IN BRIEF: WHAT’S NEW IN VERSIONS 3.02.2 (4D17) AND 3.02.3 (4D18)

• Fixed a bug in 4D18 versions that made it difficult to edit the Subject and Reply-To fields in the Compose window (3.02.3, 4D18 only)
• Fixed a bug in the display of the Newsgroups field: MacCafé did not correctly detect the presence of duplicates in this field. (3.02.2)
• URLs of type macappstores:// are now supported by MacCafé. (3.02.2)
• Fixed a serious bug that made the Edit menu unusable in certain circumstances. (3.02.1)
• Fixed the incorrect display of the age of messages published the day before they were viewed. (3.02.1)
• Improved the visual appearance of the Reply formulas and Signatures lists: they now use a monospace font. (3.02.1)
• In the search field of the Newsgroups List, the last test used (Starts with / Contains / Ends with) is now stored. (3.02.1)
• MacCafé is now available in French and English! (3.02)
• Multilingual spell check, not limited to French and English. (3.02)
• Support of the .jpeg extension in URLs pointing to an image. (3.02)
• Added Martian Mono and Comic Mono in the list of supported monospace fonts. (3.02)
• Several bug fixes. (all versions)

Foreword

I decided to develop MacCafé for my personal needs after MacSOUP failed to work with versions of macOS that no longer support 32-bit applications (Catalina and later versions).

As a long-time MacSOUP user, having tested few other newsreaders, but not having seen or heard of readers offering a graphical representation of threads, I decided to try to create one.

My aim was not to create a 'MacSOUP like', but an application offering what I consider to be MacSOUP's strong point, namely the graphical representation of threads, as well as what I think MacSOUP lacks the most: the ability to open two (and more) message windows simultaneously, from the same or another group.

There are also other features missing from MacSOUP that I found the idea of in some of the messages from various people.

One final note: this application is limited to processing text messages. Binary files cannot be processed.

MacCafé was created using the 4D language (https://us.4d.com) because, in my opinion, a newsreader of this kind can be considered as a database, and because I would have been unable of completing such a project in Objective-C or Swift.

The result is an application that looks like any other Mac application, MacCafé.app which is a package containing a number of files and folders. There are two disadvantages inherent in the choice of 4D: the application is inevitably very heavy regardless of the complexity of the code, and when you quit the application, a 4D advertising window appears on the screen for about 5 seconds. It's not really invasive, but you can make it disappear by clicking on it.

G.O.

Editor's notes

• Some passages in this documentation, such as this paragraph, are shown in blue. These are the new features of version 3.02.

• Expressions underlined with green dotted lines are explained in a tooltip that appears when the mouse pointer is hovered over them.

• The symbol indicates a link to a web page external to the documentation. Links without a symbol are internal links, i.e. they point to a section of the documentation.

1. Introducing MacCafé

MacCafé is a multi-profile newsreader. This means that you may create several profiles. When in use, you work on the profile of your choice from among all those you have created. The minimum number of profiles is 1, and there is no limit to the number of possible profiles.

Each profile is characterised by a news server and the newsgroups available on that server to which you have subscribed.

You may create several profiles with the same server, and have the same group on several profiles with or without the same server.

Messages from the same group existing on several profiles (with or without the same server) are mutualised and you have access to all the messages for all the profiles to which you are subscribed. This means that in the event of a server failure, you can create another profile with a backup server and, whatever the retention rate of the backup server, have access to all your messages in memory for this group.

Note that apart from the server-specific preferences, all other preferences are common to all profiles.

The position of the windows is memorised, so you can find your settings again and again.

Help is integrated into most windows and is displayed by clicking on the button at the top right of the window. It shows the keyboard shortcuts available, the actions available when these do not have a dedicated button, and any help that seems useful.

2. Installation and startup

If you are installing MacCafé for the first time, we recommend that you read the pages in this section carefully and follow the instructions step by step, especially if you want to retrieve messages saved in MacSOUP.

2.01. Install application

1ᵒ First installation

Copy the MacCafé.app application to the /Applications folder (this location is particularly important if you're using a Mac on which macOS Catalina (or later) is installed.

Run MacCafé.

As the application is not signed, you may need to use a special procedure to launch it for the first time, depending on your security settings. For more details, see the following web page:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491

Create a database

On first launch, the application will not find a database to use and will ask you to open or create one. You must, of course, choose to create one. By default, in the choice window, it will suggest that you create it in its own package.

Do not choose this location, program updates would be complicated.

The database is made up of several files, so you must create a folder. You can name this folder as you wish and create it in the location of your choice (user folder — 'home' folder on your internal drive — or external writable drive). Be careful though: do not choose a location automatically synchronized by a third-party application (case of folders transferred to iCloud, for example).

The name proposed by default for the database is MacCafé, but you can enter another one.

In the end, your folder will receive at least 3 files containing the data and your MacCafé settings:

• [Database name].4DD
• [Database name].4Dindx
• [Database name].Match

Once the database is created, MacCafé tries to determine in which language it should display the elements of its interface. If your system language is French or English, this language will be applied. If it is another language, a dialogue invites you to choose between French or English. Note : You will have the possibility to change the language later (see chapter 3.11 Language and spell check).

Finally, MacCafé generates a protection key and displays a dialog box allowing you to view and customise it. Read chapter 3.02. Message protection key for more information on the role of this key.

2ᵒ Updating the application

To install an update, simply replace the old version of MacCafé.app with the new one. The first time you launch MacCafé, it should automatically open the current database. If the application still asks you to open or create a database, choose Open and specify the path to the .4DD file for the database you wish to use.

If, in a database used by a version prior to 2.09 "moka", you have added a Reply-To field in the Add custom message header fields preferences and the email address contained in this field is invalid, an alert will be displayed when MacCafé is launched:

You'll need to either correct the address or delete the Reply-To field, otherwise the alert will reappear every time you launch MacCafé.

2.02. Create a profile and get newsgroups list

1ᵒ Create a profile

The first step is to create a profile with an accessible news server. To do this, open the preferences and create your first profile. You'll find full details of how to configure the Profile in the 'Profile' preferences chapter.

2ᵒ Get newsgroups list

Once your profile has been created, you now need to update the list of groups available on the server.

Choose Newsgroups List

instead of Profile ***********

and click on the Get groups button.

Normally the list of groups should be displayed.

3ᵒ What's next?

At this stage, you have two options:

• Import News archives from MacSOUP

If you are planning to retrieve data archived in MacSOUP, in order to access it in MacCafé, now is the time to do it. See the next chapter to find out how.

• Suscribe to newsgroups

If you don't use MacSOUP or if you don't want to import your old data from MacSOUP, you can skip chapter 2.03 and start subscribing to the groups that interest you. The procedure is detailed in the 3.03. Newsgroups list chapter.

2.03. Import MacSOUP news archive

MacCafé lets you import newsgroup messages from MacSOUP databases.

1ᵒ Start import

Open the Preferences window and select Tools.

In the Import archives messages from MacSOUP section, click on the Import button.

2ᵒ Import procedure

There are two stages to the import process.

• The first step subscribes you to all the groups in the MacSOUP database. If a group is not available on the news server that you have set up, the group is still created, its update is suspended and an A pictogram indicates that it is absent from the server.

If you are no longer interested in certain groups, simply unsubscribe (via preferences) once the import is complete.

For this first step, you will be asked to specify the folder containing the MacSOUP files you need. This folder is named 'Incoming News' and is normally located at the same level as the MacSOUP application.

• The second step is to import the messages for each group.

The list of groups and the number of messages in each are displayed. You can import all at once, or group by group by double-clicking on one of the groups in the list or by selecting it and then clicking on the Import selected group button.

Once the group has been imported, it is removed from the list.

If you run the Import command a second time, the same groups will be proposed. There is no test to see which messages have already been imported, but importing a group a second time will have no effect (apart from taking time, as each message will be analysed but not added to the new database if it is already there).

Normally the number of messages rejected should be zero or low. Messages are rejected if they contain only the header without the message body, or if the analysis of the header does not allow certain mandatory information to be recovered.

The number of messages indicated for each group is indicative, it does not reflect the exact number of messages contained in the MacSOUP database and the number of imported messages is often less than this number. It is in fact derived from the number of messages in the 'headers&flags' files, which may contain references to deleted or purged messages, references which are necessary for the correct representation of the threads.

3. Preferences

Here you'll find the various settings and access to tools.

The preference panel displayed when the window is closed is saved, and the next time the preferences are called up this panel will be displayed.

This window is 'modal', meaning you need to close it to access MacCafé's other functions.

A Close button is present on all preference panels. In some panels, the changes made require validation; in this case, the Close button remains inactive until the changes have been saved or cancelled.

To access MacCafé Preferences:

– MacCafé menu Preferences

or

– shortcut  ⌘  , 

or

– click on the button

3.01. Profile (preferences)

1ᵒ Basic configuration

When you use MacCafé for the first time - or when you want to create a new profile - you will need to fill in the following items:

Profile name | ⇾ Enter a name of your choice to identify your profile.

Email address | ⇾ You may either enter an email address that belongs to you, or enter a dummy address.

Pseudonym | ⇾ Choose a pseudonym of your choice.

Note: It may be useful to check, in the groups to which you subscribe, that another user is not using the same pseudonym as you, to avoid any possible misunderstandings. 

Server address | ⇾ Enter the exact address of the server you have chosen.

If this server requires authentication, enter your username and password in the last two fields. Otherwise, leave these fields blank.

Port 119 - Standard ⇾ Choose the port you want to use.

119 (standard) is the port commonly used on all news servers. When you click on this item, the  Encrypted connection box is automatically unchecked.

563 (secure) offers a secure connection using encryption on some servers (but not all). When you click on this item, the  Encrypted connection box is automatically checked.

When you have finished configuring your profile, click Save.

After registration, we recommend checking the server configuration by clicking on Test server. The answers returned by the server will be displayed in the text box below the button, and will tell you if the configuration is correct or not. You must be connected to the internet to carry out this test, otherwise you will receive an error message.

Examples of correct configuration:

If the configuration is incorrect, there are two possible scenarios.

• The results area displays (sometimes after a MacCafé alert):

CONNECTION FAILURE - ERROR [nᵒ]

Possible causes are:

- an invalid server address;

- port 563 is unavailable on the server; in this case, choose port 119, save and test again.

• The results area displays:

481 Authentication failed.

The connection is successful, but authentication fails. Check the username and password you have entered.

Cancel aborts editing of the displayed profile.

Delete deletes the profile displayed. As this operation is irreversible, you will be asked to confirm.

Add creates a new profile.

2ᵒ Advanced configuration: choose a port other than 119 or 563

As we have seen, port 119 is the standard port for connections to news servers, so all servers offer it. Port 563 is used to secure the connection by encrypting the data transferred, but it is not always available.

Some servers offer other ports, which may or may not be secure. This can be used, for example, to bypass the blocking imposed by a firewall that would refuse connection to ports 119 and 563 reserved for the NNTP protocol. In some cases, these alternative ports can also be used to test experimental server functions. To find out the list of ports offered by a server, it is essential to consult any documentation provided on the server's website.

MacCafé lets you choose a port other than 119 or 563. To do this, simply enter the port number directly into the drop-down list. For example:

80                

When you manually enter a port number, the  Encrypted connection box becomes a clickable option. It is therefore up to you to choose the type of connection used by this port yourself: standard connection (uncheck the  Encrypted connection option) or secure connection (check the  Encrypted connection option). Here again, this information should be searched in the server documentation (the secure connection is generally referred to by one of the acronyms TLS, SSL or NNTPS).

Finally, after saving the configuration, you'll need to check it using the Test server button. If the connection fails (ERROR [nᵒ]), it is either because the port indicated is not available, or because the type of connection chosen (standard or secure) does not correspond to it.

3.02. Message protection key

1ᵒ Role of the protection key

• Your protection key gives you access to the Cancel and Supersede commands when you post a message of your own creation (see chapter 4.03 for a description of these commands). On the other hand, no other person using MacCafé will be able to cancel or replace your messages (nor will you be able to act on other people's messages).

• The key is used in the composition of the Cancel-Key and Cancel-Lock header fields generated by MacCafé (see Appendix 5. Cancel-Key and Cancel-Lock for further information on this subject).

2ᵒ Creating and customising the key

A protection key is randomly generated by MacCafé in the following circumstances:

• when you update MacCafé from a version prior to v.2.06;

• when you launch MacCafé for the very first time and create your first database;

• when you open a database created in a previous version of MacCafé without a protection key;

• each time you create a new database.

As soon as this random key has been created, MacCafé displays a dialog box (with the same information as in the image at the top of this chapter) which allows you to view this key and modify it immediately.

If this is your very first database, there is no harm in keeping the key generated by MacCafé, unless you want to customise it to your liking. If, on the contrary, you are already using another base, we strongly recommend that you replace this key with the one already in use in that other base. This will allow you to cancel or replace messages you have posted from the old database with the new one.

You can also change your key later, in the Message protection key Preferences described in this chapter. However, you should be aware that if you have already sent messages when you change your key, you will no longer be able to cancel or replace those old messages in MacCafé unless you restore the old key.

3.03. Newsgroups list

When a profile has just been created, the list of groups available on the server is empty. To retrieve the full list, click Get groups.

Once the list has been retrieved, the Newsgroup field allows you to search for the groups that interest you.

You can refine your search by choosing one of the rules from the drop-down list:

• Starts w/     ⇾ Search for groups whose name begins with the string you enter.
• Contains ⇾ Search for groups whose name contains the string entered (whatever its position in the name).
• Ends w/          ⇾ Search for groups whose name ends with the string you enter.

To subscribe to a group, check the corresponding box in the Active column. To unsubscribe, uncheck the box (you will be asked to confirm).

Right-clicking on a group name brings up a context menu containing the command Articles available in [group name]. This command displays a small window which queries the server and indicates how many articles the group currently contains.

The S. (Status) column gives you the following information:

Updating the Newsgroups list

As the list of newsgroups may change over time (groups added or deleted on the server, changes in the status of certain groups), the Get groups button allows you to update it at any time. At the end of the groups succession, if any changes have been made to the list, the panel below will be displayed over the list of groups:

The changes indicated in the Action column may be as follows:

The Clear List button lets you reset the list of changes to zero.

If you click on Close without clearing the list, you can display it again by clicking on theChange log button at the top of the Newsgroups list windoow.

The next time the groups are changed, any new changes will be added to those still in the list.

3.04. Add custom message header fields

1ᵒ Additional predefined header fields

You can add header fields to the messages you publish. Some predefined headers are available in the Add  drop-down list:

• Archive & X-No-Archive: These two header fields play the same role: they signal to the archiving sites that you do not wish your articles to be reproduced there. If this is your wish, it is advisable to add both headers, as archiving sites may respect one but ignore the other (note that this method offers no guarantee, as it is likely that some archiving sites respect neither). Here is the syntax for these two headers:

• Organization: an optional header field whose content is free. Some servers use it to add a formula of their own, but if you add it to your custom header fields, the content you enter will be displayed instead.

• Mail-Copies-To: if you have specified a real email address in your profile (From field in your messages) or in the optional Reply-To header, it may happen that someone replying to you on a group will email you a copy of that reply. If you do not wish to receive such copies by email, you can add the following header field:

Please note: this ''Mail-Copies-To: nobody' field is not guaranteed to be respected either.

• Reply-To: this header field allows you to specify a reply-to address for your articles. When it is present, the address entered replaces the address you have indicated in your profile. This provides generally effective protection against spam. Here's how to use it:

In your profile, enter a dummy email address (preferably ending in .invalid).

In Add custom message header fields, add the Reply-To header field and enter an email address that belongs to you.

