Abstract: In an arrangement for communication between a base station and further stations of a mail processing machine and for the emergency shut-off thereof, two interfaces are provided per station in order to connect two neighboring stations as an interface and the mail processing machine is fashioned so as to be expandable in unlimited fashion toward both sides. The control arrangement is programmed to evaluate the incoming message or to forward it to the other interface when it is not directed to the receiving station. Hardware and software stages are provided so that every station can activate an emergency shut-off of all stations via an emergency off-line.

Abstract: A user interface for a postage meter machine has a number of menu images which are available for display on a single display unit, the menu images containing internally generated and externally entered information, the menu images containing fields in which the information is contained and displayed, these fields being spatially allocated to input elements of the input unit. The setting of the fields in the menu images is variable, i.e., the limits or boundaries of the individual fields can be varied from menu image to menu image, so that the field size can be flexibly matched to the information to be displayed.