News Force (for the Pocket PC) 2.0 - User Guide and FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions - News Force (for the Pocket PC)

1. How do I subscribe to newsgroups and read articles offline?
   Add a news server through News -> Options -> Server. Type in the server name and click the Add button. Then click on Select button to have a connection established with the server.
   
   -Select News -> All Newsgroups menu which will prompt you for some keywords in the newsgroup name. For e.g. if you want to subscribe to newsgroups related to games you could give 'games' (without the quotes). 'Subscribed Newsgroups' menu-item on the other hand, lists only the previously subscribed newsgroups.
   
   -Click on the Subscribe or the GoTo button. GoTo doesn't actually subscribe to the newsgroup but lists articles for preview before subscribing to the newsgroup.
   
   -Once you Subscribe or GoTo to a newsgroup you are returned to the Articles pane where you can see the articles. From here you can make multiple selections of the articles by holding down the shift key and clicking the articles. Then either click Download from the News menu or just click the Message tab. This will download the selected article(s) and will display the first one in the Message pane.
   
   -You can post new articles as well reply to articles on the newsgroup only while you are connected to the newsgroup, though you can read the downloaded articles offline.
   
   
2. Is it possible to use News Force to download newsgroup on my handheld device without a modem on the handheld device with just serial connection with the desktop/laptop?
   Yes, you can use News Force and your desktop connection to download news messages from your news server. If you have an NT machine, its as simple as setting up a RAS connection and connecting your mobile device to your desktop. Using the Ethernet connection of your desktop you can download news messages from your news server to your mobile device. However, if you have a Windows 9x machine you would need to set up a proxy (like Wingate) on your desktop and connect your mobile device through this.
   
   If you are interested, you could refer to the Ethernet Connectivity and Proxy FAQ (http://www.cewindows.net/wce/20/ethernet.htm and http://www.cewindows.net/wce/20/proxy.htm) at Chris De Herrera's excellent Windows CE site.
   
   
3. How do I speed up downloading of entire articles?
   Regarding speeding up downloading of entire articles, here is what we suggest: Select News -> 'Get New Headers' and then 'Download new headers from subscribed newsgroups' option to download articles across subscribed newsgroups. Once this is done, select newsgroups individually and mark articles for download. To mark newly downloaded article headers, keep the articles sorted on date and select the first article header (by clicking on the article). Then scroll down to select the last newly downloaded article header, this time with the Shift key pressed. This will select all articles in between the first and last newly downloaded artcile headers. Press Ctrl+D to mark the selected articles for download.
   
   Once articles are marked for download in all the required newsgroups, issue News -> 'Batch download' and select the 'Download marked articles from subscribed newsgroups' option to download marked articles across newsgroups.
   
   
4. Is possible to install News Force database on a storage flash card instead of system memory?
   Yes you can. You could configure the News Force database location from News -> Options -> 'Database Location'.
   
   Additionally, by choosing to compact the News Force database frequently and by efficiently using the powerful features of News Force you could save space on your mobile device.
   
   
5. How do I subscribe to newsgroups and read articles offline?
   Add a news server through News -> Options -> Server. Type in the server name and click the Add button. Then click on Select button to have a connection established with the server.