2ᵒ Self-composed additional header fields

You can also enter your own header field. To do this:

double-click in the input field to display a new line:

enter the name of the header field and its content.

3ᵒ X-Face

The X-Face header field lets you attach a small image (black and white, 48x48 pixels) to your messages, which will be visible in newsreaders offering this feature.

To create your X-Face, you can either:

– Import an image from your computer, which MacCafé will automatically convert into an X-Face, displaying the code in the input box and displaying the resulting image (see text box below);

– Load a file containing the data for your X-Face (text in .XFC format, for example, converted by the GraphicConverter application, or text in .TXT format). The code will be automatically inserted in the input area, then converted to display the image;

– use an online converter such as this one:

http://www.dairiki.org/xface/xface.php

The converter will generate a code that you simply copy and paste into MacCafé's Data input box.

If the code is correct, the result will be displayed automatically to the left of the input field.

4ᵒ Face

Face is another header field used to identify you using an image, but this time in color. The Face field was designed to get around the black and white constraint imposed by the X-Face field, but it itself imposes other limitations, as we shall see later. Although they are less widely used than X-Faces, Faces are nevertheless supported by a number of newsreaders (including Pan, MesNews or Claws Mail... and now MacCafé).

To create a Face, click on Import an image file and choose your image.

Caution! This image must comply with the requirements detailed in the text box below.

5ᵒ Validation

To validate all the header fields (including X-Face and/or Face if you have created these fields), click Save.

3.05. Reply formulas and signatures

This preferences panel consists of two tabs: Reply formulas et Signatures.

When replying to a message, the presence of a reply formula before the text you are quoting is welcome, as it allows readers to immediately identify the person to whom you are replying.

A signature at the end of your messages is also recommended, especially if you want to add a URL to each of your messages (personal web page or other).

1ᵒ The Reply formulas tab

When you compose a message in response to another message, MacCafé can automatically add a reply formula above the text you are quoting.

To add a reply formula, click on the little ⊕ button and enter the formula in the line that is added.

To edit a reply formula, click on its text and make the changes. You can also navigate through your reply formulas using the shortcuts Tab and ⇧Tab.

To delete a reply formula, delete its contents.

To abandon any changes or deletions you have made, click Cancel.

To validate the changes or deletions, click Save.

If you have saved several reply formulas, a drop-down list at the top of the Compose window will allow you to choose the one you wish to use. This choice is memorised for subsequent replies, until you choose another formula.

You can also let MacCafé randomly choose an reply formula from those you have created. To do this, check the Random choice box. If you check this option, avoid leaving formulas such as 'I wrote:' in the list, which in most cases would make no sense; it's better to use only formulas containing at least the <name> tag.

Note: It is possible to edit formulas in the preferences while the Compose window is open. Any changes will not be automatically applied to the message being written, but will be immediately available in the formula drop-down list at the top of the Compose window.

2ᵒ The Signatures tab

MacCafé can automatically add a signature to the end of your messages.

To add a signature, click on the small ⊕ button and enter the text in the 'New signature' input box.

The signature delimiter (consisting of two dashes followed by a space and a line break) must not be entered: MacCafé will insert it automatically if a signature is added to your messages.

To edit an existing signature, click on it and change the text in the 'Edit signature' input box.

To delete a signature, delete its contents.

To cancel any changes or deletions you have made, click on Cancel.

To confirm changes or deletions, click on Save.

As with the reply formulas, the signature can be selected when writing using a drop-down list, and here too the choice is saved until a new choice is made.

If you check the Random choice box, MacCafé will randomly choose a signature for each of your messages.

3.06. Display settings 1

1ᵒ Background and text colors in Message List

• Simple list mode ⇾ Sets the background color of the list when messages are not grouped into threads.

• Thread grouping mode / Alternate BG ⇾ Sets the two background colors of the list when messages are grouped in threads (these two alternating colors differentiate between threads).

• My color - Text / BG ⇾ Sets the text and background colors for displaying your own pseudonym in the list. The background can be colored or transparent (select the corresponding option).

2ᵒ Message

• Zone BG - Thread / Header / Message ⇾ sets the background color of the different areas of the Message window.

• Text ⇾ Sets the text color of the Message area (excluding quotes and signature).

• Quotes — Levels 1 / 2 / 3 ⇾ Sets the text color of the first three quote levels.

• Reply formula and Signature ⇾ Adjusts the text color of reply formulas and signatures (including separator lines and/or delimiters). Note: The coloring of the reply formula is only an aid to writing your messages; in the Message (reading) windows, only the signature will take on the chosen color.

• Graphic thread ⇾ Display settings for the graphical representation of the thread (which is displayed above the message text).

– Line thickness ⇾ Sets the thickness of the tree structure lines.

– My color ⇾ Sets the color of the dots representing your own messages.

• Separators for edit zones ⇾ Lets you choose how the elements separating the three edit zones (formula, text, signature) in the Compose window. The separation between formula and text can take the form of a blank line of text (here marked 'invisible', the default option) or a continuous graphic line, while the separation between text and signature can consist of the standard signature delimiter '--' (the default option) or a continuous graphic line, giving you four possible combinations.

3ᵒ Fonts

You can choose the font and its size for the following three elements:

• The list of groups (Profile window).

• The list of articles (List window).

• The text of articles (Message, Compose and Pending messages windows).

4ᵒ Misc.

• Show raw header in read mode  ⇾ By default, the full header is not displayed above the message body. If you check this box, it will be displayed by default. In all cases, the H key toggles between the two display modes in the message reading window in the foreground.

• Number of characters per line 72 ⇾ Allows you to set the line breakdown in the Compose window. The limit values are 50 and 120 characters. The default value (72) is the one most commonly used (and recommended) on Usenet.

• Default values ⇾ This button cancels all the above settings and restores MacCafé's default values.

3.07. Display settings 2

1ᵒ Default display options for the message list

These options allow you to choose which settings will be applied by default to the list of messages from new groups to which you subscribe. They reproduce the options available in the List window.

• Show messages   lets you choose which messages will be displayed: Unread, Read, All, Checked, New, Locked, Kill-filed, Ignored (all) ou Tagged (all).

You can choose not to display  Ignored and/or  Kill-filed messages.

• Display Age / Date of messages. Examples:

– Display Age ⇾ 22 d, 1 d 12 h 23 min…

– Display Date ⇾ 09/05/2020 (or 5/9/20, according to your regional settings), yesterday on 18:32:25…

• Group threads:

– If this option is checked, the messages will be grouped into threads, and you can choose the order in which the threads and their messages are arranged: None / Newest first / Oldest first.

– If the option is unchecked, the messages will not be grouped together, but will be ordered according to the column and direction you have chosen in:

Sorted column : Author, Lines, Age or Subject,

Newest first  or Oldest first .

2ᵒ Resetting the message list display

The Reset button applies the above default settings to all the groups to which you are subscribed. This makes it possible to standardise the display of message lists, if certain settings have been modified for a particular group (bearing in mind that any modification to the display in a message list is memorised for the group concerned).

Note: If any List windows are open at the time of the reset, they will be closed.

3ᵒ Space bar rule for reading messages

This rule determines whether the next message opened with   Space   will be:

– the next checked message (default).

– the next unread message.

Note: Clicking on this setting will close any open List and Message windows.

3.08. dbFaces

The principle behind dbFaces is inherited from the MacSOUP newsreader. It consists of a database of 'self-portraits' (in fact, some dbFaces have nothing to do with a portrait) which were sent by MacSOUP users, each image having the author's pseudonym as its name. After downloading this database, MacSOUP automatically displays the dbFace of each person registered in the database.

This concept therefore differs from that of X-Faces (see section 3ᵒ of chapter 3.04) which are injected by the author into the header of his/her messages, and are thus visible in many newsreaders. On the other hand, the dbFaces, are only visible to MacSOUP... and now MacCafé users.

The Manage dbFaces... button opens the following pop-up menu:

Import from .dbface

Select the .dbface file (see text box above) you have copied to your disk, then click Open. The dbFaces are immediately installed in the MacCafé database.

Extract .dbface to a folder

This command will copy all the images included in the .dbface face to the folder of your choice. In particular, this will allow you to rename the images (in the event that a referenced author has changed pseudonym, or has several numbered dbFaces in his/her name).

In the first dialog box, select the .dbface file. In the second, select (or create) the folder of your choice.

When extraction is complete, a small message on a red background will briefly appear to let you know.

Import the contents of a folder

You can import all the images contained in the folder of your choice. When you run this command, any dbFaces stored in the database are deleted before the new images are imported.

In the dialog box, select your image folder and click Open.

Add the contents of a folder

This command adds images from the folder of your choice to the database, but any dbFaces already present are not deleted, except in the following case: if a new image has the same name as an old one, the new one replaces the old one.

In the dialog box, select your image folder and click Open.

Delete dbFaces from the database

This command deletes all the dbFaces stored in the database.

To quickly find an author in the list and display their dbFace, enter the first few letters of their pseudonym in the Pseudonym field.

3.09. Author filtering

The table lists the authors you have kill-filed. To kill-file an author, you must use the shortcut  ⌘ K either from the list of messages in a group, or from reading a message from the author to be filtered. Author filtering is based on the complete From field (pseudonym + email address).

The checkboxes in the Delete column determine the filtering mode for each kill-filed author:

• The box is unchecked

⇾ Future messages from the author will be marked as read as soon as they are retrieved and will be given the P pictogram (P stands for 'Plonk') in the List windows, as well as in the graphical representation of the thread (Message windows).

• The box is checked

⇾ Future messages from the author will be deleted as soon as they are retrieved.

• Whether or not the box is checked

⇾ Messages from the kill-filed author already in the database are immediately marked with a P, and those that have not yet been read are marked as read.

To remove an author from this list - i.e. so that he or she is no longer filtered - use the  Author search field to find his/her From in the list, then select him/her and click on Rehabilitate. You will be asked for confirmation.

When an author is rehabilitated:

⇾ his/her future messages will no longer be marked as read or deleted when fetching news;

⇾ The P mark is removed from his/her messages already stored in the database.

If you check the option  Automatically check the 'Delete' box when adding an author, all authors you plonk via the  ⌘ K will have their Delete box automatically checked.

The Check all and Uncheck all buttons allow you to activate or deactivate the deletion of future messages for all the authors on the list with a single click.

3.10. Search engines

1ᵒ WEB search engine

You can choose your preferred search engine from the drop-down list .

You can also enter the URL of a search engine that is not on the list, by filling in the Custom URL | input field. The protocol (http:// or https://) is required. Examples:

• Web search

• searXNG ⇾ https://searx.gnous.eu/search?q=
• Bing ⇾ https://www.bing.com/search?q=

• Dictionary search

• Wiktionnary ⇾ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/

When you right-click (or  Ctrl + click) on a selection in a window containing a message (Message, 'Online' Message, Compose), the Search in […] item in the context menu will open your web browser to launch a search on this selection in the engine you have chosen.

2ᵒ Translator

Use this drop-down list to select an online translation site. You have two choices: Google Translation and DeepL.

When you right-click (or  Ctrl + click) on a selection in a window containing a message (Message, 'Online' Message, Compose), the Translate with […] item in the context menu will open your web browser to launch the English translation of this selection on the website of your choice.

3ᵒ Online extension of search by M‑ID

These preferences concern the search for a message based on its Message-ID. This function, which can be accessed by various means, is described in detail in chapter 6. Search by Message-ID.

If the message you are looking for is not in the MacCafé database, the search can be extended:

– either to the server(s) used in your profiles,

– or to the archives available on a website (to be defined below),

– or to the server(s) and then, if necessary, to the web archive site.

• The  Allow online searches option allows you to globally enable or disable online message searches. When unchecked, the search by M‑ID will only be carried out in the MacCafé database.

Unchecking this option does not change the status of the other options. To reactivate the online search:

- if at least one option is checked on the right, check the  Allow online searches option;

– if the two options on the right are unchecked, check the one(s) you wish to activate.

• The  NNTP Servers option allows you to extend the search to the server(s) you use.

The Order & Choice list displays the servers available in your profiles. You can choose which ones will be queried by checking them. You can also drag and drop to change the order in which servers should be queried. This list is displayed identically in the M‑ID search dialog box. See Chapter 6. Search by Message-ID for more details on this feature.

• The  Archive website option allows you to extend the search to the website of your choice.

If this option is checked, two other options are available:

 Open 'Online Message' ⇾ if the search results in the message being displayed in a Web Archive window, the same message is automatically duplicated in an 'Online' Message window.

 And close 'Web Archive' ⇾ the above action closes the Web Archive window, so that only the 'Online' Message window remains displayed.

• In the Archive website used  drop-down list, you can choose which web archive site to query when the  Archive website option is checked

The Custom URL… item allows you to:

– either edit the URL currently displayed (which can be useful if you are aware of a change in the syntax used by the site for searching),

– or enter the URL of an archive site that is not on the list.

In all cases, make sure that the %mid expression (which represents the message-ID you are looking for) is placed in the right place in the URL, and that it is only surrounded by angle brackets if the site requires it.

Caution! You won't be able to leave the preferences panel if the URL entry field is empty while the  Archive website option is checked. You will therefore have to choose between entering a URL (or selecting one of the predefined sites) and unchecking the option.

3.11. Language and spell check

3.12. Message retrieval

1ᵒ At the end of message retrieval

In the Sound played if new messages are loaded  list, you can choose the system sound that will be played at the end of the retrieval if MacCafé has loaded new messages. For no sound to be played, choose Silence.

2ᵒ Automatic message retrieval

If you want MacCafé to regularly check the news server for new messages, check the option Enable automatic retrieval and specify the desired interval between two retrievals (in minutes) in the Time between 2 retrievals | field.

Once automatic retrieval has been enabled, you can create exceptions. By checking the option: Exception for active profile… - No auto retrieval , you will disable automatic retrieval only for the active profile.

To create another exception, close the Preferences window, switch to the relevant profile, then reopen the Preferences window and repeat the operation.

Caution! If you uncheck the Enable automatic retrieval option and reactivate it later, you will have to recreate your exceptions, as the settings will be lost.

Caution (bis)! For automatic retrieval to work, at least one profile must not be treated as an exception. So, when you have checked Enable automatic retrieval , if you checkException for active profile… - Do not retrieve  in all your profiles, automatic retrieval will be disabled (the box will automatically uncheck).

3ᵒ Action on the settings for retrieving your own messages

The following two settings can be automatically assigned to messages you have posted yourself, as soon as MacCafé retrieves them from the server:

• Auto-check  ⇾ The branches of the thread replying to your messages will be auto-checked.

• Mark as read  ⇾ Your messages will automatically be marked as read.

4° Number of messages triggering an alert during retrieval from a group

• This function allows you to prevent MacCafé from systematically retrieving all the messages in a group when their number exceeds the threshold you have set. Instead, MacCafé will alert you and let you choose how many messages you want to retrieve.

This can be useful in various cases: a group that has been flooded, a high-traffic group that you don't check very often, updating a database that hasn't been used for several months, etc.

The function is activated by checking the Activate function  option. You can then change the alert threshold by editing the Number of messages 300 field.

The process used by this function depends on the type of retrieval you are performing.

1. Manual retrieval

When manually retrieving messages from a group, if the number of messages to be retrieved exceeds the set limit, MacCafé displays a dialog box similar to that for the first retrievals:

You can choose to retrieve either all messages or the n most recent messages. You can also postpone retrieval of the group until later by entering the number 0. In the latter case, the alert will be displayed again when you request a new message retrieval of the group.

