Settings are used by The WELL to control how you work with conferences, email, people online, and so forth. You can change them from a single location, the Settings menu.

1. Opening the Settings menu
2. Turning menus on and off
3. Setting terminal emulation
4. Changing your password
5. To turn the pager on or off
6. To choose the pager you want to use

To open the Settings menu, from the Main menu choose 10 Settings.

SETTINGS MENU

 SETTINGS                                        .  Menu name : settings
                                                 .  Conference: wellcome
  1  Settings for conferences...                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  2  Settings for people online...               .
  3  Settings for email...                       .  HELPFUL INFORMATION
  5  Settings for file management...             .   40  Definitions
  6  Turn these menus on or off at login...      .   41  Notes
                                                 .   42  Quick Commands
                                                 .
 MISCELLANEOUS SETTINGS                          .   43  Explain a specific
                                                         term
                                                 .   44  Help from a real
                                                         person
  7  Terminal type (e.g. "vt100")...             .
  8  Password                                    .  GETTING AROUND
  9  Choose pager...                             .
 10  Turn pager off for now                      .   66  Go back one menu
 11  Turn pager back on                          .   77  Go to the Main menu
 12  Turn pager off indefinitely                 .   88  Go to a menu by
                                                         name
                                                 .   99  Turn off these
                                                         menus

                                                 .  100  Exit from the WELL
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OK (type a number or command):

The first four menu choices display settings menus for specific WELL features. All the choices available from these menus have been discussed on other pages in this manual.

• 1 Settings for conferences is described in Working with WELL Conferences.
• 2 Settings for people online is described in People online.
• 3 Settings for email is described in Getting and sending email.
• 5 Settings for file management is described in Managing files on The WELL.

This page will cover the remaining menu choices.

As you become an experienced user on The WELL, you may decide you'd rather work directly with the command line, without seeing the menu system. You can turn the menus off so that they do not appear when you log in.

From the Settings menu choose 6 Turn these menus on or off at login to open Menu Set menu.

MENU SET

 INITIAL MENU SETTING EACH TIME YOU LOG IN       .  Menu name : menuset
                                                 .  Conference: wellcome
  1  Menus on permanently                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  2  Menus off permanently                       .
                                                 .  HELPFUL INFORMATION
     If you want to turn menus back on in the    .
     future, at the OK prompt type:              .   40  Definitions
                                                 .   41  Notes
     set menus    to turn them on temporarily    .   42  Quick Commands
     save menus   to turn them on permanently    .
     save nomenus   to turn them off permanently .   43  Explain a specific term
                                                 .   44  Help from a real person
                                                 .
                                                 .  GETTING AROUND
                                                 .
                                                 .   66  Go back one menu
                                                 .   77  Go to the Main menu
                                                 .   88  Go to a menu by
                                                         name
                                                 .   99  Turn off these
                                                         menus
                                                 .
                                                 .  100  Exit from the WELL
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OK (type a number or command):

If you want to use the menu system in the future, you can turn it on using either of these commands at the OK prompt:

• set menus or set nomenus turns the menu system on or off for the current session only.
• save menus or save nomenus turns on the menu system on or off for this session and at login for subsequent sessions.

You need to set The WELL terminal emulation setting to the same one you use in your telecommunications software. To change the terminal emulation setting, from the Settings menu choose 7 Terminal type (e.g. "vt100").

You can choose from among vt100, vt102, vt220 or ansi, or specify another terminal type using the "other" option.

Be sure to match your own telecommunication software setting with the setting you establish with this menu.

Note: for most situations, you'll want vt100, vt102, or vt220.

You can change your password at any time. When you do so, The WELL asks you to enter your new password twice, to make sure you have entered it correctly. Your old and new passwords are never displayed on the screen.

Your new password must differ from your old password by at least three characters, and must meet the general WELL password requirements: it must be at least six characters long, no more than eight characters. It must contain at least one non-alphanumeric character (a special character), and that character must usually not be the first or the last character in the password.

To change your password, from the Settings menu choose 8 Password. In a series of prompts, The WELL will ask you to enter your old password and the new password.

  Equivalent command: change password
  passwd: Changing password for username
  Old password:
  New password:
  Re-enter new password:
  Ok (Return for menu):

When the OK prompt reappears, your password has been changed. You'll need to enter it the next time you log in to The WELL.

You can also change your password at the Password Help page.

(Note: The Web version of The WELL also has a way to change your password. Changing your password using Settings/Password from an Engaged page will only change your password for conferencing using the Web. It will not change your password to conferencing using PicoSpan or for accessing your WELL mail.)

When you begin using The WELL, text appears in "chunks" on the screen, approximately one screen's worth or "page" at a time. You can see the next screen's worth by pressing the spacebar.

The utility that causes text to pause at the bottom of the screen and wait for your request to see more is called a pager. You can turn the pager on and off, and you can choose a different pager to use, if you prefer.

You can turn off the pager if you like. Doing so causes the text to display on your screen continuously, without any breaks or prompts at the bottom of the screen. This can be useful when you want to capture information in a "capture" file directly onto your computer. Your telecommunication software usually allows you to create such a file during an online session.

To turn the pager off temporarily, from the Settings menu choose 10 Turn pager off for now. Choosing this setting turns the pager off for this session until you turn it on again. If you exit The WELL, the pager is automatically turned back on the next time you log in.

To turn the pager back on, from the Settings menu choose 11 Turn pager back on.

To turn the pager off indefinitely, so that it remains off when you log in again, from the Settings menu choose 12 Turn pager off indefinitely. To turn the pager back on once it has been turned off indefinitely, use the Choose Pager command.

If you turned off the pager indefinitely and want to use it again, or if you want to change the pager you are using, you do so by "choosing" a pager.

Two pagers are available, the "more" pager and the "less" pager. The "more" pager displays the "More" prompt at the end of each page of text. The "less" pager displays the word END at the end of each page, and it lets you scroll back through the information whether or not your telecommunication software allows back-scrolling.

1. From the Setting menu choose 9 Choose pager. The Pagerset menu appears.
2. Choose the pager you want to use: 1 more (standard) or 2 less (allows back-scrolling).

The new pager setting takes effect immediately.

Note: You can also choose 3 No pager. This is the same as choosing 11 Turn pager off indefinitely from the Settings menu.

WELL policies and etiquette
Getting connected
Menu basics
Getting and sending email
Starting out in WELL conferences
Working with WELL conferences
People online
Accessing Other Internet Sites
The WELLmuse
Managing files on The WELL
Checking and changing settings
Accounting and billing
Troubleshooting
PicoSpan Command Summary