Sun Java System Instant Messaging 7 2005Q1 Online Help Sun logo
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Main Window—Contact List and Conference Tabs

This section contains the following information:

Main Window Overview

The Instant Messenger Main window is where you perform most messaging functions. The Main window has two tabs - the Contact List Tab and the Conference Tab. Icons appear at the top and bottom of the window. Depending on which tab you select, and what privileges you have, the icons change.

Whether you have selected the Contact List Tab or the Conference Tab, you can Exit from the File menu option to quit the Messenger, or click the Help button to view the online help.

Your Own Status

At the bottom of the Main window, your current status is displayed in the Status area with one of the following icons:

You can customize the message for both Online and Away statuses. Sun Java System Instant Messenger displays this message in its Status area, and for your user ID as a tooltip, when you or another user places the cursor over your user ID. A custom message can be a helpful indicator of your current status, for example, “Going to lunch now.” Instant Messenger stores a maximum of five customized status messages.

When you are not running Instant Messenger, and cannot receive any type of message, your status is displayed to other users as “Offline.” You can change your status only when you are running the Instant Messenger program.

User Status

Only users added to one of your contact groups show their current status. Icons indicate a user’s status as one of the following:

Online Icon - The user is running Instant Messenger and is available.

Do Not Disturb Icon - The user does not want to be disturbed; do not send messages to the user.

Away Icon - The user is away. If you put your cursor on the Away icon, you see one of the following messages: Be Right Back, On Phone, Out to Lunch, Gone Home, or a customized message.

Offline Icon - The user is offline (not readily available).

Idle Icon - The user is idle, that is, has remained inactive for the time limit specified in his or her user settings.

[*] - You are watching the user’s status. Instant Messenger sends you an alert message when the user’s status changes.

Authorization Pending Icon - Authorization Pending on adding selected contacts to your Contacts list.



Note

Instant Messenger does not show the status of the users within an LDAP group. Instead, you see only a group icon.


Changes in users’ status, such as from online to away, also appear briefly in the Main window’s title bar above the Status icon.

When you place your cursor over a user ID, a tooltip message appears, displaying the user’s status. If the user is on a server different than yours, the tooltip displays the user ID in the form user ID@domain.



Note

Contact your administrator for more information on the type of message displayed in the tooltip.


Contact List Tab

The Contact List tab is your personalized list of contact groups, which contain contacts that you select. Contacts can be either individual users or LDAP groups. Contacts are users or groups to whom you frequently send instant messages or alerts.



Note

In some cases, Instant Messenger uses the term “user” synonymously with the term “contact.”


To add contacts to a contact group, see To Search for and Add Contacts to a Contact Group. You can add the same user or LDAP group to multiple contact groups. You can also create new contact groups. See To Create a New Contact Group.



Note

Other instant messaging products refer to a contact list as a buddy list, and contacts that you chat with as buddies.


When you log in for the first time, your Contact List tab contains only one contact group, named “My Contacts.” You can add contacts to this group or create new contact groups. You can also rename this contact group. See To Rename a Contact Group.



Tip

Create contact groups for different categories of users you communicate with.


Next to contact group names are folder icons. You must expand this icon to see the contacts in that contact group. Double-clicking the icon toggles between expanded and collapsed mode. You can only see which users are online when a contact group folder is expanded. When users are logged on and online, you can exchange messages with them.



Note

Instant Messenger does not let you expand an LDAP group to see the users that it contains. However, when you start a chat session with an LDAP group, each user in that group is displayed in the Chat window’s Session Member list pane.


With the Contact List tab selected, you can:

Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups

You can select contacts and contact groups in the following ways:

Contact List Right-Click Pop-Up Menu

Select a contact or contact group from the Contact List and click the right mouse button to view a pop-up menu. Use this menu to manage your contacts and contact groups, and also start instant messaging sessions.

Select a contact and click the right mouse button to view a pop-up menu with the following choices:

Select a contact group and click the right mouse button to view a pop-up menu with the following choices:

Conference Tab

The Conference tab displays all conference rooms to which you have subscribed and been given access. You see only conference rooms that your administrator or technical support center, or some other user with Room Creation privilege, has assigned to you.



Note

Keep in mind that conference room conversations are not private. Anyone with access privileges can enter the room at anytime and observe and participate in the ongoing conversation.


