys and/or func-
	tion keys that move the cursor, move to the other end of the text to be
	cut.  As you move the cursor EDT will put the text you are selecting
	into reverse video.

	2. CUT

		Pressing CUT removes the text in the active select range from
	the current buffer and stores it in the PASTE buffer.

	3. Move the cursor to the position where you wish to insert the text
	   that is now stored in the paste buffer.

	4. PASTE

		Pressing PASTE with CUT is used to copy or move text within a
	buffer.  PASTE copies the text currently residing in the PASTE buffer
	into the current buffer.  The PASTE buffer contents are inserted to the
	left of the cursor regardless of EDT's current direction.

JOURNALING

	With each keystroke you use during an editing session EDT is storing
	each of these in a journal file.  The name of this file will have the
	same name as the document you are editing.  The only difference will
	be that it will have an extension of .JOU.

	Should something happen, such as a system crash, while you are in an
	editing session you will be able to use this journal file to recover
	most, if not all, of the changes you had made.  To do this use the
	following qualifier on the EDIT command.

	/RECOVER

	Determines whether or not EDT reads a journal file at the  start  of
	the editing session.

	When you use the  /RECOVER  qualifier,  EDT  reads  the  appropriate
	journal  file  and  processes  whatever  commands  it contains.  The
	appropriate syntax follows:

           $ EDIT/RECOVER MEMO.DAT

	If the journal file type is not JOU or the file name is not the same
	as the input file name, you must include both the /JOURNAL qualifier
	and the /RECOVER qualifier as follows:

           $ EDIT/RECOVER/JOURNAL=SAVE.XXX MEMO.DAT

									Page 15

CHNGCASE (Change Case)	Pressing CHNGCASE (GOLD+1), changes the case of the
	letters in your text.  Uppercase letters become lowercase; lowercase
	letters become uppercase.  The number of letters affected by this func-
	tion depends on whether you have SELECTed a range for use with this
	operation or it may be used by itself to change the single letter that
	the cursor is on.


COMMAND MODE	Pressing COMMAND (GOLD+7), allows you to enter EDT commands,
	while you are still in keypad mode.  One note here, instead of using the
	RETURN key to terminate commands, you must use the PF3 key to terminate
	these commands.  Here are a few you may want to use.


	While in an EDT session you may want to create a subset of a large
	document you are working on.  To do this you would perform the first
	two steps of the cut and paste process, namely the selecting and cutting
	of the text.  This will put something into the PASTE buffer.  By using
	the following command, once in command mode, you would be able to create
	another document containing the contents of the PASTE buffer.

		WRITE [file-spec] = PASTE

	Perhaps at a later time you may want to include the document created
	above back into the original document.  To do this you would use the
	following command, once in command mode.  First, position the cursor
	where you would like the text to be inserted, enter command mode, and
	then use the following command.

		INCLUDE [file-spec]

	Using command mode you can also make global replacements within a docu-
	ment.  This means that you can replace all occurrences of a string with
	another string.  This is done with the following command.

		S/[search-string]/[replacement-string]/W

	As the strings are found and replaced, the occurrences will be displayed
	on your screen.

	Another handy little command is to change the width of your terminal
	display from 80 characters to 132 characters.  Unlike the SET TERMINAL/
	WIDTH  DCL command, the terminal characteristics are reset just for the
	current editing session and will return to normal when you finish your
	editing session.  These commands are;

		SET SCREEN 132
		SET SCREEN 80

STARTUP COMMAND FILE

	Startup command files establish various settings and key definitions at
	the start of your EDT session.  These files can contain only line-mode
	commands.  SET and DEFINE KEY commands are the ones most frequently
	found in startup command files.

	Generally, EDT reads a system-wide startup command file at the beginning
	of your editing session.  If no system-wide startup command file exists
	on your system, EDT looks for a file named EDTINI.EDT in your default
	directory and processes the commands in that file.

	In order to get into keypad mode automatically this file should contain
	the command SET MODE CHANGE.

									Page 16
III	DECspell

	Having selected this option, you will be prompted for;

	Enter filename to check:

		You will then have invoked VAX DECspell, the interactive spell-
	ing verifier and corrector.  It can be used on any file created with
	an editor, for example EDT.  It can also be used on any file created
	with a word processor (for example DECmate) and transferred to the VAX
	by DX, or any file created in RUNOFF.  Words are checked against a
	master dictionary and against personal dictionaries created by users.
	DECspell supplies a correction list for most errors, from which you
	can automatically replace the error.  It also provides an editor with
	which you can edit lines containing errors.

