The best way to login is to first use the "Float" button to open a new window.  The resulting login & chat window can easily be resized by clicking and dragging the edges.

• Passwords are optional for Guests.  
• Registration is not required.  Frequent chatters register and use passwords to retain chat settings between sessions, or for special functional roles such as Administrators.

To communicate in the chat room, you may simply type text into the multi-line text box towards the bottom of the applet, and press Enter to send your message. Your message will appear in the content (larger) box above it when it is received by our server. Others may then read what you have typed, and respond to you. If you wish to get another user's attention, simply type in (or click if available) their name somewhere within the message that you are sending them. Their message will appear in a different color, and a sound will be played. A sample text input box is shown below:

You will notice various buttons within the chat room. These allow you to logout, request help (as you have already figured out), float/dock the chat room, turn on/off audio, specify color settings, and more. Buttons are described in detail in the Button Toolbar section of this control panel. A sample selection of buttons is shown below:

You may have access to some of the features described above by right clicking in the content area where messages appear.

If you wish to exit the chat room at any time, simply click the Logout button. On some systems after logging out you will automatically be taken to another website, on others, you will have the option of logging back in again.

PeopleWithMS will be adding additional emoticons, and providing some guidelines on how chatters can construct and submit additional emoticons.

PeopleWithMS will be adding additional audicons, and providing some guidelines on how chatters can construct and submit additional audicons.

To find out which audicons you have access to, right click in the area where you type your messages and select "Audicons", or click the Audicon button in the Button Toolbar.

Audicon Guidelines:  Your emoticon must be in Sun ".au" format and no larger than 24 kilobytes in size. Although this isn't the most common format, file converters are available to turn a ".wav"  "midi" or other popular formats into an ".au" formatted file.

You may change the size of your font by accessing the right-click content menu. To do so, right click on the content area (the area where messages are displayed) and a small menu will appear. Select "Font Size" to show the font selections allowing you to change your font size. Click on the font size you'd like to use. You may also increase/decrease the size of the displayed text by using the Zoom-In and Zoom-Out buttons located in the Button Toolbar.

Users may change their own text color as it is displayed within the chat room. To change your text color, you may right click in the content area (where messages are displayed) and select "Colors". You may also access the color dialog by clicking the Color button within the Button Toolbar.

A sample color dialog is shown to the left. You may select a color directly from the web-safe palette, or you may manually adjust the red, green, and blue scrollbars to find the color that you wish to use. Click the Apply or OK button to apply your new color settings.

URL's, such as http://www.sigmachat.com or www.raidersoft.com, as well as email addresses such as mailto:support@raidersoft.com or sales@raidersoft.com may be entered into the chat at any time to share with. Some systems may show URL's in a different color (usually blue) and may allow you to click on them to launch either another web page, or your default mail application.

Note: Many modern systems are now equipped with popup-blockers. Web sites, and popups launched from SigmaChat may be prevented by your browser if this is the case. To override, simply hold down the "Ctrl" button while clicking on a popup link or button.

This chat is capable of hosting multiple subrooms. Subrooms are shown in the pulldown menu on the lower right hand side of the applet, just below the user list. Depending upon how your chat room has been configured by it's owner; you may create, join, and leave subrooms. Subrooms may be password protected as well for privacy. There is no limit on the amount of subrooms that may be created, however; user created subrooms are automatically removed when they are empty.

To create a new subroom, type /create [subroom_name]. Subroom names are subject to the same limitations as usernames. They should be between 2 and 32 characters in length, and may not contain spaces. You will automatically be placed in a subroom that you create. If you wish to password protect the subroom you have created, type /create [subroom_name] [subroom_password]. All users wishing to join your subroom will be required to enter the password you have chosen. Passwords are subject to the same limitations as subroom names.

To leave a subroom, type /leave or select a different subroom from the subroom pulldown menu. You will then be brought back to the main chat room. If the subroom you leave is empty, it may be removed from the subroom list.

To join an existing subroom, type /join [subroom_name]. If the subroom is password protected, you will need to supply the password (not neccesary for system operators) by typing: /join [subroom_name] [subroom_password].

Some chat rooms indicate users that are in the current subroom by listing them first (below administrators) or by indicating users in another subroom by displaying their name with a different color in the user list. To determine where another user is (what subroom he/she is in) simply double click on that users name in the user list, or type /whereis [username].

To send private messages, use the /msg command. I.e., to send the private message Hello, there to the user Timmy, you would type:

/msg Timmy Hello, there

Private messages are shown in a seperate color within the display to be easily differentiated.

You may also initiate a private message session with another user by double clicking on his/her name, or by right clicking on a username and selecting "Send Message". Once doing so, a popup dialog will appear for you to communicate with the other user in privately. The recipient may receive all messages in the main content area until he/she also double clicks on your name. To close a private message session, simply click the X in the upper-right hand portion of the window. Audio emoticons are not available within private message sessions.

You may toggle the timestamp on/off by clicking the button shown above. The timestamp may also be accessed from the right-click menu in the main content area (where messages are displayed). When this feature is turned on, all incoming messages will be displayed with the time that they were received. This time is relative to your own computer, and the timezone in which it resides.  This option is nor recommended, since adding the timestamp reduces the amount of chatspace on screen.

Click the Float/Dock button to load the chat room into a separate window which you can resize to suit your needs. Just click on an edge of the floating window and drag it to stretch or shrink.  This feature allows you to conserve screen space while you chat by minimizing the browser window that you floated the chat room from. When you wish to return the chatroom to it's browser, simply reclick the Float/Dock button.

Note: With most modern web browsers, you must keep the browser window that the chat room was floated from open. Closing this window, or changing the web address may cause the chat software to close.

When clicked, the Copy Content button will display a popup window allowing you to easily copy text entered within the chat room (both private and public messages may be copied) by right-clicked, or using either the Ctrl-C (PC) or Alt-C (Apple) keyboard commands to copy text to your system clipboard.

The Message Scrollback Feature allows you to scroll back through the previous messages you have entered into the chatroom. To use this feature, simply press the Up and Down arrow buttons in the blue box where you type messages. Often times, we make typos. This feature makes it easy to simply go back and edit the message that you have just typed. 

If you are running a version of a Microsoft Windows, or a BSD/*NIX variant ™ and see only a broken link icon, you will need to download a copy of the Java™ Virtual Machine in order to run our application. You may download Java™ Support for your browser from the link below:

• Sun Java™ Plugin

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