Global Chat 2.0 Beta 4 README File Contents: Section 1 - Introduction and Requirements Section 2 - New Features in Global Chat 2.0 Beta 4 Section 3 - Important New Features in Global Chat 2.0 Beta 3 Section 4 - Managing Multiple Server and Room Connections Section 5 - Global Chat Menus Section 6 - Right Mouse Button Support Section 7 - Contacting Quarterdeck ======================================================================== 1. Introduction and Requirements This file contains information on the new features available in Global Chat 2.0 Beta 4, as well as the differences between Beta 3 and version 1.2. Global Chat 2.0 Beta 4 includes the Help file from Global Chat 1.2. The help file explains basic IRC terms and operations. This document describes the new functionality which is not described in the help file. 1.1 New terminology In Global Chat 2.0, Channels are now called Rooms. These terms are often used interchangeably. 1.2 Requirements for using Global Chat 1. A working WINSOCK.DLL. a) If operating on a TCP/IP stack you will need a network card which is connected to a network. b) If you're using QWINSOCK (Quarterdeck's WINSOCK.DLL) or another WINSOCK and are not on a network you will need a modem and an Internet provider in order to connect to the Internet. 2. Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or higher. 3. One megabyte free disk space. 4. A web browser is highly recommended. ======================================================================== 2. New Features in Global Chat 2.0 Beta 4 2.1 Better Browser Integration Global Chat Beta 4 is now able to talk to some beta web browsers (like Internet Explorer 3.0) which Global Chat 2.0 Beta 3 had difficulty controlling or launching. 2.2 Smarter External Control Now, if you already have a copy of Global Chat open and request a chat link while browsing a website, the chat file will instruct your current copy of Global Chat to go to the chat server specified. Previously, a new instance of Global Chat would be started. 2.3 New Handling of Banners In Global Chat 2.0, if a banner is sent throughout the server you are connected to, it will appear in your Server window and also in your foreground channel window (assuming, of course, you are in a channel). 2.4 Status Change of Minimized Windows If you have any of your open windows in a minimized state and new information appears in a window, the title bar will switch between "active" and "inactive" colors as the information appears. This way, you can tell if anything has changed while keeping track of your open windows. 2.5 Ignore Indication When a user has been set to Ignore Public Messages, if that user is in the same channel as you are his or her nickname will appear in the Members list with strikethrough text (that is, the nickname will appear to be crossed off of the Members list). ======================================================================== 3. Important New Features in Global Chat 2.0 Beta 3 3.1 Connecting to Multiple IRC servers Global Chat enables you to connect to multiple IRC servers at a time, including IRC and Global Stage servers. Each time you connect to a server, a new server console window appears. Once connected to a server, you can join/list all the available rooms on a server. When you join a room, a new window is opened displaying the contents of that room. 3.2 Joining Multiple Rooms With Global Chat 2.0 you can be in multiple rooms at a time. Each time you join a room, a new window is created. You can use the Windows menu to switch between open rooms, or click on the room with the mouse. 3.3 DCC Support - Sending/Receiving Files and Private Chat Global Chat now supports the DCC protocol. This is used to transfer files between two chat users, and to send private messages between two users without going through the IRC Server. Global Chat supports both of these. 3.4 Right Mouse Button Support Global Chat now supports right mouse actions within the client. The menus are context-sensitive, depending upon the location of the mouse pointer when the right mouse button is clicked. 3.5 WebTalk Integration Users of Global Chat that also have Quarterdeck's Internet phone product, WebTalk, can now configure Global Chat to use WebTalk to speak via voice with other Global Chat and WebTalk users. Once the software is properly configured, when a Global Chat user enters a chat room with Global Chat, all the other Global Chat 2.0 users with WebTalk will have a telephone icon next to their nick name in the User List for that Room. A voice call can be placed with a simple right mouse button click. 