Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Chat.txt File (234851)

MORE INFORMATION

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                             Microsoft Chat README
                                     June, 1998
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                      (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1998


This document provides information to supplement the Microsoft Chat Web 
page. The Frequently Asked Questions section on the Web contains more 
up-to-date information. You can access this Web page by clicking the 
Help menu, clicking Microsoft On The Web, and then clicking Frequently 
Asked Questions.


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How to Use This Document
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To view Readme.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window.

To print Readme.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, and
then use the Print command on the File menu.


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CONTENTS
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1. Supported Configurations/Platforms
2. Connecting to Other IRC Chat Rooms
3. Support Information for Microsoft Chat
4. Frequently Asked Questions


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1. Supported Configurations/Platforms
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Microsoft Chat currently runs under Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 
4.0. Microsoft Chat requires the following minimum configuration:

- A 486 processor
- 8 MB of RAM
- 256-color video
- A 9600-baud modem 


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2. Connecting to Other IRC Chat Rooms
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If you want to connect to an IRC chat server that you already know 
about, expand the Connect dialog box, and then type the server address 
and channel name--for example, you might type the following: 

     mschat1.msn.com, #Microsoft_Chat. 

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3. Support Information for Microsoft Chat
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For support issues regarding Microsoft Chat, please refer to the 
support.txt located in the same directory as the Microsoft Chat readme.txt.


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4. Frequently Asked Questions 
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Q. Will you be updating Microsoft Chat?

A. We will update our Web site frequently. To view the updates, click 
   the Help menu, click Microsoft On The Web, and then click Free Stuff. 


Q. How do I connect to other IRC chat rooms or channels? 

A. If you want to connect to an IRC chat room or channel that you 
   already know about, carry out the following steps:

   1. Start Microsoft Chat by clicking on the Start button, then 
      select Programs menu and then select Microsoft Chat icon from 
      the Internet Explorer group.

   2. In the Connect dialog box, type the following information: 

      - In the Server box, type the IRC server name. 
        The default entry is Microsoft Chat Servers.
        Replace this with the IRC server you want to connect to. 

      - In the Chat room box, type the chat room name, preceded by a 
        number sign (#). 
        The default channel name is #Comic_Chat. 


Q. How can I tell which version of Microsoft Chat I am running?

A. Click on the Help menu, and then click About Microsoft Chat. The version 
   number is listed at the top of the box. 

Q. Why can't I get access to any Microsoft Chat or IRC chat rooms? 

A. If you are accessing the Internet from your corporate network, you 
   will be able to download the Microsoft Chat program; however, most 
   corporate proxy servers limit access to chat rooms. If you have any 
   questions, please contact your system administrator or use a dial-up 
   analog or ISDN line to access the Internet. 

Q. Can I create my own comic characters?

A. Yes, you can create characters. To install the Microsoft Chat Character
   Editor click the Help menu, click Microsoft On The Web, and then 
   click Free Stuff. 

Q. Can I create my own backgrounds?

A. Microsoft Chat supplies a limited number of backgrounds, but more will 
   be added soon. Backgrounds are bitmap files, which you can create with 
   any graphics package.


Q. How can I tell characters apart when there are duplicate characters?

A. Move your mouse pointer over the character and then pause. A tooltip 
   will display the user's nickname. 


Q. Can I uninstall Microsoft Chat?

A. Yes. To uninstall Microsoft Chat, carry out the following steps:

   1. In Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
   2. Click Microsoft Chat, and then follow the instructions on your 
      screen.


Q. Why does it say my ID is in use when I go to another chat room? 

A. Nicknames (IDs) must be unique. Your connection will be refused if: 

   - You are already connected to a chat room on the server.
   - You recently disconnected and the server has not refreshed. 
   - Someone else is using your nickname. 

   To connect, you can either choose a new nickname or make sure that 
   all Microsoft Chat clients have been closed and then wait a minute 
   and reopen Microsoft Chat. 


Q. How do I get more panels across the screen? 

A. To get more panels across the screen, you can try one or more of the 
options below:

   1) Increase your screen resolution. To do this, in Control Panel, 
     double-click the Display icon, and then click the Settings tab. 
   2) Maximize the window. 
   3) Move the vertical splitter to the right to make the member list 
     thinner. 

