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[Graphic: Tools You Can Use]
New Features in Pine 4


With Pine 4, the latest version of the UW's popular email program, you can:

Beginning Winter Quarter, Pine 4 will be the default on Homer as it has been on Dante, the student cluster, since the start of Autumn Quarter. Until then, at the Homer Main Menu, select N (new email--Pine 4) to try these new features. Version 4 for PC-Pine is also now available (see below).

PC-Pine 4 Is Now Available

PC-Pine has the features of Unix-based Pine plus the advantages of being a desktop email client. Because PC-Pine interacts directly with all of your Windows programs, you can easily view attachments and copy a file into your message.

With the embedded Web link feature in PC-Pine 4, you can launch your Internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape just by double-clicking or pressing <Return> or <Enter> on a URL in an email message you get.

An excellent way to install PC-Pine is from the UW Internet Connectivity Kit, which will give you the proper configurations. Beginning with version 4, PC-Pine is available only for 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems such as Windows 95, 98, and NT. Visit the UW Pine Information Center on the Web at www.washington.edu/pine/pc-pine/ for technical details.

Launch Your Web Browser

You can view a Web page from the URL a colleague sends you in their email message if you are using Pine 4. Just press <Return> at a highlighted URL, type Y (Yes) at the prompt, and the Web page appears in a Lynx text browser on Homer, or in a graphical browser if you are using PC-Pine 4 on your PC.

Try the New Spell Checker

Pine on the Uniform Access systems is configured to use an external spell checker called "ispell." After you have composed your email message, press <Control> T to start the spell checker.

When ispell finds a word it thinks is misspelled, it displays the line containing the word, which is highlighted. The command line at the bottom of the screen provides the options for what to do next. Type ? (Help) for an explanation of what each command will do.

The ispell spell checker is particularly helpful because it:

For details on how this spell checker works, please read the ispell Frequently Asked Question.

Find Email Addresses Online

It is now easy to locate the email address of a faculty, staff, or student when you are composing an email message or are in your Address Book. Pine 4 uses the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to search the combined online UW student/faculty/staff Directory.

To search the UW Directory from Compose, enter a person's full or partial name in the "To:" field (or in any field where you can type an address), press <Return> and a list of names matching the one you entered appears. Scroll to the name you want, press <Return> and that person's email address is inserted into your message.

Tip: If you enter a common last name, many screens of names may appear. (It may not be possible to load them all; you may need to start over using a full name.) You can use the W (WhereIs) command and type in the first name to quickly find the person you want.

Alternatively, to use the UW Directory from your Address Book, scroll down to UW Directory, press the > key to be prompted for the search string, and enter a person's name. When the results appear and you find the name you want, use the > key to see the complete UW Directory listing for that person. This listing--which includes phone, fax, and mail box--is not available when you search the UW Directory from Compose.

Key Use Changes in Pine 4

Several keys have newly defined uses in Pine 4.

Screen Navigation Keys

Use < and > (the less than and greater than symbols) to move one level up or down. Note: You do not need to use the Shift key; the comma and period keys work as well.

Print Keys

Having the % key as the designated print key avoids the problem of accidental printing some people have when Y (also used for Yes) is the print key. However, because people are used to typing Y to print, the default on the Uniform Access systems is to allow both % and Y to work for printing.

If you want only % to work for printing, you can unset the "enable-print-via-y-command" in the configuration. From the Main Menu, type S (Setup), C (Config), scroll to the feature (or use search), type X (Set/Unset), and E (Exit).

For More Information

If you have questions about using Pine 4, here are ways to get more information:

Help screens. Pine has internal "context-sensitive" help. Whether you are in your Address Book, Message Text, or Message Folder, you can use the Help command at the bottom of the screen for information relevant to the task you are doing. If you are in the Setup/Configuration files, there is help available for each feature.

The usual command for Help is ? unless you are entering text (such as in Compose); then you must type <Control> G to "Get Help" (otherwise you would be typing a question mark into your message). In Pine 4, help screens have hyperlinks to additional help screens.

FAQs. Detailed information on ispell (the new spell checker), search and replace (another new Pine 4 feature), and other topics is provided by C&C client services consultants in the form of answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Web at www.washington.edu/computing/faqs/email.html

For More Help. Systems administrators and interested users may want to look at these two additional resources:

Your departmental computing support staff can also help. For assistance from C&C, please send an email message to help@cac.washington.edu that includes the version of Pine you are using.

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University of Washington Computing & Communications
Windows on Computing, No. 22, Winter 1999
newsltr@cac.washington.edu