		Once you've invoked it this tool will scan your document verify-
	ing each word first against it's master dictionary and if not found
	there will search your personal dictionaries.  Personal dictionaries
	are created as you use DECspell.  If an exact match on any word cannot
	be found in either place, it will recommend other words that perhaps
	should replace the word in question.  DECspell will scroll through your
	document, displaying the text on your screen, and will stop and high-
	light those words that it cannot verify.  At the bottom of your screen
	there will be a section containing two lines.  The bottom line is a list
	of options that you may select from.  They are;

	GLOBAL REPLACE   EDIT  IGNORE  ADD  PASS  DICTIONARY  FINISH  OVERVIEW

	In most cases, as a default you will be placed into GLOBAL REPLACE mode
	and that option will be highlighted.  With this option you will also
	have displayed another line just above the option line that will allow
	you to select from a list of possible corrections for the misspelled
	word.  You can select from this list by moving the cursor over the
	appropriate word, using the arrow keys on the keyboard, and then hitting
	return.  By doing so DECspell will replace all occurrences of the mis-
	spelled word, in this document, with the correction you have selected.
	You may also opt to just replace this occurrence of the word.  This is
	done by use of the arrow key to highlight only the word REPLACE instead
	the two words GLOBAL REPLACE on the option line.  If there are no cor-
	rections available for the misspelled word DECspell will display an
	appropriate message and highlight the EDIT option.  By selecting this
	option you can correct the misspelled word by typing in the required
	changes into your text.

	You can select any of the options on the bottom line by moving your
	cursor, using the arrow keys on your keyboard, to the appropriate option
	and then hitting return.  As the primary default you will be placed into
	the GLOBAL REPLACE option and the cursor will be positioned on the first
	possible word correction.  If you choose to select another option simply
	hit the down arrow key to move the cursor to the bottom line.  Hitting
	the down arrow key will also automatically move you to the EDIT option.

	Other possible options include; IGNORE, which will ignore all occur-
	rences of the word in question in this document. ADD, which will add
	the word in question to your personal dictionary. PASS, which will by-
	pass this one occurrence of the word. DICTIONARY, will display the names
	of the personal dictionaries being used for verification and allows you
	to change the personal dictionary to which words are to be added (which
	is the CURRENT personal dictionary by default).  FINISH, will take you
	out of this session and offers you the choice of saving corrections
	made, if any.  OVERVIEW is simply on-line help on how to use DECspell.

									Page 17



	At the end of the session DECspell will display the following message;

	DO YOU WANT A CORRECTED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT? [Y]

	I believe the options here are self evident.  Should you answer yes you
	will get a summary of this session including the number of words cor-
	rected, number of words added to your personal dictionary as well as the
	total number of words now contained in this dictionary.

	



									Page 18

IV	PERSONAL PRINTER SPOOLER UTILITY


		This utility allows printers, connected to video terminals via a
	printer port, to act as spooling devices.  Upon execution, this VMS DCL
	command file will use the parameters specified to cause terminal output
	to be directed to the printer.  The command file will prompt you for
	the following parameters at execution;



      A) Choose the # of the printer type that is connected to your terminal: _

         1) LA34   2) LA36   3) LA50   4) LA100  5) LA120  6) LQP02  7) Xwide




      B) Choose the # of the horizontal pitch (char/inch) that you require: _

         1) 10    2) 12    3) 13.2  4) 16.5  5) 5     6) 6     7) 6.6   8) 8.25

	  The above characters/inch will equate to the following maximum number
	  of columns

         1) 132   2) 158   3) 168   4) 216   5) 66    6) 79    7) 84    8) 108




      C) Do you want Draft or Letter quality printing? (D or L): _



      D) Enter file specification you want printed: ___________________________



      E) Enter the # of copies you want to print <1>: _



      F) Please align paper and hit <RETURN>



	After having replied to each of these prompts a message will be dis-
	played at the bottom of your screen informing you of the selections
	you have made.


	Upon printing completion the system will ask;

	Do you want to print another file?

	Answering Y will cause the system to prompt for all parameters again.
	Replying N will cause this utility to end and return you to the Office
	Productivity Menu.


