The button toolbar provides access to various features of this chat room. The button toolbar can be found after you have logged in. Below is a description of each button.

You may change the size of your font by accessing the right-click content menu. To do so, right click on the message display area and a small menu will appear. Select "Font Size" to show the font selections allowing you to change your font size. Click on the font size you'd like to use. You may also increase/decrease the size of the displayed text by repeatedly clicking the Zoom-In and Zoom-Out buttons located in the Button Toolbar.

To change your text color, you may right click in the message display area and select "Colors". You may also access the color dialog by clicking the Color button within the Button Toolbar.

A sample color dialog is shown to the left. You may select a color directly from the web-safe palette, or you may manually adjust the red, green, and blue scrollbars to find the color that you wish to use. Click the Apply or OK button to apply your new color settings.

URL's, such as http://www.backwoodshome.com or www.backwoodshome.com, as well as email addresses such as mailto:webmaster@backwoodshome.com or webmaster@backwoodshome.com may be entered into the chat at any time to share with. Some systems may show URL's in a different color (usually blue) and may allow you to click on them to launch either another web page, or your default mail application.

Note: Many modern systems are now equipped with popup-blockers. Web sites, and popups launched from the chat room may be prevented by your browser. If this happens you can try to override. Smply hold down the "Ctrl" button while clicking on a popup link or button.

The chat room is capable of hosting multiple subrooms. Subrooms are shown in the pulldown menu on the lower right hand side of the window, just below the user list. You may create, join, and leave subrooms as you please. Subrooms may be password protected as well for privacy. There is no limit on the amount of subrooms that may be created, however; user created subrooms are automatically removed when they are empty.

When you create a subroom, it will have the same name as your username.

To create a new subroom, type /create [subroom_name]. Subroom names are subject to the same limitations as usernames. They should be between 2 and 32 characters in length, and may not contain spaces. You will automatically be placed in a subroom that you create.

To create a private room for a private conversation, you may password protect the subroom. Type /create [subroom_name] [subroom_password]. All users wishing to join your subroom will be required to enter the password you have chosen. Passwords are subject to the same limitations as subroom names. After you have created the subroom, remember to send a private message to each person you want to join you and include the password!

To leave a subroom, type /leave or select a different subroom from the subroom pulldown menu. You will then be brought back to the main chat room. If the subroom you leave is empty, it may be removed from the subroom list.

To join an existing subroom, type /join [subroom_name]. If the subroom is password protected, you will need to supply the password (not neccesary for system operators) by typing: /join [subroom_name] [subroom_password].

The chat room lists users that are in the current subroom by displaying their Usernames first (below administrators if logged in). Users in another subroom are displayed with a different color in the user list. To determine where another user is (what subroom he/she is in) simply double click on that users name in the user list, or type /whereis [username].

To send private messages, use the /msg command. I.e., to send the private message Hello, there to the user Timmy, you would type:

/msg Timmy Hello, there

Private messages are shown in a seperate color within the display to be easily differentiated.

You may also initiate a private message session with another user by double clicking on his/her name, or by right clicking on a username and selecting "Send Message". Once doing so, a popup dialog will appear for you to communicate with the other user in privately. The recipient may receive all messages in the main content area until he/she also double clicks on your name. To close a private message session, simply click the X in the upper-right hand portion of the window. Audio emoticons are not available within private message sessions.

The chat room does not censor profanity. That said, we expect everyone to behave like an adult. On second thought, we expect everyone to act like a responsible, considerate adult.

You may toggle the timestamp on/off by clicking the button shown above. The timestamp may also be accessed from the right-click menu in the main content area (where messages are displayed). When this feature is turned on, all incoming messages will be displayed with the time that they were received. This time is relative to your own computer, and the timezone in which it resides.

Click the Float/Dock button to load the chat room into a separate window. This feature allows you to conserve screen space while you chat by minimizing the browser window that you floated the chat room from. When you wish to return the chatroom to it's browser, simply reclick the Float/Dock button.

Note: With most modern web browsers, you must keep the browser window that the chat room was floated from open. Closing this window, or changing the web address may cause the chat software to close.

When clicked, the Copy Content button will display a popup window allowing you to easily copy text entered within the chat room (both private and public messages may be copied) by right-clicked, or using either the Ctrl-C (PC) or Alt-C (Apple) keyboard commands to copy text to your system clipboard.

The Message Scrollback Feature allows you to scroll back through the previous messages you have entered into the chatroom. To use this feature, simply press the Up and Down arrow buttons in the blue box where you type messages. If you make a typing error, this feature makes it easy to simply go back and edit the message that you have just typed. Scrollback, however, is limited.