Sigfile v0.31
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Contents
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1.1 Welcome
1.2 Licence
1.3 Installation
1.4 Running Sigfile
1.5 Closing Sigfile
2.0 Preview Screen
3.0 Configuring Sigfile
3.1 Preferences Screen
3.2 User tab
3.3 Layout tab
3.4 Output tab
3.5 Misc Tab 
4.0 Quotes screen
4.1 Browsing Quotes
4.2 Adding Quotes
4.3 Editing Quotes
4.4 Deleting Quotes
4.5 Deleting all Quotes
5.0 Configuring SigFile for Outlook Express
5.1 Configuring SigFile for Agent/Free Agent
6.0 Uninstalling SigFile
7.0 Questions, bug reports and all that stuff

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Welcome
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Welcome to SigFile, a random signature generator for Windows 95.  This program will automatically add a random quotation to all email and newsgroup postings, correctly formatted and containing your own user information.  It will also spamblock your email address for use on newsgroups.

Licence
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This program is ConscienceWare.  If you find it useful, please either send a bit of money, if in the UK (5 pounds sterling) or something of value for other countries, (either equivalent to 5 pounds sterling in notes, or some hockey cards, or something).  Mail me at plissken@netcomuk.co.uk for more information.

Sigfile does not have any built-in limiters or timeouts and as such I am relying on your honesty.  If you find this program useful, it would be good if you showed your appreciation - if not, well, I'll be very disappointed ;-)

Installation
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The file is a self-extracting ZIP file, default setting is for your TEMP directory.  Once unzipped, double click SETUP.EXE to install.

By default, Sigfile installs into C:\Program Files\Sigfile

Running Sigfile
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Simply double click the Sigfile.exe file and note that the Sigfile icon will appear in the system tray.  Double click on on the tray icon to bring Sigfile into view..  SigFile must be running in order to insert quotations.  You may wish to set up desktop shortcuts, or perhaps put it in your startup directory.

Closing SigFile
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Clicking the X icon at the top right hand corner of any screen will minimize Sigfile to the System Tray.  To shut the program down completely, click File | Exit from the Preview Screen.

Preview screen
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The first screen that appears is the Preview Screen.  This screen displays your signatures, as currently set up according to the preferences used.  The ruler of numbers indicates the width of the signature.

The check boxes at the bottom right show the signature as defined for email and news use.  It is important to note that email and news signatures are considered separate.  You can set your email programs to  use the news signatures and vice versa, but I see little point.

The "Usenet convention" button displays your signature and makes it conform to Usenet convention (sig sep, four lines, max 72 characters).

Configuring SigFile
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Run SigFile and click the Preferences button to input your own user details.

Preferences screen
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The first tab is the User page.  Input your details here, and click the box to include the details in your signature.

The second tab is the Layout page.

The Line Length box sets the line length (unsurprisingly!) of your signature.  I would suggest 70 characters should format nicely, though 72 is considered a maximum.

The Usenet Separator button inserts a conventional Usenet signature separator (two dashes and a space) as the first line of your sig.

The Border button inserts a border of characters (selected from the drop down box) as the first and last lines of your signature.

The Side Border button inserts a side border of characters (selected from the drop down box) around the sides of your signature.

If ticked, the Side Spacing button inserts a space between your side border character and any characters.  This is easier to demonstrate than explain:-

|Side Spacing Off|
| Side Spacing On |

The Separator box will insert a line of characters (selected from the drop down box) between your user details and the quote generated.

The tick boxes to the right are self explanatory.

Output tab
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The Timer box sets the interval between randomly generating quotes, if the Timer Enabled box is ticked.

If ticked, the signature will be written to the Output Email File and Output News File specified.

IMPORTANT NOTE:- In order for the program to work correctly, the file locations in SigFile and your email and news rogram must match EXACTLY.

If ticked, Spamblock will automatically insert a random series of five characters into your news sig.  This does not affect your email sig but is handy to avoid email address harvesters active on Usenet.

Auto copy to Clipboard will automatically output your signature onto the Windows Clipboard, overwriting any information already there.

Misc tab
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The Tooltips and Text and Labels buttons control the appearance of the Toolbars.

The Confirmation Dialogs button will switch on/off deletion and beginning/end of file dialog boxes.

Quotes screen
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Click on the Quotes button to display your quotations.

The Toolbar is fairly self-explanatory, start of file, next sig etc, plaus Add/Edit/Delete buttons.  The final button is Delete All Quotes.  Use with extreme care!

Browsing quotes
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Use the first four buttons to browse your quotes file.  Note that the quotes will automatically "word wrap" if necessary.  This is for ease of reading - when you come to edit them, then they will not word wrap.

Adding quotes
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Click on the Add button to add a quote.  Type the quotation into the Quote box and the source of it (if there is one) into the Source box.  Then click the Save button.

IMPORTANT NOTES:-

When adding a quote, only use the <Enter> key when absolutely necessary.  If you have a long saying, then the Quote box will automatically scroll along.

The reason for this restriction is simple.  If you insert carriage returns where they do not need to be, then SigFile interprets it anyway and formats the quote accordingly.  Thus, you will end up with badly formatted quotes.

If you make a mistake, click the Cancel button.

Editing quotes
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Click the Edit button, and use Save to save your changes, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Deleting quotes
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Click the Delete button to delete the current quote, and answer "Yes" to the confirmation box.

Deleting all quotes
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Click the Empty File button and confirm.  Use with extreme caution - you won't be able to get them back...



Configuring Outlook Express
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IMPORTANT NOTE:- You must have run SigFile first, before configuring Outlook Express.

1. Click Tools |  Stationery
2. On the Mail tab, click Signature
3. Click File | Browse and then browse to the directory and click the filename set in the SigFiles Output Email File box.
4. Click OK
5. Click the News tab.
6. Click File | Browse and then browse to the directory and click the filename listed in the SigFiles Output News File box.
7. Click OK twice.

To check it has worked, compose a new message - the signature should automatically appear.

Configuring Free Agent
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IMPORTANT NOTES:- You must have run SigFile first, before configuring Free Agent.

1. Click Options | Signatures
2. Click the Browse button and browse to the directory and file listed in Sigfiles Output News File box.
3. Click Options | Preferences
4. Click the User tab
5. Input nonsensical information in the Reply To and Email Address fields  (foo@bar.com will do).
6. Click OK.

Uninstalling SigFile
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As no Registry Keys and configuration files were harmed during the installation of this program, you can either delete the directory into which Sigfile was installed, or the cleaner way would be to click Sigfile from the Add/Remove Programs tab in Control Panel.

But I'll be hurt :-(

Questions, bug reports and all that stuff
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Email them to plissken@netcomuk.co.uk and I will answer as soon as possible - usually within 48 hours.

If sending bug reports, please send details of your screen resolution, any Desktop Themes you use and the email/news programs you use.

Mike