									Page 19

V	CALCULATOR


		This is a simple utility that helps to facilitate some number
	crunching that is typically performed in our day to day activities. You
	will be prompted for each entry one at a time as you would on any desk-
	top calculator.  In other words, you cannot enter complex calculations
	on the same line.  The calculator will prompt for your entries with a
	question mark (?).  This calculator routine can perform the following
	operations;


	ADDITION

	This program is by default always in addition mode.  That is, you
	do not have to specify the addition sign (+) in order to add numbers.

	SUBTRACTION

	Simply supply the subtraction sign (-) in front of the number you
	are to subtract.

	DIVISION

	Simply supply the division sign (/) in front of the number you
	are to divide by.

	MULTIPLICATION

	Simply supply the multiplication sign (X) in front of the number you
	are to multiply by.

	OTHER FUNCTIONS;

	CLEAR All

	To reset the sum to zero simply type a "C" to clear the calculator.

	EXITING

	To leave the calculator program simply type "X".

			SAMPLE SESSION

		? 5
		? 13
		--
		18
		? -2
		--
		16
		? X100
		-----
		1,600
		? /12.5
		---
		128
		? /5
		----
		25.6
		? C
		-
		0
		? X   <- Causes program termination and returns you to the menu.

									Page 20
VI	DIGITAL COMMAND LANGUAGE (DCL)

	Please note that having selected this option will bring you into DCL.
	to return to the menu simply type LO at the $.



COPY

	Format:

	COPY  input-file-spec[,...] output-file-spec

	Creates a new file from one or more existing files.  The COPY command
	can:

	*  Copy an input file to an output file

	Example:	COPY ORIGINAL.FILE NEW.FILE

	This would create another copy of a file named ORIGINAL.FILE, and name
	this newly created file NEW.FILE.

	*  Concatenate two or more input files into a single output file.

	Example:	COPY FILE.ONE,FILE.TWO FILE.THREE

	This would create a new file named FILE.THREE containing the contents
	of both FILE.ONE and FILE.TWO together.

	*  Copy a group of input files to a group of output files.

	Example:	COPY *.DAT *.OLD

	This would create copies of all files with a file extension of .DAT to
	new files with the same names as the original files but with extensions
	of .OLD on them.


	/REPLACE

	This means that if a file already exists with the same output file spec-
	ification as that entered for the output file, the existing file is to
	be deleted.  By default the COPY command would otherwise create another
	version of the output file, incrementing its version number.



RENAME

	Changes the directory specification, file name, file type, or file
	version of an existing disk file or disk directory.

	Format:


	RENAME  input-file-spec[,...] output-file-spec


	/LOG

	This will simply make the system display each file specification as it
	is renamed.

									Page 21
	/CONFIRM

	This qualifier can be used when renaming multiple files.  With
	this you will be prompted before each individual file is renamed to
	confirm that the operation should be performed on that file.  You may
	answer YES, NO, or QUIT.  QUIT will allow you to terminate processing of
	any further file renaming.  Answering ALL will also allow the rest of
	the renames to take place with no further prompts.

	/EXCLUDE=

	Can be used to exclude certain files from a renaming operation.  For
	example you may want to rename all of your files. You would want
	to do this with a single command using *.* as the input file specifica-
	tions to be renamed.  However you may not want to rename anything that
	has a file extension of .OLD on it.  You would therefore specify
	/EXCLUDE=*.OLD in the command line to prohibit these from being renamed
	also.

PURGE

	Deletes all but the highest-numbered versions of the specified files.

	Format:


	PURGE  [file-spec[,...]]


	/LOG

	This will simply make the system display each file specification as it
	is purged.

	/CONFIRM

	With this you will be prompted before each individual file is purged to
	confirm that the operation should be performed on that file.  You may
	answer YES, NO, or QUIT.  QUIT will allow you to terminate processing of
	any further file purges.  Answering ALL will also allow the rest of the
	purges to take place with no further prompts.

	/EXCLUDE=

	Can be used to exclude certain files from a purge operation. For example
	you may want to purge all of your files.  You would want to do this
	with a single command using *.* as the file specifications to be purged.
	However you may not want to purge anything that has a file extension
	of .NEW on it.  You would therefore specify /EXCLUDE=*.NEW in the com-
	mand line to prohibit these from being purged also.

	/BEFORE[=time]

	Will select only those files that are dated before the specified time.
	Time can be specified in the form DD-MMM-YYYY.  You can also use the
	keywords TODAY, TOMORROW, and YESTERDAY.  If no time is specified, TODAY
	is assumed.

