V540 Layout
From Newsbin
This section is new - and is being worked on
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Understanding the Newsbin User Interface
The Newsbin User Interface can be a bit dauntingf to new users. This section of the User Guide is intended to give a quick overview of the key features.
More detail on specific ares can be found elsewhere in this User Guide, and in the Reference Guide.
Title Bar
The title bar at the top of the screen is used to give the Newsbin version number. Whenever you are posting a query to the newsbin forums it is a good idea to give the Newsbin version and build number in case the answer is version specific.
The other important bit of information that is displayed at the start of the title bar is the name of the configuration file that is currently being used. This file is where key information such as the servers and newsgroups that are in use are stored. It is a good idea to have a backup of this file amde after any significant changes are made to you configuration just in case something goes wrong and the "live" copy is lost for some reason.
Panes
The newsbin main window is divided into a number of areas or "panes". Each pane will then contain a number of tabs for supporting specific functionality.
Newsbin support up to 3 panes - labeled Top Left, Top Right and Bottom. The user can decide how many of these panes should be visiblem and what their size should be. Traditionally all 3 panes were used, but on new Installs an installation defaults to 2 panes being visible as this is deemed to provide a more elegant interface.
Tabs
Newsbin functionality is organised into a series of tabs. Each tab will have a layout that is customized for the funtion that tab is designed to support.
The general layout of tabs is to have some customised controls at the top, and then list of data
The user can control which pane of the User interface is loaded into to suit personal preferences about layout.
Status Bar
The Status Bar at the bottom of the Newsbin window is used to display some summary information about this session of Newsbin usage. You will find that it is dynamically updated as Newsbin is running.
Right-Click Menus
Newsbin makes extensive use of the right mouse button. Clicking in many places will give a context sensitive menu of the facilities that are available at that point..
Pane Layout
Setting the Number of Panes
The number of panes is set by dragging the dividers between the panes to/from the edge of the Newsbin screen.
Assigning Tabs to Panes
You can decide which pane a particular tab appears in by using Options->Window Positions.
It may take an exit/restart of Newsbin before such a change takes effect.
Hiding Unused Tabs
If you are running with less than 3 panes visible then you can hide tabs by assigning them to a pane that is not visible.
many tabs can also be switched on/off by using the View menu. A couple of the more important tabs cannot be hidden in this way.
Tabs Available
Servers
This tab holds details of all the servers you have set up to be used by Newsbin.
Once it has been set up it is quite likely that you will not need to use this tab again, although many people like to keep it available for tweaking.
Groups
The Groups tab is used to list any groups that you have selected to be used for downloading headers. You will find that to economise on display space the "alt.bin" part of newsgroup names is abreviated to the string "a.b".
Note that it is not mandatory to have any groups set up if you are downloading via NZB files or using hte newsbin Internet Searcg facility.
Download
This tab is used to list all items currently queued for download.
As items start downloading then the relevant entries in the download tab are updated to show progress.
Scratch list
This is a list of items which ahve not been queued for download,but which are being kept handy because it is thought to be quite likely that they will be later queued for download.
An important use of this tab is to store PAR2 repair files. If the Newsbin AutoPAR facility is in use then on encountering any damaged files in the Download list, Newsbin will automatically search the Scratch tab for any PAR2 repair files, and move move as many as are required to the Download list
Failed Files
This section is used to list any files that were selected for download, but that have failed for some reason. There is normally an indication given as to why the download failed, but it is not very detailed.
If you are not sure why a file fails to download you should look in the Status tab to see if a more detailed reason is given.
A point to note in particular is that if a file fails marked as a duplicate it means that Newsbin thinks you have downloaded it before (possibly with a different name). You can force the download to happen again by using the option to Bypass Filters (CTRL-Y).
Files
The tab list files that have previously been downloaded.
If you are using the AutoPAR facility, then once the AutoPAr has successfully unpacked a set of files, newsbin will list the names of the unpacked files instead of those of the files actually downloaded.
Status
The Status tab is extremely important if you are encountering any problems in downloading files. This is where you will find error messages giving the reason (from a Newsbin point of view) as to why any file failed to download. If raising any queries in the forum you are almost certainly going to bea asked what error messages were displayed in this tab.
Note that you can highlight entries in this tab and then copy them to the clipboard using either CTRL-C or the "Copy to Clipboard" option the right-click menu. You can then paste them into any forum messages. This means you do not ahve to manually transcrive such messages.
AutoPAR
This tab is is used to track the progress of the Newsbin facility for checking, repairing and unpacking multiple file sets. for more detail see the section on AutoPAr later in this guide.
Note that if you elect to close this tab it disables all processing associated with the AutoPAr facility.
Connections
This tab is used to list all connections that Newsbin has been told it is allowed to use. Most of the time the average user will not bother to look at this tab, but it can be useful if you want to check if all connections have been established correctly and are working.
Thumbnails
This tab is used to show thumbnails of pictures that are being downloaded.
Note that if you are not interested in thumbnails, then it is a good idea to close this tab as producing thumbnails can be quite process intensive.
Search
This tab is used to conduct two different types of search.
- Local search is used to search headers previously downloaded that are now stored on disk.
- Internet search goes to a Newsbin supplied server to search headers that have been indexed into a database. Note that this is a subscription based service and is not included in the purchase price of the Newsbin software.
The type of search that is to be used is selected via a drop-down selection option on this tab.
