Now that the subscription to a
newsgroup is complete, the next step is to look at the messages in
the group, and to post a new message.
| Click on the newsgroup entry in
the left pane and the software will show all the
messages in the group in the top pane on the right.
If it asks permission to retrieve new messages, click
Yes
(or OK, as
appropriate). 
|
| Each visible message represents
one discussion, which is also called a
thread. By default,
only one message in each discussion is shown, typically,
the oldest one. To see all the messages, click the
'+' sign to the left of a message (as in the top most
discussion in the illustration above). If there is
no such sign, it means that there are no related
messages. |
| Check and see if there is some
discussion that addresses the question you have.
If you don't find one, it means you have to post your
first message. To do this, click the
New Message button.
 |
| Please make sure that the format
of the message is set to Plain
Text. While the newsreader program might
offer other choices, such as MIME or Rich Text (or
HTML), in many groups it is not considered polite to use
anything other than plain text. Similarly, unless
you know for sure that it is acceptable,
do not add
an attachment. For
both performance and security reasons, many people do
not like to -- and will not -- download files attached
to messages. To make friends fast, stick to polite
plain-text messages without attachments.
 |
| Complete the message...
and click the Send button.
Please do
not actually use the PowerPoint newsgroup to test if
your system works. Every news server
has some sort of test group. Use it. On the
Microsoft news server, msnews.microsoft.com, the test
groups are microsoft.public.test.here and microsoft.test. |
|
Finally,
avoid a rookie mistake |
|