With the Conference tab selected, you can:

To Search for and Add Contacts to a Contact Group

Contacts are users or groups to whom you frequently send instant messages, alerts, and polls. Contacts can be either individual users or LDAP groups. Adding users or groups to a contact group consists of using the Add New Contact window to:

Follow these steps to search for and to add contacts to a contact group:

  1. Search for contacts you want to add to your contact groups.
  2. See Add Contacts Window Overview for more information.

  3. After entering your search criteria, click Find Contact. The result is displayed in the “Contacts to Add”, or if your search finds more than one match, the Select Contacts window is displayed. Note that the more general the search is, the larger the list in the Search Contacts window will be.
  4. If the Select Contact window is displayed, select the contacts that you want to add to a contact group and click OK. You can use multiple selections in this window. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.

    The Add New Contact to Contact Group window is updated with the contacts and the Select Contact window is closed.

  5. Use the “Add contact(s) to” drop-down menu to select a contact group, and click Add Contact(s).
  6. The Sun Java System Instant Messenger program updates your contact group with the contacts.

See Also:

Searching for Contacts

To Delete a Contact from a Contact Group

  1. In the Main window, with the Contact List tab selected, click the contact to be deleted.
  2. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selection. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.

  3. Select Delete from the File menu.
  4. A confirm delete pop-up window appears.



    Tip

    You can also delete a contact group in the following ways:

    • Click the Delete key
    • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D.

To Create a New Contact Group

In the Main window, with the Contact List tab selected, you can create contact groups for different categories of users you want to communicate with and add contacts to them.

  1. You can create a new contact group in the following ways:
    • Right-click on a Contact Group and select “New contact group” from the pop-up menu.
    • Select New Contact Group from the File menu.
    • The “Enter new contact group name” pop-up window appears.

  2. Type the contact group name and click OK.
  3. The new contact group is displayed in the Contact List tab.

To Rename a Contact Group

  1. In the Main window, with the Contact List tab selected, right-click the contact group to be renamed.
  2. A pop-up menu is displayed.

  3. Select “Rename contact group”.


  4. Tip

    You can also select Rename Contact Group from the File menu.


    A “Rename contact group” pop-up window appears.

  5. Type the new name of the contact group and click OK.
  6. The contact group is updated with the new name.

To Delete a Contact Group

  1. In the Main window, with the Contact List tab selected, click the contact group to be deleted.
  2. Select Delete from the File menu.
  3. A Confirm Delete pop-up window appears.

  4. Click Yes.
  5. The contact group is deleted from the Contact List tab.



    Tip

    You can also delete a contact group in the following ways:

    • Click the Delete key
    • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D.

To Move a Contact to Another Group

  1. In the Main window, with the Contact List tab selected, select the contacts that you want to move.
  2. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selections. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.

  3. Drag the contacts to the new contact group.
  4. The new contact group shows the contacts.



    Tip

    You can create a copy of a contact and move it at the same time. To copy, select the Control key while you drag the user to the new contact group.


To Send an Instant Message (To Invite Someone to Chat)

Chat is the Sun Java System Instant Messenger software’s version of instant messaging. Chat is a two-way communication between two or more users that takes place in a virtual “room.” A chat takes place only by invitation.

Once established, the conference window contains a message pane where all the interactive messages are displayed. It also contains a message pane that displays what you are currently typing prior to sending it to the room. Another pane indicates the current status of the members in the room.

A conference is temporarily created when you issue a chat invitation. Only the users that initiate the chat or have been invited to the room can see the conference. This differs from a conference room that can be entered by anyone assigned to the room by the administrator or technical support center, or by a user who has access rights to that room.

Once in an established conference, you or other members can invite other users to the room.

The Sun Java System Instant Messenger software enables you to exchange:

Follow these steps to send an instant message:

  1. With the Contact List tab selected, select the contacts you want to chat with.
  2. You can start an instant message session with one or multiple contacts. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selection. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.

  3. You can initiate a Chat session with the selected contacts in the following ways:
    • Click the Chat icon: Chat Icon
    • Right-click on a contact name and select Chat from the pop-up menu.
    • Select Chat from the Tools menu.
    • The Chat window appears.



      Tip

      You can double-click a contact (or contacts) to launch the Chat window.




      Note

      Double-clicking a contact group does not launch the Chat window.


  4. Type your message in the input area. When done, click Send or click the Enter key.
  5. The message is sent to the users displayed and appears in your upper display area. As users respond, their messages also appear here.