	/SINCE[=time]

	Similar to /BEFORE, it will select only those dated after the specified
	time.

									Page 22
DELETE


	The DELETE command performs the following functions:

	*  Delete one or more files from a mass storage disk volume.

	*  Delete one or more entries from a printer or batch job queue.

	/LOG

	This will simply make the system display each file specification as it
	is deleted.

	/CONFIRM

	With this you will be prompted before each individual file is deleted to
	confirm that the operation should be performed on that file.  You may
	answer YES, NO, or QUIT.  QUIT will allow you to terminate processing of
	any further file deletions.  Answering ALL will also allow the rest of
	the deletions to take place with no further prompts.

	/EXCLUDE=

	Can be used to exclude certain files from a delete operation.  For ex-
	ample you may want to delete all of your files.  You would want to do
	this with a single command using *.* as the file specifications to be
	deleted.  However you may not want to delete anything that has a file
	extension of .NEW on it.  You would therefore specify /EXCLUDE=*.NEW
	in the command line to prohibit these from being deleted also.

	/BEFORE[=time]

	Will select only those files that are dated before the specified time.
	Time can be specified in the form DD-MMM-YYYY.  You can also use the
	keywords TODAY, TOMORROW, and YESTERDAY.  If no time is specified, TODAY
	is assumed.

	/SINCE[=time]

	Similar to /BEFORE, it will select only those dated after the specified
	time.


	/ENTRY

	Deletes one or more job entries from a queue.  The queue could be either
	a printer or batch queue.

	Format:

	DELETE/ENTRY=(entry-number[,...]) queue_name[:]

									Page 23
PRINT

	Format:

	PRINT  file-spec[,...]


	Queues one or more files for printing, either to the default system
	printer queue or to a specified queue.


	/AFTER[=time]

	Requests that the job not be printed until a specific time of day.
	The time format is DD-MMM-YYYY:HH::MM.

	/BEFORE[=time]

	Selects only those files that are dated before the specified time.

	/CONFIRM

	With this you will be prompted before each individual file is printed to
	confirm that the operation should be performed on that file.  You may
	answer YES, NO, or QUIT.  QUIT will allow you to terminate processing of
	any further file prints.  Answering ALL will also allow the rest of
	the printing to take place with no further prompts.

	/EXCLUDE=

	Can be used to exclude certain files from a print operation.  For ex-
	ample you may want to print all of your files.  You would want to do
	this with a single command using *.* as the file specifications to be
	printed.  However you may not want to print anything that has a file
	extension of .OLD on it.  You would therefore specify /EXCLUDE=*.OLD
	in the command line to prohibit these from being printed also.

	/COPIES=n

	Specifies the number of copies to print.  Up to 255 copies may be speci-
	fied.  If you place the /COPIES qualifier after the PRINT command name,
	each file in the list will be printed the specified number of times.  If
	you specify /COPIES following a file specification, only that file is
	printed the specified number of times.


	/QUEUE=queue-name[:]

	Requests that the print job be placed on the specified queue.  If no
	queue is specified, files are queued to SYS$PRINT.

	/NOTIFY

	Controls whether a message is broadcast to any terminal at which you
	are logged in, notifying you when your print job has been completed
	or aborted.

									Page 24
DIRECTORY

	Provides a list of files or information about a file or group of files
	in an account.

	Format:

	DIRECTORY [file-spec[,...]]


	/SIZE[=option]

	Provides the file size in blocks used and/or allocated for each file
	listed, according to the option you specify.  If you specify /SIZE
	without an option, the listing provides the file size in blocks used.
	The options you can specify are:

	ALL		Lists the file size both in blocks used and blocks
			allocated.

	ALLOCATION	Lists the file size in blocks allocated.

	USED		Lists the file size in blocks used.


	/DATE[=option]

	Includes the backup, creation, expiration, or modification date for
	each specified file.  If you use the /DATE qualifier without an option,
	the creation date is provided.

	You can specify one of the following options with the /DATE qualifier:

	ALL		Lists all four file dates, in this order:  CREATED,
			MODIFIED, EXPIRED, BACKUP.

	BACKUP		Lists the date of the last backup with each file.

	CREATED		Lists the creation date with each file.

	EXPIRED		Lists the expiration date with each file.

	MODIFIED	Lists the last date the file was written to.


	/SINCE[=time]

	Selects only those files that were created after the specified time.

