The advanced KNode features

The KNode manual
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# 2.3. The advanced KNode features

## 2.3.1. Defining and using Filter

You alrady read about using Filters in the chapter explaining the configuration of KNode. We were talking about the build-in filters provided by KNode there. You can configure the built-in filters like all the others. The screenshot shows the Dialog Box for confguring the Filters.

The dialog New Filter

First we will create a new filter. There will be the case, that you want to find your own articles among all the others. Or you do not want to see the articles of a particular person at all. Both cases can be solved by a simple filter on the Sender. Here are some examples:

Do not show the articles by a particular person

1. Settings-> Preferences+ Reading News+ Filters

2. Select Add

3. Insert `Do not show idiot` in the Text Box Name

4. For making the filter appear in the menu, check show in menu.

5. Check the Check Box From.

6. Chose does NOT contain from the Drop Down Box.

7. Insert the name of the moron you want to ignore in the now active Text Box for example `Idiot`.

8. Confirm the filter settings with OK

The filter now shows all articles, except the ones containing "Idiot" in the From: line.

You can combine the settings of the tab for Subject + From line with the settings on the other tabs. For example:

Show only discussion with unread follow-ups on own articles.

1. Settings-> Preferences+ Reading News+ Filter

2. Select the predefined filter "threads with own articles"

3. Select Copy

4. Insert `My threads with unread` in the Name field.

5. Select the tab Status

6. Select has unread followups

7. Select true in the Drop Down Box next to it.

8. Confirm the filter settings with OK

   This filter shows all threads your are participating in, wich have unread messages. Also, you saw the possibility, to use already existing filters as a base for new ones. This makes life easier for complex filters.

Show all articles, no older than 3 days, containing KNode in the subject.

1. Settings-> Preferences+ Reading News+ Filter

2. Select Add

3. Insert `Last KNode threads` in the Name field.

4. If you want this filter to appear in the menu, check the check box show in menu.

5. In the Drop Down Box apply on select single articles

6. Select the Check Box Subject.

7. Select does contain in the Drop Down Box.

8. Insert `knode` in the now active Text Box.

9. Change to Tab Additional

10. Select the Check Box Alter

11. Place the following settings 0 < days <= 3

12. Confirm with OK

    This filter, now, shows all articles, no older than 3 days, containing knode in the subject.

## 2.3.2. The Composer

The KNode-composer provides many features, especially for posting and replying to articles.

### 2.3.2.1. Publish articles in multiple newsgroups

By selecting the Button Browse you can choose additional newsgroups, you want to publish your article in.

| It is undesirable to post articles in multiple newsgroups, most of the time. Please think about it twice. If you are not sure, where to post your article, ask in one of the possible groups. Sombody will tell you were to post.

### 2.3.2.2. Redirect Followups

The main use of this feature is the case, when a thread has gone off topic for the newsgroup it is posted in. For example a thread in a kde newsgroup about how to redirect a followup in KNode which leads to a dicussion about graphical and text based newsreaders.

Another reason for using Followup-To: is a possible crossposting in multiple newsgroups. You should take care that the replys will be posted in one single newsgroup.

You can activate this by checking the Check Box Followups - To:. When this is checked, you can enter the according newsgroup in the Text Box next to it. If there are multiple newsgroups in the Groups: field, they are shown in the Drop Down List.

| When you enter `poster` here, instead of a newsgroup, the replies go directly to the author, not to the newsgroup.

### 2.3.2.3. Working with an external Editor

Using Edit-> Start External Editor you can start an editor of your choice, for editing the reply. So you can use your prefered Editor for writing articles and e-mails.

### 2.3.2.4. Spelling

By selecting Edit->Spelling, you can check the article in the composer on spelling errors.

### 2.3.2.5. Sending attachments

By selectingAttachments-> Attach File you open the File Selection Dialog Box. Here you can choose the file you want to attach.

Most of the time, KNode determines the correct MIME type for the attachment. If KNode errs, you can correct the MIME type manually.

| Please, only change the MIME type, if you know what you are doing. A wrong MIME type can make your attachment unreadable.

This screenshot shows the Composer with 2 attachments. A text file and a PNG-picture.

Sending attachments

| In most newsgroups, attachments are prohibited. Do not send unsolicited attachments. If you are asked to send them, look who is asking for. Mostly, this person wants you to send them by e-mail. The newsserver probably rejects article with attachments for most groups anyway.

## 2.3.3. Searching for articles

Sooner or later, you will start searching for one specific article. The KNode search feature is an easy way to do so.

You can reach the search function by selectingArticle->Search or the F4 key. The screenshot below shows the Search Dialog Box.

The Search Dialog Box

The Search Dialog Box has three tabs, which allow several search criteria. The first tab contains the settings for the criterias Subject and From. The second tab contains the Settings for the Status of an article. Additional contains the criteria, wich do not belong to the first or second tab.

You propably already noticed the similarities between the Filter Dialog Box and the Search Dialog Box. The usage is the same and should not be too complicated, if you already defined your own filters.

KNode always searches in the currently active newsgroup. A search in all newsgroups is not possible at the moment. After the Search finished, the articles found appear in the article view. When you close the Search Dialog Box, When you close the Search Dialog Box with Close the search results are deleted, and the old view of the newsgroup appears again.

