M2
HINTS
HINTS


These are some common hints to speed up your work with Agent.


1) Think ahead.  Get in the habit of thinking ahead, if you have favorite groups, that you like to read many articles in, browse that group first, mark all interesting articles (highlight them all) then hit enter, this will cause Agent to go on line and get those articles now.  You can then go onto another group while Agent is working, mark other articles, etc., and keep working, once done with the other groups, all the articles you wanted to read will be ready and waiting for you.

2) Once your done reading your groups, and have Agent working on downloading, do other things, surf the web, play a game, Agent is a fantastic multi tasker!  You can be on the web and have Agent running all at once!

3) Keep a special download directory just for Agent, this way you will be able to check out what you have downloaded without trudging through a bunch of files.

4) Compact your databases often, saves space and time.

5) If possible, put Agent onto a drive other than your C:\ (main) drive.  Agent writes many files to database and with Windows running it can slow the system a bit because of the way windows utilizes free space for swap file usage.  

6) If your Agent directory is getting too large, go group by group, mark for keep any articles you really want, then use "mark all messages read" or simply highlight all the files and hit delete.  Once done with all groups, compact your database.  My Agent directory has been as large as 400 mb!  But then my Agent is on a 3.2 gig hard drive with nothing but Agent and downloaded files on it.

7) If you accidentally delete a file you picked up with Agent, look for it again, and try to resave it in Agent, you may be surprised!  One of the reasons Agent takes so much room is it's need to save files into it's database AND in your download directory, while this may seem a waste, the first time you delete a crucial file, it will seem a life saver!  Trust me on this!


8) Watch for virus in executable files.  They are rare, but they are out there.

9) Play with Agents setting and controls.  This is one big program, and can take months to master.