	Time can be in the format DD-MMM-YYYY.  You can also use the keywords
	TODAY, TOMORROW, and YESTERDAY.  If no time is specified, TODAY is
	assumed.


TYPE

	This command will display the contents of a file or group of files at
	your terminal.

	Format:

	TYPE file-spec[,...]

									Page 25
CREATE/DIRECTORY

	This creates a new directory or subdirectory for cataloging files.  This
	can be very useful in helping to organize one's directory.  The use of
	subdirectories can help you to locate documents related to a certain
	topic more quickly than if all your documents were contained in one
	directory.  For example, you may want to create a subdirectory to keep
	all personal correspondence in, or perhaps another for status reports
	only, etc.

	Format:

	CREATE/DIRECTORY directory-spec.

	To create a subdirectory for personal documents you might use the
	following command;

	CREATE/DIRECTORY [.PERSONAL]


	/PROTECTION=(code)

	Defines the protection to be applied to the directory.   Specify  the
	protection code according to the rules given on the following page,
	(see SET PROTECTION).

	If you do not specify a value for each access category or if you omit
	the /PROTECTION qualifier when you create a directory, the command uses
	the protection in effect for the next-higher-level directory, less any
	delete access for each unspecified category.  If you are creating a
	first-level directory, then the next-higher-level directory is the MFD.
	(The protection of the MFD is established by the system manager).


SET DEFAULT

	Changes the default directory or subdirectory for the current process.
	The new default is applied to all subsequent file specifications that
	do not explicitly include a directory name.

	When you change this directory assignment you are also moved into that
	specific directory or subdirectory.

	Format:

	SET DEFAULT directory-spec

	Example:	SET DEFAULT [.PERSONAL]

	The above example would put you into your PERSONAL subdirectory.  Now
	from within this subdirectory you may want to get back to the directory
	that you had issued the above command from.  You may do this in two
	ways.  For example, let us say that the account you are in is named
	[GAUVIN].  You are now in [GAUVIN.PERSONAL].  You could get back to
	[GAUVIN] by issuing the following command;

		SET DEFAULT [GAUVIN]

	or you could also from the [.PERSONAL] subdirectory use;

		SET DEFAULT [-]

	This command will take you up one level within your directory structure.

									Page 26
SET PROTECTION

	Establishes the protection to be applied to a particular file or group
	of files.  The protection of a file limits the type of access available
	to system users.

	Format:	SET PROTECTION[=code] file-spec[,...]

	NOTE: A User Identification Code (UIC) is assigned to each and every
	account on the system.  A UIC contains a group number/name and/or a
	member number/name in the format; [group,member].

	When a user attempts to access a file, the user's UIC is compared to
	the owner UIC of the file.  Depending on the relationship of the UICs,
	the user falls into one or more of these four categories.

	SYSTEM	All users who have the system privilege (SYSPRV) or low group
		numbers.  These group numbers are generally for system managers,
		system programmers, and operators.
	OWNER	The user with the same UIC of the file.
	GROUP	All users including the owner, who have the same group name/
		number in their UICs as the file owner.
	WORLD	All users, including those in the first three categories.

	Each of these categories of user can be allowed or denied any of the
	following types of access: READ, WRITE, EXECUTE, or DELETE.  The pro-
	tection code describes the categories of users who have access to a
	file, and the type of access that they have.

	The following syntax rules apply to protection codes:

	* When you specify a protection code, you must abbreviate access types
	  to one character.  User categories can be entered in full or truncated
	  to any number of characters.  Separate each user category from its
	  access types with a colon. If you specify more than one user category,
	  separate the categories with commas and enclose the entire code in
	  parentheses.
	* You can specify the user categories and access types in any order. If
	  you omit an access type for a user category, that category of user is
	  denied that type of access.  If you want to deny all access to a user
	  category, specify the user category but do not list any access types.
	  Also, omit the colon after the user category when you are denying
	  access to a category of users.
	* When you omit a user category from a protection code applied to one
	  or more files or from a code specified for the default protection, the
	  current access allowed that category of user remains unchanged.

	For example, the following protection code allows the system all types
	of access, allows group members read access only, and prohibits all
	access by users in the world category.  The code does not change the
	current access for the owner.

	$ SET PROTECTION=(SYSTEM:RWED,GROUP:R,WORLD) DATAFILE.DAT
	
	/DEFAULT

        Establishes  the  default  protection  for  all  files  subsequently
        created  during  the  terminal session or batch job.

