Here are five tips and tricks that every Google Talk user should know. Make sure you bookmark this page because you never know when they鈥檒l come handy.
1. Desktop Shortcuts to Contacts
desktop-gtalk
This is probably the quickest way to initiate a chat with a Google Talk buddy. Using this method, you can create a desktop icon. When clicked, this icon will directly open a chat window where you can chat with your friend.
To create a desktop shortcut to quickly chat with your GTalk friend, just right click on your desktop and go to New > Shortcut and type gtalk:chat?jid=username@gmail.com. To initiate a quick call, use the shortcut gtalk:call?jid=username@gmail.com where username should be replaced by your buddy鈥檚 GTalk ID. This method doesn鈥檛 work on Windows Vista, but only on XP.
2. Running Multiple Instances Simultaneously
multiple-gtalk
Google Talk, by default, doesn鈥檛 provide a way to log in to multiple accounts at once. However, you can achieve that by a workaround.
Just edit your existing desktop shortcut to Google Talk by right clicking on the desktop icon, going to properties and then appending the parameter /nomutex to the target, like this: C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Talk.exe /nomutex. You can use this shortcut to launch multiple instances of Google Talk, thereby allowing you to login to multiple Google Talk accounts simultaneously.
3. Making the Status Always Idle
galways-idle
There鈥檚 no way to control you can control your Idle Status on Google Talk. But, if you can install gAlwaysIdle, you can choose to remain either 鈥楢lways Idle鈥 or 鈥楴ever Idle鈥. Just by right clicking on the Google Talk system tray icon, you can make use of these idle options.
4. Formatting Text in the Chat Window
format-gtalk
Did you know that you can format text on Google Talk even though there are no visible buttons present for that purpose. You can do basic formatting in Google Talk like making the text bold, italic and underline. To make the text bold, just enclose it within *asterisks* and to make it italic, just enclose it within _underscores_
5. Learn the Keyboard Shortcuts
Google Talk provides plenty of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to perform a variety of actions. Their documentation doesn鈥檛 seem to be listing the shortcuts though, so here鈥檚 a list of many user discovered shortcuts. Learn them once, and you鈥檒l find them indispensable forever.
Here鈥檚 the list, as listed on Sizzled Core:
1. CTRL + Mousewheel up/down: It will change the font size in a conversation window.
2. CTRL + E: Center text
3. CTRL + R: Right justify text
4. CTRL + L: Left justify text
5. F11: Start a call
6. F12: Stop the call
7. ESC: Close the current window
source:-http://www.quickonlinetips.com
if you know any other tricks share through comments
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I have finally moved over to Zoho.com for my IM’s. It’s perfect. I can connect to all of my accounts (multiple gmail and/or hotmail, msn, yahoo, etc..) and any jabber account.
I login to Zoho with my current google account and it keeps all my settings so I can access any of those im clients without the software on my machine (for net cafes.. I am in costa rica)
Cloud computing to the rescue…
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