If you are one of those people that don't read manuals, you can just read this chapter and be on your way. Snak is designed to be accessible and easy to use, but it has a lot of features and you are likely to miss a few if you don't read the manual. Now, without further ado, on with the show:
When you first launch Snak it will perform an initial setup and make a list with all the IRC servers it knows about. While that is being done, you will see a progress bar.
Setup Assistant
After Snak is done creating the default settings, it will bring up the setup assistant, where you can choose the nick name you prefer on IRC, and set up a few important settings.
After that is done you will see a dialog, reminding you that it is a shareware program. Shareware means that you will eventually have to pay for it if you decide to keep using it. Finally it will open the connection window.
Connecting
The connection window is the central location for opening and closing connections.
 
This picture shows the connection window with four of the five pre-defined connection records. In this example the program is connected to EFNet and Undernet. This can be seen by the red and green status icons. An active connection is green, an inactive is red.
If you chose to have the input field separate there will be a floating window instead of the integrated input field. Click on a connection in the list to set the destination for the text that you type.
Once you have an active connection you can type commands in the edit field. The command "/join #macintosh" will allow you to join that particular channel.
A Connection record contains a list of servers and ports plus nickname and startup action.
You may not have to set anything up if you entered your nick name in the setup assistant, but if you want to choose a new nick name or another server, double click on the connection in the list.
 
A nickname is the name under which the other members of the channels will see you. The name can be anything, but most servers limit you to 9 characters from the English character set.
If you want to add servers, you can do that by pressing the Add button. If there is more than one server in the connection record, the program will try each server until it finds one that will connect.
A startup action is one or more commands you want the program to perform automatically when you connect, like joining certain channels.
After completing the setup you can either click the Connect button in the Connections window, or you can use the File/Open Connection menu and choose the name your connection record. Simply typing a command into an edit field, directed at a connection, like "/join beginner" or "/j beginner" will also open the connection.
Then a console window is shown and the program attempts to open a connection to the server. The console window will display the status of the connection in the top left corner. To the right in the console window is the notify list.
If you have chosen to have the input field integrated, then the bottom part of the windows is the text field where you type text and commands.
You can create multiple Connection records and open multiple connections simultaneously, but please keep in mind that some servers consider that "cloning" and will ban you if you overdo it.
Joining Channels
When the connection is active and the console window status is "online", you can join channels. If you didn't specify a startup action in the Connection record (like /join #macintosh or similar) you can use the File/Join menu. That will open a window where you can enter the name of the desired channel. You can also select one or more channels from the list of favorites, or add channels to the favorites.
Once Snak receives confirmation from the IRC server that you have entered the channel, the channel window comes up.
 
You will notice the user list to the right of the main text field, as well as the input field below it. The user list can be closed and opened with cmd-u, or the User list menu item. The input field will resize itself if you type more than one line.
Configuring
The Preference window is dynamic - you do not need to save changes for them to be active. Just make the change and see it take effect immediately.
 
Here the color panel is selected in order to see and change the color Snak uses for various kinds of messages.
The General panel contains checkboxes to customize the way the program reacts to specific events.
In the Channel panel you can specify what channel actions you want displayed, and you can select default font and size for channel text.
The Personal panel stores your real name and the default quit message that is displayed when you quit or close a connection. It also provides a field to enter the text that you want the program to return when someone asks for a ctcp userinfo or homepage.
Address Book
Snak contains an Address Book that is intended to store the snippets of information that you come across as you IRC. Someones real name, email address, favorite channel. . . .
To access the Address Book use the Windows/Address Book menu. Like the preference window, the Address Book window is dynamic and you do not need to save changes to preserve them. To store information just start filling out the fields. The most important and the only required field is the nick. As soon as you select another record, make a new record or close the window the program saves the changes.
Channel List
If you want to see a channel listing, use the File/List Channels menu. That brings up the List channels window where you can set up criteria for the listing. You can specify that you want to see channels containing certain words but not others. You can specify that you want to see channels with at least 10 users but not more that 20.
Pressing OK will send the command off to the server. Be advised that on some servers, the List command will result in so much data being sent to you that the server will disconnect you . . .
As soon as the server responds Snak will begin filtering the information based on the criteria that you specified. Once a valid channel is found, Snak will open a Channel List window and display the channel name and information. When the server is done listing the channels Snak will enable the Save button in the Channel list window and you can save the listing to a file. The Channel list window supports a Find and Find Again function that will let you search the found channels.