3.6 Logging of Room Messages With Global Chat 2.0 it is now possible to save a log of the chat room messages to a file on disk. ======================================================================== 4. Managing Multiple Server and Room Connections Global Chat 2.0 enables users to connect to multiple IRC servers, and open multiple rooms at one time. Each time a connection to an IRC server is established, a separate Window is created for that server. The connection statistics and Message of the Day for that server are displayed in that window. When a room is joined, a separate window is opened for each room. If for example a user had connected to two IRC servers, and joined two rooms on each server, there would be a total of six windows, two for the servers and four for the rooms. 4.1 Requesting List of Rooms If the user is connected to just one IRC server, and selects the List All Rooms or Find Room command, the list of rooms for that server is displayed. If the user is connected to two IRC servers, and selects the List All Rooms or Find Room command, the list of rooms that is displayed is determined by which server the Currently Selected Window is connected to. For example, assume the user is connected to two servers and the following rooms: Server Rooms Joined on that Server irc.quarterdeck1.com Friendly Unfriendly irc.quarterdeck2.com SportsTalk Stockchat If the currently selected window is irc.quarterdeck1.com, Friendly or Unfriendly, then the rooms on irc.quarterdeck1.com will be listed when the Select or Find Rooms command is selected. If the currently selected window is irc.quarterdeck2.com, SportsTalk or Stockchat, then the rooms on irc.quarterdeck2.com will be listed when the List or Find Rooms command is selected. Switch between rooms via the Windows menu. ======================================================================== 5. Global Chat Menus This section describes the new menu items found in Global Chat 2.0 that were not in Global Chat 1.2, and their functionality. 5.1 Sign-In Menu Select sign-in to sign-in to a server. The sign-in dialog box is presented. The required options are: - server - user name - nick name All other fields are optional (except port, which is pre-filled for you). 5.2 Edit Menu LOG TO FILE This option saves all the messages in the chat room to a file on disk. The user can select the name of the file. To append to an existing file, select APPEND TO FILE. To save the current contents of the chat room window, check the SAVE PRESENT WINDOWS CONTENTS box. To have it start at that point, make sure the SAVE PRESENT WINDOWS CONTENTS box is unchecked. 5.3 Room Menu CREATE ROOM When creating a room, in addition to naming the room you can make the room unlisted, or moderated. You can also make the topic changeable by non- operators. ABOUT ROOM Used to display information about the room, and if the user is the Room Operator, to change various properties of the room, including whether or not the room should be unlisted, moderated or the topic changeable by anyone. LIST ALL ROOMS Will list all the rooms on the server. A progress bar indicates the progress in downloading the room names from the server. FIND ROOMS The find rooms option lets you more specifically define the rooms to be listed. To display only those rooms which contain a specific text string in the room name, enter the text in the FIND ROOM NAMES THAT CONTAIN textbox. In addition, Global Chat can display only those rooms with a certain number of people in them. To use this option, put the number in the WITH AT LEAST box. If you would like to limit to a number on the high side as well, put a number in the BUT NO MORE THAN box. 5.4 People Menu SHOW PEOPLE IN ROOM Will show a list of all the people in the room ABOUT USER Will show information about a user including nick name, full name, rooms the user is in, e-mail address and more. It will also enable blocking of public and private messages from that user. IGNORE USER Selecting this option blocks public messages, private messages and file transfers from the selected user. PRIVATE CHAT Opens a separate chat window to private chat with a user. Private chat messages are routed through the server chat server. DIRECT CHAT Opens a separate window to private chat with a user. Messages are sent directly between the two users, they do not go through the server. (Requires that the other user's chat client support DCC.) SEND FILE Send a file to a user using DCC (requires that the other user's chat client support DCC). Select the file to be sent from a standard dialogue box. CALL USER Place a voice call to another user, provided both you and the other user have WebTalk installed on your systems. All users that have WebTalk installed and configured to work with Global Chat will have a telephone icon next to their name in the Users list for each room. 5.5 Websurfer Menu BROWSE WEB PAGE Highlight a URL in the chat output window and then select this option to have Global Chat start your web browser and send the