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Getting Started

It is a friendly room and we will not tolerate anyone abusing it.  Some members have the power to KICK a disruptive user from the room immediately and also people can be permanently barred for bad behaviour.  If you find someone is being particularly disruptive whilst you are in the chat room please note their username and email Pip about it.

When you first go to the live Chat Room you will have to wait for the Java screen to load.   Once loaded, you type your name in the text box (white box across bottom of the screen) and press your Enter key on your keyboard.

When you first enter the room you will see a blank screen because no previous 'chat' shows up.   You will see who is in the room by the list on the right hand side of the page. 

When you want to type a message in you type in the long white strip at the base of the Chat Room and when you are ready to send it just click on the ENTER button on your keyboard.

If you want to alter the font size, right click within the main message screen and a drop down menu appears and you can alter the font size to suit yourself.  On the same right click you have the option to stop the "time stamp" from appearing and stop the sounds.

If you want your messages to appear in a colour, click on COLOR tab (left hand side) and then you can choose a colour by clicking on one of the boxes or gradually use the sliders of the different colours to adjust and mix whatever colour you want.   You will see the colour you are choosing by the writing within the box.  Once you have a colour you like click Apply and OK.

If you want to resize the Chat Room you have two options.
1. Click on FLOAT and the chat room will detach itself from the page.  Do not close the original page or you will be booted out of chat, simply minimize it out of the way.  Now you can enlarge the chat room itself in the normal way you would enlarge any window.   To take the window back to its original position you click on DOCK.
Sometimes you will find that this doesn't work and in that case it is best to click on the float button outside the Chat Room, where you type your name in.   Then you will find you can enlarge the screen to full size.

If you want to attract someone's attention, simply type their name in your message and the message will appear in a different colour on the board and a sound will be played.

Autoscroll is an optional facility that has now been discontinued.   The chat room will scroll as more messages get added but you can now smoothly scroll back by using the up and down arrows.   Just scroll back down to see the latest messages again.

There are a number of typing shortcuts which make emoticons appear. Here is a list of the different "faces" and "sounds" that you can use.  You can either type these in manually or you can right click in the text box where you type out your messages and there is a drop down list in there and you can click on whatever you want to show up.   Remember though that there has to be a space before and after any of the emoticons in order for them to work.

Emoticon	Text
	8)
	:)
	:(
	:((
	:banghead
	:bash
	:bed
	:beer
	:clap
	:cup
	:D
	:doh
	:evil
	:fingers
	:hug
	:kiss
	:N
	:noevil
	:nose
	:o
	:oo
	:pint
	:rolleyes
	:T
	:wine
	:X
	:Y
	:yawn
	;)
	lol
	rofl
audio	*bleep*
audio	*beep*
audio	*welcome*

Leaving the Chat Room.  When you leave the chat room please use the LOG OUT button on the left hand side of the room and then close the windows.  If you do not log out properly you will not be able to re-enter the room with the same name.

If you want to pass on another url (web address) to other members,  simply type it in on the main message board and other users can click on this link and it will open in a new window.  Also a copy of that address will automatically be held in an area that you can access at the top of the chat room.  It is marked - URL List - and if you click on the arrow to the right hand side of the page you will see the url listed there.  Just click on it and another window will open up with that site in it.

There is a facility for you to be able to set up a separate chat room, ideal if you don't want to take part in the active chat in the main room but want to chat about a separate subject with someone.

To do this you type in  - /create - followed by a space and then the name of the room you wish to create.  These sub-rooms must be between 1 and 15 characters and cannot contain any spaces.  When you create a sub-room you will automatically be taken directly in there as soon as you create it, and will not be able to see the conversation in the main room.   When you wish to leave the sub-room you type in - /leave - and you will be taken back to the main chat room again.  If you are the last person to leave the sub-room then it will automatically cease to exist.  If you wish to join a sub-room that someone else has set up you type in - /join - followed by a space and then the name of the sub-room.

Here is an example of creating a sub-room called "gardening information"

To create the room type in:     /create gardeninginformation

To join a room already set up type in:  /join gardeninginformation

To leave the sub-room type in: /leave

All users within the entire chat are listed in the Main Room, however, when inside a sub-room only users within that room will be listed on the user list.

If you are trying to find a user that you think may be in a sub room type in  - /whereis - followed by the users name.

If you are having problems with the chat room loading or freezing try installing the Java plug in.  This is a link to their page: http://java.sun.com/getjava/ 

Some people are also having problems with being booted straight out of chat as soon as they get in there. It seems this problem can be rectified by altering your settings in Internet Explorer as follows:-

Go to TOOLS at top of screen.
From drop down menu go to INTERNET OPTIONS.
Now click on ADVANCED.
Scroll down the list until you come to JAVA VM
You will see three options listed there. The only option you want ticked is the third one which says JIT COMPILER FOR VIRTUAL MACHINE ENABLED (REQUIRES RESTART).
Make sure that is the only one ticked - clear the others if necessary by clicking in the boxes with your mouse.
Now restart your computer.

You should now find that you will get into the chat room without any problems and also not get booted out of there.

Occasionally the Screen may freeze on you and it will appear as if no one is chatting all of a sudden.  If this happens then close down the Chat Room and the Entry Screen and then re-enter.

If you get disconnected from the Internet you will again have to close everything down before you can re-enter the Chat Room.  There is a lag of a couple of minutes whilst your name clears the Chat Room screen so if you re-enter very quickly you may find your name is showing up as already in use.  Just leave it for a short while and then try again.

If you want to change your username whilst still remaining in chat, type in /nick followed by a space and then followed by the name you want to change to.