A visual guide to using chat in Sametime 9. Learn how to find contacts, add people to your contact list, use chat rooms, participate in a larger broadcast community, and more.

1. Sametime Communicate
Task Reference

2. ii Sametime Communicate Task Reference

3. Contents
Sametime Communicate Task Reference 1
iii

4. iv Sametime Communicate Task Reference

5. Sametime Communicate Task Reference
Get started with the basics of IBM®
Sametime®
; connect with multiple people in
chat rooms and participate in a larger broadcast community.
Get started with Sametime
Table 1. Get Started with Sametime. The following table describes how to complete basic
Sametime tasks to help get you started.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Add a personal or public
group Click > New and select Group. Then, choose Add a
new personal group or Search for a public group and
enter the group name. Click Add to create the group on
your contact list.
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6. Table 1. Get Started with Sametime (continued). The following table describes how to
complete basic Sametime tasks to help get you started.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Add a contact to the contact
list
Click to open the New Contact dialog. You can choose
to Search for a person or Add external person by email
address. When you find the person that you want to add,
assign them to a group and click Add.
Add your geographic location
to display to others
Double-click your geographic location in your status card
to set a new location and its details such as city, state,
country, and time zone.
Change your availability
status
Click your availability icon such as in your status card
to open the status change menu. Choose from I am
available, I am away, In a meeting, or Do not disturb to
change your availability status icon.
Edit your status message Double-click your status message to create a new custom
message.
Table 2. Configuring and customizing your client. This table outlines some of the common
tasks for configuring and customizing your Sametime client.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Add and manage server
communities Click > New and select Server Community. Complete
the dialog to add a server community.
Click to expand the Show server connection details area
in your status card. You can easily manage all of your
server communities and preferred calling devices here.
Optimize for accessibility
Click > Preferences and select Accessibility. Select all
options to optimize for accessibility.
Specify your chat history
preferences Click > Preferences and select Chat History. In the Do
you want to save chats field, choose to Automatically save
chats, Do not automatically save chats, or Prompt me to
save chats. Then, specify a location to which you save your
chat transcripts.
Set notifications for specific
events Click > Preferences and select Notifications. Select a
specific event for which to set a notification. Then, specify
the sound or notification display type to associate with the
selected event.
Change the font for your text
chats or contact list To change the font for text chats, click > Preferences
and select Chat Window and Transcript. In the Chat font
field, specify the font that you want to use.
To change the font on your contact list, click >
Preferences and select Contact List. In the Contact list font
field, specify the font that you want to use.
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7. Table 3. Manage contacts. The following table describes tasks that help you manage your
contacts.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Customize how you view a
contact's name on the contact
list
Right-click (press Ctrl + click for Macintosh) on the
contact's name that you want to change. Select Edit
Nickname, and enter the name into the field.
Filter and sort your list In the action bar on your contact list, click Contacts .
Select or clear the options to sort and filter your contact list
by server communities, online contacts only, or
alphabetically ordered groups and contacts.
Import or export a contact list
To import, click > Manage Contacts > Import Contact
List and select a location to import from.
To export, click > Manage Contacts > Export Contact
List and select an export location.
Create a customized list by
using Primary Contacts
Click to open the Primary Contacts panel.
You can create your own personalized list or use the
options for Frequent Contacts or Recent Contacts to let
Sametime build a list for you.
Set a one-time alert. Select a contact and right-click (press Ctrl + click for
Macintosh). To customize an alert, click Alerts > Alert Me
When and complete all fields.
Table 4. Text chats. This table introduces you to commonly used tasks when you are
chatting with colleagues.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Invite others to an existing
chat
In an active chat window, select . Then, type the name
and select the contact that you want to add to the existing
chat, and click Send to deliver the chat invitation.
View and work with chat
history Click > Chat History to open the Chat History viewer.
Browse chat history by all chats, multi-person chats, contact
names, and dates.
Send an annotated screen
capture
In an open chat window, select and capture a selected
portion of your screen. Use the tools of the Screen Capture
window to annotate your screen capture. Click Send to
automatically send the screen capture to your chat partner.
Click Add to paste the screen capture into your chat
window without sending.
Send a file In an open chat window, either drag the file that you want
to send into the message entry field, or select and
Browse for a file to send.
Save and send text chat
transcripts
From an open chat window, you can choose to manually
save a transcript, prevent contacts from saving the
transcript, or send the transcript as an email.
In an open chat window, click and select one of the
options: Save Transcript As, Send Transcript as Email, or
Prevent Transcript Save.
Sametime Communicate Task Reference 3

