Premium SigmaChat chat rooms may allow their users to change their own text color as it is displayed within the chat room. To change your text color, you may right click in the content area (where messages are displayed) 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.sigmachat.com or www.raidersoft.com, as well as email addresses such as mailto:support@raidersoft.com or sales@raidersoft.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 SigmaChat may be prevented by your browser if this is the case. To override, simply hold down the "Ctrl" button while clicking on a popup link or button.

This chat application is capable of hosting multiple subrooms. Subrooms are shown in the pulldown menu on the lower right hand side of the applet, just below the user list. Depending upon how your chat room has been configured by it's owner; you may create, join, and leave subrooms. 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.

Some systems may automatically place you in your own unique subroom. The subroom will have the same name as your username. Often times this is used for technical-support solutions.

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. If you wish to password protect the subroom you have created, 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.

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].

Some chat rooms indicate users that are in the current subroom by listing them first (below administrators) or by indicating users in another subroom by displaying their name 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.

Your chat room may have filters in place to ensure that certain words (such as profanity) are not allowed. You may receive a warning message such as "Please rephrase your last message" if you use an illegal word in a chat room that censors profanity. If you receive this warning, you can easily go back and edit your message by using the Message Scrollback feature.

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. Often times, we make typos, or we are censored by SigmaChat's text filter. This feature makes it easy to simply go back and edit the message that you have just typed. Some operators may have disabled this feature to prevent flooding within their chat room.