GnomeICU basics
Starting GnomeICU opens the Main window, shown in .
Glossary
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Contact List In the Main window, you see a list of people (or "contacts") which is called a "Contact List". Those are usually people you know and wish to remain in contact with (also called 'buddy list' in similar instant messaging applications).
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Status When a user is not connected to ICQ, his/her status is Offline. When a user is connected to ICQ, his/her status is one of the following: Online (which means you may contact the user), Free For Chat, Away (which means the user is currently away from the computer), N/A (which means the user is about to be away from the computer for a long time), Occupied, Do Not Disturb and Invisible.
The icons besides each name show the person's status. The Contact List contains an Online tab, which contains only online contacts, an Offline tab which contains only offline contacts and an optional Not In List tab, which contains users which sent you messages and are not in your contact list.
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Invisible user By setting your status to Invisible, others would not know you went online until you send them an event (e.g. a message, a chat request etc.). If you see a user with an Invisible status, that means the other user in Invisible mode and either has contacted you or has you in his/her Visible List.
Performing ICQ operations
Most ICQ operations can be performed by right-clicking a contact and picking an item from the popup menu, shown in .
 | Performing ICQ operations with the keyboard only |
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You can perform most ICQ operations with the keyboard by selecting a contact from the list with the Up and Down buttons, and then pressing Alt-Space to open the popup menu and selecting a menu item with the Up and Down keys. |
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To add a contact to your list, see .
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To send a message over ICQ, see
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To send a file over ICQ, see .
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To send a URL over ICQ, see .
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To chat with someone over ICQ, see .
The Panel Applet
GnomeICU comes with a panel applet, shown in . This panel applet shows your current status and the number of users currently online in your contact list. Clicking this panel applet brings up the main window if it is hidden, or hides if it is visible.
When a message is received, the panel applet's icon changes from the regular status icon to an icon representing the type of message received (see ). The number besides it now shows how many messages are unread.
| Applet tooltips |
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Try moving your mouse cursor over the GnomeICU panel applet for few seconds to receive quick information about the status (without clicking or opening any windows). As soon as you move the mouse cursor away from the applet, the "tooltip" dispappers. In regular mode, you could see the list of people in your contact list which are currently online. |
Menus
The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:
- ICQ
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This menu contains:
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Add Contact this command brings up the Add Contact dialog, which allows a user to add a contact to their contact list.
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Connection History this command brings up the Connection History dialog, showing a list of network transactions which occured during the ICQ session. It is not the regular Message History and contains information which is not useful to the average user.
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Preferences... this command brings up the Preferences dialog, which allows you to configure GnomeICU.
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Change User Info this command brings up the
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