Chatting with People

Chats are interactive, real-time text conversations. Use chat if you need to ask a question or start a discussion.

You can send chat messages to anyone who has an Active or Away online status. People who are Away can see your messages once they return to their computers.

Note Chats with regular users are automatically secured with encryption if all participants use Sametime 1.5 or higher. If any participant uses an earlier version of Sametime (version 1.0 or earlier), the chat is not encrypted. Chats with AOL Instant Messenger users and external users are not encrypted.

Sending a Chat Message

Follow these steps to start a chat with a single person. If you are sending a chat message to multiple people, see "Starting an Instant Meeting from Sametime Connect" for instructions.

Tip To send a chat message to someone in the Participant List of an active meeting, double-click a name, enter your message, and press Enter. You can also select a name, choose Meeting - People - New Chat, enter your message, and press Enter.

Do one of the following:

Double-click a name.

Select a name and click the "Instant chat meeting" icon.

Right-click a name and choose Chat from the shortcut menu.

Select a name and choose Meeting - Chat.

In the Send Message dialog box, type your message and click Send or press Enter.

Tip Press SHIFT+ENTER to start a new line in a chat message.

(Optional) While chatting, you can do any of the following:

Use the Edit menu to edit your messages before sending them.

Choose Meeting - Add Tools and choose tools to add to the chat. See "Tools: How to Get Your Work Done" for more information about the available tools.

Invite others to join the chat.

Add a name to your contact list. If you are chatting with one other person, choose Meeting - "Add to List." If you are chatting with more than one other person, choose Meeting - People - "Add to List." Select or enter a personal group name in the Add New User dialog box and click OK.

You can leave the chat at any time in any of the following ways:

Click Close if you are in a chat with one person. Click Leave if you are in a chat with multiple people.

Choose Meeting - Close in a chat with one person. In a chat with multiple people, choose Meeting - Leave.

Click the close button in the upper right corner of the chat window.

Tip If you use Sametime Connect for the desktop, you can save a transcript, or text log, of the chat conversation to your computer. For more information, see the following:

"Saving a Chat Transcript"

"Determining Which Version of Sametime Connect You Are Using"

Chatting with AOL Instant Messenger Users

The following information applies to chats with AOL Instant Messenger users:

Chat messages are not encrypted.

You cannot include multiple AOL Instant Messenger users in a single chat meeting.

You cannot include AOL Instant Messenger users in chats with regular users or external users.

You cannot invite other people to a chat that is in progress.

You cannot add tools to a chat.

You cannot send announcements.

You cannot use Sametime to transfer files to AOL Instant Messenger users.

You cannot include AOL Instant Messenger users in the Who Can See Me Online list. You must use AOL Instant Messenger's privacy features to control which AOL Instant Messenger users can contact you.

If you exceed the AOL Instant Messenger rate limit, an appropriate message appears. Do not proceed with the chat until you receive a message notifying you that AOL Instant Messenger has returned to normal. You can exceed the AOL Instant Messenger rate limit by sending several messages one after another.

If you receive an instant message from an AOL Instant Messenger user, you can click the AOL Instant Messenger icon at the bottom of the chat window to access the AOL Instant Messenger home page.

Chatting with External Users

The following information applies to chats with external users:

Chat messages are not encrypted.

You cannot include multiple external users in a single instant chat meeting.

You cannot include external users in chats with AOL Instant Messenger users or regular users.

You cannot invite other people to a chat that is in progress.

You cannot add tools to a chat.

You cannot send announcements.

You cannot use Sametime to transfer files to external users.

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