        Format:

          SET PROTECTION[=(code)]/DEFAULT

									Page 27


SET PASSWORD

	This command should be used periodically, perhaps monthly, to change
	your password.  On some systems it may be mandatory that you do so or
	the current password will expire leaving you without access to your
	account.  After entering the above command the following three prompts
	will appear one at a time.

	Old password:
	New password:
	Verification:

	Obviously you must enter the old password first to prove you have
	authorized access to the account.  Next you enter the new password
	that you wish to change it to.  Third you will be prompted to enter
	the new password again, for verification, to make sure that you typed
	the new password in correctly.  If the new password and the verifica-
	tion entered were not identical the system will display an appropriate
	message and the old password will not have been changed.



UP ARROW (RECALL OF PREVIOUS COMMANDS)

	This is a neat little trick that will allow you to recall previously
	entered commands.  By hitting the up arrow key you can recall up to
	20 of your previously entered commands. Likewise while going back
	through these commands, should you go by the one you wanted to execute
	you can also you the down arrow to go through the previously entered
	commands.  Use of the arrow keys will simply bring the commands back
	onto your screen.  You will need to hit a carriage return to execute
	the one you want.



CREATING COMMAND PROCEDURES

	Using the commands listed in this section you can also create a command
	file using an editor, such as EDT.  This command file, or procedure,
	can be very helpful and save you plenty of time, once again increasing
	your office productivity.  As an example let us say that you need to
	copy all of your files from one subdirectory to another.  You could do
	this by typing the following command at your terminal;

	COPY [.DATA]*.*	[.BACKUP]*.*/LO

	This will work fine, but if you should have many files to be copied
	this could take quite a bit of time to do.  By typing it in at your
	terminal interactively you have now also lost the use of your terminal
	for that amount of time as well.  By putting the above command, preceded
	by a dollar sign ($) into a file, by use of an editor, you could then
	submit this command procedure to a batch queue to be processed.  The
	batch queue acts as another transparent terminal session.  This would
	free up your terminal and allow you to continue with other activities.
	As a rule command procedures should be created having a file extension
	of .COM.  See the SUBMIT command below for details on how to submit a
	command procedure to a batch queue.

									Page 28


SUBMIT

	Enters one or more command procedures into a batch job queue for
	processing.  Like a printer queue, a batch queue will process jobs
	one at a time on a first come first serve basis.  You need not specify
	the file extension if it is .COM as this is the default.

	Format:

	SUBMIT file-spec[,...]

	/NOTIFY

	This qualifier will cause the system to broadcast a message, to all
	terminals logged into the account the batch job was queued from, in-
	forming you of the completion and success or failure of your batch job.

	/KEEP

	When a command procedure is processed in the batch queue it also creates
	a log file of the process.  This file will have the same name as that of
	the command file only it will have a .LOG file extension.  The log file
	upon completion of the batch job will be printed on your system printer,
	SYS$PRINT.  On some systems the log file is then deleted to conserve
	disk space.  To prevent this deletion use this qualifier on the SUBMIT.


SHOW QUEUE queue-name

	Use this command to check the status of print or batch jobs.  Use of
	this command will most likely only show you the status of your particu-
	lar job(s) and not those of others also in the queue(s).


LOGIN.COM

	This is a special command procedure.  It is executed every time you log
	into an account.  You may put all sorts of commands into this procedure,
	but remember that it gets executed every time you log in.  This is also
	where the commands exist that bring up this Office Productivity Menu.
	As you learn more about DCL you will probably want to add more to this
	file in your personal account.


SET HOST

	This will allow you to connect your terminal to another computer, which
	is referred to as the remote processor.  This can be helpful when you
	need to get access to another account to look at some information and
	then return to your original terminal session.

	Format:

	SET HOST node-name

	You can also SET HOST to your own computer by using the SET HOST 0
	command.  Again this could be a time saver because to go to another
	account and then return to yours would normally require you to log
	out of your account, log into the other account, log out of that other
	account, and then log back into your original account.  With this
	command you simply log into and out of the other account and you are
	left where you started from.

									Page 29

	In addition to accessing some of these tools from the menu you may also
	invoke the following system utilities from DCL;


VAXMAIL

	Type MAIL at the $.


EDITOR (EDT)

	Type EDIT/EDT at the $.  This will cause the system to prompt for
	File:.


DECSPELL

	Type SPELL at the $.  This will cause the system to prompt for
	File:.


