Enable Scoring
If you see a checkmark beneath this command, your Score File (score.ini) is processed each time you open a group.

Edit Score File
Opens the file score.ini (in the Xnews directory) with your default text-editor for manual editing. If you made your changes, saved the file and return to the Xnews application you will be asked if the Score file should be reloaded. Permit this to see the effect of your changes immediately.

Reload Score File
The setup gives you the choice to not automatically reload the score file on changes. If you prefer to do this manually you'll have to use this command for reloading.

Rescore this Window
If you run Xnews with "Enable Scoring" unchecked you can use scoring nevertheless. If you feel like applying the scores you defined in your score.ini just rescore the actual articles list with this command. There are other situations where a window won't get scored and you have to manually tell Xnews to score it, e.g. when you insert or delete a score word while changing the messages subject line. In all other cases use this command if you wonder why you haven't any scores in your window although you should.

Dump Score Debug Info
Choosing this somehow processes your score file and creates a file scores-dump.txt in your Xnews directory. Frankly, I have no idea what this is good for.

Hard Kill
If this is checked, Scores with a number less than -9999 will not show up at all when you open a group. Temporarily deselect it if you want to check the efficiency of your scoring (killing).

View Plonk File
When you choose "Article | Killfile this poster (*plonk*)" the poster is dropped in the Plonk File. Here you can check who (name and e-mail) you plonked this way and when this quarantine expires.

Auto Resume
Assumed your lost your server connection, checking Auto Resume makes Xnews resume the current action when the connection is available again. This works for article-viewing as well as it should for downloading binaries. If you are using dial-up to connect, this works only if you set your dialer to autodial on network activity.

Shutdown on Idle
If checked, after 10 minutes of idle time Xnews will automatically shut down Windows which on most system will shut down the computer. This will probably not work in Windows NT.

 Save Newsrc
The Newsrc is the file where the names of your available and subscribed newsgroups are stored. Furthermore the file has information about which articles you already read (represented by the article number). You will find one Newsrc for each server you set up. Since the Newsrc is saved automatically when you exit Xnews you normally don't have to bother about this command. Nevertheless it's of use because beneath the newsrc it also stores the Xnewsrc file for each server. That's a file where Xnews manages the names, positions and status of your subscription folders. When you changed that layout and want to make it sure to last, do a manual "Save Newsrc" afterwards.

Ignore Changes to Newsrc
You just deleted all your subscribed groups by mistake? Closing the Server window in a haste will also save the Newsrc meaning your fault will be made permanent. Better check Ignore "Changes to Newsrc" before and close the window for that server afterwards. After reopening your groups are there again. I don't know if there are other purposes for this option but it saved me a lot of time anyway.

Search in Folders
You know you can transfer messages in folders. Once they are stored they are searchable through this command.

Goto Google News Search
Opens the Google Usenet Search in your browser. Default is the Advanced search page (http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search) but you can customize the URL with "DejaPage=..." and "DejaQuery=..." in Xnews.ini's [Misc]-Section. See manual for details.

Keyboard Mapping
The keyboard layout is fully customizable. Note that the visible commands depend on from where you started the Keyboard Mapping. Is your starting point the groups-list you will only see commands for Main- and Groups-window. In the Articles-List you will see commands appliable to Articles- and Main-window. On the right side of the dialog you will find another source of information: the internal IDs of Xnews' commands. You will need them in combination with the OnLoaded and OnOpen commands in the [Misc]-Section of Xnews.ini.

Test Regex
Regular expressions can be used in the Score File as well as in some filters, folder search and XPAT-Search (for details see manual and the pcre.html which comes with Xnews). To test the effect of your Regex pattern on several strings Luu implemented this Regex test. This is fine for learning about the Regex syntax and will prevent you from unwanted results.

Setup Xnews
You might want to customize Xnews to your own needs so this is where to go. Not all settings are accessible through this GUI setup. There are a lot of other interesting things to tweak by editing the .ini-files (Xnews.ini, groups.ini, servers.ini, ID.ini, score.ini, folders.ini, keys.ini, plonker.ini) directly.