ChatterBox Help

INTRODUCTION

ChatterBox is a LAN (Local Area Network) chat and instant message utility. It is designed for use in small, locally contained networks like what you may have at home or in a small business. It does not work over the Internet. You need at least two users on a local network for ChatterBox to work.

ChatterBox lets any number of users on the network communicate with each other instantly, keep Buddy lists, and save chats to an RTF (Rich text) file.

ChatterBox starts in your task tray so that it is as unobtrusive as possible.

TRAY MENU

Right-click the ChatterBox icon to access the popup menu.

Open Select this menu option to open the main ChatterBox window. You can also left-click the icon to open the window.

Help F1 Display the online help. Select this menu option or hit the F1 key.

About Select this menu option to open a window with information about ChatterBox, including a link to our web site.

Exit Exit ChatterBox.

MAIN WINDOW

Chat Window The Chat Window (top portion, pale yellow background) displays the text you receive, the text you send, and any appropriate notices from ChatterBox. For example, in the snapshot above, we have received a message indicating that our Buddy “Anj” is ONLINE – which means Anj is available to chat with.

Input Area The Input Area (bottom portion, white background) displays the text you are typing and what will be sent to your Buddy(s). In the snapshot above, the text “Can we meet later?” is about to be sent to Anj. Notice that we have already sent messages back and forth.

To send a message, enter your text in the Input Area, then click the “Send” button. You can also just hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard.

If you like, you can copy text from somewhere else and paste it into this area to send to your Buddy.

You can copy/paste URLs here too. If you send (or receive) a valid URL, you will be able to click it in the Chat Window and open your default Browser to visit the URL.

Buddy Selector The Buddy Selector (lower left corner) is a drop-down list of all of your Buddys. Click the down-arrow to select the Buddy you want to send a message to. In the snapshot above, “Anj” is selected.

Note that if you select a Buddy who is not currently ONLINE, you get an error message:

Note that “All” is in the list by default and cannot be removed. If you select “All”, your message will be broadcast to everyone using ChatterBox even if they are not on your Buddy List.

See the “Options” section “Buddy Tab” for more information on how to work with Buddys.

DND Use the DND (Do Not Disturb) checkbox when you want some privacy. When checked, ChatterBox will automatically reply to your Buddys “Do Not Disturb” whenever they try to chat with you. Don’t forget to uncheck this box when you are ready to chat!

Save When you want to save the text of your chat, use this button. You can save the entire chat window contents, or you can save only the selected text in the Chat Window.

Options This button will expand the Main Window and display all the settings for ChatterBox. See the next section of this guide for details on Options.

Common functions are:

Help F1 – Display the online help. Click this button or hit the F1 key.

About – Select this menu option to open a window with information about ChatterBox, including a link to our web site.

Save Options – Save the Options settings for all three tabs – Buddys, Alert and Interface.

Send When you want to save the text of your chat, use this button. You can save the entire chat window contents, or you can save only the selected text in the Chat Window.

OPTIONS - BUDDYS

Buddy List The list displays all of your Buddys, including the default “All” (which cannot be removed). Select a Buddy from the list to change the Options for that Buddy.

When ChatterBox searches for and finds a new Buddy, or if a new Buddy comes ONLINE, they will be added to this list. You can then change settings for the new Buddy.

Note that new Buddys are added to the list as ‘New Buddy X’ where ‘X’ is a number.

Nickname Displays/sets a nickname for this Buddy. By default, a Buddy’s Nickname is the same as their login name. You can change the nickname to anything you like. You may only use a nickname one time – you cannot have more than one Buddy with the same nickname.

Color Click the color swatch to set a color for this Buddy. When you receive a message from the Buddy, their nickname will be displayed in the Chat Window using this color.

Note: The color used for your sent messages (“[Me]”) is set on the Interface Tab.

Note: If a Buddy sends a message to “All”, their name will appear in black.

User Info Displays the basic information about the Buddy – their login name and their machine name. This is display only and cannot be edited.

Status Displays the current online status of the selected Buddy – either ONLINE in green, or OFFLINE in red.

Default When checked, ChatterBox will select this Buddy in the Buddy Selector at startup.

Banned When checked, the selected Buddy will be banned from sending messages to you. They will automatically receive a message from you stating that they have been banned. You will not see messages from any banned Buddy (except for messages sent to “All” – see “Show messages…” below.)

Show messages… When checked, messages sent to “All” by a banned Buddy will be shown. If this is not checked, you will not see any messages sent by the banned Buddy no matter how they send them.