    Tip

    Use the tool bar to change the message’s text size or color, or to emphasize with bold, italic, or underline.


  6. To invite other users to participate, select Invite Others from the File menu.
  7. Use the Invite Others window to search for other contacts that you want to add to this chat session. See Add Recipients/Invite Other Users Window Overview for more information.

See Also:

To Send an Alert

Use alerts, rather than chat, to send notifications. The alerts are displayed as pop-up messages on the recipients desktop.



Note

You need Alert privileges to be able to send alerts. Contact your administrator for more information.


  1. With the Contact List tab selected, select the contacts to whom you want to send the alert.
  2. You can send an alert to one or multiple contacts. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selection. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.



    Note

    You can select the Alert option without selecting any contacts then add them later. See Step 3.


  3. You can send an Alert message to the selected contacts in the following ways:
    • Right-click on the selected contacts and select Alert from the pop-up menu.
    • Select Alert from the Tools menu.
    • The “Send Alert” window appears. If you select a contact or contact group before sending an Alert message, they will appear in a scrollable list box. If you do not need to add, edit, or delete recipients, skip to Step 4.

  4. To add, edit or delete recipients, click “To:” to display the Add Recipients window.
  5. The Add Recipients window enables you to create a recipient list from your personal contact groups, or to search the LDAP directory for additional recipients. When done with adding, editing, or deleting recipients, click OK.

    See Add Recipients/Invite Other Users Window Overview for more information.

  6. In the Send Alert window, type the alert message subject in the Subject text box. Type the text of the message. Use the text formatting tool bar options to format and edit your message.
  7. Select the “Show Delivery Status” check box if you want to display a pop-up Status window on your desktop showing the status of each recipient.
  8. When done, click Send.
  9. The alert appears on the recipients’ desktops, and in the Alerts tab in their News Channels window (if the recipients have subscribed to that channel). If you selected the “Show Delivery Status” check box, a Status pop-up appears on your desktop.



    Note

    You can chat with the sender of an alert. In the “Alert received” window, select “Chat with sender” from the Tools menu.


See Also:

To Conduct a Poll

The polling function enables you to poll users for their response to a question. You send a question and possible answers to selected users and they respond with their answer.

Follow these steps to conduct a poll:

  1. On the Contact List tab, select the contacts you want to poll.
  2. You can send a poll to one or multiple contacts. Use the Shift or Control keys for multiple selection. See Selecting Contacts and Contact Groups for more information.



    Note

    You can click the Poll icon without selecting any contacts then add them later. See Step 3.


  3. In the Main window, select Polls from the Tools menu.
  4. The Poll Users window appears. Recipients of the poll (if any) appear in a scrollable list box. If you do not need to add or delete recipients, skip to Step 4.

  5. To add or delete recipients, click the “To:” button to display the Add Recipients window.
  6. The Add Recipients window enables you to create a recipient list from your personal contact groups or to search the LDAP for additional recipients. When done with adding or deleting recipients, click OK.

    See Add Recipients/Invite Other Users Window Overview for more information.

  7. In the Poll Users window, type your question in the “Poll Users with this Question” text box.
  8. Click Add Answer; a pop-up window will appear.
  9. Type another possible answer and click OK.

    The answer is displayed in the list of Available Answers.

  10. If you want to remove an answer from the list, select the answer and click Remove Answer.
  11. If you want users to be able to create their own answer to the question, select the “Allow recipients to customize answers” check box.
  12. When you have filled in the question and answers, click OK to send the poll to the selected recipients.

See Also:

To Change User Settings

  1. In the Main window, select Settings from the Tools menu.
  2. The User Settings window appears.

  3. Make your changes to the various tabs.
  4. Click Apply to save the changes in a tab without exiting the User Settings window, and then move to another tab.

  5. When you have finished making the changes, click OK to make the changes effective and exit the User Settings window.
  6. The changes become effective immediately. See User Settings Window Overview for more information.

To Customize the Appearance of Instant Messenger

  1. In the Main window, select View option.
  2. Use the pop-up menu:

To Hide or Display the Icons

To Hide or Display the Status Bar

Select Status Bar from the View menu to display the status icon at the bottom of the Main window. Unselect it to hide the status icon.

Use the status icon to select a status option from the list displayed when the status icon is clicked. See To Change Your Status for more information.

