answer

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 message machines and quickly
       and easily transcribe the messages into electronic 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 capabil-
       ity, 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), from(1L),
       printmail(1L)

FILES

       $HOME/.elm/aliases.text       individual alias source
       $HOME/.elm/aliases.dir         individual alias dbz direc-
       tory 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

       Syd Weinstein  elm@DSI.COM    (dsinc!elm)

COPYRIGHTS

       Copyright 1988-1992 by The USENET Community Trust
       Derived from Elm 2.0,  Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor