Quick start guide – Section 2 – Getting the goodies.

         
Now that Gravity is setup you can now use it to download, post, and reply to the messages you find in the newsgroups.

 

Downloading:

In order to download any single-part binary all you need to do is highlight the article in the thread pane, right-click, and choose “Decode”. Gravity will download and store the files in your default download folder. If the binary was a picture that you’d like to see immediately choose “View” instead, and Gravity will launch your chosen viewer (or it’s own viewer, depending on how you’re set up).

For Multiple-part binaries just highlight any part of the file you choose and once again right-click and choose “Decode”. You’ll be looking at what you see pictured in the next screenshot. Gravity automatically finds all the parts of the file, downloads, combines and stores it for you in you download directory.

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Example: Decoding and storing a multiple-part binary.


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We’ve got bigger fish to fry though. Let’s get a small program. First find something you’re interested in and highlight one part of each file you’re trying for. Do this by highlighting a part and then holding down the “Ctrl” button while selecting each additional part. In this case we’re going after a program called LSX MPEG Suite v2.0 and there are six files total. (5 .rar and an .nfo file)

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When you have all the files selected right-click and choose “Decode”.

This is what you will see:
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Gravity will now download all the selected files and store them in the default directory. Once it’s done downloading you’ll need to decompress the files in order to use them. In this example the poster, Oracle. has posted RAR files and you’ll need WinRAR to use them. If you don’t know how to use it, or even what WinRAR is, see <Archiving Tools>

Congratulations you’ve “got the goodies”.

In the case of text-only articles all you need do is highlight and double-click the article and the contents will appear in the Article pane of Gravity.

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If you’d like to reply to the article, with it already highlighted since you’re reading it, put your cursor on it, right-click and choose “Follow up”. The “Follow up” window will open with the proper group already filled in. Just type your reply into the body of the message and hit the send button. If you’d like to include a binary with your message just click the “Attachment” button. (circled in yellow) a new window will open where you will navigate to and select the binary (picture, music, or any type of file) you wish to send. The selected attachment will then appear in the “Attachment Pane”. The spell checker will then open and check your message for errors. When it’s done Gravity will ask if “You’re sure you want to send this item?” Click the “Yes” button and you’ve now posted a text article with binary attachments to a newsgroup.


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One note on sending binaries though, be sure they are welcome in the group you send them to. Some groups are text only.

Finally, let’s talk about posting. If you’d like to post to a group without following up to any messages just right-click in anywhere the “Thread Pane” and choose “Post”. It doesn’t matter if someone’s message gets highlighted as long as you’ve chosen the “Post” option. The same window will open as when we followed-up on a message but this time the subject line will be blank. You must fill this in. It can be anything but try to keep it short and descriptive.

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Just as in a “Follow up” you can include attachments. When you are done, click the “Send” button. Congratulations! You’ve made your first post with Gravity.

Although Gravity can post large multi-part binaries, there are betters tools with which to post. It’s also not within the scope of this article to discuss more advanced posting techniques. That will all come to you in good time.

This primer should be all you need to get started with Gravity. It is by no means meant as a comprehensive look at all the features or customization options available. Good Luck, and enjoy!

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