answer - phone message transcription system

     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 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), from(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
          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