Allow default… When checked, ChatterBox will keep the Default Buddy selected even if they are not ONLINE. If this is not checked when ChatterBox starts, and the default Buddy is OFFLINE, a notice will be printed in the Chat Window and “All” will be chosen from the Buddy Selector.

Delete Buddy This will delete the selected Buddy from your list.

Note that the Buddy will reappear in the list the next time ChatterBox starts and finds them, or if they go OFFLINE then come ONLINE.

You can use this to “reset” a Buddy, for example if their machine name or login name changes.

However, if you have banned a Buddy, they will not automatically be re-added to the list.

OPTIONS - ALERTS

Use alerts…open When checked, alerts will be used when the chat window is open. For example, if the chat window is open and you have selected “Play a sound…”, then when a message arrives, you will hear the sound. If this is unchecked, alerts will not be used when the chat window is open.

Use alerts…closed When checked, alerts will be used when the chat window is closed. For example, if the chat closed is open and you have selected “Play a sound…”, then when a message arrives, you will hear the sound. If this is unchecked, alerts will not be used when the chat window is closed.

Pop chat… When checked, the chat window will be popped to the front of all other windows when a message arrives. If this is unchecked, the chat window will remain in it’s current position.

Flash chat… When checked, the chat window title and icon (in the tray) will flash 4 times when a message arrives. If this is unchecked, then the title and icon will not flash.

Flash continuous… When checked, and if the “Flash chat…” option is also checked, the chat window title and icon will flash continuously until you click the window. If this is unchecked, then the window title and icon will flash 4 times.

Open the chat… When checked, the chat window will be opened (assuming it was minimized before). If this is unchecked, the chat window will not be opened.

Play a sound… When checked, a sound will be played when a message arrives. The ChatterBox Default sound will be used unless you choose a different sound. If this is unchecked, no sound will play when a message arrives.

Alert Sound Displays the name of the sound used for the alert. By default it is the ChatterBox “Default sound”.

Set Sound If you want to change the sound played, use this to open a windows dialog where you can choose any sound on your system (*.WAV files only).

Play Sound Play the Alert sound one time (for testing the sound).

Reset Sound Reset the Alert Sound to the ChatterBox Default sound.

OPTIONS - INTERFACE

URLs in chat… When checked, URLs sent as part of a message will be clickable and will open in your default browser. If this is unchecked, then URLs will appear as regular text. You can still copy/paste them into a browser if you wish.

Allow Do Not… When checked, incoming messages will be displayed, even if you have the DND (Do Not Disturb) box checked. If this is unchecked, then incoming messages will not be displayed when the DND box is checked.

Ask to save… When checked, you will be prompted to save the chat any time you close the chat window using the window “X” (upper-right corner).

Note that if you minimize the chat window using the “_” button, the contents of the chat window will remain the next time you open the window.

Note that if you close (minimize) the chat window using the “X” button, the contents of the chat window are removed.

Always keep.. When checked, the ChatterBox window will remain on top of all other windows. If this is unchecked, the window will get moved behind other windows as you use them.

Close Options… When checked, the Options section will be closed when you minimize the chat window. If this is unchecked, then the Options window will be visible when you open the chat window (if it was previously open when minimizing).

Minimize chat… When checked, minimizing the chat window will make it only visible in the task tray (near the clock). If this is unchecked, the ChatterBox icon will remain on the task bar as well.

Clear chat… When checked, minimizing the chat window with the “_” button will clear the text from the chat window. If this is unchecked, minimizing with the “_” button will not clear the chat text.

Note that closing the chat window using the “X” will always clear the chat text.

Include to… When checked, the prefix shown in the chat window for all messages will include the name of the sender. For example, an incoming message may read “[Timmy to Me]”. An outgoing message may read “[Me to Timmy]”. If this is unchecked, the prefix will show only one side, i.e. outgoing: “[Me]”, or incoming: “[Timmy]”.

Note that all incoming message sent to “All” will display the senders name in black.

Show popup tips When checked, popup help tips are displayed when your cursor hovers over an interface item, such as a button or checkbox.

Chat Font Set the font used for text in the chat window (where you receive messages).

Input Font Set the font used for text in the input window (where you type your message).

Prefix Font Set the font used for only the Prefix portion of the text in the chat window.

WEB SITE

If you have questions that cannot be answered in this help file, would like to make a bug report or enhancement request, please visit our web site.

You can get to our website by clicking this link: www.FreewareOnly.net