2. Automatic retrieval

If you have activated automatic retrieval for the active profile, it is performed normally but ignores the group(s) whose number of messages to be retrieved exceeds the set limit. These groups are not checked, but stored in a waiting list, and the automatic retrieval indicator becomes a clickable red button .

Clicking on this red button (and not on the mailbox!) displays the following dialog box:

This lists the groups awaiting message retrieval, with the number of messages to be retrieved for each.

The Cancel button closes the dialog box, postponing processing of the groups in the waiting list.

The Retrieve button closes the dialog box and launches message retrieval for the groups in the waiting list. For each of them, a dialog of the same type as for manual retrieval is displayed:

If you enter 0, the group will not be checked and will remain in the waiting list. Otherwise, it will be removed from it at the end of the retrieval.

When retrieval is complete, if there are no pending groups, the clickable red button is replaced by the non clickable basic indicator.

Notes

• The waiting list is linked to the active profile, so if you change profile, you'll find a different waiting list, or no list at all.

• If you unsubscribe from a group on the waiting list, it will be removed, and if the list did not contain any other groups, the button will disappear.

• If you increase the threshold, this may have the effect of removing certain groups from the waiting list. Example: your initial setting was 300, and the waiting list for one of your profiles contains a group with 350 messages. If you set the threshold to 400, this group no longer has any place in the waiting list and is therefore logically removed from it.

Similarly, if there is a flood on a group, it is possible that between one auto retrieval and the next, the administrator has cleaned up the mess by cancelling the items concerned. If, following these cancellations, the number of messages to be retrieved no longer exceeds the limit, the messages in the group will be retrieved normally and the group will be removed from the list.

• When you disable automatic retrieval for a profile, the waiting list for that profile is automatically cleared.

• In addition, you can check the Use on first message retrieval of a group   option. Normally, the very first message retrieval of a group is not affected by the alert function if the set limit is exceeded: whatever the number of messages to be retrieved, a dialogue is systematically displayed to allow you to choose the number of messages to be retrieved. If you check this option (and of course if the Activate function  box is also checked), this dialogue will be displayed if, and only if, the number of messages available on the group exceeds the limit you have set.

For more details, see the text box FIRST MESSAGE RETRIEVAL OF A GROUP in chapter 4.01).

3.13. Last retrieved message number

1ᵒ Preamble

Each server maintains its own numbering for each message in each of the groups it distributes.

So, each time it receives a new message for a group (either from one of its users or from another server), it increments the number for that group by 1.

This number is found in the Xref field in the message header.

MacCafé uses this number to calculate the number of messages to read for each group. To do this, it stores the last message number read for each group, and for each profile.

2ᵒ How the command works

This command is used to modify the last message number read for each subscribed group for the current profile.

A new number can be entered for each group by clicking in the New box, after selecting the group line.

You can also, by clicking on the 0 everywhere button, set this number to 0 for all groups.

Once the changes have been made, you must Save or Cancel these changes before you can close this preference.

3ᵒ Purpose of this command

If you think that you have not received certain messages (due to a bug in MacCafé, for example, or something else...), the numbers of these messages are a priori lower than the last number recorded for the group. The only way to attempt to retrieve them is to modify the last message number found for the group in question.

To do this, you need to estimate the number of messages for this group since the first one went missing, then either subtract this number from the number shown in the Current column by a reasonable margin, or set the value to 0.

In the first case, the next retrieval will attempt to retrieve messages from the number indicated plus 1.

In the second case, the next time you retrieve messages, the dialog box showing the number of messages on the server and the number of last messages to be retrieved will be displayed. You should indicate the number you think is appropriate.

In both cases, there will be no problem of duplication with previously retrieved messages, only the number of unread messages will be less than the number of messages announced to be retrieved in the progress window.

3.14. Tools

1ᵒ Message deletion validation

The Don't ask again (Message & List windows) concerns the deletion of messages from the database. When unchecked, you will be asked for confirmation when you run the delete command on one or more messages ( ⌘  D  from a List window or a Message window.) If you check it, deletion will be immediate.

Note that this option is also present in the delete confirmation dialog box. If you check it in the dialog box, it will automatically be checked in the Tools Preferences. To reactivate confirmation, uncheck it again in the Preferences.

Exception: If the selection of messages to be deleted contains at least one locked message (marked with a pictogram), you will be asked for confirmation even if the option is checked.

2ᵒ Import MacSOUP news archive

The Import command is used to import archived messages into the MacSOUP newsreader. The procedure is explained in detail in Chapter 2.03. Import MacSOUP news archive, which we recommend you read carefully before starting.

3ᵒ Table consistency tests and repairs

• When searching by M‑ID, you may encounter the following error message:

This means that the message you are looking for is not referenced in one of the message tables used by MacCafé, because it was purged in a version prior to 2.08. This error blocks the search for the message concerned.

To remedy the problem - and at the same time repair any inconsistencies linked to other previously purged messages - simply follow the recommendation in the error message, i.e. open the Tools preferences and click on the Messages button.

• The Threads button is used to correct inconsistencies related this time to the threads table. Essentially, it's a matter of ridding the table of 'slag', the presence of which does not, however, disrupt MacCafé's operation.

3ᵒ 4D Maintenance and Security Center

As indicated in the  IMPORTANT  text box (see screenshot above), only the most useful MSC functions will be discussed in this chapter. For other functions, you can consult the documentation on the 4D website, by clicking on th Online Documentation… button.

To access the MSC, click on the Open MSC button.

Until the writing of this chapter is completed, we recommend that you do not use the MSC tools if you don't master the 4D environment.

4. Windows

This section identifies the various MacCafé windows and describes their use.

When a button is present at the top of the window, this allows you to display a specific help panel. Do not hesitate to refer to it to find out or remind you of the actions available in the window. To close the help panel, just click on it.

In addition, the buttons with an icon are usually equipped with a tooltip that appears on mouse hover.

Most MacCafé windows can be closed in three different ways:

– click on the Close system button

–  ⌘ W system shorcut

– Esc shortcut

Exception: on the Profile window, both keyboard shortcuts are inoperative, and clicking the system button is equivalent to quitting MacCafé.

– some windows also have a Close button.

Alerts warn you in case closing the window might cause you to lose some data (for example, when you close the Compose window after you have started to enter text in it).

Only the Preferences window is modal, that is, you cannot access the other windows while it is open.

Note: MacCafé has two special windows which will not be described in this section but in chapter 6. Search by Message-ID, as they are both used for searching messages.

4.01. Profile (window)

The Profile window is the main MacCafé window. As explained in chapter 4 above, if you close it, you exit MacCafé.

The window title contains the name of the active database.

1ᵒ The list of profiles

The Profile  drop-down list contains all the profiles you have created, and allows you to change profiles.

Note: You cannot change profiles while a message retrieval of the active profile is in progress. You have to wait until it is finished.

2ᵒ The toolbar

The toolbar contains the following seven buttons:

	Preferences… ⇾ opens the Preferences… window.
	Purge ⇾ opens the Purge window.
	Search ⇾ opens the Search window.
	Filters ⇾ opens the Message filters window. This button is disabled when a message retrieval is in progress. Likewise, when the Filters command is launched by clicking on it, no message retrieval (both manual and automatic) will be possible as long as the Message Filters window is open.
1   2   3	Fetch news ⇾ launches a manual message retrieval. Design 1: auto retrieval disabled. Design 2: auto retrieval enabled. When an automatic retrieval is in progress, an animated icon  overlaps the button. Design 3: the red button (clickable) is displayed when, auto retrieval being enabled, a limit on the number of messages to be retrieved has been defined in the preferences, and at least one group contains a number of available messages exceeding this limit (the number of groups concerned is displayed in a tooltip when hovering over the button). This functionality is described in the chapter 3.12 Message retrieval.
	Send ⇾ starts sending messages to the server. When messages are ready to send, a red dot displays their number on this button. ⇧ + click on this button launches the command Send then Fetch news from all groups. This button does not work if there is no message to send.
	Pending messages ⇾ Shows pending messages (draft or ready to send). Inoperative if no message is waiting to be sent. When messages are pending, a red dot displays their number on this button. In addition, if you press the  ⌥  key when hovering over the button, a small table will tell you, for each profile, the number of messages ready to send and the number of mmessages saved as drafts.

3ᵒ The group list

This list displays the groups you are subscribed to in the active profile.

• The first column lists the group names and displays the number of groups.

• The Unread column displays the number of unread messages in each group. If one or more groups contain unread messages, the title Unread is displayed in bold.

• The Total column displays the total number of messages contained in the database for each group.

• The last column displays various pictograms:

You can change the display order of groups by moving them using drag and drop.

4ᵒ The context menu

a. Right click on a single selected group

Disable / Enable message retrieval ⇾ Allows you to disable or re-enable message retrieval for this group only.

Fetch news from this group ( ⇧  ⌘ K) ⇾ Starts an immediate message retrieval for this group.

When message retrieval from this group is disabled, this item is grayed out and inoperative.

FIRST MESSAGE RETRIEVAL OF A GROUP

1. General case

When you check a group to retrieve messages for the first time, a dialog box prompts you to choose the number of messages to retrieve. You can choose to:

– leave the number entered as default, in order to retrieve all the messages in the group;

– enter a lower number; for example, if you type 200, only the 200 most recent messages posted to the group will be retrieved;

– enter 0 if you want to postpone this first message retrieval of the group. In this case, the dialog box will be displayed again the next time the same group is checked for retrieval.

For subsequent retrievals, you will no longer have the choice of the number of messages to retrieve (all available messages will be retrieved), unless you define a limit number in the Preferences. Consult chapter 3.12 Message retrieval for more information on this subject.

2. Special case: taking into account the limit set in the preferences

If, in the Message retrieval preferences, you have checked both boxes below:

the dialog for choosing the number of messages to retrieve will only be displayed if the number of messages available exceeds the limit set in these preferences.

Example: both boxes are checked and the limit is set to 100.

- On first retrieval, the group contains more than 100 messages ⇾ The dialog is displayed and you can choose the number of messages to retrieve.

- On first retrieval, the group contains a number of messages less than or equal to 100 ⇾ The dialog is not displayed and all available messages are noted.

Post a new message here ( ⌘ K) ⇾ Opens the Compose window (the name of the selected group will be entered in the Newsgroups field of this window).

When group message retrieval is disabled, clicking this item will display a confirmation dialog.

Unsubscribe from this group ⇾ Allows you to unsubscribe from the selected group in the active profile.

If you subscribed to the same group in at least one other profile, the group will simply be removed from the list of the active profile. It will always be available with all its messages in the other profiles that contain it.

If the group is only present in the active profile, all the messages it contains will be deleted from the database. The operation may take time if it is a 'large' group.

In both cases, you will be asked for confirmation.

Insert separator below… ⇾ Opens the New separator dialog box, where you can add a separator line to the list, with or without name. The use of separators is described in the box at the end of this chapter.

b. Right click on a selection of several groups

Mark these groups as read ⇾ Marks all messages in selected groups as read.

Fetch news from these groups ( ⇧  ⌘  K) ⇾ Starts a message retrieval of the selected groups.

Disable message retrieval from these groups ⇾ Disables message retrievaal for all selected groups.

Enable message retrieval for these groups ⇾ Enables message retrieval for all selected groups.

5ᵒ Select a group and open its message list

You can select a group:

– either by clicking on it,

- or by using the ▼ and ▲ arrows to access it.

The  ⤒  key (or Fn◀︎ depending on your keyboard) selects the first group in the list. The  ⤓  key (or Fn▶︎) selects the last group in the list.

To open the message list of the selected group, you can choose to:

– double-click on the group,

– press the Enter key (or FnReturn for keyboards without this key).

6ᵒ Open the message list of the first group containing unread messages

  Space   opens, from the last selected group, the first following group containing unread messages.

⇧  Space   forces the opening of the first group in the list regardless of which one is selected.

7ᵒ Keyboard shortcuts (also available in List windows)

• To post a new message in the selected group, press  ⌘ N.

If several groups are selected, the message will be published in the last group added to the selection.

• Press  ⌘ E to mark all messages in the selected group(s) as read and unchecked.

ABOUT SEPARATORS

Separators are elements that allow you to organize the group list (see the screenshot at the beginning of this chapter).

Creating a separator

When you choose the Insert separator below… item in the context menu of a group, a new line entitled 'New separator' is immediately created under this group, and the dialog box below is displayed, allowing you to customize your separator.

• You can enter the name of your choice, or even leave this field empty. Note, however, that a name that is too long might appear truncated in the list.

• You can choose the font size, its style (normal, bold and/or italic) and its color, as well as the background color of your separator. The font size can be reduced by up to 4 points, allowing you to create separators consisting of a single line (at the minimum size, even if the separator contains text, it will not be visible) .

• The Rendered line provides a preview of the separator as it will appear in the list.

• The list of existing styles brings together all the separator styles present in your different profiles. You can apply one of these styles to the separator currently being edited, either by double-clicking that style or by choosing Apply these style settings… in the context menu.

• When you have finished editing your separator, click Save to apply your settings to the New separator line. If you click Cancel, this line will be deleted.

Actions on separators

• Separators can be moved freely in the list.

• Unlike groups, they are not selectable, but a right click on a separator displays a context menu containing the following items:

Edit Separator… ⇾ Displays the separator editing dialog box, which works identically to the New Separator dialog box.

Delete separator ⇾ Allows you to remove the separator (you will be asked for confirmation).

• It is also possible to access the editing dialog box by making a double click on the separator.

4.02. List

The List windows display the messages contained in a group.

The name of the open group is displayed at the top of the window, next to NewsGroup.

1ᵒ Display settings

• Show : allows you to choose which messages should be displayed in the list, depending on their attributes. Here are the possible choices, with corresponding keyboard shortcuts:

Unread = 1; Read = 2; All = 3; Checked = 4; New (since last retrieval) = 5; Locked = 6; Kill-filed = 7.

The following items are added:

- a submenu allowing you to display Tagged messages, either according to their color, or as a whole (All, shortcut 8);

- a submenu dedicated to Ignored messages, containing the items All (shortcut 9, displays all messages ignored / auto-ignored), User (shows only messages marked auto-ignored by the user) and Filter (shows either all messages ignored / auto-ignored by filtering, or those marked with a pictogram of the chosen color).

You can choose not to display  Ignored and/or  Kill-filed messages.

• Show  Age /  Date: determines in which format will be displayed the message timeline (in the third column of the list). Examples:

Age of messages: 2 d, 10 h 13 min…

Message publication Date: 2020/05/20, at 12:26:09…

• Group threads:

– When this option is checked, messages from the same discussion are grouped together in the list. You can choose in which order the threads will be displayed: None / Newest first (age increasing) / Oldest first (age decreasing).

– When the option is unchecked, threads are not grouped, and the display order of messages can be adjusted by clicking on a column title, which reveals an arrowhead or . Clicking the column title again switches from increasing to decreasing order (or vice versa).

2ᵒ Filters (ungrouped thread mode only)

When messages are not grouped into threads, you have two input fields that allow you to filter them.

• To display only messages from an author, enter their pseudonym in the Author field.

• To filter messages by subject, enter all or part of a subject in the Subject field.

3ᵒ The button

Clicking the gear button displays four commands. The first two, placed under the title Database correction, are intended to repair the display of messages contained in the database; refer to the corresponding chapters for more information (see links below).

Header fields ⇾ Displays the header of the selected message in the Header data correction window.

Text encoding ⇾ Reloads the selected message body from the server (if still available) and opens it in the Text encoding correction window.

Reload message ⇾ Reloads the body of the selected message from the server (if it is still available) and saves it in the database instead of old body.

New message in this group ⇾ Opens the Compose window (the name of the group opened in the list will be entered in the Newsgroups field in this window). If it is impossible to post in this group, an alert will appear and give you the reason. If message retrieval is disabled for the group, you will be asked for confirmation.

