Normal Operation
After you have opened a connection to a server and joined a channel, Snak will open up a channel window. 

The largest part of the channel window is made up of the main channel text field that will display all the messages that you and others send into the channel.

Above the main text field is the grey status field which displays the channel mode, number of members and topic. You can click the field to open the channel settings dialog where you can see the ban list for the channel, set background color, block or allow color messages and set channel modes.

The channel settings are also accessible through the Edit menu.

To the right of the main text field is the user list, which lists all the channel members. The user list can also be placed on the left side if you prefer, or even taken out of the window all together, by going to the window preference panel in the preferences and chosing the layout you prefer.

Below the main text field is the input field where you type your messages. 

One of the differences between Snak and other IRC clients is the integrated input field. Each channel window has its own input field, which prevents the misdirection of messages that is so common with other Macintosh IRC clients.

However, if you prefer to have the input field floating and shared among all windows you can go to the preferences and choose the window panel.  There you can choose the layout you prefer. 

Both the user list and input field can be resized to suit your needs. The user list can be hidden and shown again by using the cmd-u shortcut, or the User List item in the windows menu.

The Input field
The input field will resize itself if it is integrated in the window so you can type long messages. It also supports colored and formatted text. The Format menu is used to apply formatting like Bold and Underline. Because the IRC specification does not support multiple font or sizes in outgoing text any font and text size changes will be local only.

Colored text:
Color in outgoing messages are chosen by selecting the text in the input field you want to colorize and pressing control-c followed by a number.

control-c followed by 1 gives black text. 2 gives red text, 3 is orange, 4 is yellow, 5 is green etc.

The User list
The user list can be integrated in each window, or floating separately and be shared between all windows. Like with the input field this is controlled from the windows panel in the preferences. The list contains the nicks and the userhost information and you can resize it to see the userhost column.

When the user list is integrated in a window it can be placed either on the left or the right. This is configurable from the Windows panel under preferences.

The width of the list can be increated by dragging the vertical divider, so that the userhost column can be seen. The user list items has tool tips that show the userhost for the item under the cursor. This makes it less necessary to have a wide user list. 

The users in the list have different colors, depending on their status or rights in the channel. 

Purple users are operators on an IRC server, and have extensive rights to control multiple channel and the users therein. They are called IRCOps. Red users have management rights in this particular channel, and are called Operators or Ops for short. They can kick misbehaving users out or ban them from the channel.

Green users have speech rights in channel that have the moderated flag set. This mode is sometimes set in channels that have problems with outsiders that come in and hassle people. 

Normal users are marked black. These have no special rights, and can not manage other users in the channel. The only way to gain operator status is normally to become a regular, well behaved member of the channel. Eventually you may be elevated to Op status by the other Ops. It is seldom a good idea to directly ask them for Ops status though.

You can drag users from the user list into the Ignore and notify panels in the list window, or into the Address Book. 

Double clicks in the userlist can be configured in the Click panel of the preferences. By default the nickname will be added to the input field, but you can also make Snak open a private window to that particular user by making the choice in the panel.

Snak also supports Contextual Menus where you hold down the control key when clicking somewhere. That will bring up a menu with choices that pertain to the selection.

Shared Windows
Snak features the option of sharing the windows among multiple channels as shown in this example. Here, the console window, the channels #Macintosh, #politics and #RiskyBus share a window.

The blue ring around #Macintosh mark it as the "Active Interface". That means that it owns the input field and user list, and commands typed into the input field will go to that channel. This is the case even if the input field and user list is floating.

To switch between interfaces you can use the cmd - ' and cmd - ; key strokes or just click in the text area of the interface you want to talk to.

The input fields remembers the last 10 messages you sent and you can scroll through the list with the arrow up and down keys.

In the picture above you see a yellow rectangle with a description of the channel. That is the tool tip that is shown by placing the cursor in the grey status area for a few seconds. 

You can resize or move the individual channels by dragging the status area around in the window.

If you have shared window, and wish to separate the channels you can select an interface (a channel) and using the Move Interface command in the File menu. That will give you the option of moving it to its own new window or into an existing window.

Channel Settings
If you want to change or inspect the mode of the channel, the banlist or other settings, you can open the channel info window by clicking in the grey status field, or by  using the Edit/Channel Settings menu item. 

If you have Op status in the channel you can change the mode, the topic and banlist. Otherwise you will only be able to see those settings but not change them.  The visible activity group and the options are always available. 

On large, busy channels there is a constant leaving and joining going on. Snak will output a message telling you about this and that can drown out conversation if you don't suppress the display of those messages with the checkboxes in the visible activity group. The user list is still updated correctly but no text message is shown. 

In the channel panel of the preferences you can set the default visible activity for new channels, so that the format you prefer is pre selected when you join a new channel. In this panel is also a button you can use to quickly set a particular visible format for all the channels that Snak knows about.

The channel settings dialog also contain the banlist. This is a list of users that the channel operators deny access for bad behavior or other reasone. This list can only be edited by channel operators.

The Channel Bar
If you are a member of several channels that you want to follow it can be useful to open the channel bar. This window contains a button for all the channels you are a member of, and you can quickly switch between them with by clicking the buttons. The  buttons will indicate with a red bar if the channel contains new messages.

The channel bar is controlled from the ChanneBar preference panel, and can be placed in a floating window, a normal window or inside the floating input window.

Private Messages
When you type a message into the input field of the channel, the message is normally seen by everyone in the channel. If you want to communicate privately with someone, you can use the /msg <nick> command or the /query function.

If the person is on a channel that you are also a member of, you can type /msg and have Snak add the <nick> by double clicking on the nickname in the user list. Then you can type your message and send it and it will only be seen by that person.

The input fields also remember the nicks that you sent the last 10 private messages to. To access this list press the tab key.

When you receive a private message it will be highlighted using the color selected in the color preference panel, which is usually red. 

Using the Query function
Occasionally you will find yourself exchanging a lot of private messages with another person and it becomes tedious to type /msg <nick> before every message.

The query function is invoked with /query <nick> and it will open a private message window called a query window that allows you to converse privately without having to type /msg <nick> before each message. 

You can type into the input line of the query window like a normal channel, and Snak will automatically format the message as a private message to <nick>. 

You can configure the Query window to open automatically when you get a private message by selecting that option in the General panel in the preferences.

Incoming private messages from <nick> will be routed to the query window and displayed. To end the query function, simply close the window.

The query window supports the /me command just like regular channel windows.  The /me command is used to send "action" messages like "/me likes Snak". This will be seen by the other end as "<your nick> likes Snak"

If you wish to send a file to the person in the query window you can drag and drop a file into the text area.