With Microsoft Lync 2010 Group Chat, you can participate in chat room discussions by sending and reading instant messages posted to chat rooms. When you send an instant message to a chat room, you can insert files, emoticons, and links to the web or to other chat rooms, as well as long encapsulated text messages called stories. This topic describes the most common tasks that you’ll do using Lync 2010 Group Chat.
What do you want to do?
Send messages to a chat room
After you join a chat room, you can send messages to the chat room and read messages sent by other people. You can also insert files, web links, links to other chat rooms, and stories, into messages that you send to a chat room.
To send a message to a chat room
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In My Chat, click the chat room.
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Type a message in the Message Entry Area at the bottom of the window, and then click Send.
Note: To create a multiple-line message, press SHIFT+ENTER.
Send a message with high importance
You can add a High Importance status to messages that you send to a chat room. When you send a message that has a High Importance status, the message is posted in the chat room and by default, an alert is sent to each member of the chat room.
To send a high importance message, create the message that you want to send, click the High Importance button, and then click Send.
When a High Importance message is posted to a chat room, the chat room name in My Chat turns red and the message is shown in red in the chat room. If users have configured their Notification settings to show alerts for High Importance messages, they will see an alert when a High Importance message is sent to the chat room on their desktop.
Insert a hyperlink in a message
You can insert web links into instant messages that you create. When the message is posted to a chat room, the web link is live in the message so that members of the chat room can click the link to go to the web site.
To insert a hyperlink into a message
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In My Chat, click the chat room that you want to open.
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In the Message Entry Area toolbar, position the cursor where you want to insert the link, and then click the Insert a hyperlink button. This will pop up a dialog box.
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In the Text to display field, enter a text fragment that can be read by a person (for example, Fourth Coffee).
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In the Address field, enter a URL (for example, www.fourthcoffee.com).
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Alternatively, if humanly readable text that a person can read is not necessary, do one of the following actions:
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Type the URL (for example, www.fourthcoffee.com) in the Message Entry Area.
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Copy and paste the URL from the web browser to the Message Entry Area.
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Drag the web page’s icon from either the Address bar or the Links bar of your web browser to the message entry area.
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Click Send.
Insert a file in a message
You can attach files to messages that you send to a chat room. When the message is posted in the chat room, the file name appears as a clickable link with a small graphic that indicates the file type and document size. Any member of the chat room can download a file that is attached to a posted message.
You can post any type of file, and anyone on the chat room can either open or save the file by downloading it. However, if you want to open a file, Group Chat must recognize it as a known file type. If Group Chat doesn't recognize the file type, you are prompted to save the file.
To insert a file in a message
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InMy Chat, click the chat room you want to open.
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On the Message Entry Area toolbar, click the Insert file(s) into your message button.
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Select the file that you want to insert, and then click Open.
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Optionally, add a message to accompany the file.
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Click Send.
Insert an emoticon in a message
Emoticons are graphic images that you can use in your messages to communicate feelings and emotions. A happy face ☺ is a good example of an emoticon.
To insert an emoticon in a message
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In the Message Entry Area, put the cursor where you want to add the emoticon.
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On the Message Entry Area toolbar, click the emoticon drop-down menu.
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Click an emoticon.
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To send the message, click Send.
Send a story to a chat room
Stories are encapsulated messages that are too long to be posted in a chat room. If you enter more than 500 characters in the Message Entry Area, the message is automatically converted to a story, which you can edit before you send.
To send a story
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In My Chat, click the chat room that you want to open.
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To create a story do one of the following:
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In the Message Entry Area, enter the text that you want to send. If the text exceeds the imposed limit of characters, the message is converted to a story.
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Click the Send a Story button to bring up the Send a Story dialog box. Enter the text into the Message Entry Area in the dialog box.
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In the Send a Story dialog box, in the Subject box, type a subject for the story. This text will appear as a clickable link in the chat room.
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Click Send.
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After the story is posted, anyone in the chat room can view it by clicking the link in the chat room message area.
Insert a chat room link in a message
You can post links to other group chat rooms in a message. Just drag and drop a chat room from the My Chat panel to the Message Entry Area.
To insert a chat room link
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In My Chat, click the chat room that you want to open.
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Drag a chat room from My Chat into the Message Entry Area.
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Click Send.
Open and read chat room messages
You can open files, link, or stories inserted in a message.
To open files, links, or stories inserted in a message
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In My Chat, click the chat room that you want to open.
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If the message contains file attachments, stories, or links, you can click the links to open them.
To view a thumbnail of an image inserted in a message
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Put the cursor over the image file in the posted message.
Search for content in the message area
Group Chat provides several ways to search for messages or text strings. For example, you can do one of the following:
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Search for text in the message area of the chat room.
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Use the Search Chat History feature to search for archived messages. Be aware that Chat History might not be enabled for all chat rooms.
To search for text in the message area
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Do one of the following steps:
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On the Group Chat toolbar, click the Find button.
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Press CTRL+F.
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In the search bar that appears above the Message Entry Area, enter the search criteria.
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To search up or down through the message area, click Previous or Next.
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To close the search bar, click the X, or click the Find button.
Search Chat History
Chat history contains all messages posted to a chat room, whether these messages are still in the chat room Message Area. Chat history is not available with IM chat and filters, and is available for a chat room only if Chat History was enabled by the Chat Room manager. You can search Chat History for a specific chat room, a specific folder, or across all chat rooms that you have joined.
To search chat history
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To search a chat room, right-click the chat room in My Chat, and then click Search Chat History.
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To search all chat rooms in a folder, right-click the folder, and then click Search Chat History.
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In the Search text box, type the text for which you want to search. You can type phrases, words, or partial words. For example, if you are looking for a Microsoft Office Word document previously posted to a chat room, you can search for “.doc”.
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Click Search. Search results appear in the panel to the right.
Save or print a message
You can save or print messages that are posted to Group Chat.
To save messages to a text file
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In My Chat, click one or more chat rooms.
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On the File menu, click Save Chat As.
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In the Save As dialog box, click a location, type a name for the file, and then click Save.
To print messages
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On the File menu, click Print Chat.
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In the Print dialog box, select the required printing options, and then click OK.
Sign out or exit
At the end of a Group Chat session, you can either sign out or exit through the File menu. When you sign out, Group Chat closes but the program remains active. The Group Chat Login dialog box appears which enables you to sign in to another server.
To sign out
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On the File menu, click Sign Out.
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When you are prompted, click Yes to confirm that you want to sign out.
To exit
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On the File menu, click Exit.
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When you are prompted, click Yes to confirm that you want to exit.