4ᵒ Message list columns

The message list has five columns. From left to right:

• Pictograms column ⇾ The following pictograms are displayed:

NL	Unread message (the subject of which is displayed in bold letters in the list)
	Checked message
	Auto-check enabled
	Message ignored (marked as read on retrieval by a message filter). The color of the pictogram is variable.
	Auto-ignore enabled (the pictogram is displayed in red if the action comes from a message filter)
	Tagged message (highlighted by a message filter or by manual addition of the tag). The color of the tag varies.
	Locked message
P	Message from a kill-filed author (marked as read on retrieval)

• Author column.

• Lines column ⇾ Displays the number of lines in the body of the message

• Age / Date column ⇾ See section 1ᵒ.

• Subject column.

5ᵒ Actions on messages

a. Actions available if only one message is selected

• Open message :

– With the mouse: double click on the message line.

– On the keyboard: Enter (or FnReturn for keyboards that do not have this key).

• Mark message as read/unread:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ M (an unread message changes to read and vice versa).

• Unlock message:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ L (only acts if the selected message is locked).

• Unlock all messages in the thread to which the selected message belongs:

– On the keyboard: ⌥ ⌘ L (does nothing if the thread does not contain any locked messages).

• Kill-file the author of the message, or rehabilitate him/her if he/she was already kill-filed:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ K

Messages published by the kill-filed author are assigned the pictogram P (visible in the List windows, in the Profile window and in the graphical representation of the thread in Message windows).

For future messages from the same author, go to the Author filtering preferences where you can choose the filtering mode:

⇾ either mark the messages as read during message retrievals (they will then receive the P) pictogram;

⇾ or delete them during message retrievals (so they will not appear in the List windows).

The same shortcut, applied to an already killed author, allows you to rehabilitate him/her:

⇾ future messages from this author will no longer be marked as read or deleted during retrievals;

⇾ any messages from this author present in the database will have the P pictogram removed.

• Check / uncheck the message (if the threads are not grouped) or its entire thread (if the threads are grouped):

– With the mouse : click in the pictogram column on the message row. If threads are grouped, ignored messages (marked with ) will remain unchecked. To include them, do a  ⌥  + click.

– On the keyboard :

• Activate/deactivate auto-check from the message, or for the entire thread if the threads are grouped:

– On the keyboard: + (activate) / − (deactivate).

• Delete message from database:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ D.

The text box at the end of this section contains important information about deleting messages.

b. Actions available if multiple messages are selected

• Open messages:

– On the keyboard: Enter (or FnReturn for keyboards that do not have this key).

• Unlock messages:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ L (all locked messages present in the selection are unlocked).

• Check / uncheck messages:

– On the keyboard: Return.

• Mark all messages as read and unchecked:

– On the keyboard: ⌥ ⌘ E (this action of course only has an effect if the selection contains at least one unread and/or checked message).

• Delete messages from database:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ D.

6ᵒ Actions on the list

• The ▲ and ▼ keys allow you to navigate through the list.

The  ⤒  key (or Fn◀︎ depending on your keyboard) selects the first message in the list. The  ⤓  key (or Fn▶︎) selects the last message in the list.

• Mark all messages in the list as read and unchecked:

– On the keyboard::  ⌘ E (this command is also available in the Profile window).

• Unlock all locked messages in the list:

– On the keyboard: ⇧ ⌘ L.

• Reopen the last viewed message in the active list:

– On the keyboard:  ⌘ B.

• Open the first checked message or the first unread message in the list (depending on the setting of Display settings 2): press   Space  .

4.03. Message (reading)

The Message windows display the contents of a message posted to a newsgroup.

1ᵒ The information banner

At the top of the Message window the following information is displayed:

• Newsgroup ⇾ The name of the group from which the message was opened.

• Author ⇾ The pseudonym of the author of the message.

• Subject ⇾ The subject of the message (if it begins with "Re:", it is a reply to another message).

If the message displayed is a reply to the very first message in a thread and this message is missing (whatever the reason: message filtered by the server, published on another group, purged, deleted by you, etc.), a button is displayed to the left of the information banner, to allow you to access this missing message. This button can take two forms:

Means that the missing message is present in the MacCafé database (it was published in another group to which you are subscribed). A click on the button displays the original message in a new Message window.

Means that the missing message does not appear in the MacCafé database. A click on the button launches the online search for this message based on its Message-ID (provided that this functionality is activated in the Preferences, see the section 3ᵒ of chapter 3.10). This process is detailed in the chapter 6ᵒ Search by Message-ID.

If the message displayed is a cross-posted response with Followup-To (see section 3ᵒ) to a message that is not in the active group, the icon (whether gray or blue) is marked with a F.

In the right part of this banner there are buttons whose action will be detailed in section 5ᵒ.

2ᵒ The graphical representation of the thread

In this panel, the discussion (or thread) in which the message is located is represented in the form of a tree, each message being linked to the replies made to it, as well as to the message to which it possibly replied.

Each message in the thread is represented by a small circle ○, with the following variations:

○	Message read. If the message is tagged () or ignored () , the corresponding pictogram is displayed instead of the circle.
◉	The message is being read. If the message is tagged or ignored, the outer circle is replaced by the outline of the pictogram.
⊗	Unread message. If the message is tagged or ignored, the cross is superimposed on the pictogram.
○	Locked message.
○⇛	Checked message.
○+	Auto-checked message.
○–	Auto-ignored message.
P○	Message from a kill-filed author.
S○	Message previously deleted in MacCafé, then restored in the database. See the action of the Save to database button.
○	'Ghost' message (gray circle), absent from the thread although it is referenced there. Read the text box below to find out more.

When the mouse pointer hovers over a circle, the pseudonym of the author of the corresponding message is displayed in a tooltip (which can be empty in the case of a ghost message, read the text box below) .

To browse the thread:

• with the mouse

– Click on a circle (not grayed out) ⇾ the corresponding message is displayed in the active Message window, in place of the one that was previously displayed.

–  ⌥  + click on a circle (not grayed out) ⇾ the corresponding message is displayed in a new Message window.

– If the graphical representation of the thread extends beyond the frame, you can drag it with the mouse, holding down the right button.

• on the keyboard

– Navigate horizontally (on the same branch): ▶︎ and ◀︎ arrows. When you have reached the first circle of the branch, the ◀︎ arrow goes back to the message before the branch.

– Go down a branch: place yourself on the first circle just after the junction, then press the ▼ arrow.

– Go back one branch: press ⇧◀︎ (or Backspace) to return to the first circle of the branch (if it is not already selected), then press the ▲ arrow. You will reach the first message of the top branch.

– Go back to the message from which the branch starts: ⇧◀︎ (or Backspace) to return to the first circle of the branch (if it is not already selected), then ◀︎ (or Backspace) to go back to the circle preceding the junction.

– Return to the first message in the sequence: O key.

• with space bar

  Space   allows you to continuously consult all checked or unread messages (depending on the setting chosen in the Display settings 2) contained in the thread. By successive presses of   Space  , you can scroll through the text of each unread/checked message, then move to the next unread/checked message. When there are no more unread/checked messages in the thread, a final press on   Space   closes the window.

Note: If you have opened a message from a thread containing no checked/unread messages,   Space   will just scroll the text to the end, then close the window.

The four arrows of the compass allow you to move the graphical representation of the row in the panel (in case it extends beyond the frame). A click on an arrow moves it one step in the corresponding direction, ⇧ + click moves it two steps.

3ᵒ The header panel

This panel displays the main header fields of the message (decoded if necessary):

• Newsgroups: ⇾ The list of groups in which the message was posted.

• Followup-To: ⇾ This optional field is used by the author to redirect replies to his/her message to a particular group when he/she has published this message on several groups, or to redirect them to his/her own mailbox (with a Followup-To: poster, see section 6ᵒ).

• Subject: ⇾ The subject of the message.

• From: ⇾ The identity of the author (pseudonym + email address).

• Date: or Age: ⇾ Depending on the choice you made in the display parameters of the List window, either the publication date of the message, or its age. You can toggle between the Date: and Age: views by clicking on the header field name (the word Date: or Age: at the start of the line).

Reminder: The date display will always depend on your Language and Region system settings.

• Organization: ⇾ A slogan chosen by the author of the message or by the server used to post the message. This field being optional, it may be missing in certain messages.

• User-Agent: or X-Newsreader: ⇾ The description of the newsreader used by the author of the message. This field is also optional.

• Reply-To: ⇾ The reply email address of the author of the message. This field is optional (see its description in chapter 3.04).

The full message header can be displayed in the message body panel (see section 4ᵒ).

In the header panel can be displayed, if they exist, the X-Face of the author of the message, his/her Face or his/her dbFace.

To the left of the first header field is a pictogram which can take three different forms:

Finally, a button (variable color) is displayed in front of the Reply-To field if it exists, otherwise in front of the From field. It allows you to reply by email to the author of the message. Its use is detailed in section 6ᵒ.

4ᵒ The message body panel

This panel contains the actual text of the message, in which any quotations, as well as the author's signature (if present), are displayed in the colors specified in the Display settings 1 preferences.

The full message header can also be displayed there, if you have chosen this option in the Display settings 1 preferences. Furthermore, the H keyboard shortcut allows you to show/hide the full header.

To scroll the text if its length exceeds the height of the panel, you can use the following keys, depending on the type of keyboard you have:

The context menu of this panel has some differences depending on whether you right-click on unselected text or on a selection.

Copy:

a. without selection ⇾ Only appears if the mouse pointer hovers over a URL, email address or Message-ID. It is this element that will be copied to the clipboard.

b. with selection ⇾ Copies the selected text to the clipboard.

Open URL:

a. without selection ⇾ Only works if the mouse pointer hovers over a URL detected by MacCafé (invisible or grayed out otherwise). The URL is sent to the associated application (browser, FTP client, etc.).

b. with selection ⇾ Still visible and functional. MacCafé does not check that the selection constitutes a valid URL and sends it to the application which it considers most appropriate. In return, any valid URL can be transmitted, as long as an application is associated with it.

Show image:

a. without selection ⇾ Only works if the following conditions are met:

- the URL starts with http://, https:// or www.;

- the URL ends with one of the extensions referenced in the list accessible via the Window Supported image formats menu.

If the image exists, it is displayed in a viewer integrated into MacCafé (see the text box at the end of the chapter). Otherwise, an error message is displayed in this same viewer. GIF images will be displayed without animation.

b. with selection ⇾ Still visible and functional. MacCafé does not check that the selection constitutes a URL actually pointing to an image and will systematically display a viewer containing either the image if it exists, or an error message. Preferably, we will only use this method if the URL is split into several lines and not surrounded by angle brackets. This method can also be useful for certain types of URLs, such as gemini://.

To fully understand how MacCafé manages URLs, it is recommended to read the text box at the end of this chapter.

Show message and Send email…:

a. without selection ⇾ These two commands are only active if the mouse pointer hovers over an element of type local-part@domain. Since this structure is shared by email addresses and Message-IDs, MacCafé systematically displays both choices. It is therefore up to you to check, depending on the context, whether you are dealing with an email address or a Message-ID.

The Show message command will submit the Message-ID (or assumed such) to search by Message-ID (read the chapter 6ᵒ Search by Message-ID to find out more).

The Send email… command will transmit the email address (or assumed one) to your email client.

b. with selection ⇾ Both commands are still active. Same actions as above, but the content of the selection is not checked.

In the case of a right click with selection, three additional items are offered:

Search with [chosen search engine] ⇾ Opens the default web browser to search the content of the selection, using the search engine you chose in the Search engines preferences.

Translate with [chosen translation site] ⇾ Opens the default web browser to display the translated content of the selection, using the translation website you have chosen in the Search engines > Translator preferences.

Encode or Decode in ROT13 ⇾ Transforms selected text according to the ROT13 algorithm (explanation on Wikipedia). This command is also accessible by the  ⌥  ⌘ R shortcut.

5ᵒ The information banner buttons

• Auto-check

This action allows you to auto-check all the messages in a branch of the thread or the complete thread. When a message is marked as auto-checked (+), if replies to that message arrive in future fetches, they will automatically be marked as auto-checked and given the same + sign.

	Activate (⬬) / deactivate (⬬✕) auto-checking of the active sub-thread and its own sub-threads.
	Activate (⬬) / deactivate (⬬✕) auto-checking of the whole thread.

• Auto-ignore

This action allows you to ignore all messages from a branch of the thread or the entire thread. When a message is marked as auto-ignored (━), if replies to that message arrive in future retrievals, they will be automatically marked as read and given the same ━ sign.

These buttons are accessible by pressing the ⌥ key when hovering over the Auto-check buttons.

	Activate (━) / deactivate (━✕) auto-ignore of the active sub-thread and its own sub-threads.
	Activate (━) / deactivate (━✕) auto-ignore of the whole thread.

• Locking / Unlocking

	The message is not locked. Click the button to lock it.
	The message is locked. Click the button to unlosk it.

• Mark as read / unread

	The message is marked as read. Click the button to mark it as unread.
	The message is marked as unread. Click the button to mark it as read.

• the button

Clicking on the gear-shaped button displays the following menu:

Copy Message-ID ⇾ Copies the message identifier to the clipboard.

Copy email address ⇾ If the message header contains a Reply-To field, it is the email address contained in this field which is copied to the clipboard, otherwise this is the address indicated in the From field.

Copy subject ⇾ Copies the contents of the Subject field to the clipboard.

Copy pseudonym ⇾ Copy the author's pseudonym indicated in the From field (without the email address).

-- All messages in the thread -- Mark them as read and unchecked ⇾ Marks as read and unchecked all messages in the displayed thread which are not yet checked. This action can also be accomplished via the ⌥ ⌘ E shortcut.

Save… ⇾ Opens the Save (.txt) message dialog box. The .txt formatted record will contain the header fields you checked in the dialog box, followed by the body of the message.

Print… ⇾ Opens the Print Message dialog box. You can choose which header fields to include. You can also choose to include or not the dbFace if it is present, or the X-Face if it is present. If you print in color, the quote and signature colors will be reproduced when the message is printed.

In each list, you can freely choose the fields to include by checking them. You can also choose to include the entire list (Select All) or not include any fields in the list (Deselect All).

If you are the author of the message displayed and if this message was posted using the same protection key as that of the active database (see chapter 3.02. Message protection key), two items are added to this menu:

Cancel

This command sends, after confirmation, a request to cancel the message concerned to your news server which will transmit it (or not, see the text box below) to the group control.cancel, in order to inform the other servers that the cancellation of the message has been validated, and that therefore they should no longer distribute it.

Supersede

This command allows you to replace the message concerned with another message, for example if you notice after sending that you have made an error. MacCafé then opens the Compose window containing the message to replace, preceded by the words 'Supersedes: <ID of the message to replace>'. You can correct or even completely rewrite the message before validating it.

MacCafé will automatically add the field 'Supersedes: <ID of the message to replace>' to the header of the replacement message, which will inform the news servers that the message to be replaced must be canceled.

6ᵒ Reply to message

• Reply in the group

Optionally select the part of the message to which you wish to reply, then press the F key. The Compose window will open and the portion of the message you selected (or the entire body of the message if you selected nothing) will be included in the form of a quote, with a bracket angle (>) at the start of each line.

If the message you are replying to contains a large number of lines, it is strongly recommended that you select a significant portion of them to include in your reply. In particular, unless it is necessary for understanding, it is better to only include a first-level quotation (lines preceded by a single bracket angle and not several).