   Once you have done one or more of these options, click the View menu, 
   and then choose the largest number of panels you can. 

Q. What is the difference between Microsoft Chat and IRC chat? 

A. Microsoft Chat is a graphical chat client that can be used like any 
   text chat client on the IRC channel. Not everyone inside the channel 
   (chat room) needs to be using Microsoft Chat for this to work. Text 
   chat users will automatically be assigned a character, so the entire 
   chat is graphically represented to the Microsoft Chat client user. 

   NOTE: When you use Microsoft Chat on an IRC channel where most of 
         the other users are using IRC text clients, it is a good idea 
         to begin by clicking the Options command from the View menu and 
         then selecting the Don't Send Microsoft Chat Specific Information 
         check box. This will prevent special comics messages from being 
         sent to the other chat clients. After you log off Microsoft Chat, 
         the client will reset. 

Q. I click the hot links--such as http:, mailto:--in text mode, but nothing 
   happens. Why does this work in comics mode but not in text mode?
   
A. The hot links in text mode are dependent on the rich edit functions in 
   Windows. Initially, the rich edit functions did not support the hot-link 
   capability, but Windows NT and later versions of Windows 95 added this 
   capability to rich edit. If you cannot use the hot links in text mode, 
   you can always change to comics mode and use the hot links from there. 


Q. I have Comic Chat 1.0 on my computer, and after installing Microsoft 
   Chat, I see a shortcut to Comic Chat 1.0. Is it safe to delete the 
   shortcut to Comic Chat 1.0?

A. If you installed Microsoft Chat over Comic Chat 1.0, you might see 
   Comic Chat 1.0 icons (as well as Microsoft Chat icons) on the Start 
   menu. You can safely delete the Comic Chat 1.0 icons; this will not 
   affect the usability of Microsoft Chat. For more information, see 
   the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
 

Q. I have a previous version of Comic Chat on my computer. Should I 
   uninstall Comic Chat before installing Microsoft Chat?

A. We recommend that you uninstall any previous version of Comic Chat 
   before installing Microsoft Chat. However if you did not uninstall 
   Comic Chat before installing Microsoft Chat, you should not experience 
   any problems with Microsoft Chat. 

Q. I am using Chat 2.5 with Russian settings and when I join a room, where
   Chat 2.0 users with Russian settings are speaking, I don't recognize the 
   characters. Why is this? 

A. We changed the character set used for chatting in 2.1 and later versions 
   of Microsoft Chat, when the user has Russian settings. By using this new 
   character set, Chat 2.1 and higher versions are now compatible with most 
   chat programs on the internet. Chat 2.0 users should upgrade to 
   Microsoft Chat 2.1 and later versions to become compatible with Chat 2.1 
  (and later versions) as well as other chat clients on the Internet. 

Q. When I am chatting in rooms that don't start with a "#", Microsoft Chat 
   2.0 users tell me that they don't recognize the characters I am sending 
   them, even though we are using the same language. Why is this?

A. On some chat servers (such as mschat.msn.com) that support creating 
   rooms without a "#", the character set used by Microsoft Chat 2.0 and 
   Microsoft Chat 2.1 (and later versions) in these rooms may be different.

   i)  When a room is created with Microsoft Chat 2.1 (or later) without a 
       "#", a unicode character set is used to communicate in this room. 
       Microsoft Chat 2.0 user might see the room listed in the room list 
       dialog box beginning with a "%#". If Microsoft Chat 2.0 user enters 
       such a room, they will not be able to communicate with Microsoft 
       Chat 2.1 (and later versions), since 2.0 uses a different character 
       set then the unicode character set. You can find out if the user is 
       Microsoft Chat 2.0 user, by selecting their nickname from the member 
       list and then selecting the Version command from the Member menu. 

