Headers

Users will spend most of their time in Pan interacting with the article headers in the Header Pane. Pan has many features to optimize header viewing and article retrieval.

Header View

Since the total number of all the available article headers in a group might be enormous, Pan has several options to limit the number of visible headers to a more manageable number.

In the toolbar, the Subject or Author text box is a filter than can be used to limit the visible headers. Usually this is used to search for a specific article or a group of articles. Click on the magnifying glass icon to choose which header field to base the filter. Only the article headers that match the characters typed into the text box will be displayed. Click the X to erase and reset.

Choose Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Headers

To hide or change the display order of the Header Pane columns.

Choose View ▸ Header Pane ▸ Thread Headers

To enable or disable header threading in the Header Pane.

Replies of Matched Articles

The user can pick one of the next three options to control how Pan will display replies of matched articles.

In View ▸ Header Pane
  • Show Matching Articles

    Show only articles that match the article view options..

  • Show Matching Articles' Threads

    Not only show articles that match the article view options, but also show all the articles in the entire thread of the matched article. This option will force read headers to be visible regardless of the view options.

  • Show Matching Articles Subthreads

    Not only show articles that match the article view options, but also show articles that are replies of any matched article.

Article View Matches

These options control which article headers are displayed in the Header Pane.

In View ▸ Header Pane
  • Match Only Unread Articles

    Only display articles that haven't been marked read.

  • Match Only Cached Articles

    Only display articles that are available in the local article cache in the computer's hard drive.

  • Match Only Complete Articles

    Only binary articles that are complete (full, green puzzle piece in the state column) will be displayed. This also hides text articles.

  • Match Only My Articles

    Only articles that the user has posted will be displayed.

  • Match Scores of xxxx

    These options deal with scoring where you choose to display an article based on its score. Refer to Scoring for more information.

Header Movement

Movement around the Header Pane can be controlled by several methods, allowing the user to easily jump around complicated discussion threads with minimal input. Pan was designed for mouse-less article viewing, so most people use the keyboard shortcuts associated with these menu actions. The keyboard shortcut for most menu actions is displayed after the menu command.

Go ▸ Read More

Scroll the article in the Article Pane. If the article is already scrolled to the bottom, grab the next article. You can customize the function of this key by changing Preferences ▸ Articles ▸ Space selects next article rather than next unread .

Go ▸ Read Back

Scroll the article up in the Article Pane. If it's already scrolled to the top, grab the previous article displayed in the Thread Pane.

Go ▸ Next Unread Group

Skip down to the next subscribed group in the Group Pane with unread articles and read the first article.

Go ▸ Next Group

Skip down to the next subscribed group in the Group Pane and read the first article.

Go ▸ Next Unread Article

Read the next unread article in the Thread Pane.

Go ▸ Next Article

Read the next article, regardless of its read/unread state.

Go ▸ Next Watched Article

Read the next watched article. A watched article is an article with a score of at least 9999. Refer to Scoring for more information.

Go ▸ Previous Article

Read the previous article in the Thread Pane. This doesn't scroll the Article Pane like Go ▸ Read Back .

Go ▸ Parent Article

Read the article for which the currently selected article is a reply.

Go ▸ Next Unread Thread

Skip to the next unread thread and read the first article.

Go ▸ Next Thread

Skip to the next thread and read the first article in that thread.

Go ▸ Previous Thread

Skip back to the last thread and read the last article in that thread.

Header Selection

In order to perform an action on an article header, you must select it first. Use the middle mouse button to select an article. Drag the selection field with the mouse to select multiple articles. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking articles with the middle mouse button to add individual articles to the selection.

Pan also offers a number of other ways to efficiently select articles.

Edit ▸ Select All Articles

Select all articles in the Header Pane.

Edit ▸ Add Subthreads to Selection

Add all articles that are a reply to the selected article to the selection.

Edit ▸ Add Threads to Selection

Add the entire thread of the selected article to the selection.

Edit ▸ Add Similar Articles to Selection

With one article selected, add others articles with the same author and from the current thread to the selection.

Edit ▸ Deselect All Articles

Cancel the current selection.

Edit ▸ Select Article Body

Select the entire article body. You must retrieve the article first.

Header Action

Whenever Pan downloads an article body, the data is saved to disk in the article cache. The article cache is a fixed-size buffer and when the cache has been filled, the older articles are erased to make room for newer ones.

These are the actions you can perform on an article selected in the Header Pane.

Articles ▸ Save Article

Save the highlighted article to disk. When you select this option, the Save Articles dialog will open. From here, you can choose to:

  • Save Text

    Save the text of the displayed article.

  • Save Attachments

    Save the binary attachments of the selected article to disk.

  • Path

    Where in the file hierarchy to save the binary attachment or text.

  • Priority

    Where to add the file in the Task Manager queue.

Articles ▸ Read Article

Download the body of the selected article in the Header Pane and display it in the Article Pane.

Articles ▸ Cache Article

Download the body of the selected article in the Header Pane but do NOT display it in the Article Pane.

Articles ▸ Mark Article as Read

Change the state of the article to read.

Articles ▸ Mark Article as Unread

Change the state of the article to unread.

Articles ▸ Delete Article

Delete the selected article in the current group from the article index.