M2
THE FIRST TIME PART TWO
GENERAL PREFERENCES


Next is GENERAL PREFERENCES under the Options menu.
This can get a tad confusing, so re-read it as often as needed.


Navigation

The only item to check in this section is the one labeled:
Automatically mark messages read:
Choose Only when the message pane is selected.


Message list

Threading
Check enable threading by subject.
Check show threads initially collapsed.
Check date sorts descending (most recent first).


Display

All boxes should be checked here, leave defaults as is.


Languages

English (or what you want).
Character sets, choose Latin1
Spell checker, English (grab this from Forte's web site).
Usenet text encoding, set to 8 bit.
E mail text encoding, set to Quotable printable (mime).


Fonts

Stick with the defaults for now, you can change these at any time.


Colors

Leave these as is for now, you can change these later.


Confirmations

All of these should be checked, you will find it a bit annoying after awhile, but better safe than sorry for now!


Newsrc

This is for those that already have used Agent or another standard reader, and want to save time, if this is your first time, leave all of these unchecked.

If you have used Agent or another reader before, you can import your old newsrc file, to save getting the full list again from the server, I don't bother with this as I always want an up to date list.


Mime types

Yep, this is the hardest part of all!  Leave the defaults as is for now, if you find yourself getting allot of unrecognized mime files agent cannot open, you will be able to come in here and associate applications with different extensions.  Generally this is best at the default levels.

You now made it through the toughest part of Agent!  The rest is easy as pie.



Now click on <Navigation>.

Fill in the following items, if an item is not mentioned, leave it set to the default.

Only check the following items:
Show thread initially collapsed.
Double clicking a message launches it's binary attachment.

Leave <display> alone for now.

Leave <colors> alone for now.

Click on <confirmations>.
Check all boxes in the menu.

Click on <attachments>.
Under message partitioning, check "send attachments as multi-part files".
In lines per message, set this to 10000 for now.

Under message text, check send text as preface message.


Leave <posting> alone for now.


Go to "group", choose <default properties>.
Under "marking read" leave all blank.
Under "what to purge", click on "minimal", and leave the rest alone for now.
Check "always get complete list of servers available messages.
Under "when to purge", check when closing agent.
Under when to compact, choose when closing agent.
Check when closing agent, prompt for action before purging or compacting.


Click on <retrieving>.
Fill in the following items, if an item is not mentioned, leave it set to the default.
Check limit number of headers retrieved per session to 5000, for now.
View empty group, check prompt for action.
Maximum messages to sample, set to 50 for now.


Leave <posting> alone for now.


Click on <attachments>.
You should make a separate directory on your drive for all messages retrieved by agent, do this in file manager, I use C:\agentemp as my message directory, make yours whatever you want, but be sure to make it before filling in this box! Once the directory is made, go into this box, and type in the path to that directory.

That is pretty much it, you can play with all of these settings once you get the program running.  The nice thing about agent is it's configuration options, they are almost endless, this means that you can make it look and act as you wish, or to meet your needs.  You can change these settings as often as you wish.  There are so many different features that this program, once learned, will keep most people happy.
