Forté's Free Agent will automatically decode UUEncoded posts. However, it will not automatically decode MIME attachments--that function is reserved for their commercial product, Agent.
It's flexible as to what you do with those attachments. You can have the program associated with that file type automatically launched--thus it would start a program like LView with the image that was just decoded. Alternately, you can have Free Agent save the attachment to a directory.
Basic Binary Handling
Having the File Launched Automatically
1. In the newsgroup, highlight the post with the binary.2. Go to File--Launch Binary Attachments.
3. Free Agent will get the article from the news server and decode it if it's been UUEncoded. (If it's not UUEncoded or there isn't an binary, it will say "No binary attachment found" on the gray bar at the bottom of the window--like in the picture below.)
4. Once the attachment has been decoded, the viewer associated with that file will be launched. If no program is associated with the file, then Free Agent will pop up a message saying so. File associations are done in Windows so you will need to consult your Windows manual or the Windows help file if you want to associate a program with a particular file type.
Having the File Saved to the Hard Drive
1. First you need to specify what directory to place the files. There are two ways to do this. One way will set a default directory to place all attachments from all newsgroups. Another way will set a directory for a particular newsgroup. (If no directory is specified at all, attachments will be placed in Free Agent's directory.)To set a default directory for all groups:
- Go to Group--Properties.
- Click on the Attachments tab. You should see a window like the
one below.
- Enter in the directory in which you want the attachments place in the "Binary Attachments Directory". (Note: If you type in an invalid or non-existant directory, the attachments will be placed in Free Agent's directory.)
- Click on Ok.
To set a directory for a specific newsgroup:
- Make sure the newsgroup is highlighted in the Newsgroup listing.
- Go to Group--Properties.
- Click on the Attachments tab. You should see a window like the one
below.
- Put a check in Override Default Settings.
- You can then specify a directory to place attachments gotten from that newsgroup.
Multi-part Binaries
Free Agent usually handles multi-part attachments easily. All you usually need to do is treat it like you would any other binary post--highlight the first part and tell Free Agent to either launch or decode the attachment. The program will automatically track down the other parts in the article list. However, if there's one or more posts missing, Free Agent will report that it couldn't find all the pieces.Also, if all the pieces are there, but are in the wrong order, there's an extra step required:
- Highlight all the posts for the attachment. (You can select multiple items by holding down the CTRL key as you click.)
- Go to File--Manually Save Binary Attachment. A window
like the one below should appear.
- In this window you can highlight an article and use the Up and Down button to move it in the list.
- Once you have all the posts in order you can click on either the Save or Launch buttons to retrieve the attachment.