Getting Started
There are three main sections on the Member menu. This is what they mean, from left to right:
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Connect |
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AFK |
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Set Font |
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Disconnect |
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Get Identity |
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Set Font Colour |
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Enter Room |
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Ignore |
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Bold |
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Leave Room |
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Whisper Box |
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Italics |
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Create Room |
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Send Email |
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Underline |
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Comics View |
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Visit Web Page |
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Fixed Pitch Font |
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Text View |
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MSN Community |
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Symbol Font |
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Room List | ||||
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User List | ||||
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Open Favs |
The first step is to go to view on the top tool bar and select options from the drop down menu. CTRL+Q is the keyboard shortcut. It is important to remember here to always click on 'apply' and then 'ok' so that your changes take effect.
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| Comic Chat Options - Personal Info. |
The first window that pops up is 'personal info'. It is here that you can enter your nickname. You can also enter an e-mail address and web page address but these are optional. You may list a brief profile which can be something totally off the wall or very serious.
Once again, I would caution you about putting your real name here or any other personal information.
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| Comic Chat Options - Settings |
Next, click on the settings tab. The 'Don't send Microsoft Chat specific information' is generally not checked if you are using comic mode unless you are speaking mainly to people who use text.
The content advisor allows you restrict the content that is displayed in chat. You may add a password here by clicking on settings. You will find more information about the content advisor in the Comic Chat help files.
The bottom boxes are pretty self explanatory. If you have 'appear in others users lists' checked, chatters outside your room will be able to see your presence there.
The sound search path allows you to change the default path for sounds. As you can see, I have changed from the default path which is C:/Windows/Media. I will talk more about sounds later.
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| Comic Chat Options - Comics View |
Clicking on the next tab takes you to comics view. It is here that you can customize your fonts. The rich text format should also be checked.
The page layout offers a
drop down menu and you should select four panels wide unless you are using a laptop or another computer which does now show the four panels well.
I like to select five panels wide which is not an option here but you can change that by using Chat Check.
Another option provided here is to automatically download characters and backgrounds that you don't have. Please note that not all characters and backgrounds download automatically; they must be posted somewhere on the internet to do that. Some chatters elect not to download characters and backgrounds, for whatever reason.
Other options in comic chat include making macros, adding rules, auto responses and logon notifications. For advanced configuration techniques, click here.
I will be talking about the Character and Background tabs later.
Chatting
So now we can get to the good stuff....chatting!!! lol
When going to a chat room
for the first time, I recommend you read chat room etiquette.
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| Managing Frames |
The most important thing to learn when using comic chat (if you are in comic mode) is to be in the same frame as the person you are talking to. Being in the same frame makes it clear who you are talking to, and, in conjunction with the expressions of your character, helps send your message more effectively. To have another chatter in your frame, click on their character or nickname.
You can select up to four other chatters to be in your frame by holding down the 'ctrl' key while clicking on their characters or nicknames.
The
next thing we should look at is how to actually talk to other chatters.
You will find these symbols at the end of your typing edit box (where you
type your text).
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| A Thought Bubble |
The first symbol on the left is for talking and the same thing can be accomplished by hitting 'enter'.
The next symbol is for thoughts (see image)(*tip* alternatively, press ctrl+t to send a thought to the room).
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| Whispers |
The symbol with the dotted lines around
it is for whispering to people (*tip* ctrl+w is the keyboard shortcut for whispering). If
you highlight a chatters name in the nickname list or click on their
character, then you can whisper to them and no one else in the chat room
will see your comments.
Whispers can be sent to more than one person at a
time….up to four actually. (*tip* you can use an irc command here instead of clicking on
this symbol…the command would be /msg nickname) Note that your comments in the chat room are also encased with dotted lines.
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| An Action |
The
square box is for an action and always starts with your nickname (*tip* the irc command for this is
/me). For example; if I type in:
/me grins
it will look like this:
"Sniffles grins" (see the image on the right).
(*tip*
pressing ctrl+j will also send an action to the room).
The last
symbol that looks like a speaker is for playing sounds and I will talk
about that later.
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| Right Click on a Chatter |
If you right click on a nickname in the nick list or on a character, the pop up illustrated on the right will . . well . . . pop up. lol
'Get Profile' will retrieve any information that the chatter has listed in their profile.
'Get Identity' will show their IP address or host mask (most servers block you from obtaining a chatters real IP address).
If you don't have the comic chat character the person is using you can download it here (as long as that character is 'posted' somewhere on the internet) and you can send that person a whisper box (which is different from a room whisper because an actual window will pop up). Whipser boxes often save one from embarassing misclicks which happen quite often when using the whisper function.
If you click on 'add to notifications', this person will be added to your notification list (more on this and macros in Advanced Configuration Techniques. If the chatter has entered an email address or a web page address you can choose these options here. As well, you can send a file to this chatter.
Version, Lag Time and Local Time are CTCP requests (CTCP stands for
Client-To-Client-Protocol which is a special type of communication between
IRC Clients).
Clicking on version will tell you what chat client (or chat program)
the chatter is using.
Lag Time is also called ping. Ping is a signal sent
from one computer to another computer and then back again. It is used to
measure the speed of the internet connection. The higher the number of
seconds the slower the connection. This slowness is called lagging.
Local
time is just as you would imagine, the local time of the user.
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| Right Click in the Room |
Right clicking in a blank spot in the chat room will bring up this window.
You can change from comic to text mode here and copy and/or clear your history.
You can also view the room properties, which you can't alter unless you are a host in the room, but you may find interesting.
