SGImeeting Chat

The chat tool lets you exchange text messages with other conference participants. Messages can either be broadcast to the whole conference, or "whispered" to a single person.

At the end of a Chat session, messages can be archived to a text file for later reference. This makes Chat a useful tool for taking minutes during a conference.

How do I...

	start Chat?
	send a message to everyone?
	send a message to a specific person ("whisper" the message)?
	change the way messages are displayed?
	get notifications of incoming messages?
	save the current message list?
	clear the list of messages?
	see messages that were sent and received before I joined the conference?
	end Chat?

Starting Chat

To start Chat, press the Chat button on the SGImeeting toolbar, or choose the Chat command on the Tools menu.

The Chat window appears and is automatically started on the other conference participants' systems. (Equally, if somebody else in the conference starts Chat, it will start automatically on your system.)

Sending a Message to Everyone

To send a text message to everyone in the conference:

Set the "send to" option to "Everyone in conference".
Type the message in the message entry field.
Press Enter.

Whispering a Message to a Specific Person

To send a text message to a specific person:

Select the person to "whisper" to in the "send to" option field.
(To see a list of everyone currently participating in the conference, click the option button.)
Type the message in the message entry field.
Press Enter.
The message is sent only to the person specified. In the recipient's Chat window, the name of the sender appears in italics to indicate that the message has been whispered.

Changing the Way Messages are Displayed

You can choose whether to display the following fields along with each message:

	Date when the message was received
	Time when the message was received
	Name of the originator of the message.

To turn on or off display of one or more of these fields, select the relevant option from the View menu. Any changes you make affect only your own display, so different people in the conference can choose a different set of fields to view.

Getting Notifications of Incoming Messages

If the Chat window is minimized, or hidden behind other windows on the screen, then incoming messages may go unnoticed. To guard againt this, you can set options to:

	Restore, or raise the Chat window to the front of the screen on receipt of an incoming message.
	Make an audible beep on receipt of an incoming message.

To turn these notifications on or off, select the relevant item from the Options menu.

Saving the Current Message List

To save the current list of messages, select the Save command on the File menu. This saves the current message list in plain text format.

Clearing the List of Messages

To clear the current list of messages, select the Clear All command on the File menu.
If new messages have been added and you have not saved them, a pop-up message asks you if you want to save the contents. Choose Yes to save all messages (including the new messages) to file, or No to discard them.

Seeing Messages that Occurred Before you Joined the Conference

When you start Chat, you do not see messages that have already been exchanged in the conference. If you want to see these messages, you can ask another participant to save the file (as described in Saving the Current Message List), and send you the message list in text format, either using File Transfer or by other means such as email or FTP.

Ending Chat

To end Chat, select the Exit command on the File menu. This stops the copy of Chat running on your computer, but does not affect other people in the conference who are still using Chat.