signature file

[lisa]

Raplh, you use a lot of different signatures.
Do you use a lot of signature names or do you use an excisting .txt
file with a lot of signatures and agent picks one of them? In the
signature section I can point to an excisting file but I can't find
information in the help files how to set-up that txt file and how it
works.
Tia

[Ralph Fox]

Post by lisa
Raplh, you use a lot of different signatures.
Do you use a lot of signature names or do you use an excisting .txt
file with a lot of signatures and agent picks one of them? In the
signature section I can point to an excisting file but I can't find
information in the help files how to set-up that txt file and how it
works.
Tia

A signature file has one signature in it. Agent does not pick one
signature from a file with a lot of signatures.

The way some people have done this in the past is to have a signature
file with one signature in it, but also have an external program
(running in the background) which automatically updates that signature
file every (say) few minutes from its own list of signatures. Agent
will pick up whichever signature that external program last put in the
signature file.

See:
SigChanger by Phranc
<https://web.archive.org/web/20011126061936/http://www.xs4all.nl/~fwolsink/sigchanger/index_e.html>

The section "Signature Managers" on Jim Bradley's page "Forté [Free] Agent Links and Utilities"
<https://web.archive.org/web/20011126061131/http://jlbradley.home.att.net/LANCE3.HTM>

The thread "Random sig generator" from October 2000
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/SyGl7z1be2c/m/nkcfNNWilzMJ>


I have not used a signature file. I have been manually pasting in
the quote at the bottom of my signature, from a list of quotes.

If a signature has any accented or other non-ASCII characters, then
the signature file must be in the same code page as the message
which one is creating. Different posts of mine could be composed
inn different code pages; and a random signature file might not be
in the code page I am currently composing in.

[lisa]

Post by Ralph Fox
A signature file has one signature in it. Agent does not pick one
signature from a file with a lot of signatures.
The way some people have done this in the past is to have a signature
file with one signature in it, but also have an external program
(running in the background) which automatically updates that signature
file every (say) few minutes from its own list of signatures. Agent
will pick up whichever signature that external program last put in the
signature file.
SigChanger by Phranc
<https://web.archive.org/web/20011126061936/http://www.xs4all.nl/~fwolsink/sigchanger/index_e.html>

info pages are still present but the download link result in a no
find. Found the prgram here :
https://sigchanger.software.informer.com/download/#downloading
Maybe I'm going to use it.

Post by Ralph Fox
I have not used a signature file. I have been manually pasting in
the quote at the bottom of my signature, from a list of quotes.
If a signature has any accented or other non-ASCII characters, then
the signature file must be in the same code page as the message
which one is creating. Different posts of mine could be composed
inn different code pages; and a random signature file might not be
in the code page I am currently composing in.

yeah, why keep it simple :D
I was thinking of making a list of quotes and copy one of them, but
also using different codepages? No thanks, I prefer readable
signatures.
Thanks for your info.

I saw in the reply I mangled your name. Sorry for that; sometimes I
don't see I changed two characters.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by lisa

Post by Ralph Fox
If a signature has any accented or other non-ASCII characters, then
the signature file must be in the same code page as the message
which one is creating. Different posts of mine could be composed
inn different code pages; and a random signature file might not be
in the code page I am currently composing in.

yeah, why keep it simple :D
I was thinking of making a list of quotes and copy one of them, but
also using different codepages? No thanks, I prefer readable
signatures.

I use the Unicode UTF-8 codepage as well as ANSI (Windows-1252),
because the world has long since moved to Unicode and Windows-1252
is limited to 219 characters.

My last signature is readable to someone who speaks French.

| La souris qui n'a qu' une entrée est incontinent happée.


For anyone's interest, the sig code page issue is like this:

a) If I am composing in UTF-8 and the signature file is ANSI,
my last sig would have appeared like this:

|​︎ La souris qui n'a qu' une entr�e est incontinent happ�e.

b) If I am composing in ANSI and the signature file is UTF-8,
my last sig would have appeared like this:

|​︎ La souris qui n'a qu' une entrée est incontinent happée.

[Opinicus]

Post by Ralph Fox
I use the Unicode UTF-8 codepage as well as ANSI (Windows-1252),
because the world has long since moved to Unicode and Windows-1252
is limited to 219 characters.

Under Tools > Options > Languages "UTF-8" is not one of the Code Page
choices. Where else might that setting be?

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Opinicus

Post by Ralph Fox
I use the Unicode UTF-8 codepage as well as ANSI (Windows-1252),
because the world has long since moved to Unicode and Windows-1252
is limited to 219 characters.

Under Tools > Options > Languages "UTF-8" is not one of the Code Page
choices. Where else might that setting be?

To make "UTF-8" appear as one of the one of the Code Page choices, all
you would need do is to place a suitable *.COD file in the Agent program
folder (i.e., in the folder where agent.exe is). The Code Page choices
correspond to those *.COD files in the Agent program folder which are
configured to be code pages.

Help >> Index >> Codepage
Help >> Index >> COD files


If you also want the UTF-8 code page to display properly in plain text
message bodies but you do not need typing nor cut/copy/paste with the
UTF-8 code page, then provided you are running Windows 10.1903 or later
you can do this with configuration in Agent:
<URL:news:***@4ax.com>
<URL:https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/uWjDfC79/unicode-how-to-full-unicode-display-in-agent-s-message-body-pane>
<URL:https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/5Xq78kR64Po/m/J7NB0R1hBQAJ>


If you want the UTF-8 code page to display properly in message bodies,
typing international characters to work properly in the compose window,
and cut/copy/paste to work properly, then install the AgtEx extension
in Agent. (This works even when you are not running Windows 10.1903 or
later.)
<URL:https://ralphfoxnz.blogtown.co.nz/>
<URL:news:***@4ax.com>
<URL:https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/5ndDRHYd/announcement-unicode-extension-for-agent-agtex-beta-version-0-41-2023-900>
<URL:https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=4400&group=alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent>
<URL:https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/4Da-7C4TC-E>

[Nobody]

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by lisa
Raplh, you use a lot of different signatures.
Do you use a lot of signature names or do you use an excisting .txt
file with a lot of signatures and agent picks one of them?

<snip>

Post by Ralph Fox
I have not used a signature file. I have been manually pasting in
the quote at the bottom of my signature, from a list of quotes.

The one chosen for a post to acs.thunderbird 17 July had a blooper:

"There are more ways to the wood then one."

English is being murdered... in this case the originator's failure to
know the difference between *then* and *than*.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Nobody
"There are more ways to the wood then one."
English is being murdered... in this case the originator's failure to
know the difference between *then* and *than*.

That quote came from a list of quotes collected in the ** 1600's **.

FYI "then" is also an obsolete spelling of "than"; see <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/then#Conjunction>

Those quotes from the ** 1600's ** use old-style spellings.
See another example below.