This trimming of citations is important not only for readability, but also because some servers may reject a message containing a significant proportion of quoted text:

It is also possible to reduce quotes when writing the message: see the section Processing of quoted text in chapter 4.04.

Special cases

If the cases below occur, a dialog box will be displayed before opening the Compose window.

Case 1. When you reply to a cross-posted message (published simultaneously on several groups) but without Followup-To, the dialog Reply Information opens and displays the following message: You are replying to a message that was cross-posted to [n] groups. Please take a closer look at the recipient groups and delete any that are no longer relevant. In other words, once the Compose window is open, it will be up to you to clean up the Newsgroups list…

Case 2. When you reply to a message whose header includes a Followup-To field (containing one group, several groups or the keyword poster), the Followup-To requested - Choose action… dialog box opens to allow you to choose where your reply will be published.

a. If the Followup-To field contains a single group and you are subscribed to it, you have three choices:

Cancel ⇾ You give up replying to the message.

No Followup-To ⇾ Your reply will be processed according to case 1 (cross-post without Followup-To) and the Reply Information dialog. will be displayed.

Followup-To ⇾ The group indicated in the Followup-To field will be the only group contained in the Newsgroups field of the Compose window.

b. If the Followup-To field contains a single group but you are not subscribed to it, only Cancel and No Followup-To actions are available.

c. If the Followup-To field contains several groups, the Followup-To requested - Choose action… dialog is enriched with a list of these groups. For the Followup-To action to be enabled, you must select the group where you want your reply to be posted. If you select a group that you are not subscribed to, an alert will appear below the list and the Followup-To action will be disabled. (If you are subscribed to the group, but in another profile, an alert will also inform you, but the selection will be valid.)

• Reply by email: the button

In the Message windows there is a button which allows you to reply by email to the author of the displayed message. Its color indicates the status of the reply address verification, depending on the data recorded or not in the database. It can be found in two different locations:

- either in front of the Reply-To field if it exists (in this case, it is the address contained in this field which will be transmitted to your messaging software);

- or in front of the From field if there is no Reply-To field.

The button consists of two parts: a colored area on which you can make a  ⌘  + click to reply by email to the message (see below), a white area marked with a small ▾ icon which displays a pop-up menu when clicked. The content of this menu varies depending on the color of the button.

The address has not been verified and is therefore not recorded in the database.

The pop-up menu offers the following items:

Test address ⇾ This command launches the verification of the email address and will result in declaring it either valid or invalid. In both cases, the address and the result will be recorded in the database.

Warning: this verification requires an Internet connection. If you are not connected, an alert will inform you that the verification could not be launched.

For more details about verifying email addresses, see Appendix 7.

Force address as valid ⇾ The address will be saved as a valid address and the button will turn green (no verification will be performed).

Force address as invalid ⇾ The address will be saved as an invalid address and the button will turn red (no verification will be performed).

The email address has been verified and recorded in the database as a valid address.

This means that this address has correct syntax, that its domain is present in the DNS register and that it is compatible with the exchange of emails.

The pop-up menu offers the following items:

Force address as invalid ⇾ The address will be saved as an invalid address and the button will turn red (no verification will be performed).

Delete address from known addresses ⇾ The address record will be removed from the database and the button will turn orange.

Caution! Even if the address is declared valid, there is no guarantee that it actually belongs to the author of the message. If in doubt, it is better to refrain from replying by email, or else ask the author on the group, so that he can confirm that this is indeed his/her address.

The email address has been verified and recorded in the database as an invalid address.

This means that this address contains either one or more syntax errors, or a domain which is not registered or which is incompatible with the exchange of emails.

The pop-up menu offers the following items:

Force address as valid ⇾ The address will be saved as a valid address and the button will turn green (no verification will be performed).

Delete address from known addresses ⇾ The address record will be removed from the database and the button will turn orange.

Detailed cause of the error… ⇾ This command displays an information box containing the description of the first error encountered when checking the address.

The button can be used regardless of its color. A  ⌘  + click on the colored part will send the relevant address (whether valid or not) to your email software by default, as well as the body of the message (or the part of the body that you have previously selected) in the form of a quote, to allow the composition of a reply email.

• Case of Followup-To: poster

If the message you are replying to contains this header field, it means that the author prefers to be replied by email rather than in the group. When the case arises, MacCafé invites you to choose between respecting the author's choice — that is to say reply by email — or reply on the group anyway.

If you choose to reply by email, MacCafé checks the author's reply address (the one in his/her Reply-To field if it exists, otherwise the one in his/her From field). If the address is valid, it is transmitted to your email software to allow you to compose your reply email.

If the address is invalid, MacCafé offers you a new choice: cancel reply or reply by email anyway.

7ᵒ Kill-file / Rehabilitate the author of the message

The  ⌘ K shortcut, already encountered in the List window, is also available in the Message window where it plays the same roles: filtering the author of the message or rehabilitating him/her if he was previously filtered. See the Author filtering preferences for more information on the filtering modes offered by MacCafé.

8ᵒ Delete message from database

The  ⌘ D shortcut, also present in the List window, allows you to delete the currently viewed message. If you have not checked the  Don't ask again (Message & List windows) option (either in the Tools preferences or during a previous deletion), you will be asked for confirmation. Otherwise, deletion will be immediate (unless the message is locked).

Once the message is deleted from the database, the Message window that contained it closes, and of course the message disappears from the List window.

For details on deleting messages, see the related text box in chapter 4.02.

4.04. Compose

It is in the Compose window that you will write your messages. Only one Compose window can be open at a time. If you wish to write a message while another is being written, you will first need to save the latter in draft mode, so that you can finish writing it later (see section 2ᵒ).

Depending on whether you write a new message or a reply to a message, the content of the window has differences which will be detailed in section 6ᵒ and section 7ᵒ. For now, let's look at the common elements.

1ᵒ Composition settings

At the top of the window, several settings are offered to you:

• Reply formula  ⇾ A pop-up menu that allows you to choose one of the reply formulas you have saved in the Reply formula and signatures preferences. This choice is remembered for future messages, until you choose another formula.

• Signature  ⇾ Another pop-up menu dedicated to signatures recorded in Reply formula and signatures preferences. Again, the choice is remembered until you choose another signature.

• Spell checking  ⇾ when this option is checked, spelling correction is enabled (see section 4ᵒ). When the window opens, it will be checked or not depending on what you have chosen in the Display settings 1 preferences. You can check or uncheck it at any time during writing.

• Lines of [x] characters 72 ⇾ When the window opens, this setting displays the maximum number of characters per line that you chose in the Display settings 1 preferences. The recommended values (proposed by default) in newsreaders are generally 72 or 80 characters. However, you can increase this value for the message currently being written, if for example you wish to include long lines of code (script or other) which must not be cut (unnecessary precaution for long URLs that MacCafé will be able to handle correctly).

• Save ⇾ Lets you choose between Ready to send  (checked by default when opening the window) and Draft mode .

– Ready to send : When you click on the Validate button, your message is placed in the outbox. It will therefore be sent as soon as you click on the Send button in the Profile windows.

– Draft mode : Clicking on the Validate button will store your message in drafts, so that you can resume writing it later. As long as it remains in draft state, it will not be sent.

2ᵒ Buttons

• The Cancel button allows you to abort writing the current message.

– If you haven't written anything in the input area yet, it will simply close the window.

– Otherwise, it will display an alert which will offer you the following three options:

1. Close ⇾ Closes the window without saving the message.

2. Draft ⇾ Saves the message in drafts, then closes the window.

3. Resume ⇾ Goes back to writing the message.

• The Validate button applies the action determined in the Save setting: it places the message either in the outbox or in the drafts. Then the Compose window closes.

• The button is dedicated to adding occasional header fields (see text box in the next section).

3ᵒ The header panel

The header panel displays the following header fields by default:

• Newsgroups  ⇾ It contains the name of the original group (the last group selected in the Profile window for new messages, or the group in which the message you are replying to is located). You can add other groups in the drop-down list (if you post your message to several groups, you are doing what is called a cross-post). To remove a group, right-click its name and click Remove group - [group name]. Read section 8ᵒ for more information about cross-posts.

• Subject ⇾ The subject of the message. This field can be edited.

• Followup-To  ⇾ The pop-up menu allows you to choose the group you want the discussion to continue to. If you choose poster at the bottom of the list, you will let your contacts know that you only want to be replied to by email. Read section 8ᵒ for more information about followup.

• From ⇾ The field that identifies you (built from your profile information).

• Optionally added is the Reply-To field, if you added it in the Add custom message header fields preferences.

This field can be edited, if you occasionally wish to enter another reply address (which belongs to you, of course). As soon as you have validated your entry (press Return or click outside the field), the email address will be verified. In case it is invalid, an alert will inform you of the first error encountered and the entry will be canceled.

For more information about verifying email addresses, see Appendix 7.

If you completely clear the content of the Reply-To field before validating the entry, it will be removed from the message header.

4ᵒ The input area

This area is intended for writing your message. It has all the standard text management features, whether with the mouse (moving the selection by drag and drop) or with the keyboard (shortcuts identical to those of word processors).

The input area is in fact composed, depending on the case, of two or three individually editable zones, protected by separation elements that cannot be modified or deleted:

This division into independent zones makes it possible to treat the line break differently depending on the case. So, when for one reason or another you decide to reduce or increase the length of the lines in your message, the reply formula and signature will not be affected by this new setting.

Separator elements can be displayed as they actually appear (blank line after the formula zone, '-- ' delimiter before the signature) or as a solid line, depending on that you have chosen in Display settings 1 preferences.

Ⓐ The formula zone

This zone and its blank dividing line are obviously only present when you write a reply message. If you have chosen a reply formula in the settings, it will be displayed when the Compose window opens. You can freely edit this formula. You can even delete it if you have not quoted anything from the message to which you are replying (on the other hand, if you have quoted all or part of this message, it is recommended to leave a reply formula).

The formula zone inherits the line break corresponding to the number of characters indicated in the Preferences, but does not take into account the possibly different number at the top of the window.

Ⓑ The message text zone

This zone does not have the same content when the window opens, depending on whether you are writing a new message or a reply message.

• New message ⇾ A simple empty line in which the cursor will be placed after you have entered a subject and pressed the Tab key.

• Reply Message ⇾ The quoted text of the message you are replying to, followed by two blank lines, with the cursor placed on the second to allow you to immediately write your reply.

The line break in the text zone is based on the number of characters displayed in the settings at the top of the window.

Drag and drop is possible inside this zone.

Ⓒ The signature zone

This zone contains, when opened, the signature that you chose when previously writing a message (provided of course that you have defined at least one signature in the Preferences). You can freely edit this signature, or even delete it (although common practice recommends the presence of a signature at the bottom of the messages you send).

The lines in the signature zone are trimmed to 80 characters, which corresponds to the maximum recommended length.

Drag and drop is not allowed in the signature zone.

5ᵒ The context menu of the input area

A right click in one of the three zones described above brings up a context menu, the content of which varies depending on the zone in which the mouse is pointing.

The common elements are:

Cut (grayed out if no text is selected)

Copy (grayed out if no text is selected)

Note that the shortcuts corresponding to the commands above (respectively  ⌘ X and  ⌘ C), as well as  ⌘ A which allows you to select everything, only act on the zone in which the cursor is located, without extending over either of the other two zones.

Paste

Added to this are the commands already detailed in chapter 4.03. Message (reading):

• available without text selection: Open URL, Show image, Show message, Send email…

• available with text selection: Open URL, Show image, Show message, Send email…, Search with…, Translate with…, Encode or Decode in ROT13.

If spellchecking is enabled, additional items are available when right-clicking on a word underlined in red , selected or not.

If you have kept more than one dictionary in the Language and spell check preferences, the first item in the context menu will display the currently active dictionary and offer you a submenu to change it (this change is immediately operational).

One or more correction suggestions ⇾ Click on one of the proposed words so that it replaces the word underlined in red.

Learn ⇾ Saves the underlined word in the dictionary; it will no longer be considered incorrect.

Show correction dialog ⇾ Allows you to access additional correction options.

Ⓐ Additional item in the reply formula zone:

Clear reply formula.

Ⓑ Additional items in the message text zone:

Paste as quote ⇾ The (textual) contents of the clipboard are pasted with an angle bracket at the start of each line.

Commands for reducing and formatting quoted text

These optional context menu commands are detailed in the Processing quoted text section.

Ⓒ Additional item in the signature zone:

Clear signature.

6ᵒ Writing a new message

The Compose window for a new message has the following features:

• The title: New message (below: name of the first group in the Newsgroups field).

• The Subject field is empty when the window opens. You must enter a subject, after which press the Tab key will place the cursor in the text zone.

• The input area only contains an empty text zone and a signature zone.

When you have finished writing your new message; click on Validate. The message will then be placed, depending on the Save setting you have chosen, either in the outbox or in the drafts.

7ᵒ Writing a reply

The Compose window for a reply message has the following features:

• The title: '*  In reply to' (below: pseudonym of the author and subject of the message being replied to).

• The input area contains the following elements when the window opens:

– The formula zone.

– The text zone containing the quote from the text you are replying to (lines preceded by one or more angle brackets >), followed by two blank lines.

– The signature zone.

You can start writing your response where the input cursor is placed, that is, on the second blank line below the quoted text.

You can also, as we will see later, insert blank lines between two paragraphs of quoted text to insert your response elements.

Processing of quoted text

• If the cited text has multiple citation levels, as in the following example:

the context menu of the text zone will present a submenu titled Quote level reduction. The items it contains vary depending on the case and allow you to reduce the cited text according to your wishes. In our example:

Delete last level will remove level 4 quote lines.

Delete levels 3 to 4 will only keep the level 1 and 2 quote lines.

Keep only the 1st level will only leave quote lines starting with a single angle bracket (these are generally the ones answered).

• If the quote lines are longer than the default value defined in the 'Number of characters per line' preference (see chapter Display settings 1), you have two commands to reformat the quoted text.

Format hovered paragraph ⇾ Appears in the context menu when the mouse pointer is over a quote line whose length exceeds the default value.

This command will split the relevant citation line into several lines respecting the default length. This is particularly useful when replying to a message whose lines are not cut at all, with each quote line corresponding to a paragraph. Example:

could give this after formatting:

Format the lines of paragraphs in the selection ⇾ Appears when all or part of the quoted text is selected. Note that MacCafé will automatically adjust an incomplete selection (quoted portion of line not selected) or containing a portion of unquoted text.

Using this command, you can format one or more citation lines (or even the entire citation by first typing  ⌘ A). If the paragraphs of the selected text are clearly demarcated, they will be rendered correctly. For example, to format lines of 120 characters into 72 characters, let's select all of the following text:

Here is the result:

This command also allows you to format a paragraph whose first line has been shortened. For example:

becomes:

You will find more tips on quoted text in section 9ᵒ.

• Validating the reply message

When you have finished writing your response; click on Validate. The message will then be placed, depending on the Save setting you have chosen, either in the outbox or in the drafts.

8ᵒ Cross-post and followup

A cross-post consists of publishing a single message on several groups (which is preferable to 'multi-post', that is to say the publication of several distinct messages with the same content). When making a cross-post, it is strongly recommended to add a followup to only one of these groups, that is to say that the replies made to the cross-posted message will be redirected to this single group. This is the purpose of the Followup-To field (often abbreviated to FU2). This avoids cluttering several groups with the same discussion, especially if it were to continue. If you omit the FU2, MacCafé will display an alert message during validation.

Avoid cross-posts pointing to groups of different hierarchies (fr.*, alt.*, francom.*, proxad.*, etc.), knowing that certain hierarchies are not distributed by all servers (in particular private hierarchies reserved for a company's clients).

