How to Text Chat Second Life is a platform for learning, meeting, educating and engaging with other residents. One of the easiest ways to communicate with one another is by using text chat. Use your mouse and click in the chat Bar or press the Enter key on your keyboard to activate the local chat bar. Type your message.
Anything that you type will be visible to all avatars within 20 meters. As you are typing only part of what you have written will show in the white text box. After entering your text, press the Enter key to send your text to nearby persons. The text you sent will appear in the lower left corner of your screen preceded by your avatar s name. You must be near the person with whom you want to chat. If you are too far from one another they will not receive your text. For example, in the image the avatars to the left and right (indicated by the arrows) can receive local text chat. However the avatars in the circle are too far away and will not be able to read local text chats.
If you want to have a private chat conversation so that no one other than the intended recipient can see the chat messages, you will need to use the Instant Message or IM Chat. To do this, click on the People button (in the red circle in the image) on the right control bar. The people button is the button with the icon of two people. This will open your People window.
Here you will see a list of all the avatars that are near you. In this example, there is only one avatar listed. However in Second Life, there may be more than one avatar or none at all listed here depending on your location. To send a person a private message, double click on the name or right click (command+click on a Mac) on the name and then click on IM in the fly out menu.
This will open a Private Chat window with the friend you selected. Click in the white box and type your message here. When you are done, press Enter on your keyboard.
After you press Enter, you will see your text appear above the text box preceded by your avatar s name. When the other person responds, you will see their text just below your s preceded by their avatar s name.
An alternate way to start a chat with another person is to right click (command click on Mac) on their avatar. You will see the same fly out menu as when you right clicked on their name in the People Menu. Select IM from this menu. To text chat with a friend that is not near you but is in Second Life, click on the People icon on the right.
Now click on the MY FRIENDS tab. Here you can see your friends that are online. Below your online friends, you will see the names of your other friends. You can send a chat to an offline person however they will not receive it until they log on.
Select the avatar s name with whom you want to chat and right click (command click on Mac) then click IM from the fly out menu. You can also double click their name to instantly open an IM chat window with the friend. You will see the same Private Chat window as before. Click in the white bar at the bottom to type your message and press the Enter key when finished. No matter where your friend is located on the Second Life grid, they will receive this message. You can minimize the window by clicking the _ or you can close it by clicking X. See the red circle in the upper right. Note: If the avatar has a profile picture, you will see their picture in the portrait window rather than the grey silhouette in the example.
When the Private Chat window is minimized, a small icon of the avatar s portrait will appear in the bottom right of your screen. Click on the portrait image to open the chat window. Note: If the Avatar has a profile picture. You will see their picture as the icon rather than the grey silhouette. When receiving a new chat or text message, you will see the text appear in the bottom right of your screen. You can open the chat box by clicking on the portrait icon with the yellow chat bubble next to the yellow text bubble. The yellow text bubble icon shows the number of chats that you have received.
Clicking the portrait icon will bring up your private chat window where you can see your chat history and you can respond to the most recent chat. In order to have a private chat with more than one person, click the People icon on the right side of your screen.
To select all the people you want in your Private Chat, hold down the Ctrl or Control Key on your keyboard and left click the name of each avatar with whom you wish to chat. When you have finished selecting, release the Ctrl or Control Key. When they are selected they will be highlighted. Here you can see that only Marketer Uidaho is selected After Control Clicking on the next name, both names are selected.
Right click (command+click on a Mac) and choose IM from the fly out menu. You have now started an Ad- hoc Conference chat. The names of all the conference member s avatars including your own will appear in the left. You can now click in the white box and type a message to the group.
Every member in the Ad- hoc Conference will see the text chat messages as well as hear you when you are talking if you use the Call feature to start a private audio chat. Please keep this in mind. You can minimize your Ad- hoc Conference by clicking the _ symbol in the upper right corner. If you click the X, you will close the conference session, and you will no longer receive text chat messages from this session. When minimized your Ad- hoc Conference will appear as a green portrait icon in the lower right corner. Simply click on the green portrait icon to open your Ad- hoc Conference window.
When there is new text in your Ad- hoc Conference, the text message will appear in the bottom right of your screen. You can open the chat box by clicking on the green portrait icon with the yellow text bubble. You can be in more than one Private Chat (or IM) session at a time. For each chat session you have open, you will see a small portrait icon in the lower right of your viewer. The Ad- hoc Conference is still green in the icon grouping.