Chats are interactive, real-time text conversations. Use chat if you need to ask a question or start a discussion.

You can send chat messages to anyone who has an Active or Away online status. People who are Away can see your messages once they return to their computers.

You can send chat messages from a mail view or message, from the Instant Messaging Contact List, or from the main menu.

Note Chats with regular users are automatically secured with encryption.

Follow these steps to start a chat with a single person. If you are sending a chat message to multiple people, see Starting an instant meeting for instructions.

1. Do one of the following:

• From a mail view, to chat with the sender of a message, select the message, click Chat, and select "Chat with."
• From a mail message, to chat with the sender, click Chat and then select "Chat with Sender."
• From the Instant Messaging Contact List, select a name and click the Chat icon .
• Choose File - Instant Messaging - Chat, type the name of the person you want to chat with -- first name followed by last name -- and click OK. Alternatively, you can type just the first name or last name (but not a short name such as Rob instead of Robert, unless that is how the person is listed in the instant messaging directory). If the name that you typed matches more than one entry in the directory, a list of matching names appears. Select the correct name from the list and click OK.

3. (Optional) Click "Invite Others" to turn this chat into an instant chat meeting.

4. You can leave the chat at any time by clicking Close.

See Also

Working with instant messaging

Glossary

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