Hi Peter

Sorry to hear of your problems:

>My problem is that I am using Windows Messaging as a mail reader and the
application's "Edit" menu only appears once a message has been opened, i.e.
it's impossible (for me) to "Hook" Wincode to the application itself. It also
seems impossible to drag & drop a listed message into the Wincode window.<

I'm using CompuServe's Wincim as my reader and as you may have noticed, am
fortunate in that Wincode has specific instructions for hooking into Wincim. I
will describe some of my experiences in the hope that this may be a pointer to
resolving your problem.

Wincode's instructions are in two parts:
1. a once-off set-up within Wincode to define the reader program
2. the hooking of Wincode to the reader.


1. Once-off set-up within Wincode to define the reader program
I note in Wincode's mini help file (at the end) that Word for Windows doesn't
hook as it defines its menus in a unusual way (is Microsoft not following it's
own standards? <bg>). Perhaps Windows Messaging is a similar case.

Without hooking you will have to use either drag and drop from the file manager
or copy text to the clipboard and then select Wincode's encode/decode option
(see 3) below).

There is some more comprehensive advice at Snappy's web site:
http://www.members.global2000.net/snappy/
Go to the page headed "Wincode Info Page" You will see that they are happy to
consider writing special hook code for non-standard apps. Drop them a line at:
[log in to unmask] At the very end of this page it states:

     "...hooking into menus...it worked on 16-bit but not on 32-bit Windows
programs..."
     This is a BUG in the version of Wincode reviewed (2.7.0). When we orginally
re-coded portions of
     the HOOKing DLL, we introduced an incompatibility with Windows95 and the
way it treats 32-bit
     programs as "separate processes". This bug has since been fixed in the BETA
2.7.1 release and we
     are able to easily hook 32-bit apps (Explorer looks nice with a Wincode
menu :-)...

As far as I can see, the special scripts Snappy produce for CompuServe and AOL
are only needed when there is a need to encode large files as multiple messages.
For decoding or encoding text under the reader's limits (64K in the case of
CompuServe) there is no problem in using the standard hooking. This may well be
the case with other readers.

2. Hooking of Wincode to the reader.
What wasn't clear to me is the need to hook every time. I.e.
	a) start Wincode
	b) start reader
	c) return to Wincode window and select the hook icon (looks like a letter
J) or menu option under Action.
		- in Wincim the Wincode menu item comes before the Help menu item
in Wincim
		- this is the main menu bar. Wincim's message windows do not have
menu bars
		- actually, if b) is omitted then the reader is started by
Wincode but I found with Wincim
		that Wincode gave an error message. I guess that is because when
Wincim starts it
		displays a dialog box asking the user if they want to log on.

Note that I have found a possible bug. If I hook while I have message windows
open then I sometimes get a GPF and other times the Wincode menu item appears
but if selected no options drop down. This could be due to Windows 3.1x resource
problems.

3) >seems impossible to drag & drop a listed message into the Wincode window

In Windows 3.1x the drag & drop is used to drag files from the *file manager*.
These are files to be either encoded or decoded (after dropping  a dialog box
pops up and one needs to remember to ensure the correct button is selected - to
encode or decode). Note that drag & drop is not operative while Wincode is
hooked, however, there is then an unhook menu option in the reader Wincode menu
item.

Note: I found the drag & drop of files from the File Manager did not need any
special setup as described in Wincode's mini help file. I think that it is
unfortunate that one of the hooking examples given in the help file is for
hooking to the File Manager.  As an experiment, I actually did hook the file
manager and noticed:
	a) Wincode menu in FM only gives one the option to encode/decode a *file*
via a file selction dialog
		- this is a lot more fiddlely than drag and drop from the FM or
highlighting message text and
			selecting menu Wincode/Decode/Selected text or All text.
	b) if one has hooked more than one application then one needs in Wincode
config dialog to
		select "Prompt for Application on Hook" so that one is given a
choice.

If you cannot get the hooking to work, then you will have to resort to either:
	1) saving the message as a file an then dragging or dropping from the FM
(as above)
	2) saving the message as a file an then via the Wincode menu items and
dialog boxes selecting the file.
	3) saving the message to the clipboard; then selecting the en/decode
icon/menu; and then selecting the clipboard button.

Peter, please mail again or telephone me if you have any further questions.
Compared to the other programs I have used in the past for de/encoding, I find
Wincim much simpler to *use*, though I agree set-up may be problematic. Maybe I
had some rather old and non friendly programs :-).

Regards
Alan

Alan Cooper, Strategic Business Analyst, Managing Change
Tel & Fax: +44 (0)1264 737609 near Andover, England



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