To Display On Line Users Only

Select Offline Contacts from the View menu to view all non-offline contact names in the Main window. Unselect Offline Contacts if you want to hide the non-offline contact names.

To View News Channels

News channels are available for viewing on a subscription basis. There are two ways in which you can be subscribed to a news channel:

Once you are subscribed, a tab for each news channel appears in your News Channels window. See Subscribing and Unsubscribing to News Channels for information about the subscription process.

Follow these steps to view news channel messages:

  1. In the Main window, select News from the Tools menu.
  2. The News Channels window appears.

  3. Select the tab for the desired news channel.
  4. The first message for that channel appears in the message pane. See To Subscribe to and Unsubscribe from News Channels, to customize your News Channels window.

  5. Click View Next Message and View Previous Message buttons to see the other messages posted to this channel.

The News Channels window can also be configured to scroll through all messages and news channels. See News Tab for information about configuring the scrolling properties.

To Enter a Conference Room

  1. In the Main window, select the Conference tab.
  2. The conference rooms to which you have access are displayed.

  3. In the Main window, select Enter Conference from the Tools menu.
  4. The Chat window is displayed with the name of the conference room in the title bar.



    Tip

    You can double-click a room to launch the Chat window.


  5. To invite other users to participate, select Invite Others from the File menu.
  6. Use the Invite Other Users window to search for other contacts that you want to add to this chat session. See Add Recipients/Invite Other Users Window Overview for more information.

  7. Once the Chat window is open, you and the other participants type your messages and click Send. Each entry is displayed in the upper message pane of the window.

To Change Your Status

  1. In the Main window, click the Status icon (represented here as online status) in the status area of the Main window:
  2. Online Status Icon

    A drop-down list appears with the following options:

    • Away - Select this option to change your status to “Away” to inform users you are not available to chat. This does not prevent users from actually starting a chat session with you. However, when starting a chat with an Away user, the Chat window displays the message, “user is currently Away.”

      Use Away status for those times when you need to step away from your computer but do not want to log off. For example: Be Right Back, On Phone, Out to Lunch, Gone Home. This way you let other users know you are temporarily unavailable.

    • Online - Select this option to change your status to “Online” to inform users you are available to chat.
    • Do Not Disturb - Select this option if you do not want to be disturbed. This does not prevent users from sending you messages.
    • Add Customize status - Select this option to display the “Enter New Custom Status” pop-up window where you can change your personal status. You can also customize the status message displayed in the Contact List pane in this pop-up window.



      Note

      If Instant Messenger is configured to display the customized away status, a “Customize away status” pop-up window appears. Enter the customized away status message, and click OK. Click Cancel to exit the pop-up window without entering a customized away status message.


      You can add a maximum of 5 customized statuses.

    • Invisible - Select this option if you do not want to appear online to others when you login to Messenger.


      Note

      Your custom privacy profile is disabled if you set your status to Invisible. Though you appear invisible to users, they can still send messages to you, even if they were previously blocked by your privacy profile. As soon as you change your status, your privacy profile is reactivated.


  3. Click OK.
  4. Your status change is reflected in the Main window.



    Tip

    You can also change your status from the File menu.


To Set an Alert for Change in a User’s Status (To Watch a User)

You can configure Instant Messenger to alert you, if any contact in the Contact List tab changes. Instant Messenger refers to this as “watching” a user.



Note

You cannot set a watch on an LDAP group.


  1. With the Contact List tab selected, right-click the contact you want to watch.
  2. You might need to first expand your contact groups to see the contacts they contain.

  3. From the pop-up menu that appears, select “Alert if User Status Changes.”
  4. Instant Messenger program appends an asterisk [*] to the contact’s name, indicating that you are watching the user’s status. The Instant Messenger program will now send you an alert message if the user’s status changes.



    Tip

    You can also set the status change alert from the Tools menu.


To Clear a User’s Status Watch

  1. With the Contact List tab selected, right-click the user with the alert status [*] set.
  2. You might need to expand the size of the Main window to see the alert status if the user’s name is not fully visible.

  3. From the pop-up menu that appears, select “Alert if User Status Changes”
  4. Instant Messenger removes the asterisk [*] from the user’s name, indicating that you have cleared the alert status watch.



    Tip

    You can clear a user’s alert status watch from the Tools menu.


To Exit Instant Messenger

  1. To exit, select Exit from the File menu on the Main window.
  2. Click Yes at the Exit pop-up window.

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