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ANSWER(1L)							    ANSWER(1L)

NAME
       answer -	phone message transcription system

SYNOPSIS
       answer [	-pu ]

DESCRIPTION
       Answer is a part	of the Elm mail	system and is designed for secretaries
       and the like to allow them to answer phones and|or listen to phone mes-
       sage machines and quickly and easily transcribe the messages into elec-
       tronic mail.

       The program will	use standard mail addresses or aliases included	in the
       standard	.elm directory alias files.  It	can also use its own alias set
       (usually	 a  subset  of	the  system aliases, with more fields per user
       (i.e. unique first names, unique	last names, first-initial  last	 name,
       and  so	on)).	Note that if you want to use this capability, it means
       that you	must  create  this  alias  set	and  then  install  it,	 using
       newalias,  as a separate	alias table for	the account this program is to
       be run from.

       Options are:

	 -p	 Prompt	for phone slip type message fields.

	 -u	 Allow names that are not in the alias	table.	 Without  this
		 option	 all  names  must  be resolvable as aliases and	answer
		 will reprompt for a new name if the alias cannot be resolved.

       Interface-wise, the program is a	breeze to use -	type 'answer' to start
       it up and then merely type a user name at the

	    Message to:

       prompt, fill in the requested information (simply type an "x"  next  to
       the pertinent information - "TELEPHONED", "PLEASE CALL",	"URGENT", etc.
       if  the	-p option was given), and then enter a message,	if any,	ending
       with a blank line.  If you elect	to use the special alias  file,	 names
       can  be entered as 'Firstname Lastname' and the system will try to find
       a mail alias based on the first letter of the first name	plus the  last
       name.   For example, 'Dave Taylor' will cause the program to search for
       an alias	'd_taylor' in the file (note the  transliteration  into	 lower
       case).	The program will loop until killed or quit.

       Answer  can be easily exited by typing any of 'quit', 'exit' 'done', or
       'bye' at	the 'Message to:' prompt.

AUTHOR
       Elm Development Group

SEE ALSO
       The Elm Alias System Users Guide

       newalias(1L), checkalias(1L), mail(1), mailx(1),	frm(1L), printmail(1L)

FILES
       $HOME/.elm/aliases.text	     individual	alias source
       $HOME/.elm/aliases.dir	     individual	alias dbz directory table
       $HOME/.elm/aliases.pag	     individual	alias dbz hash table
       $HOME/.elm/aliases	     individual	alias data table
       /tmp/snd.$$		     edit buffer for outgoing mail

BUG REPORTS TO
       Bill Pemberton  flash@virginia.edu

COPYRIGHTS
       Copyright 1988-1995 by The USENET Community Trust
       Derived from Elm	2.0,  Copyright	1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor

USENET Community Trust		Elm Version 2.5			    ANSWER(1L)

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