Instant Messenger is a powerful
"chat tool". Before you can use it, two things have
to happen.
First, you have to make sure you do
not have a pop-up blocker program running on your computer. (Since
IM opens in a pop-up window, disabling your pop-up blocker is
important.) If one is running, please disable it.
Second, in the upper right-hand corner
of the home page, click on the words Show Instant Messenger.
Clicking opens the IM block, and changes the little man next to your name
in the User Information block from red to green. (Everyone who logs
on to this site starts with a little red man by their name. The little
green man tells other users "I'm agreeable to chatting, and I'm
available right now.")
LET'S USE THE MESSENGER
Now that you've clicked Show
Instant Messenger, a new block has popped up on your screen. If
you don't want to start chatting right now, you can minimize the block,
and if you get a chat request, the block will pop back up and let you
accept or decline the request.
If you don't have time to chat right
now, or don't want to make yourself available for chatting, that's
easy. Just close the little popup box instead of minimizing it, and
you'll no longer be available for chatting. That also changes the
little man by your name from green to red, although it may take as long as
90 seconds for the little man to change from green back to red.
IF YOU RECEIVE AN
"INCOMING REQUEST"
If you receive a request to chat, the
pop-up block will appear, and just accept the offer by clicking yes.
Easy, right?
Once you accept the offer, a block
much like the one shown below will appear on your screen.
See the blank field to the left of the
"Send" button? Just type in whatever you want to say in
that empty field, and when you press "Send" or press the "Enter"
key, the message you wrote will appear in the large chat block above.
The people participating in this chat
at the moment will be in the column on the right (above the
"Send" button), and each message that appears in the large block
will show the sender's name at the beginning of the message, along with a
time stamp for the message they sent.
HOW TO ASK ANOTHER USER
TO CHAT WITH YOU
Open the IM pop-up block, and you'll
see a block that looks a lot like this:
The users listed under "Online
Users" will be the users who have chosen to make themselves available
for chatting. (These are the users with a "little green
man" by their names.) There may be ten users on the site, but possibly only
a few who are available for chatting at the moment.
If you would like to chat with someone who has not made themselves
available, you'll have to send a Private Message to that person, asking
them to click on the Show Instant Messenger line.
To chat with an available user, just click the
user's name, and they will receive an "Incoming Request" to
chat. When (if) they accept the request, the large chat block will
open, and you can begin chatting as described above.
You can also use the other options in
the block above to change your personal options, identify and select
online buddies, etc. Feel free to play with the settings (you won't
break anything) and have fun.
