| Next, go back into the “View” menu and choose “Toolbars…”. |
 Uncheck everything that’s checked, and then re-check “Main”. This is the most useful toolbar and by clearing everything and then re-checking the main toolbar you will have streamlined the bar into a single long bar that stretches across the top of Gravity.
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Now go back into the “View” menu and choose “Global Options” then go to the “Window Layout” tab.
 Choose the window arrangement on the far left (circled) by highlighting it. Arrange the order of the panes by highlighting the pane you’d like to change (circled on right) and clicking the up or down buttons.
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Next, go to the “Warnings” tab.
 Make sure your setup is like this one. Note the “Do not warn when launching files with the following extensions” area at the bottom. Gravity will automatically display pictures and play .wav files. (music or sound) by default. If any other type of file tries to launch Gravity will warn you and ask if you want to launch or execute the file. This is for your own protection and, in the case of viruses save you the trouble of having to reformat your computer. Heed the warnings! Also uncheck the “Error occurs during decode/print job" should be unchecked, otherwise if you are downloading large files and leave your computer unattended, Gravity will stop and wait for an answer. This way Gravity will just get the files it can, you will have to re-download the missing ones.
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Next the “Updates” tab.
 Uncheck this box as the Gravity Website has been taken down. Otherwise Gravity will attempt to connect every 7 days which is a waste of time and also generates error messages.
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| In the row above go to the tab labeled “Encoding” |
 In the “Split article at _____ Kbytes” highlight the default number and type in 400. When you post this will give you a line-size of around 6500. This is necessary to permit the parts of the file to travel through the different routes they might take, without getting "squeezed-out" or dropped, because they are too large. <more info on part sizes.>
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In the same row, go to the “Decoding” tab.
 This is mostly the default settings with the exceptions being the boxes “Mark article as Read after” “viewing”, and the “Use Registry association to view binaries” are checked. The last should be checked if you use any picture viewing software that’s better than Microsoft paint. Gravity has it’s own picture viewer but it's not very capable, and you’re better off using your personal favorite. Notice the Decode directory, this is where Gravity will store any binaries (pictures, .zip files, etc.) you’ve downloaded. You can change that location by choosing the “Browse” button.
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 Next find the “Spelling” Tab and check everything. The tab only has check boxes in it, and they should all be checked. Gravity will automatically spell check any text posts you make. Once you start reading the groups you’ll notice how many people have theirs turned off and how horrid it looks. Do yourself a favor and leave it turned on. In the same row as the “Spelling” tab, go to the “Preferences” tab and set it up the way you see it here.
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 The only thing further that you might do in “Global Options” is go to the Display tab and click the button labeled “Read article color…”. Here you can change the display color of all the articles that you’ve viewed, or when you download new headers that you had no interest in viewing.
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| That’s it! Click the “OK” button and see what you’ve got. |
You’re almost done setting up Gravity and here’s what the interface should look like if you’ve followed the suggestions.
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Not bad eh? Lots more room to see the threads and less cluttered overall. |
| One last thing to do is go to the menu labeled “Newsgroup” and choose “Define display filter…”. |
 Highlight “All Articles” and then click the “Default” button. Otherwise, Gravity’s filter is by default “Unread Articles”. That is, whenever you open Gravity only the articles you haven’t read will be displayed. You’ll find this inconvenient when trying to follow a threaded article, or responding to something you’ve previously read. That’s it! You’ve now set up Gravity, and are ready to get the “Goodies”.
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