How do I use Fentun with Windows '95/NT4.0 and Netscape Communicator?

Downloading & Installing Fentun

1. irst, right-click on the Skip the BULL and download Fentun for Windows '95 button on Fentun's home page, and select Save Link As... from the menu that appears. (This version will run under both Windows '95 and Windows NT 4.0.)

2. Select an appropriate place on your hard drive for Fentun to live. As an example, we'll place Fentun in C:\Program Files\Fentun\fentun.exe. Remember where you put Fentun - you'll need to enter the path a little later.

3. Select the Edit/Preferences menu item in Netscape Communicator 4.0. The Preferences dialog should appear.

4. Select the Navigator/Applications tree item from the Category tree on the left side of the Preferences dialog.

5. Click the New Type... button. A New Type dialog should appear.

6. Enter Microsoft's Miserable MS-TNEF Format in the Description of Type field. Actually, put anything you want here.

7. Enter tnf in the File Extension field. If you are already using tnf on your system, put something else in this field. (You'll append the file extension you enter here to any ms-tnef attachment you save as a file. Note: when using Fentun with Netscape Communicator, you will rarely, if ever, need to save an ms-tnef attachment.)

8. Enter application/ms-tnef in the MIME Type field. This is one of the two most important fields to fill in correctly.

9. Enter the path to where you placed Fentun in step 2 in the Application to use field, followed by a space and %1. For our example, we'll enter "C:\Program Files\Fentun\fentun.exe" %1 (enclose the path in quotes if there is a space in the path - in our example, there's a space between Program and Files). If you do not know where you put Fentun, you can find it using the Start Menu's Find/Files or Folders... feature. See Microsoft Windows '95s online documentation for more information about how to use this feature.

10. Click OK at the bottom of the New Type dialog.

11. Click OK at the bottom of the Preferences dialog. Fentun is now installed and ready to handle ms-tnef attachments when they arrive in your e-mail.

Using Fentun

Relax, the toughest part is over. Now when an e-mail message arrives with a TNEF attachment, click on the attachment's link. You'll see something like this:

In the example pictured above, there are two attachments, "ProjectSmartPayDialog.exe" and "ProjectEditSubscr.exe". Their sizes are displayed to the right (in bytes). To extract one of these, highlight the attachment by clicking on its name with the left mouse button. Select multiple attachments by shift-clicking and control-clicking with the left mouse button. Once you've highlighted the attachment(s) you want to extract, click the "Extract" or the "Extract As" button.

The "Extract" button will save the selected attachment(s) using the name listed. The "Extract As" button gives you the opportunity to specify the destination filename and directory for each selected attachment.

The "Close" button makes Fentun go away. It's really the same as using the window's close button.

The "About" button displays a window with some information about Fentun, including the URL for this website. About (haha) the only exciting feature in this window is the Okay button, which closes the window when clicked.

In the lower left corner, you'll find a picture of Fentun. This area of the window serves the purpose of making the application cute.

Finally, in the bottom of the window, you'll find the status bar. A plethora of information can be found here, including the version number of Fentun, success and/or failure messages during attachment extraction, and cryptic error messages that prove meaningless to most humans and a couple of computers. Oh, wait - hopefully those messages have all been taken out...

Uninstalling Fentun

My greatest hope is that you find Fentun helpful, easy to use, and perhaps even fun. However, if for whatever reason you need to uninstall Fentun, here's how it's done.

1. Delete the fentun.exe file.

2. Select the Edit/Preferences... menu item in Netscape Communicator 4.0.

3. Select the Navigator/Applications tree item from the Category tree on the left side of the Preferences dialog.

4. Select the Description matching the line you entered in step 6 of Downloading & Installing Fentun.

5. Click the Remove button.

6. Click Yes from the dialog confirming your action (if it shows up).

7. Smile (or frown) - Fentun is now uninstalled.

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Send e-mail to fentun@twain.softhome.net and tell him what you think of his program and/or website!