The FU2 must point to one of the groups in which the message is published, and only one. MacCafé respects this rule to the letter and will not allow you to break it.

9ᵒ Tips and tricks

• When you have inserted a URL in your message, it turns blue. You can then do a  ⌘  + click on it to transmit the address to your web browser. This will allow you to check that it does not contain any errors.

• It is recommended to surround URLs with angle brackets, like this:

<https://maccafe.fr/en/>

This will make them easier to detect in certain newsreaders.

• For the same reason, it is recommended to precede Message-IDs with the prefix news: and to surround everything with angle brackets; this is also the format in which MacCafé copies Message-IDs (see chapter 5. Main menu, section 3ᵒ). Example:

<news:r655r5$7l0$1@shakotay.alphanet.ch>

• When replying to a message, consider reducing the quoted text, retaining only the part you are replying to as much as possible. This can be done before writing, by selecting this part in the Message window before typing F (see 4.03. Message (reading), section 6ᵒ), but you can also process quoted text in the Compose window.

The Quote level reduction command allows you to remove "quotes of quotes", i.e. lines preceded by several angle brackets. As a general rule, it is better to avoid keeping several levels of quoted text, because with rare exceptions, they only hinder the understanding of your reply.

• You can also fragment the quote, so as to reply point by point by interspersing your answers between the cited parts:

• When a discussion deviates from its initial subject, it may be useful to modify the Subject field, so that it reflects the new subject being discussed. However, it is recommended to do it according to the rules of the art.

Let's take an example. You participate in a discussion entitled Newsreaders and X-Face, and you notice that part of the thread focuses on a single newsreader, let's say (at random) MacCafé. If you would like to take part in this branch of the discussion, you can replace the Subject field in your reply:

Re: Newsreaders and X-Face

with this:

MacCafé and X-Face (was: Newsreaders and X-Face)

Some newsreaders (including MacCafé) will automatically delete the old subject when their users reply to your message. Their Subject field will become:

Re: MacCafé and X-Face

4.05.Pending messages

In the Profile window, the icon (Pending messages) is active when it has a red dot, which means that there are messages ready to be sent and/or messages saved in drafts. Clicking on the icon opens the Pending Messages window, which contains two tabs: Drafts (n) (n indicating the number of draft messages) and Outbox (n) (n indicating the number of ready-to-send messages).

1ᵒ What is the difference between draft and ready-to-send messages?

Technically, drafts and ready-to-send messages are messages waiting to be sent, which at this stage can still be edited or even deleted.

The difference between the two states is that a message ready to send is counted in the red dot of the icon (Send), and that it will actually be sent to the server when this icon is clicked; it will then disappear from the outbox. A draft, for its part, can remain stored indefinitely in the list of drafts, and cannot be sent until it has been transferred to the outbox.

In the image opposite, there are two pending messages, but only one is ready to send; the other is a draft.

2ᵒ The Drafts tab

This tab lists messages that have been saved in draft mode, with the following information:

• Written on ⇾ The date and time the draft was last saved.

• Distribution / Subject ⇾ The group(s) indicated in the Newsgroups field of the draft, and the subject of the message.

When you select a draft, the message body appears below the list.

→ Outbox moves the selected draft to the Outbox tab. This action will be prohibited (and an alert message will be displayed) in the following cases:

– the selected draft does not contain a Subject;

– the selected draft does not contain text entered by you (new blank message or reply containing only quoted text).

Edit opens the selected draft in the Compose window, where you can continue composing it. A double click on the selected message will produce the same action.

Delete permanently deletes the selected draft (you will be asked for confirmation).

3ᵒ The Outbox tab

This tab lists messages that have been saved as ready to send. The list has the same columns as those in the Drafts tab: Written on and Distribution / Subject.

When you select a message ready to send, the message body appears below the list.

→ Draft moves the selected message to the Drafts tab.

Edit opens the selected draft in the Compose window, where you can continue composing it. A double click on the selected message will produce the same action.

Delete permanently deletes the selected draft (you will be asked for confirmation).

To profile (active only in this tab) offers an alternative remedy in the event of a breakdown of the active profile server. If sending a message fails in this profile, the button allows you to transfer the message to another profile's outbox, provided that both of the following conditions are met:

– the target profile server distributes at least one of the recipient groups;

– the list of recipient groups does not contain any groups in which the target profile's server prohibits posting.

Otherwise, as the message would be refused by the server, MacCafé displays an alert and the transfer is canceled.

However, it is not essential to be subscribed to the recipient group(s) in the target profile for the transfer to be accepted.

4ᵒ Special features of the Compose window opened from the Pending Messages window

When you resume writing a pending message, two scenarios may arise:

• This is a new message to post in the group ⇾ The title of the Compose window will be 'Edit message'.

• This is a reply to another post ⇾ The window title will be '*  Edit message'. A click on this starred title will display in a new Message window the message to which yours replies.

Aside from this title, the contents of the Compose window when it opens correspond exactly to what it contained when the message was last saved.

In particular, the status of the message (Ready to send orDraft mode) remains identical to that of the last recording. It will be up to you to change it in the event that from Draft mode you want its state to change to Ready to send (or vice versa).

4.06. Purge

The Purge window opens by clicking on the button in the Profile window. It is used to create scripts which have the function of deleting messages from the MacCafé database, according to various criteria.

When the window opens, the list of purge scripts is displayed, but as it is empty when you open the window for the first time, we will first study the three other tabs which will allow you to create your scripts.

1ᵒ Script creation tabs

You can create purge scripts based on:

– the age of the messages,

– the From field of messages (pseudonym and/or email address of the author),

– the Subject field of messages.

The three tabs By Age, 'From' field and 'Subject' field have the same structure.

• On the left, the script creation area (with variable content depending on the tab displayed).

• On the right:

– The Group selection option displays the list of groups in which you will check those which will be affected by your purge script. You have the Select All and Deselect All buttons to facilitate these two actions.

– The Global option allows you to apply the script to all groups, both those you are already subscribed to and those you will subscribe to in the future.

• At the bottom, a row of buttons:

Close ⇾ Closes the Purge window.

If the script being edited is functional but not saved, you will be asked for confirmation and you can choose between Resume editing the script or Exit the purge. (If you change tabs under the same circumstances, you will be asked for the same confirmation).

If you have started the execution of one or more scripts, this will continue even after closing the window. The only way to stop the purge process is to click the Stop button in the small progress window of the running script.

Save ⇾ Prompts you to give your script a name, then saves it. The script will now be included in the list of the Scripts tab.

Run ⇾ Immediately performs the purge ordered by your script. This command does not save the script for future use.

Evaluate ⇾ When you click on this button, MacCafé estimates the number of messages that will be deleted according to the criteria established by the script. This number will be displayed on the button itself. It will vary depending on the groups selected in the list on the right.

2ᵒ Create a purge script by Age

Using the By Age tab is simple:

• You enter the age (in years, months and days) beyond which messages should be deleted. The corresponding date is displayed below. For example:

• Then you check in the list on the right the group(s) which will be affected by the purge (you can also choose the Global option). For example:

• Finally, you check or uncheck the following two options (they are checked by default):

Preserve locked messages ⇾ Messages that you have locked will not be deleted, even if they meet the purge criteria.

Preserve my messages ⇾ Posts you authored will not be deleted, even if they meet the purge criteria.

• Once the criteria are established, you can Evaluate, Run and/or Save your script (see section 1ᵒ).

3ᵒ Create a script based on the 'From' field

In the 'From' field tab, you will be able to create a purge script based on the From field of messages , which contains the author's pseudonym normally followed by an email address.

• Start by searching for a pseudonym in the Pseudonym field. Pseudonyms containing your entry will be displayed in the pseudonym list.

• From the list, select the pseudonym of the person whose messages you want to delete. Its full From field will be displayed in the result field at the very bottom (below the options). For example:

Milou <milou@moulinsart.invalid>

• By default, the "From" field option is selected. This means that the purge will cover all messages that contain exactly the From field displayed.

If you select the Pseudonym only option, the purge will include all messages whose From field contains the selected pseudonym (the result field will no longer be visible). In our example, this will concern all messages whose author has the pseudonym Milou.

If you select the Email address option, only the email address contained in the From is displayed in the field result, and three additional choices are offered to you below the field:

Local part ⇾ In our example, only the milou@ part will constitute the purge criterion.

Email address ⇾ The whole address is taken into account: milou@moulinsart.invalid

Domain ⇾ Only the domain part is taken into account: @moulinsart.invalid

Finally, if you check the Editable option above the field, you will be able to freely enter your purge criterion: use only if you know what you are doing!

• Once your purge criterion has been established, all you have to do is check the group(s) that will be affected by the purge, or select the Global option.

• You can choose to enable or disable the Preserve locked messages option.

• Finally, you can Evaluate, Run and/or Save your script (see section 1ᵒ).

4ᵒ Create a script based on the 'Subject' field

The 'Subject' Field tab allows you to create a purge script based on the Subject field of messages, i.e. on a subject of discussion.

• The first thing to do is either to check the group(s) supposed to contain the messages to be deleted, or to select the option Global to take all groups into account.

• Next, start typing the target subject in the Start of subject… field. As you type, the Subject list updates. In case this update is delayed, you can click on the … button.

You can refine the search by selecting Starts with (the subject begins with the entered string) or Contains (the entered string can be at any position in the subject).

• Click on the subject that interests you in the list. It will then be placed in the Target subject area, where it can be edited if necessary; a possibility to use with caution!

• Then choose one of the following three criteria:

Complete Subject ⇾ Messages whose subject corresponds exactly to the character string present in the zone will be purged.

Subjet contains ⇾ Messages whose subject contains the string will be purged.

Sujet starts with ⇾ Messages whose subject begins with the string will be purged.

• Finally, check or uncheck the preservation options offered to you:

Preserve locked messages.

Ignore "RE: " at the start of subject ⇾ If you check this option, reply messages (to which 'RE:' is added before the subject) will also be purged. If you uncheck it, only the initial messages will be purged. This option is obviously unavailable if you chose Subject contains.

Keep the most recent one (by group) ⇾ This option is useful if you want to purge messages published periodically on groups, such as the Conseils d'utilisation or charters published on the fr.* hierarchy. It will allow you to keep, in each group, the most recent copy of the periodic message (see example no. 2 in the text box below).

• Finally, you can Evaluate, Run and/or Save your script (see section 1ᵒ).

5ᵒ The Scripts tab

It's the Scripts tab, as we have seen, which is displayed when the window opens.

• List of scripts

This list displays the scripts you have saved. You can order them by type or by name by clicking on the title of the corresponding column.

• Selected script

To select a script, click it outside the checkbox column. The script description appears in the text box below the list. There you will find the parameters of the script, as well as the groups concerned.

To evaluate the number of messages targeted by the script, click Evaluate.

To start running the script, click Run.

When a script is selected, the following buttons (at the bottom of the window) are active:

Delete script (You will be asked for confirmation.)

Edit script ⇾ Open the script in the tab corresponding to its type — By Age, 'From' field or 'Subject' field —, so that you can modify it.

Rename script ⇾ Opens a dialog box where you can enter the new script name.

• Checked script(s)

You can check one or more scripts from the list. You can also check all the scripts at once by clicking on the All button (when all the scripts are checked, this same button becomes None and allows you to uncheck all scripts).

When you have checked one or more scripts, clicking on the Run checked button will launch their execution one after the other. Each time a script is executed, a small progress window is displayed, and when the execution is complete, the script is unchecked.

Clicking the Stop button in the progress window of the currently running script stops the purge completely.

4.07. Search

The Search window opens by clicking on the button of the Profile window. It allows you to search for messages in the MacCafé database, according to the criteria you have chosen.

The window has three tabs: Search criteria, Message and Header which will be described in this chapter. When the window opens, or when the search results have been cleared, only the Search criteria tab is active.

In the following sections, we will study the different stages of a search.

1ᵒ Establish search criteria

We start by defining the scope of the research:who are the authors involved? to which group(s) should the search be extended or restricted?

a. The Author list

All authors listed in the database (for the active profile) are displayed in the Author list. To narrow the search scope, you can:

• Select one or more authors. To cancel your selection, click Deselect All.

• Use the Author field and the criteria from the associated drop-down list: Starts with / Contains /  Ends with. To return to the full list of authors, clear the contents of the  Author field.

If filtering results in only one person being displayed, that person is automatically selected.

• Click the Me button, which will limit the search to messages you wrote. To return to the full list of authors, click Deselect All.

b. The Groups list

The Groups list contains all the groups to which you are subscribed (in the active profile), and displays them in the same order as in the Profile window. To be able to launch a search, you must have selected at least one group. You can obviously select several, or even extend the search to all groups by clicking on Select all.

To select a group, simply click on it; it will then be checked. To deselect it, click on its name again.

To cancel all of your selections, click Deselect All.

The Newsgroups field allows you to restrict the contents of the list. For example, if you enter 'mac', only groups with 'mac' in the name will be displayed (note that typing in this field automatically deselects any groups you may have selected). To return to the full list of groups, clear the contents of this field.

If you have created separators in the Profile window, they appear in the list. When you check a separator, it automatically selects all groups below it, up to the next separator (or to the end of the list if the checked separator is the last one). If you uncheck it, these same groups are all deselected. In case only some of these groups are selected, the separator box will display a dash (-).

Note: As long as no group is selected, the Start search button is inactive.

We then choose the search mode to carry out: search in the body of messages or search in their header.

If you choose Body, MacCafé will search for words or character strings in the text of messages.

If you choose Header, a drop-down list appears giving you three possibilities:

• Extend search to all header fields (default -- All -- value, or no value).

• Choose one of the predefined header fields from the list.

• Enter another header field name in place of what is displayed.

It remains to determine what we are going to look for. To do this, we have the following tools:

Text to search: Here you can enter the text to search for in the body or header of messages.

The string (slow) or The words

– If you choose The string (slow), MacCafé will search its database for message bodies or headers that contain exactly the character string you entered. This research process can take time.

– If you choose The words, MacCafé will search for message bodies or headers containing all of the words you have entered, without them necessarily being side by side.

Note: The field  Text to search and the options  The string (slow) /  The words are set independently in each search mode (Body and Header). When you launch the search, only those in the active mode are taken into account, even if those in the other mode are entered.

2° Research process

The Start search button is only active if the chosen criteria allow a search to be carried out.

When the Start search button is active, the search starts when you click it.

A small progress window appears. It has a Stop button that allows you to stop searching at any time. In this case, no results will be displayed. Note that this is the only way to interrupt the search before the process completes. Indeed, the Search window cannot be closed while a search is in progress.

3° Display and exploitation of results

a. The results list

Once the process is complete, the messages found are displayed in the results list located at the bottom of the window. If no message could be found, the words 'Search unsuccessful' appear as a watermark on the results list.

In the results list, you can order the messages by clicking on the title of the Author, Date or Subject columns.

b. The Message and Header tabs

As soon as the list contains results, the Message and Header tabs become active. When you click on a message in the list, the window switches, depending on the search mode chosen, to the Message tab or to the Header tab to display its content. The group in which the message was found is also displayed. The words or string you searched for are highlighted in the tab corresponding to the search mode you performed.

Regardless of the search mode chosen, it is always possible to switch from one to the other of these two tabs, either with the mouse or by typing the H shorcut. This shortcut is indicated by an (H) in the name of the inactive tab.

Both tabs have an Open message button that will display the message in a new Message window. (This can also be achieved by double-clicking on a message in the results list.)

4° Search in previous result

If you have already performed a search, you can activate the Search in previous result option by clicking on the Disabled button (which will become Enabled). So, if you launch a new search, only the messages found during the previous one will be taken into account.

You will then be entitled to two different colored highlights for the words found during the first search and those found during the next.