8. Table 5. Instant share. If Instant Share is available to you, refer to the following table to
learn more about the sharing your screen with others.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Start sharing your screen Click one or more contacts on your contact list, then click .
Scroll to Instant Share and select what you want to share.
Or, select in an open chat window.
Allow someone else to share
their screen
During an Instant Share session, click in the floating
palette window. The participant who wants to take control
then clicks in their shared screen window.
Reclaim control of sharing During an Instant Share session in which a participant took
control of your screen, click in the floating palette
window.
Capture and save a picture of
the shared screen
During an Instant Share session, click in the shared
screen window. Then, click OK.
Specify a location to save the
snapshots of the shared
screen
Click > Preferences > Instant Share and then select
Browse to specify a location to save snapshots.
Table 6. Get started with chat rooms. See the following table to learn more about getting
started with chat rooms.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Find a chat room
Click to open the Chat Rooms panel. In the Type to
find chat rooms field, type the name of the chat room you
are searching for.
If you do not find what you are looking for in the search
results, check to see whether you added that chat room to
your My Chat Rooms list. Click No matches found. Click
here to browse or search chat rooms to open chat rooms in
a browser and search all chat rooms to which you have
access.
Create a chat room
Click to open the Chat Rooms panel. Click to
open chat rooms in a browser. Then, browse to a folder to
which you have rights to create a chat room, or create a
new chat room folder. Click New Chat Room and complete
the fields in the Details, People, and Transcript tabs.
Receive notifications about
chat room activity
In the Chat Rooms panel, select a chat room and right-click
(press Ctrl + click for Macintosh) for a menu of more
options and select Alert me when. Select the chat rooms to
which you want to assign the alert, then specify the details
in the Alert me when and Notification Preferences section
and click OK.
Table 7. Organize chat rooms. The following table describes how to organize your chat
rooms.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Sort and filter your list of
chat rooms
In the Chat Rooms panel, click Chat Rooms in the action
bar and select how to filter your chat rooms: View by Chat
Room Activity or View by Chat Room Folders. You can
also select Sort Chat Rooms in View and choose to sort by
Active Participants, Unread Text, or Name.
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9. Table 7. Organize chat rooms (continued). The following table describes how to organize
your chat rooms.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Work with chat room folders In the Chat Rooms panel, right-click (press Ctrl + click for
Macintosh) a folder name to manage that folder in one of
the following ways:
v Remove the folder
v Rename the folder
v Create a new folder
v Move to a new folder.
Table 8. Find and save key information from chat rooms. This table provides details on how
to manage information from chat room discussions.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Download a file that is
shared in a chat room
In an active chat room window, right-click (press Ctrl +
click for Macintosh) any uploaded file in the Library and
select Download.
Create a Chat Room FAQ Right-click a chat room from your list and select Open
Chat Room FAQs. Click Create FAQ, enter the question
and answer, and click Save.
View the FAQs entered for a
chat room
In an active chat room window, click > Open Chat
Room FAQs.
Rate an FAQ In an active chat room window, click > Open Chat
Room FAQs. Click the Average rating area that follows
each FAQ question, denoted by an image of five stars, to
open the Rate the FAQ dialog. Select from the rating
choices and click OK.
Table 9. Get started with broadcast communities. The following table gives the basics for
working with broadcast communities.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Join a broadcast community
Click to open the Broadcast Communities panel. Then,
click More > Join Broadcast Communities. Enter a name in
the Search communities field and select the communities
that you want to join from the list. Then, click Join.
Create a broadcast
community
Click to open the Broadcast Communities panel. Then,
click More > Create/Edit Broadcast Communities. Select
New Broadcast Community and complete the Details and
People tabs, then click Save.
Send a Skill Tap, Instant Poll,
Chat, or Announcement to a
community
Click to open the Broadcast Communities panel. Select
a community of which you are a member, and then select
one of the broadcast tools from the icons in the action bar.
Sametime Communicate Task Reference 5

10. Table 10. Extended features of broadcast communities. Refer to this table to learn more
about working with broadcast communities.
What do you want to do? Steps to Take
Set notifications for broadcast
community alerts Click > Preferences and select Notifications. In the
Events section, select Broadcast tools. Then, in the Selected
Event section, click Create New Notification Event and
select which tool and community to set the alert for.
Create an FAQ based on a
Skill Tap broadcast question
After you receive a Skill Tap question and provide an
answer to it, close the Skill Tap window. Select Add to
Skill Tap FAQ, and click Submit.
Search for specific Skill Tap
FAQs
Click to open the Broadcast Communities panel.
Right-click (press Ctrl + click for Macintosh) a broadcast
community and select View Broadcast Community FAQs.
Rate an FAQ
Click to open the Broadcast Communities panel.
Right-click (press Ctrl + click for Macintosh) a broadcast
community and select View Broadcast Community FAQs.
Click the average rating area that is denoted by five stars
next to an FAQ to rate that answer.
6 Sametime Communicate Task Reference