
                                  Eznews 2.000

                         Selective news download agent
                           (for MS Windows 95/98/NT)

                       (c) 1999-2000, Mikhail V. Ivanov

=============================================================================

Eznews is an NNTP client with search capabilities and GUI. The program 
selectively downloads news articles from news server for offline reading. 
Given a search criteria, Eznews scans headers of all articles in the 
newsgroup and requests only those matching the criteria. The program 
receives found articles from server and displays the search results for 
offline browsing. The results then can be saved in file to be loaded later. 
This short help describes how to use search parameters. For more information 
on program usage please refer to Eznews manual (eznews.htm file).

Eznews search parameters
========================

With Eznews running, choosing File->Search, then entering search parameters
in the dialog box, and pressing OK button starts search (TCP/IP connection
must be up). During search, Eznews supplies progress information in the
status line at the bottom of the main Eznews window. In case of error, the
program displays an error message. On success, the message:

SUCCESS: <nn> articles received

appears in the status line. But, before the search starts, search parameters 
must be entered in the 'Search parameters' dialog box. This dialog contains 
the following items:

'Search For' text field/menu
----------------------------

This field is where search keywords are entered. It can contain up to 10
search keywords or "keyword phrases", or one long search phrase. Keywords
are delimited by spaces or tabs, and can be maximum 24 characters long.
Longer keywords are truncated. (Distinguishing keywords by the first 24
charaters should be sufficient in most cases.) Note: Eznews does not use
wildcards, because it does not use the "whole word" option; for example,
searching for 'room' will find not only 'room', but also 'broom', 'groom',
'mashroom', and 'roommate', unless these words are explicitely excluded:
'-broom', '-mashroom', etc. (Information about excluding certain keywords 
can be found later in this section). A "key phrase" is any sequence of characters
(except for the double quote character), enclosed in double quotes. "Key phrases"
can be used along with sepatare keywords inside the same search pattern, for
example: <room "green apple" wall>.

Search phrase is any sequence of characters (including double quote
characters), maximum 255 characters long. Phrase search is indicated by the
'Phrase' setting of 'Match' radio button. Depending on the setting of the
Match radio button ('All words' or 'Any word'), logical AND or logical OR
operations will be applied to keywords/"key phrases"

If a keyword/"key phrase" is preceded by a hyphen, for example, '-word1', then
Eznews looks only for articles with headers NOT containing this keyword/"key
phrase". To search for a keyword/"key phrase" starting with a hyphen (e.g,
'-word2'), the leading hyphen must be doubled: '--word2' will search for the
keyword '-word2'. Note: 'Any word' setting is not applied to NOTted
keywords/"key phrases"; logical AND is always applied to such keywords, for
example: <word1 -word2 word3 -word4> (ANY WORD) will find articles with 'word1'
or 'word3' in the header, but articles with either 'word2' or 'word4' will be
dropped.

Entering an empty search pattern (containing only blanks) results in
requesting all articles in the newsgroup, limited only by the 'Limit # of
articles to find' setting. Search can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive,
depending on the setting of 'Case' radio button ('Match case' or 'Don't 
match', respectively).

Frequently used seacrh patterns can be conveniently picked up from the
'Search For' menu (on the right of the text filed) which displays the contents
of the [Patterns] section of eznews.dat file.

'Match' radio button
--------------------

There are three setting for this radio button: 'All words' means that article
header must contain all indicated keywords to fit the search criteria
(logical AND), 'Any word' represents logical OR (article header must contain
at least one of the keywords), and 'Phrase' means that the program will look
for one exact phrase. Default setting is defined by the value of MATCH_WORD
keyword in eznews.dat file.

Examples of search patterns/Match settings:
-------------------------------------------

Alice Hare Hatter Dormouse (All words):
     Alice AND Hare AND Hatter AND Dormouse

Alice -Hare Hatter -Dormouse (All words):
     Alice AND Hatter AND NOT Hare AND NOT Dormouse i.e., Alice AND Hatter
     AND NOT (Hare OR Dormouse)

Alice Hare Hatter Dormouse (Any word):
     Alice OR Hare OR Hatter OR Dormouse

Alice -Hare Hatter -Dormouse (Any word):
     Alice OR Hatter _AND_ NOT Hare _AND_ NOT Dormouse
     (Note that Any word setting has no effect on reversed keywords)

Have some wine (Phrase):
     Have some wine, the exact phrase

Alice "March Hare" "Mad Hatter" Dormouse (All words):
     Alice AND "March Hare" AND "Mad Hatter" AND Dormouse

Alice -"March Hare" "Mad Hatter" -Dormouse (All words):
     Alice AND NOT "March Hare" AND "Mad Hatter" AND NOT Dormouse

'Case' radio button
-------------------

There are two options: 'Match case' and 'Don't match'. Default setting is
defined by the value of MATCH_CASE keyword in eznews.dat file.

'News Server' text field/menu
-----------------------------

News server name. Must be a fully-qualified domain name or a dotted
IP-address. May be entered into text field or picked up from the menu of
news servers (frequently used news servers can be listed in [Servers]
section in eznews.dat file; they are displayed in the menu on the rigth of
the text field). Eznews always uses port 119 of the news server.

'Newsgroup' text field/menu
---------------------------

Newsgroup name, may be entered into text field or picked up from the menu.
Frequently used newsgroups can be listed in [Newsgroups] section in
eznews.dat file; they are displayed in the menu on the rigth of the text
field.

'Limit # of articles to find' checkbox/slider
---------------------------------------------

Restricts the number of matching articles which will be requested from the
server. Checking the box enables the slider, unchecking the box disables it.
The limit is set with the slider, and must be between 10 and 1,000 articles.
The default setting for the slider is defined by the MAX_ARTICLES keyword in
eznews.dat file.

'Limit # of articles to scan' checkbox/slider
---------------------------------------------

Restricts the number of article headers which will be scanned. (May be
useful with servers containing thousands of articles in one group). Checking
the box enables the slider, unchecking the box disables it. The limit is set
with the slider, and must be between 100 and 30,000 headers. The default
setting for the slider is defined by the MAX_HEADERS keyword in eznews.dat
file.

'Search in' menu
----------------

Defines which NNTP header will be scanned. Possible choices are: Subject,
Keywords, Summary, Date, From, Reply-To, Message-ID, and Organization. The
default setting is defined by the value of SEARCH_IN keyword in eznews.dat
file.

=============================================================================

Copyright 1999-2000, Mikhail V. Ivanov
eznews@pair.com

