Welcome to EntropiansIM! This guide will get you acquainted with the basics of chatting using EntropiansIM. You'll get logged in, add contacts, chat by text and voice, exchange files, and more.
Note: EntropiansIM offers several special features not described in this brief tour. For more about features such as EntropiansIM Fastpath and EntropiansIM plugins, check the EntropiansIM discussion forum.

Get Started After you install EntropiansIM, you'll get going by logging in and adding contacts. Try out a chat with one of your contacts!

Get connected. Logging in to EntropiansIM is easy. 1. Start EntropiansIM. 2. Enter your login information, then click Login. If your server supports it, you can create a new account by clicking Accounts button and entering the information for your new account.
Get to know EntropiansIM. If you've used instant messaging applications before, you'll find a lot that's familiar. If you haven't, you'll find it easy to get going with EntropiansIM 1. Log in to EntropiansIM. 2. Take a look at the main window. After your contacts are displayed and you've begun chatting, you'll find the things you want to do within easy reach.

Add contacts. What's chat without other people? It's a good way to attract unwanted attention! You're really off and running when you've got a contact list with a few other chatters in it. If you're working on a company network, it might be that your contact list is full before you even send your first message; your administrator can create lists you see. But you can also add other folks.
In particular, you can add people who chat using EntropiansIM or an application like it. That includes Jabber users, Google Talk users, and others. Those applications support the XMPP protocol; people often refer to this simply as the "Jabber" protocol because that was one of the first IM applications to use it.
1. Click the Add a contact button. 2. Enter your contact's information. In the Add Contact dialog, enter the contact's username. This will look like an email address. That's how XMPP — Jabber-style — user names work. 3. Select or enter the name of the group you want to add the contact to, then click Add. If you decide you'd rather have the contact in another group, simply right-click their name, point to Move to, then click the name of the group you want to move them to.

Connect Using Text
Chatting with text is an ideal way to get — or send — the brief bits of information that fly around in unnecessary emails. Save yourself and your contacts the email inbox clutter — send an IM message.

Send instant messages.
Sending messages is the thing you'll do most often — it's also the easiest.
1. In your contact list, double-click the person's name.
2. Type your message. Notice that EntropiansIM will check your spelling and marks them with a red squiggly underline. If you get one of these, you can right-click the word to correct it. You can disable the background spell check feature in the Chat section of EntropiansIM's preferences dialog. If you want to check your spelling and get alternate word suggestions, click the Check Spelling button
3. To add a bit of flavor when a message might be ambiguous or misunderstood, add an emoticon. If you type an emoticon that EntropiansIM knows about, it will convert it to an image. So :) will be converted to . Use the emoticon button when you can't remember what to type. 4. You can also use shorthand text. Type "fwiw" for "for what it's worth," "btw" for "by the way," and so on. But go easy on the shorthand and acronyms; some people you chat with will find them annoying in large amounts.
5. When you're ready, press Enter to send the message.
Tip: You can view a history of the chats you've had with someone by clicking the View conversation history button

Send broadcast messages.
Got something to say to everyone on your list? Broadcast it! You can broadcast to everyone on your contact list by clicking the Send a broadcast button . You can also select only some of them.
1. Choose the subset of people you want to broadcast to by holding the CTRL key as you click their names (on the Macintosh, hold the Command key).
2. With the people you want selected, right-click one of them, then click Send broadcast to selected users.
3. In the Broadcast Message dialog, type your message and click OK.

Send and receive files.
Sending files through EntropiansIM is a great way to avoid the unnecessary bits of email that you might have used to send them.
1. Open a chat window for the person you want to send the file to.
2. Click the Send files to this user button.
3. Browse for the file you want to send, then click Send.
4. On the other end, EntropiansIM will ask the person receiving the file if they want to accept it.
5. After they accept it, EntropiansIM will provide a way to open the file or open the folder that contains it. Tip: Instead of clicking the Send files button, you can merely drag your file's icon and drop it onto the person's name in the contact list or onto the chat window. And if you've got the chat window open, you can drag the file sent to you right out of the window.


Chat in a group conference.
Using group chat can be a great alternative to scheduling a meeting (and who likes meetings?).
1. Click the Actions menu, then click Start a conference.
Tip: You can also start a conference by selecting the names of people in your contact list, right-clicking one of them, then clicking Start a conference.
2. Click Roster to display a list of your contacts. You can add other people by typing their username (Jabber ID) in the Add JID box. To remove someone you've added, right-click their name and click Remove.
3. When you're finished inviting users, click Invite.
4. Watch as people join the conference.
5. By right-clicking the participant list, you can change the nickname that appears for you or invite other people.
6. Type your messages in the bottom box and press Return to send, just as you would with the IM message window.

Connect Using Voice
Some things just can't be expressed with text. For those occasions when you need to talk with the person you chat with, EntropiansIM provides voice chat. You'll need voice hardware that connects to your computer. For example, you could use a headset that connects through a wire, or wirelessly through Bluetooth. You could also chat using your computer's built-in speaker and microphone (if it has one), but that's a less private option.
Make and receive calls. Get your headset ready; you're about to get vocal. 1. Click the Place a phone call button.
2. At the other end, the person you're calling will receive an invitation.
3. When they accept, you'll both see a window that shows you're connected by voice. You'll also be able to type messages as you talk.

Show Yourself
Enter profile information. Basic profile information can help other people know who you are. 1. Click the Connect menu, then click Edit my profile. 2. In the Profile Information dialog, enter the information you want to share.
3. Use the Avatar tab to upload a picture that will appear to others when they're chatting with you.
Be a Power User
Wield the secret commands. Okay, so they're not secret, but you might otherwise dig a while to find them.


Quick Shortcuts
View a clickable list of the people you chat with most often. Press CTRL+T
View a clickable list of the last 10 people you chatted with. Press CTRL+E
View and add tasks that are saved on the chat server, allowing access from any PC. Press CTRL+F5
Move or copy one or more names in your contact list to Select one or more people in the contact list, right-click one, then click another group in the list. View a simple notepad application that works like the task list above. Your notes stay on the server so you can get at them from other computers. Press CTRL+F6

Sample Screenshot