URL to the browser. The specific browser to use can be configured. See the PREFERENCES section below. INTERNET CHAT GUIDE Selecting this option launches a web browser and takes you to Quarterdeck's Internet Chat Guide Page, http://www.quarterdeck.com/chat/schedule.html 5.6 Preferences Menu USER SETTINGS Using this options, you can define the default options for the following: - Nick Name - Full Name - eMail address - Home Page - Age - Description OPTIONS This contains four tabs for defining: Sort Rooms, Sort People, Browser and WebTalk - Sort Rooms List Specify how the list of rooms is sorted, by Name, Number of People in the Room, and Unsorted. (Alphabetically, by number of chatters, or as they come in.) - Sort People Define the order by which names are sorted in the Users list: By Room Entry - listed by order in which they joined the room By Person Nick Name - listed alphabetically by Nick Name - Browser Specify the default World Wide Web browser to be used with Global Chat. When click on URL's in Global Chat, Global Chat will launch the browser and send the URL to it. - WebTalk Configure WebTalk for use with Global Chat so you can place voice calls to other WebTalk users that are in chat rooms. Enable WebTalk box - Check the box to enable Global Chat's support for WebTalk. Uncheck to disable. Location - Specify the location of the WebTalk.exe file. Close WebTalk when exiting - Check the box to have Global Chat shut down WebTalk when exiting the application. Uncheck to have Global Chat leave WebTalk running. SET CHAT FONT Specify the font to be used in the Global Chat client. SHOW TOOLBAR When checked the toolbar is displayed. When unchecked, the toolbar is not displayed. SHOW STATUS BAR When checked the status bar is displayed. When unchecked, the status bar is not displayed. 5.7 Help Menu ABOUT GLOBAL CHAT Contains information about this version of Global Chat, including Quarterdeck contact information. ======================================================================== 6. Right Mouse Button Support Global Chat 2.0 supports use of the right mouse button. When the right mouse button is clicked, a menu will be displayed. The menu is context sensitive, which means that it is different depending upon where the mouse was pointing when the button was clicked. Most of the options on the right mouse button menus correspond to similar options on the Global Chat Menus which are described above in Section 3. Please review Section 3 for details. The right-click menu items not corresponding to regular menu items are: - Action (available via right-click in the Say: field) This automatically fills /me into the Say: field, to perform an action in a channel rather than "speaking". - Grant / Revoke Operator (available via right-click on a Member of a Room) This corresponds to the /mode command (+o or -o) to grant or revoke operator status to a person in a room, and can only be performed if you are an operator yourself. - Grant / Revoke Voice (available via right-click on a Member of a Room) This corresponds to the /mode command (+v or -v) to allow or deny speaking privileges on a moderated channel. Like Operator, this can only be done by an operator (and will be greyed out otherwise). - Kick (available via right-click on a Member of a Room) This corresponds to the /kick command, which allows operators to force unruly Members to leave a Room (effectively kicking them out). ======================================================================== 7. Contacting Quarterdeck To report bugs in this beta version of Global Chat, request features, or contact us in any way about Global Chat, please send e-mail to: globalchat@quarterdeck.com Quarterdeck Corporation relocated to Marina Del Rey, California in October 1995. The following contact information is correct as of October 1, 1995. Complete instructions on contacting Quarterdeck Corporation can be found in the Quarterdeck Passport which is included with every copy of Quarterdeck software. Quarterdeck Corporation 13160 Mindanao Way 3rd Floor Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Product Information: Phone: 310-309-3700 Fax: 310-309-4219 e-mail: info@quarterdeck.com Additional Internet Resources: World Wide Web: http://www.quarterdeck.com/ FTP Site: quarterdeck.com CompuServe: If you are already a member of CompuServe, just type GO QUARTERDECK at any ! prompt to access our forum. Private e-mail is accepted at 76004,2310. Quarterdeck BBS: The Quarterdeck Bulletin Board System (BBS) is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our BBS has 8 nodes on rotary lines, which support communications up to 14,400 bps. The recommended modem settings are 8 bit word length, no parity, and 1 stop bit. Our BBS is also a SmartNet node. You can reach the Quarterdeck BBS at (310) 309-3227.