This save feature, alas, won’t work on a computer using the older MODEM7’s echo mode (though it will with newer versions of the program). But you can get around the shortcoming. Ask the other person in advance to make a two-way record of your conversation and send it to you! How to receive it? Well, after you’ve transmitted in the E or echo mode, you can shift to T with a file name added to save material.
Please also remember that MODEM7’s capture buffer—the feature letting it save incoming material to your disk—is small. Often the buffer can’t work safely with files bigger than 16K. That’s about eight double-spaced pages. If you’re using a Ward Christensen Protocol, however, files can normally be as long as disk space allows.
Printing the saved material, you may experience some problems because different word processors aren’t absolutely compatible with each other. You may see odd format commands, for instance, like “@”s (noticeable to WordStar buffs reading the files of their not-so-Perfect Writer friends) or “.HE” (a WordStar command that may baffle the Perfect crowd). But once you get the hang of it, you can usually “clean up” such “garbage.”
TO TRANSMIT COPY TO SOMEONE WITH A MODEM7-STYLE PROGRAM
1. Get the modems to start jabbering to each other.
2. From MODEM7’s main menu, type S B:[name of the data disk file you want to transmit—either a program or a letter or other document]. The B: shows the file is on the B disk. If it isn’t, just type S and the name of the file—for instance, S MAGIC. If MAGIC is on B, type S B:MAGIC.
3. Hit the return.
Soon your computer should start constantly asking the other machine if it’s getting your file okay.
If it isn’t?
Then your computer will conscientiously try again. But its patience is limited. It’ll give up eventually if the two machines and their software aren’t on speaking terms.