It is thus possible to chain searches independently of the mode chosen (body or header) for each of them. It is also possible to perform more than two chained searches.

4.08. Header data correction

If you notice one or more of the following errors in the display of a message in the List window:

you can correct these errors using the Header Fields command (accessible in the List window) which will display the window Correction of header data. This will allow you, for example, to obtain a correct sorting of messages, when you display them without grouping the threads and ordering them by author, by subject or by date.

The left part of the window displays the complete header of the message as it was recorded in the database, as well as the Message-ID and the name of the group from which you launched the command.

In the right part, the header fields that can be modified are displayed. For each field, the Header Data button allows you to fill the Alternative | entry zone with the original content of the field, whether to edit it or to reset it at any time.

For the Pseudonym (From) and Subject fields, the Alternative | input box can be filled freely. For the Date field, you will be prompted to enter a date in the format DD/MM/YYYY. For the UTC Time field, you can enter hours, minutes and seconds in hh:mm:ss format.

The Save button saves your modifications in the database and closes the window.

The Close button closes the window. Any modifications will not be saved.

4.09. Text encoding correction

While the Header Fields command allows you to modify the defective header fields of a message, the Text Encoding command (accessible in the List window) can correct the body of the message if it contains unexpected characters.

To do this, MacCafé must first retrieve the message from the server. If the message is no longer on the server, the command will result in an alert message. If you have another profile created for a server that retains messages longer, you can try starting the operation again in that profile.

Once the message is retrieved, the Text Encoding Correction window opens.

The left part contains:

• The plain text of the message (which may display characters different from those expected, which is normal as no encoding is applied to it);

• a Result area, blank when the window opens, but which will fill when you click on one of the Apply buttons.

On the right are the following elements:

• Header ⇾ Contains the two header fields useful for correct encoding of the text:

– Content-Type: indicates the declared charset.

– Content-Transfer-Encoding: indicates the encoding method used in the message.

If one of these fields is empty, it is because it was not declared when the message was sent.

• Detected ⇾ Displays the charset (character set) and encoding method detected in the message header. By clicking on Apply, you will see displayed, in the Result area, the text decoded according to these criteria (therefore identical to what is displayed currently when you open the message in MacCafé). Note: if both fields in the Header section are empty, the result will not be displayed.

• Manual ⇾ Here you can combine the different charsets and encodings available, and click Apply to check their result on the text of the message.

When the text displayed in Result looks correct, you can click Save. The correction of the message will be saved in the MacCafé database and the window will close.

When you click Close, the window closes without saving the correction.

Example of correcting a message

Excerpt from a message for which no charset and no encoding were specified in the header:

After applying, in Manual, the charset ISO-8859-1 and encoding 8 Bit, the Result area displays this:

Mission accomplished!

4.10. About MacCafé…

Accessible from the MacCafé menu, the About MacCafé… window brings together information that may be useful to you. Here are the main ones:

• The number and date of the version of MacCafé you are using,

• A link to the MacCafé website,

• The path to the folder in which MacCafé data is stored (database and settings).

• A table of information about your active database,

• A button to open this Documentation (see chapter 4.12 Documentation). Clicking this button also closes the About… window.

• A button allowing you to display a History (in French) of MacCafé versions.

The history only takes into account versions published since the last major update (version 3.0 currently). To find the complete history of MacCafé since its very first public version, see the History menu of the MacCafé website.

4.11. Documentation

This documentation can be opened directly in MacCafé by three means:

– click on Documentation in the About MacCafé… window

– in the main menu of MacCafé, click on Windows Documentation

– press  ⌘  ?  (equivalent to ⇧ ⌘  , )

Let’s see how the Documentation window looks…

1ᵒ The upper banner

• ⊖ and ⊕ are zoom commands (reduce/enlarge) that act on the web page.

• , and provide access to classic web browser commands, respectively Go to previous page, Go to next page and Reload current page.

• 🏠 allows you, when a link from the page has taken you to another website, to return directly to the documentation and refresh it.

• URL displays the address of the web page currently displayed (which can be, as we will see, another page than that of the documentation itself).

• → Browser opens the web page currently displayed in your browser and closes the Documentation window. If you want to keep it open, press the  ⌥  key and click on the button.

2ᵒ The web area

This area contains the actual documentation. All links, whether to part of the document or to another website, are fully functional (except for links that attempt to open in another window, but the documentation itself contains none).

It is possible to select and copy all or part of the page content to the clipboard:  ⌘ A to select all,  ⌘ C or menu Edit Copy to copy the selection.

The context menu partially repeats that of the Safari browser.

• Right click on a blank area of the page:

Reload ⇾ Refreshes the page content and reloads external resources (style sheets, etc.). This command is more complete than that of the button which only refreshes the content. We recommend that you systematically launch it the first time you open the documentation after updating MacCafé. It is also advisable to launch it regularly, in order to benefit from any corrections made to the documentation between two updates.

Save Page As… ⇾ Saves the web page to the location of your choice.

Print… ⇾ Web page print command. Warning! Do not use this command, otherwise you will waste a lot of paper with deplorable results.

Inspect element ⇾ Opens a simplified version of the Safari Inspector.

• Right click on a word or a selection of text:

Search […] ⇾ Opens the macOS Dictionary to search for the selected word or text.

Search [search engine] ⇾ Opens Safari to search for the word or selection in the browser's default search engine.

Copy ⇾ Copies the word or selection to the clipboard.

The Share, Speech, Services submenus are identical to those in found in the context menu of Safari. We also find the commands Save Page As…, Print… (same warning as above) and Inspect element.

Note: While MacCafé allows you to follow links to web pages external to the documentation, it can only do so within the Documentation window. Therefore, the Open link in new window command from the context menu will give the same result as the Open link command: the link will open in the Documentation window. Likewise, a hyperlink designed to open a page in a new window will open it in that same window.

3ᵒ The index

To make your research easier, the documentation has an index. This opens in a separate page when you click on the Index button located in the middle of the -head. The index page has a Doc button placed in the same place to return to the documentation.

To browse the index, simply click on the letters of the alphabet at the top of each section. Each entry in the index has one or more links pointing to the passage(s) of documentation corresponding to that entry.

4.12. Message filters

The Message Filters window opens by clicking on the button. of the Profile window. It allows you to create filters which will be used during retrievals, in order to apply various actions to the messages concerned. You will find concrete examples of filters at the end of this chapter.

When the window opens, the list of filters created is displayed, but as it is empty when you open the window for the first time, we will first study the Filter tab which will allow you to design and edit your filters.

1° The Filter tab

a. The name of the filter

The first thing to enter is the name you want to give to your filter. This name will be entered in the Name: | field. Please note: You will not be able to save your new filter if you give it the exact same name as a filter already in the list.

b. The conditions

You will then define the condition(s) necessary for applying the filter. A condition is made up of three elements: a header field, a test and a value. Some examples:

Choose from the Field  drop-down list the header field on which the condition will apply. The list contains the most commonly used fields, but you can enter a field name that is not there, such as Approved, Keywords, Summary, etc.

Choose one of the following items from the Test  drop-down list:

- contains / doesn't contain ⇾ the header field contains / does not contain the character string chosen as value.

- starts with / doesn't start with ⇾ the string is / is not at the beginning of the field content.

- ends with / doesn't end with ⇾ the string is / is not at the end of the field content.

- is / is not ⇾ the string is/is not the exact contents of the field.

Finally, enter the character string to test in the Value | field.

Finally, click on the Add button. The condition will be displayed in the Condition(s) list.

You can also reset the condition edit box by clicking Clear.

If you need to add other conditions, repeat the steps above. Your new conditions will be added to the list.

When a condition has been added to the list, right-clicking on it displays a context menu allowing you to edit or delete it. If you choose Edit, the Field, Test and Value elements of the current condition are displayed and the Add button becomes Replace.

c. How the filter is applied

You can choose how the filter will be applied:

 All conditions are validated ⇾ Messages will only be filtered if they meet all filter conditions.

 At least one condition is validated ⇾ Messages only need to satisfy a single filter condition for them to be filtered.

See the filter examples at the end of the chapter to better understand the benefits of each of the two modes.

d. The action to perform on filtered messages

The drop-down list allows you to choose which action will be performed on each message affected by the filter:

- Check ⇾ The message is checked.

- Auto-check ⇾ The message is checked, and if it generates a thread or a sub-thread, the messages that follow will be automatically checked.

- Ignore ⇾ The message is marked as read upon retrieval and is assigned the pictogram . You can choose the color of the pictogram by clicking on the Picto color button .

- Auto-ignore ⇾ The message is marked as read upon retrieval and is assigned the pictogram (here too, you can choose the color of the pictogram). If this message generates a thread or a sub-thread, the messages that follow will automatically be marked as read and will be marked with a ━ sign.

- Tag ⇾ This action highlights the message by giving it the pictogram . You can choose the color of the pictogram by clicking on the Picto color button .

- Delete ⇾ The message is deleted upon retrieval.

e. Filter scope

• If you choose  Selected groups, you will need to check in the list of groups those which will be affected by the filter. The principle is the same as for purging; in particular, all the groups to which you are subscribed, all profiles combined, are present in the list.

• If you choose  Global, the filter will apply for all groups you are subscribed to at the time of filtering, that is, if you subscribe to new groups, these will be automatically taken into account during future retrievals.

f. Saving the filter

When your filter is operational, the Save button becomes active. By clicking on it, you switch to the List tab where you will find your new filter, added at the bottom of the list.

By clicking on Cancel, you also switch to the List tab, but the filter is not saved.

2° The List tab

The filter list itself contains four columns:

• The filter activation column, in which you can check the filters you want to make active, or uncheck those you want to temporarily deactivate. Only checked filters will be applied during recoveries. When a new filter is added to the list, it is unchecked by default.

• The Name column displays the names you entered for your different filters.

• The Action column indicates the action to perform for each filter.

• The Scope column indicates whether the filter has a global scope or limited to a selection of groups.

Filters can be moved in the list by drag and drop. Their position is memorized by MacCafé.

A right click on a filter displays a context menu containing the following commands:

Edit (see section 3° below). This command is also accessible by clicking on the Edit button.

Delete. This command is also accessible by clicking on the Delete button. In both cases, you will be asked for confirmation.

Enable all filters

Disable all filters

The Duplicate button (which has no equivalent in the context menu) allows you to create a copy of the selected filter which will serve as a basis for editing a new filter:

• The copy of the selected filter is added at the bottom of the list, unchecked, with the mention (copy) at the end of its name.
• The Filter tab automatically opens to allow you to edit this new filter.

When you select a filter, its detailed operation is displayed below the list. It includes all the elements chosen when editing the filter: Conditions, Application, Action, Groups.

3° Edit an existing filter

When you launch the Edit command in the List tab, the window switches to the Filter tab where the filter is loaded and you can modify its configuration as you wish.

Once the changes have been made, click Save to validate them, or Cancel to keep the old version of the filter.

4° Some examples of filters

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead… etc. 😉

• Example 1: highlighting authors

This filter will tag the messages of the authors you wish to follow, that is to say assign them a pictogram in the color of your choice.

The chosen application mode is necessarily At least one condition must be validated.

If we want to ensure that the messages concerned cannot be affected by a negative filter, we will place this positive filter at the top of the list.

• Example 2: filter 'undesirable' authors

Unlike the previous filter, this one will perform a negative action (here Ignore, but it could also be Auto-ignore or Delete) on the authors covered by the conditions. We can thus obtain a complete kill-file which fits into a single filter. Note the special case of the third condition: in the case of a 'chameleon' author who regularly changes his pseudonym, it is not the From field which is tested, but another field which allows to identify this author.

• Example 3: highlight discussion topics

As in example 1, this filter will tag messages whose subject interests you.

Note the presence of the forms MacCafé, maccafé, MacCafé and maccafe, made necessary by the sensitivity to capital letters and accents of the value entry field.

• Example 4: filter cross-posts without Followup-To

In this filter, testing for the presence of a comma in the Newsgroups field allows you to check if the message has been posted to several groups. As for the Followup-To field, we check that it does not exist using the is test without entering any value.

Here, it is important that both conditions are validated, hence the choice of application mode.

• Example 5: Filter messages with followup to a given group

• Example 6: Automatically delete replies from the fr.test robot

Note that for this filter based on a single condition, the choice of application mode has no importance.

• To conclude, here is the carefully ordered list of our filters. Remember that when a filter is applied to a given message, the filters following in the list are not tested for this same message.

The 'favorite authors' filter is placed at the top of the list, so that messages from relevant authors cannot be affected by negative action. For example, if one of the authors we follow followed to junk, his message would not be ignored as stipulated by the 'follows to avoid' filter, and it would not lose its color pictogram.

The order assigned to the other filters is a matter of personal choice. Here, we considered that the filters leading to deletion should have priority over the following filters, but we could just as easily decide otherwise (for example to ensure that the message from an 'undesirable' dealing with one of our favorite topics is not deleted). It's up to everyone to adjust the order of their filters according to their preferences.

Case of groups without subscription

If you have created a filter for a selection of groups, it may happen that certain groups in this selection are no longer available on any profile, because you unsubscribed from them after creating the filter. However, these missing groups are not deleted from the filter, because you could resubscribe to them later. They appear:

- crossed out in filter details (List tab)

- mentioned in the Unsubscribed Groups list (Filter tab)

You can, if you wish, delete them manually:

In the Unsubscribed Groups list, right-click a group to delete, and then click Delete group [group name] .

or

In the Unsubscribed Groups list, right-click a group and then click Delete All Groups.

For further…

Other examples of filters are presented to you in Appendix 9. Some tips.

5. Main menu

1ᵒ MacCafé menu

This is the standard application menu for macOS. Except for its first item, this menu is always displayed in the language defined in your system preferences. Here you will find in particular the following items:

About MacCafé… ⇾ Opens the About MacCafé… window.

Preferences… /  ⌘  ,  ⇾ Opens the Preferences window.

Quit MacCafé /  ⌘ Q ⇾ See chapter Quit MacCafé.

2ᵒ File menu

Fetch news from all groups /  ⌥  ⌘ K ⇾ Starts retrieving new messages in all groups of the active profile (on this subject, read the FIRST MESSAGE RETRIEVAL OF A GROUP in chapter Profile (window)).

Display pending messages… /  ⌥  ⌘ B ⇾ Opens the Pending messages window. This item is grayed out if there are no pending messages.

Send messages /  ⌥  ⌘ E ⇾ Sends all ready-to-send messages to the server. This item is grayed out if there are no messages in the outbox.

Send then Fetch news / ⇧ ⌘ E ⇾ Sends all ready-to-send messages, then continues with a message retrieval from all groups. This item is also grayed out if there is no message in the outbox.

Open database… ⇾ Allows you to change base. The active base will be closed, the one you have chosen will open and become the default base.

Open recent database ⇾ Same action as the previous command, the base to open being chosen from the list of bases recently opened by MacCafé (this list can contain up to 10 items). This item is disabled if you have not opened any database other than the active database, or if you have emptied the list by clicking on Clear menu.

Create database ⇾ Gives access to the following two items:

The procedures for creating a new base are described in chapter 9. Export/import settings, create a database.

Export settings ⇾ Saves the settings of the active base, so that they can be imported into another base (or selected during the procedure for creating a new base).

Import settings… ⇾ Imports a choice of previously saved settings into the active database.

Export and import procedures are described in chapter 9. Export/import settings, create a database.

Note: The Print… item is not active. To print a message, use the print command available in the Message windows.

3ᵒ Edit menu

In addition to the classic editing commands (visible regardless of the active window), the Edit menu can offer the following items (active or grayed out depending on the circumstances):

Copy Message-ID / ⇧ ⌘  I  (Message window) ⇾ Copies the identifier of the open message to clipboard.