Nick List
The nickname list shows the names of the chatters in your activated room. You can select to view this as a list or as icons (as shown on the right) by right clicking in the nickname list or by going to 'view/member list'. Characters & Backgrounds
You can change your
character by going to view/options/character (or by double clicking on the
character image on the right of your chat screen). When you scroll up and
down the list, a preview of the characters you have installed will appear
in the preview window as illustrated on the right. Underneath the preview window, is the emotion wheel. Moving your mouse
over this window will show you all the different poses that a character has. Similarly, if you go to view/options/background, you can change the
background scenery in chat. To learn how to save a character (or background) in the correct
directory click here. Emotion Wheel
The Emotion Wheel shows the range of emotions that your character will display as shown in the image here. To change the emotion drag the black dot around the wheel with your mouse or press the tab key and use your up and down arrow keys. Playing Sounds
Playing sounds in chat is fun and can be very entertaining! To play a sound in chat, you may
use the speaker icon at the end of the text edit bar or press CTRL+H. This
will bring up the window shown at the right. You can scroll down your list
and select a wav to play. Other chatters will be able to hear the wav only
if they have that wav in their computers, named exactly the same way. In the 'accompanying message' box, you can add a message that will
appear as an action. IE: if you type 'is here!' in the message box and play
the tada wav it will look like this: There may be times, especially when you first start chatting that you
cannot hear sounds in chat and you may need to install a codec. Codec is
short for compressor/decompressor and as you would think, it compresses and
decompresses data. It is software that allows your computer to understand
what it is seeing and allows the hardware to deal with it correctly. Click
here to learn more about codecs. To download the codec, click here. To install the codec, unzip ALL the files into a working directory, for example, C:\Temp. ALL the files must be extracted. Once unzipped, go to that directory and right click on the INSTALL.INF file and select install. If you still cannot hear sounds, reboot your computer. One final thought here about sounds. It may happen that someone plays a
sound that YOU HEAR, and its driving you nuts!! To stop the sound go to
'view/stop playing sound'. Some
More Fun Stuff
There is some more
cool stuff you can do in comic chat that I am going to mention here because
it didn't really fit into any other category.
The first thing I
wanted to mention is the away system. The away cup is located on the
Member menu, eleventh icon from the left. Clicking on the cup will place a coffee cup beside your name and will let other chatters know that you are away from the computer or otherwise occupied. Once you have typed
in your away message and clicked on 'ok', it will look something like the one
on the right. Creativity and fun are the key things to remember when
composing an away message. Don't forget to click on the cup when you
return so that you are marked as being back!
If you click on
'member/invite', you can invite chatters from other rooms to join you in
the room you are in. To invite more that one chatter at a time put a comma
between each nickname.
A Few More Tips A Few Cool Programs One program that you might want to download is called Chat Check. It scans your computer to see what avb's (characters) you have installed and can check the internet for updates and more characters. It can scan for characters that you may find unsuitable such as naked or violent ones. It can also change your panel width in chat to five panels wide. To download Chat Check, click
here. If you become interested in making your own characters, you will need the character editor. It is not a difficult program to master but, be warned, it is addictive!! Click
here to download the program. Click here to view my tutorials about making Comic Chat characters. << Back To The Tutorial Page << << Back To The Getting Started Page << >> Go Forward to Advanced Configuration >> If you have any questions or comments about my site, E-mail me.
Comic Characters
List
Icon
Note that the hammer beside a nickname indicates a channel/room host or operator.
Comic Chat Options - Character
Emotion Wheel
MS Comic Chat Characters (if they are constructed properly) will automatically send an expression that matches what you are saying so unless you want to send a specific pose to the channel/room, you won't need to worry about the emotion/pose sent. For example, if you type 'lol', your character will display in a laugh pose.
Not all characters will have a full set of emotions. This, of course, would depend on the concept of the original author of the character.
To freeze your emotion or expression, right click in the Character Pane and select "Frozen".
Play Sound
Press 'ok' to send the wav to the room or press 'test' so only you can hear it. Of course pressing 'cancel' will cancel the sound. lol
To learn how to save a wav in the correct directory click here. The default sound path for wav's in Comic Chat is 'C\Windows\Media'. To change the default path go to 'View/Options/Settings'. At the bottom of this window in 'Sounds Search Path', you can browse to the place you have stored your wav's.
Tada!
Sniffles is here! (tada.wav)
Away From Keyboard
When you click on the cup, a
window pops up that allows you to customize your away message. Unlike other
chat clients, the cup stays beside your name until you return so that other
chatters know you are away from the keyboard. By highlighting all or some
of the words in your message and right clicking you can change the colour or style
of your words.
My Away Message
Invite
To change your nickname, type in /nick NewNickHere, and hit enter To ignore
someone who is harassing you, right click on their nickname and select
ignore. You will no longer be able to see what they say to you but will be
able to see what other chatters say to them If you right
click in the nickname list, you can choose to see the list as an actual
list or as icons If you find
a room you are really enjoying, click on 'favourites/add to
favourites'. When you want to come back to that particular room, just
click on 'favourites' and select the room name from your list If you find a
person sending you too many messages and you are getting flooded, click on
'view/automations/general tab', and change your flood settings. Make sure
your auto ignore feature is enabled You can freeze
your characters expression and not send emotional poses to the room by
right clicking on your character on the left and selecting 'frozen' Don't forget
that the help files are a valuable resource To save a chat, go to 'file/save as'. Files can be saved in comic or text mode, however I find text mode to be easier to save.
