Chat Room Help

The login page contains the following items. To view the profile URL and Avatar URL, select the advanced options.

Nickname
The name that will display to other users when you visit the chat room.

Profile URL
Enter a web site that you want your friends to visit. This can be your personal web site or a favorite domain.

Avatar URL
Enter the web site address for the picture that will be displayed by your nickname when you visit the chat room. The picture should be 80x80 pixels.

Participating in a chat room

From the login page, click the Join Chat button to enter the default chat room. In the chat room, the top left pane displays the current conversation, which is sometimes called a session. The right pane of the window displays a list of nicknames for the active chatters within the room. Some of the nicknames display in different colors or formats:

• Red nicknames indicate administrators.
• Orange nicknames indicate operators.
• Black nicknames indicate regular users.
• A nickname displayed with gray italics means that the user is away from the chat.
• A gray nickname with a line through it means that you have blocked the user.

In the pane at the bottom of the window, you can type messages to other users. Format the text in your messages by clicking one of the buttons on the toolbar. You can select the text to format and then click one of the buttons. Or, you can click the button and start typing to add text with the formatting that you selected.

Tip: You can create custom actions by using the /me {action} command, or by starting anything you type with a colon : character.

Bold, Italic and Underline buttons
Format your message text in a different font type. Press Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I or Ctrl+U on your keyboard to do this quickly.

Colors button
Adds color to your message text. Click the button and select a shade on the Colors palette.

Emoticons button
Adds small faces that show emotion to your message. Click the button and choose a face that is sad, happy, embarrassed, and more. Emoticons are useful for conveying how you feel without typing any words. When you select a face on the Emoticons palette, a code appears in your message text. When you click the Send button to send the message text, the code is replaced with the emoticon that you selected.

Clear Chat Area button
Removes all previous text from the chat area. If you click this button, you cannot save the current conversation using the Save Chat button.

Save Chat Conversation
Allows you to save the current conversation, or session, to your computer as a text file (.txt ) or web page (.html). This is useful if you want to read the conversation later or refer to information in the conversation. For example, you may use it to remember web addresses that were mentioned.

Change Room button
Allows you to enter another room to chat with a different group of people.

Pause/Resume Auto-scroll button
Stops or starts the scrolling in the chat conversation. Scrolling automatically advances the window as people send messages to the conversation. Pause makes the window stop so you can easily read the conversation.

Send button
Click this button to send your message to the current chat conversation. You can also press the Enter key on your keyboard.

I am Available/I am Away button
Click this button to display a message that lets others know you are available to chat. Click the button again to let them know that you are away from your computer or that you do not want to chat. You can still read the conversation while you are away.

Interacting with other users

You can click on the name of a chatter to display a menu with the following commands:

Whisper
Select Whisper to send a quick private message without leaving the group chat tab. You can also double-click a name.

Private Chat
This command starts a private chat with the person whose name you selected. Private chats open in tabs in your browser. The group chat is always the first tab on the left. To select a private chat, click the corresponding tab at the bottom of the chat area.

Tip: To navigate through the tabs quickly, you can press the following keys on your keyboard:

Alt+Left arrow
Alt+Right arrow

You can also display different tabs by pressing Alt+0, Alt+1, and so forth.

When new messages appear in a chat, a balloon appears on the chat tab. When another user is typing, a pencil appears on the chat tab. To close a chat, click the close button on the tab.

View Profile
Displays the web page for the profile of the user whose nickname you clicked. You can setup your profile website on the RealChat login page by clicking the Advanced Options link.

Block User
Allows you to ignore the user whose nickname you clicked. The nickname appears in plain text with a line through it. When you block a user, you cannot see messages from that person. If you want to resume viewing messages from someone you blocked, click their nickname and select the Unblock User command on the menu.

Main toolbar

In the top right corner of the chat area, you can click one of four buttons to switch rooms, modify the chat settings, display the Help, or close your RealChat session:

Door button: Rooms
Opens the Rooms dialog which allows you to switch rooms or to create a new room.

Gear button: Settings
Allows you to set options for the following items:

• Chat area avatars, fonts, colors, and emoticons.
• Options for showing people leaving, private messages, and using large fonts.
• Showing avatars.
• Sorting participants in the right pane by alphabetical order or by status.
• Alert sounds for people joining, public messages, and private messages.

Tip: To read the chat text more easily, clear the Show Custom Fonts and Colors check box. You can also select the Use Large Fonts check box.

Question mark button: Help
Displays a help dialog with information about commonly used functionality.

Red button: Exit
Closes RealChat.