### 2.3.3.1. Start Search

With this button you start the Search with the search criteria you defined. All articles in the selcted newsgroup, fullfilling this criterias, appear in the article view.

### 2.3.3.2. New Search

This button resets all search criteria.

## 2.3.4. Supersede and cancel articles

This chapter deals with superseding and canceling articles. You will not use this two features very often, but they belong to the comfort features of a newsreader.

| Both functions need a newsserver beeing able to handle them. And you should remeber that there is no guarantee, that no one has already read your article, before it is superseded or canceled. So first think, then post.

### 2.3.4.1. Cancel

Canceling an article means deleting it from the newsgroup.

Why should you want to cancel an article? Well, perhaps you falmed somebody in a rage and now you want to get this article out of the newsgroup, because you regret what you wrote. A personal insult, read by everybody, looks not too good, especially when you regret it. So there is only one thing, cancel the article.

Select the article you want to cancel and choose Cancel in the context menu. When you are sure it is the right article, confirm KNodes question with Yes. Now you are asked if you want to send the Cancel message now or later. For this example we decide to send it Later. You will notice the new message in the folder Outbox.

Now we want to look at the so called cancel message. In the subject you will find something like:

cancel of <n177m8.1m.ln@konqui.org>

This strange letters between the brackets are the Message-ID of the article, you want to cancel. This message tells the newsserver to delete your article. When you look at complete header of this message by selecting View->Show all headers you will notice a line with the name control and the content cancel <xxxxx@ddddd.dd> This line tells the server, this message is a control message. In our case, this message cancels your article.

You can still delete the control message from the Outbox.

| Keep in mind, an article can only be identified by his Message-ID. You need this Message-ID if you want to cancel an article. Normaly your article gets this Message-ID when it arrives at the newsserver. Thats why you can only cancel an article, when it is already published. The articles in the folder Sent have no Message-ID, so you can not cancel them from there. There is one exception. If you have configured KNode to generate a Message-ID, you can cancel you articles in folder Sent , too. KNode allows only to cancel your own articles. It refuses to cancel articles from other authors.

### 2.3.4.2. Supersede

Supersede overwrites your article with a new version. One reason for doing this could be:

You have written a long article and already posted it. Now you find an error in this article. You can cancel this article and post a new, corrected, article. Or you can use Supersede.

Select this article in the article view. In the context menu, select Supersede.KNode will ask you, if you really want to overwrite this article. Confirm with Yes and the Composer appears.

In the Composer you can now make the wanted corrections and changes. You can publish this article in the same way as you post every other article. When the newsserver recives this article, it reads some special lines in the header which tell the newsserver to supersede the older article. Select File->Send Later for now, because we want to look at the articles header in the Outbox.

Activate View->Show all headers, because we want to see all the header, the newsserver recives. You will notice a line like:

Supersedes: <oggcm8.4n5.ln@konqi.org>

This is the instruction for the newsserver for superseding the article with the Message-ID <oggcm8.4n5.ln@konqi.org> with the new article.

Besides this Supersede is used for periodical posted articles, i.e. FAQs. The new article supersedes the old one and the newsgoups do not end up with lots of different versions.

| Again, using this function is only possible, if the article already has a Message-ID. Normally articles get their by the newsserver. This means, you can only supersede articles, which are already published. you can configure KNode to generate this message, then you can supersede your articles in the Outbox, too. KNode allows only to supersede your own articles.

## 2.3.5. Score, watch, ignore

Score, watch and ignore are only different names for the same feature.

By scoring a thread, you determine its importance. KNode allows scores between 0 and 100. A normal article will get a score of 50 if you do not change this. So threads with a score below 50 are less important and threads with a score above 50 are more important than the average.

The score is an attribute of the thread and the articles in this thread. So you can use the score for filtering and searching articles. For example, you can define a filter, which shows only articles with a score > 50.

The function Watch only sets the score of all article in a thread to 100. So they get the highest possible score and KNode labels them with a special icon.

The function Ignore does the opossite. Ignore scores all articles with 0 and does not show this articles anymore.

In this version KNode only allows the scoring of threads.

## 2.3.6. Group identities

With KNode you can use a different identity with every newsgroup you are subscribed to. This involves name, e-mail, reply-to adress and signature.

It is easy to set group identities. For setting up a group identity, select the according newsgroup. In the context menu, select Settings. The second tab is identical with the global identity settings. Confirm your settings with OK and your articles in this group are always posted with this identity.

| When you unsubscribe from a group, you lose the identity settings for this group. If you resubscribe to this group, you have to repeat the settings. For new newsgroups, the global identity is used.

## 2.3.7. Managing multiple news accounts

KNode can handle a unlimited number of news server accounts in addition to your main news server. Most users don't need this feature, but it can be very handy to if your main newsserver doesn't provide all groups you want to read. Typical cases are support groups for commercial software that are hosted on a special server or binary newsgroups.

In order to add an new account, you have to open the preferences dialog via Settings->Preferences+Accounts+News The button New creates a new account, you then have to enter the same data as for your first account, typically a name for the account, the host name and user name / password combination if the server requires authentication. When this is done the new server will appear both in the configuration dialog and in the group view. You can now subscribe to newsgroups.

You can delete the currently selected account by pressing the Delete button.

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