• General Overview

• Preferences

• Private Messages

General Overview

Investor/RT Chat allows you quick and easy access to the Investor/RT Chat Room, or any other IRC compatible chat room on any IRC server.  You can connect to as many chat rooms as you like, create your own chat rooms, and send private messages to other individuals in the chat rooms.  You can connect to or create as many simultaneous chat rooms as you like and have as many simultaneous private session as you would like.

If you are just getting started, begin by clicking on the Open Chat toolbar button in the main toolbar.  This should bring up the Chat Preferences window.  If you version of the software is not registered, you will first get two dialog boxes asking you for a nickname and real name.  All the default connection setting for connecting to the Investor/RT Chat Room should be filled in for you (#linnsoft, miami.othernet.org, 6667, etc).  You may want to change some of the preferences on the right, including font, colors etc.  Once you have your preferences set, you are ready to connect.  Make sure your Internet connection is open, and click on the "Connect" button.

Once you are successfully connected to the chat room, you should see something similar to the chat window above.  To the right (provided you have the "Show Names List" checkbox checked), you should see the list of nicknames of the current participants in the chat room.  The title of the window will tell you which channel or chat room you are connected to, and how many participants are in the room.  There are three controls in the chat rooms as seen above.  The Text Window, the Names List, and the Input Box.

• Text Window - This is the large window that takes up the majority of the screen.  All the chat room traffic is displayed in this windows.  You will see a variety of message types displayed in this window, including messages from other participants, notices that participants are coming or leaving, etc.  You can double click inside this window to bring up and change the chat room preferences.

• Names List - This is the list on the right hand side of the window that shows the nicknames of all the participants in the room.  If you do not see the names list, then  you can double click in the Text Window to bring up the Chat Preferences Window.  Then click "Show Names List" and click OK.  You can double click on any name in the list to bring up a private message window with that participant.  Once the private message window is open, type your initial message in the Input Box and press Enter to initiate the conversation.

• Input Box - The Input Box is the box where you type your message.  Once you have finished typing (or pasting) your message into the Input Box, just hit the Enter key to send the message to the Chat Room.  The message will then appear in the Text Window prefixed with your nickname.

Below is a complete description of all the options in the Chat Preferences Window.  By taking a close look at these preferences, you will get a better understanding of how Chat Rooms work.  Additional Information on IRC chat can be found at www.mirc.com.

The Investor/RT Chat Room Preferences window is show below.  This window can be accessed in one of 2 ways....either by choosing "Investor/RT Chat" from the "Help" menu, or by clicking on the "Open Chat" button in the main toolbar.  A complete description of each preferences is listed below.

• Chat Locations
  This group box contains all the information needed to connect to a chat room.  Each chat room that has been created and saved in the past can be accessed from the drop down list box at the top.

• New
  Click this button to create a new chat room.  After you click this button, you will be able to edit the Description, Channel, Server, etc., to correspond to the settings necessary to connect to your desired chat room.  Once you have finished, click Save, and your new Chat Room Description will be added and selected in the drop down list at top.

• Edit
  Click this button if you would like to Edit a Chat Room you have already created.  After you click the button, you will be able to edit all the edit boxes below except for the description.  If you would like to actually Edit the description, I recommend you first clicking New, changing the Description, click Save, and then go and delete the old Chat Room by selecting it from the list and clicking Delete.

• Save
  This button allows you to save a Chat Room based on the information filled in the text boxes below.  If you have not supplied enough information, the program will alert you of this and the save will not succeed.  Please fill in all boxes (with the exception of the password if not needed) before saving.

• Delete
  This button will delete the chat room that is selected in the drop down list box just above the buttons.

• Title (Description)
  This is simply a descriptive name by which you will remember the Chat Room in the future.  It is what you will see in the drop down list box at the top of the window.  This information will not actually be used to connect to the chat room, it is just used as a title for the remainder of the information below.

• Channel
  This is the IRC Channel name, or chat room name.  The Investor/RT Chat room has the channel name of "#linnsoft".  The channel is usually preceded by a #.

• Server
  This is the address of the server, or host.  It specifies the location of the server to which you will be logging into when connecting to the chat room.  In the case of the Investor/RT Chat Room, the server address is "miami.othernet.org".

• Port
  This is the number of the port that the server uses.  This will generally be a four digit number, such as 6667.

• Password
  Some servers require a password in order to connect.  If the server you are connecting to requires a password, fill it in here.  If it doesn't require a password, leave this field blank or enter "null".

• Nickname
  This is the name that will be seen by other members of the chat room.  Try to limit your nickname to 9 characters or less, and use only letter, numbers, or '_'.  You cannot use spaces in your nickname.

• Real Name
  The real name is only seen when someone does a "WHOIS" command on you.  The real name can be anything you would like.  It can be your actual name or not. It's up to you.

• Show Names List
  If you would like to create more room in your Chat Window for text, you may hide the Names List by unchecking this checkbox.

• Ignore Administrative Messages (JOIN, QUIT)
  In some very busy chat rooms, the JOIN and QUIT messages can be very distracting and fill your window with unnecessary lines.  You can check this box and Investor/RT will not send those message to the Text Window.

• Sound Alert on Incoming Messages
  Check this checkbox if you would like Investor/RT to sound an audible alert whenever the chat room receives and incoming message.

• Show Time
  When this checkbox is checked, each line will be prefixed with the time that the text arrived in the room.  If you would like additional room for text and don't particularly care about the time, uncheck this box.

• Military
  This specifies whether or not to show the time in Military (16:24:34) or Standard (04:24:34 PM) format.  This checkbox is only activated when the "Show Time" checkbox is checked.

• Seconds
  This specifies whether or not to show seconds in the time.  This checkbox is only activated when the "Show Time" checkbox is checked.

• Text Format
  The Ircle and mIRC popular chat programs use two different text formats.  Ircle right aligns the nicknames (most effective with monospaced fonts), while mIRC just left aligns the nickname and placed it in brackets.  This groupbox allows you to specify which format you would like to use.

• Font Family and Size
  Click on the Font Button to specify the size and family of font you would like to see for the text in the Text Window.

• Text Color
  Color of the text in the Text Window.

• Background Color
  Color of the Text Background in the Text Window.

Private Message Windows can be initiated by double clicking on a nickname in the Names List.  Messages that you enter in this window will go only to the one nickname that is seen in the title of the window.  The window title should have a format such as "Private Chat with John".  When someone sends you a private message in Investor/RT, an new window will pop up with their message.  Private message windows do not have Names Lists since there are only two participants in the chat.