EMPLOYEE LOCATOR FACILITY

	Type ELF at the $.


									Page 30

VII	EMPLOYEE LOCATOR FACILITY


		With this utility a user on the EASYNET network can retrieve
	certain basic information (such as mail stop, phone number, and elec-
	tronic mail address) about Digital employees.  Only permanent employees
	are included in the ELF database.  This means there are no entries for
	contract workers.

	By simply typing in the command FIND followed by a person's name, this
	utility will search the database and return the above information about
	every person who has that name.

	You can also use wildcards to help retrieve information.  For example
	if you knew that you were looking for someone whose last name was GAUVIN
	and that they worked in a particular facility, but you couldn't remember
	their first name you could type the command FIND * GAUVIN.  This would
	give you a display of all person's with the last name of GAUVIN.

	This utility also provides on-line help.  To get help simply type in
	the word "HELP".

	To exit from this utility simply type "EXIT".

	To be added to the Employee Locator Facility or to change the current
	information about yourself please contact your system manager.



									Page 31


VIII	APPLICATION SOFTWARE


		This option is reserved for those users wishing to access any
	specific software applications that they may frequently be using.  If
	only one or two applications are required they could be added to this
	main menu.  If more are required then selecting this eighth option would
	bring up another menu with the many applications to be chosen from.



									Page 32


				REFERENCE APPENDIX



	VAX/VMS Mail Utility Reference Manual		AA-Z421A-TE


	VAX/EDT Reference Manual			AA-LA16A-TE


	DECmate Word Processing Using DECspell		AA-Y295C-TE


	VAX/VMS DCL Dictionary				AA-Z200C-TE


	VAX/VMS DCL Concepts Manual			AA-HK73A-TE

    RE: .51
    
    Wouldn't it be better to give some practical instructions on how
    to copy a manual over the net, rather than to insert it in this notesfile?
    
    

    RE: .52
    
    	My intent was not to offend, just to help.
    		
    		Do with .51 what you wish.

< Re: Note 594.53 by TIS::MITCHELL "ISWS, NRO5/O2 - DTN:234-5072" >

>                                 -< Sorry... >-

>    	My intent was not to offend, just to help.
    		
>    		Do with .51 what you wish.

	I believe that people realize that you were/are tyring to help others
	by your posting of note .51 . All .52 was pointing out was that instead
	of posting long/large files in notesfiles, it is much more appropriate
	and/or considerate to post a pointer to the file. Some people have
	batch extracts set up at night etc that automatically print the notes
	etc...

	Maybe even posting a brief abstract of what your document was
	about, who it was aimed at and possibly the table of contents
	and a pointer to the real file.

	A great deal of these types of issues are discussed in the noting
	etiquette notesfile. A suggested reading for just about everyone.

/Ted

Re .52 & .54:

	While I more than understand your point, there is another side to this
    situation.  Six months or a year from now, the pointer could point to 
    nothing and a lot of novice users would have their frustration level raised
    even further.  By including the actual document, the problems with pointers
    is avoided.  Under normal circumstances, I would agree completely about 
    using pointers rather than posting books.

    Can we get this topic back on track? I suggest that further
    discussion regarding pointers vs whole documents be taken to
    ETIQUETTE. If the moderators of *this* conference felt that
    the posting was too long we could and would have deleted it
    and asked that it be resubmited as a pointer. Further discussion
    about the length of this particular posting should be taken
    up offline if you are really worried about disk space on HUMAN.
    :-)
    
    		Alfred Thompson
    		co-moderator HUMAN::DIGITAL

	(really, SHALOT::THORNTON)

	Seems like the same logic which was successfully utilized way back
	in the original thinking which today has evolved into "ALL-IN-1".

	I commend him for his thought process to reach that point. He should
	however take a good look at ALL-IN-1, as it has the items he 
	attempts to put together into a "tool kit".

	Cheers,

    So who is the highest person who said, "It isn't necessary"?
    Let's have a name, please. 

	Never said it "wasn't necessary". Please recall that I commended 
	him for what he did. 

	My point is that there is at least one other example of this - 
	there have been others, and there will probably be more.

	Any time you can get computers to help you work better (faster,
	with good tools, better results,, etc), and all without having 
	to be a computer wiz, then you understand more of why vendors 
	such as ourselves actually have a positive net revenue.

	The name is "Lee" - it didn't make it in -2. 

	Cheers! (practising my "English")