Copy email address / ⇧ ⌘ A (Message window) ⇾ Copies the email address of the author of the opened message to the clipboard. If the message contains a Reply-To field, it is the address present in this field which is copied, otherwise it is that of the From field.

Paste as quote / ⇧ ⌘ V (Compose window) ⇾ Pastes the textual contents of the clipboard as a quote: angle bracket (>) added to the start of each line.

Encode or Decode in ROT13 /  ⌥  ⌘ R (Message or Compose window) ⇾ Transforms the selected text according to the ROT13 algorithm (explanation on Wikipedia). This item is grayed out if no text is selected.

Search… /  ⌘ F ⇾ opens the Search window.

Search by M‑ID… /  ⌥  ⌘ F ⇾ opens a dialog box inviting you to enter or paste a message-ID, in order to start searching for the corresponding message. Read chapter 6. Search by Message-ID for more information on this subject.

Server has M‑ID… ⇾ opens a dialog box allowing you to check on which servers the message corresponding to a given message-ID is present. You enter or paste the message-ID in the M‑ID to test  input box, you check the servers to be taken into account for the test (these choices are remembered for later use), then you click on Test.

Note : The M-ID to be tested can be entered or pasted in one of these three forms:

• <news:mid@example>
• <mid@example>
• mid@example

The Exists column will tell you, for each server tested, whether the message is present (YES) or not (---) This test allows, for example, to check on which servers the cancellation of a message was honored. If connecting to a server results in an error, - ERR - will be displayed in this column.

4ᵒ Window menu

This menu provides access to the main MacCafé windows currently open. It consists of a fixed part, whose items are active or grayed out depending on whether the corresponding window is open or not:

Profile

Pending messages

Compose

Search

Purge

Filters

Documentation /  ⌘  ?  (equivalent to ⇧ ⌘  , ) ⇾ This item is always active . If the Documentation window is already open, it works like the other menu items. Otherwise, it is used to open this window and thus provides access to the MacCafé documentation.

Supported image formats ⇾ Item always active as well, it displays the list of image formats that can be opened in the MacCafé image viewer. Remember that this list varies depending on the version of macOS used.

Note: Although not referenced in the list, the alternative extensions .jpeg and .tiff are supported by MacCafé.

There are also three submenus (greyed out if empty):

Opened groups ⇾ The currently open List windows.

Messages ⇾ The currently open Message windows.

'Online' Messages ⇾ The M‑ID search windows currently open. The items in this submenu have the prefix WEB when they designate a Web Archive window displaying the page of an archiving website, or MSG when it is an 'Online' Message window displaying a message found on a server. These two types of window are described in chapter 6. Search by Message-ID.

Finally, the Bring all to front command, as its title indicates, brings all open MacCafé windows to the front.

5ᵒ Help menu

This system menu is essentially used to find menu items corresponding to the entry in its search field. If you need help with MacCafé, read this documentation instead.😉

6. Search by Message-ID

Principle and procedure of the Message-ID search

MacCafé allows you to search for a message for which you know the Message-ID (this term, commonly abbreviated to 'M‑ID', refers to the unique identifier in the message header).

This research can have various starting points.

• From a Message window:

• Right click on an M‑ID, then click on Show Message (item also available in the context menu of the Compose window).
• Click on one of the buttons or indicating that the message displayed is a reply to a message posted on another group and has a Followup-To field.
• In the graphical representation of the thread, click on the gray circle representing a 'ghost message', that is to say a message which, although referenced in the thread, is absent for one reason or another.

• From the Edit menu Search by M‑ID…. This command opens a dialog that allows you to paste or enter the M‑ID of the message to search for. The following three formats are accepted:

• <news:r655r5$7l0$1@shakotay.alphanet.ch>
• <r655r5$7l0$1@shakotay.alphanet.ch>
• r655r5$7l0$1@shakotay.alphanet.ch

Whatever its origin, the M‑ID search is carried out in one, two or three steps depending on the case:

1. Search for the message in the MacCafé database. Note: This step will be skipped if it is obvious that the message is missing from the database (for example when we clicked on a button ).
2. If the message is not in the database and if you have activated the search option  NNTP servers (see the section 3ᵒ of chapter 3.10), sending a request to your news server (or to your servers, one after the other until the message is found) to search for the message.
3. If the message is also not on the server(s) or if the  NNTP servers option is disabled, launch the search on a Web archive site, again provided that you have activated this service (see section 3ᵒ of chapter 3.10).

Step 1 - Searching for the message in the database

When the M‑ID corresponds to a message present in the MacCafé database, this message opens in a new Message window.

If you are using multiple profiles, the message for the M‑ID may not be in a group in the active profile. In this case, you will be notified in the following way: if the active profile is named Profile 1 and the message is in a profile named Profile 2, the name  Profile 2  will be displayed with a red background at the top of the Message window. If you reply to the message, your reply message will be saved in Profile 2's outbox.

If the message corresponding to the M‑ID has been cross-posted (that is to say published simultaneously on several groups), a dialog will ask you which instance of the message you want to open. Here again, you will be able to open an occurrence of the message which is in a profile other than the active profile, under the same conditions as above.

Step 2 - Searching for the message on the server: the 'Online' Message window

The search on the NNTP server(s), if enabled in the Preferences, is launched when the message corresponding to the M‑ID was not found in the database.

If the desired message was found on a server, it will open in an ’Online’ Message window which has some differences from standard Message windows. Please note that the message thus presented is only intended for consultation: you cannot reply to it and if it is one of your messages, you cannot cancel or replace it from this window. However, under certain conditions, you can save the message in the database, which will make these actions possible.

1. Instead of the graphical representation of the thread, the list of M‑IDs possibly present in the References field of the message is displayed. By default, M‑IDs are ordered from newest to oldest (which places the message to which the displayed message replied to at the top of the list), but it is possible to reverse this order by clicking on the column title Order.

This is obviously a partial representation of the row: messages published after the displayed message cannot be included, and even the list of those which preceded it may be incomplete, some newsreaders imposing a limit on the number of Message-IDs in the References field.

The Db column provides information on the possible presence of each message in the list in the MacCafé database: we will read yes if the message is found in the database, --- otherwise.

2. On the right is an information frame where the origin of the research is entered (see the starting points mentioned at the beginning of this chapter).

Below this frame is placed a button. When the window opens, it is called Search and it is inactive. It is only activated when you select a Message-ID from the list on the left. It will then change its title and become:

if the selected M‑ID corresponds to a message present in the database (yes in Db column). In this case, a click on the button will open the message corresponding to the M‑ID in a standard Message window, as in step 1 .

if the M‑ID corresponds to a message missing from the database (--- in Db column). A click on the button will display the following menu:

Archive website (grayed out if no site is defined in Preferences) ⇾ Starts searching for the message on the web archive site you have chosen (see step 3 ).

All servers ⇾ Starts searching for the message on the servers used in your profiles.

Added to this is the list of servers you are using, to allow you to launch the search on a server of your choice.

The Save to database button allows you to add the viewed message to the active MacCafé database, provided that you are subscribed to at least one of the groups present in the Newsgroups field of this message (otherwise, the button is inactive). Once the message is saved, it is displayed in a standard Message window.

• If it is an isolated message (empty References list) or if it is the only one in the sequence to be absent from the database (all entries in the References list display yes in the Db column), the 'Online' Message window closes automatically.
• If the References list is not empty and contains M‑IDs not present in the database (--- in the Db column ), the 'Online' Message window remains open, allowing you to search for and save messages corresponding to these M‑IDs if you wish. To do this, you will need to start by saving the oldest message (the lowest in the list in default order), to avoid the thread being separated into several unrelated pieces, or even the messages becoming completely isolated.

3. The other elements of the window (the button , the header panels and of the message body as well as the context menu) are similar to those of a standard Message window, minus the reply, cancel and supersede commands.

Several 'Online' Message windows can be opened at the same time. In the Windows Online Messages menu, they are referenced with the MSG prefix.

In 'Online' Message windows, messages with multiple content (multipart) are treated in the same way as in Message windows (see the text box in chapter 4.03).

Step 3 - Searching for the message on an archive website: the Web Archive window

If steps 1 and 2 did not produce any results and you have activated the search on an archive website (see section 3ᵒ of chapter 3.10), a Web Archive window opens to display the search result on the website you have chosen.

As with the 'Online' Message windows, it is possible to have several Web Archive windows open simultaneously. In the Windows Online Messages menu, these windows are referenced with the WEB prefix.

1. The upper banner

• Site to query displays the list of available archiving sites. It allows you to submit the same Message-ID to another site. This can be useful if, for example, the search gave no results on the default site.

• ⊖ and ⊕ are zoom commands (reduce/enlarge) which act on the web page displayed under the banner.

• , and provide access to classic web browser commands, respectively Go to previous page, Go to next page and Reload current page.

• M‑ID of the message searched for displays the Message-ID of the message you searched for.

• URL displays the address of the currently displayed web page.

• The button opens a pop-up menu containing the following items:

Copy <URL> ⇾ Copies the URL framed in angle brackets to the clipboard (recommended format if the URL needs to be pasted into a message to be published on Usenet).

Copy URL ⇾ Copies the URL without angle brackets to the clipboard.

'Online' Message window ⇾ Displays the message in an 'Online' Message window (see step 2), which will allow you to access the functionalities offered by this window. This item is grayed out if the search did not result in the display of a message, or if the web search is carried out via a personalized URL which does not point to one of the predefined sites.

All servers ⇾ Starts searching for the message on the server(s) you are using.

As in the 'Online' Message window, you can also launch this search on a single server of your choice, using the list that appears under this item.

Obviously, at this stage, searching for the message on the server(s) only makes sense if it is disabled in the Preferences. Otherwise, it has already taken place and has not produced any results, since you have reached the third step…

2. The web area

The page displayed in the web area is fully functional, that is, you can follow the links displayed there.

It is possible to select and copy all or part of the content of the page to the clipboard:  ⌘ A to select everything,  ⌘ C or Edit Copy menu (or Copy in the context menu of the page) to copy the selection.

The context menu contains other items, particularly concerning text search, which are identical to those found in the Safari context menu.

Note: If MacCafé allows you to follow links to pages other than the one displayed, it can only do so inside the Web Archive window. Therefore, the Open link in new window command from the context menu will give the same result as the Open link command: the latter will open in the current Web Archive window. Likewise, a hyperlink designed to open a page in a new window will open it in that same window.

7. Quit MacCafé

You can quit MacCafé like any Mac application, the only difference is at the end of this command the appearance of an 'ad' window from the 4D company.

This window is not blocking, closes after a few seconds or immediately if you click on it.

8. Launch options

When you launch MacCafé, the application systematically opens the last used database. However, 4D offers the ability to choose other options at launch. To access it, here is how to proceed:

Press a  ⌥  key when launching MacCafé and keep it pressed until the following dialog appears:

This dialog displays in the language set in your system preferences. The screenshot above applies to an English system.

1ᵒ Open the application with the default data file

When you click on Continue, MacCafé launches by opening the default database, according to the standard procedure.

2ᵒ Select another data file

This option allows you to open another database (previously created) than the default database. When you click Continue, a file opening dialog appears. Navigate to the folder containing the database you want to open, then select the .4DD format file there and click on Open.

MacCafé will then launch by opening the base you have chosen, which will become the default base.

3ᵒ Create a new data file

With this option, you can create a new database, which will be up to you to configure and which will become the default database. When you click Continue, a file creation dialog opens.

Once the new database has been created, MacCafé generates a protection key and displays a dialog box allowing you to view and personalize it. If you wish to be able to cancel or replace messages posted from another database, it is essential to assign to your new database the key already used in this other database. Read chapter 3.02. Message protection key for more information.

4ᵒ Restore a backup file

This 4D function, which is of little use or even useless for MacCafé, will not be documented here. If you still want to know more, you can refer to the official 4D documentation, by clicking on the Online documentation… button in the Tools preferences.

5ᵒ Open the Maintenance and Security Center

While waiting for chapter 3.14. Tools to be updated, we recommend that you do not use the MSC tools if you are not familiar with the 4D environment.

The Cancel button in the dialog causes the process to close (without changing the default base), after a brief display of the 4D advertising window.

9. Export/Import settings, create new database

Since version 3.0, MacCafé has been equipped with commands that make it easier to manage its databases, without having to use the external tool offered by 4D (see chapter 8. Launch options) which is a bit limited. They are grouped in the File menu.

1° Export settings

The File Export settings menu item exports the settings of the active database, to allow you to import them later into another database, or to select them when creating a new base (see section 3° of this chapter).

The export files are saved in an export folder named [Database name] Export Réglages, placed in the folder that contains the active database. If you subsequently export the settings of the same database again, these export files will be overwritten and replaced by the new ones.

The following settings are exported:

• All profiles (Profile preferences data only, list of available groups and group subscriptions are not exported).
• Preferences Message protection key.
• Preferences Add custom message header fields (extra header fields, X-Face, Face).
• Preferences Reply formulas.
• Preferences Signatures.
• Preferences Display settings 1.
• Preferences Display settings 2.
• Preferences Author filtering.
• Preferences Search engines.
• Preferences Message retrieval (except settings regarding automatic retrieval).
• The setting Message deletion validation (present in the Tools) preferences.
• Message filters.
• The validity of email addresses recorded in the database.

2° Import settings…

The File Import settings… menu item allows you to import the settings of your choice into the active database, from an export folder previously created according to the procedure described above.

Once the folder is chosen, MacCafé checks that all the files necessary for import are present there, and if this is the case, it displays the following dialog:

Each row in the table specifies whether the settings to be imported will replace the corresponding existing settings or if they will be added to them.

When you select a row, explanatory text is displayed below the table, to tell you which elements will be imported, and how they will be imported. We recommend that you read this text carefully, for each type of settings you wish to import.

To choose a setting to import, simply check it (the corresponding line is automatically selected, to allow you to read the corresponding explanatory text).

The Activate all button checks all lines, except the Profile - 1 only line. Instead, the Profiles - All line is checked. The latter will be unchecked if you check Profile - 1 only (which will open a dialog allowing you to choose your unique profile to import).

When you have checked all the settings you want to import, click Import to start the import.

3° Create a new database

The File Create database menu item gives access to the two commands described below.

Default settings…

This command opens a dialog in which you will choose the name and location of your new database, as well as its protection key (it is the key of the active database which is proposed by default, which will save you time if you want all your bases to have the same key).

Enter the name of your new base.

Click on Choose folder… to define the location of your new database.

If you wish, modify the protection key offered to you.

Click on Create to validate your choices and start creating the database.

MacCafé then creates the new .4DD file, closes then restarts by opening the new database and displaying its Profile preferences.

With import of settings…

This command opens the following dialog:

In the Paths & Key, you will choose:

• the name of your new database,
• its location,
• its protection key (here again, the key proposed by default is that of the active database),
• the folder where the settings to import are located (see section 1° of this chapter).

When you have chosen a settings folder, the Settings (n) tab becomes active (n indicates the number of selected settings to import).

There you can select the settings you want to import into your new database. Its content and operation are similar to those of the dialog described in section 2° Import settings. Only the protection key is not among the available settings, because it is already defined in the Paths & Key.

The Create button is only active if you have completed all the elements of the Paths & Key and checked at least one setting in the Settings (n) tab. When you click on this button, MacCafé creates the new .4DD file, closes then restarts by opening the new database. If you have not imported a profile, the Profile preferences will be displayed, otherwise it will be the window of the first imported profile (blank window because, remember, the list of groups is not taken into account in the export/import of settings).