   ii) Microsoft Chat 2.1 (and later versions) will be able to enter rooms 
       without a leading "#" created by Microsoft Chat 2.0 users, and the 
       two clients will be able to communicate with each other. There are 
       some problems with this:

	a) If the user uses characters outside the range of A-Z, 
           Microsoft Chat 2.1 (and later versions) will not show these 
           rooms correctly in the room list.
           In some languages the characters will not be recognizable.
        b) Microsoft Chat 2.1 (and later versions) will not show 
           invitations to these rooms correctly. The room name in the 
           invitation might not be recognized, if the room name contains 
           characters not in the A-Z range. 
        c) Trying to join Microsoft Chat 2.0 rooms using the "Enter Room" 
           command or the initial "Connect Dialog" might not connect the 
           user to the 2.0 room, but instead the user will join a 2.1 (and 
           later versions) room with the same name.  If you want to join 
           the room that the chat 2.0 user created, then you need to join 
           the room from the room list. 
        d) Certain error messages might show the room name incorrectly for 
           users of chat 2.1 (and later versions), if the room name was 
           created by a 2.0 user, and it contains characters not in the A-Z 
           range.

Q. Why can't I join the chat room, when I click on a mic URL link?

A. Currently the mechanism for launching chat from a web page using the 
   mic: url is supported by Internet Explorer. If you have another browser, 
   this launching mechanism might not be supported. 

Q. On some IRC servers I can not use some characters in my nickname and on 
   others servers I can use any character in my nickname. Why is this? 

A. Microsoft chat 2.5 will allow you to use most characters in your 
   nickname.  However depending on the chat server, you may not be allowed 
   to use all characters in your nickname and the server will return you an 
   error. Our default server, mschat.msn.com, is one of the chat servers 
   which will allow you to use most characters, including Far East 
   character sets. 

Q. When I connect to the chat server and the message of the day dialog box 
   comes up, I can't use the mouse to close the dialog box. How can I close 
   this dialog box, if this happens?

A. This happens with this dialog box and might happen with other dialog 
   boxes, that get information from the server and fill this information in 
   the dialog box. If the dialog box appears locked up, you can hit enter 
   and this should close the dialog box. 

Q. When I use the IRC commands, sometimes the nicknames and room names 
   displayed in the Status window shows up wrong. Why is this?

A. On IRCX servers, which are servers that support the extended IRC 
   specifications called IRCX, room names and nicknames can have unicode 
   letters. When we display the data in the Status Window it will appear 
   wrong. If you use the user list or room list to view the nicknames or 
   room names they will appear correct. 

Q. How come I can't add any macros to my list?
A. In order to save a macro, the add macro button must be pressed after you 
   entered all the information for your macro.

Q. How do I create a Network list? How come the add Network button is 
   greyed out?

A. To create a Network, type in the name of the network next to the Network 
   field on the Servers tab found in the Options dialog box. After you 
   enter a new name for a Network, the Add Network button will be 
   highlighted. Click the Add Network button to save a new network. To add 
   servers to your network, type the name of your server(s) and click Add 
   to save.

Q. How can I add a notification from the user list? When I right click add 
   user to notification, nobody is added, why?

A. To add a user to the notification list after right clicking on their 
   name from the user list, click on Add in the Notification dialog box and
   the user name will populate your Notification list.

Q. When I use /quit IRC command in other chat clients, I can send a message 
   by typing the message after the command. However when I do this in Chat 
   2.5, the message is truncated. Why does this happen?

A. You will have to use a colon after the command, but before the message 
   you want to send. If you type "/quit :the message", the message will be 
   displayed in the chat clients of all the users in the rooms you were in.

Q. When I run Microsoft Chat 2.5, I get an error message that mentions 
   comctl32.dll and Chat 2.5 will not run. How can I fix this? 

A. If you have the initial release of Windows 95, you will have an old 
   comctl32.dll and we have a bug with this file. If you have Windows 98, 
   later versions of Windows 95 or IE 3.0 (or later) on your system you 
   would not have this problem. If you have this problem, one way to fix it 
   is to install the newest comctl32.dll. Please check our support site by 
   using the Online Support in the Help menu of Internet Explorer or by 
   going to the Microsoft Home page at http://www.microsoft.com and 
   clicking on the Support link. We will mention how to fix this problem on 
   this site in the Frequently Asked Questions are for Microsoft Chat. If 
   this does not help, please check other support options mentioned in 
   support.txt file.