2008, 2009 Ubuntu Documentation Project Ubuntu Documentation Project &legal; Milo Casagrande Ubuntu Documentation Project

milo@ubuntu.com

Seth Dudenhofer Ubuntu Documentation Project

sdudenhofer@gmail.com

Empathy Manual V&manrevision; &date; Milo Casagrande milo@ubuntu.com Ubuntu Documentation Project Empathy Manual V2.0 April 2008 Milo Casagrande milo@ubuntu.com Seth Dudenhofer sdudenhofer@gmail.com Ubuntu Documentation Project This manual describes version &appversion; of &appname;. To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page. &appname; is an application for instant messaging. Empathy empathy istant messaging &app; is a multi-protocol instant messaging program for the GNOME Desktop. With &app; you can keep in touch with all of your friends through lots of supported instant messaging services. &app; supports the following services: AIM Google Talk ICQ IRC Jabber (or XMPP) MSN Salut SIP Yahoo And many others... You can start &app; in the following ways: Applications menu Choose Internet Empathy Instant Messenger . Command line Type empathy and then press Enter. When you start &app; the following window is shown.

Shows &app; main window. Contains the titlebar, the menubar, contact list, status icon and status arrow button list.

describes the components of &app;'s main window. Component Description Menubar Contains menus used to perform actions in &app;. Status Drop-Down List Allows to update the status. Account Button Opens the Accounts dialog. Contact List Shows all the available contacts and their associated status. To use &app; you need at least one account of the supported services. If you don't already have an account and you don't have your user name and password, you need to register a new account (see ). In order to talk with other users, also called contacts, you need to use the same service they are using. If, for example, one contact is using the Jabber service, you need to have an account registered with that service. &app; can handle as many accounts on any supported services as you want and you can have them all open at the same time. You can freely register an account on any of the following services. Follow the instructions reported on each website on how to register your new account. At the end of the registration process you should have a user name (or an account ID) and a password that you will use to create the account in &app;. Click on the name of the service to visit its website: The AIM service. The Google Talk service. The ICQ service. The MSN service. The Yahoo service. For registering a SIP account, you can use one of the following service: The Ekiga service. The FWD (Free World Dialup) service. The Sipphone service. For registering a Jabber account, you can use the automatic account creation of &app;. Not all Jabber service providers support the automatic creation of accounts, one service provider known to work with &app; is jabber.org. If you already have a Jabber account, you can use one of the following services: Salut To add your account to &app;, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. If it is the first time you launch &app;: From the Type drop-down list choose the service you wish to add an account for, then click on the Create button. Otherwise: Click on the Add button. From the Type drop-down list choose the service you wish to add an account for, then click on the Create button. Fill the required fields with your user name and password. Optionally, you can modify some advanced options. For more information, see . To enable the new account, select the Enabled check-box next to the name of the account in the box on the left. If you use another instant messaging program, you can import the accounts from that program into &app; At the moment &app; can import the accounts only from the instant messaging program Pidgin. For more information about Pidgin, see the Pidgin website. To import the accounts into &app;, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. Click on the Import Accounts... button to open the Import Accounts dialog. Select the accounts you would like to import by clicking on the Import check-box. When you have selected all the desired accounts, click OK to import them. If you don't want to import the accounts, click Cancel. When you import a new account into &app;, it will not be enabled by default. To enable the new account, select the Enabled check-box next to the name of the account in the box on the left. To edit one of your accounts, i.e. to change the password or your user name, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. Select the account you wish to edit in the box on the left. Modify the desired data. Based on the type of the account, it is possibile to edit different settings. To modify the identifier of an account, how &app; identifies an account, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. Select the account you wish to edit in the box on the left and double-click on it's name. Change the name of the account as you desire. To disable an account, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. Select the account you wish to disable in the box on the left of the dialog and deselect the Enabled check-box. To remove an account, proceed as follows: From the main window (Contact List) click on the account button or press F4 to open the Accounts dialog. Select the account you wish to disable in the box on the left of the dialog. Click on the Remove button. A dialog will be shown asking for confirmation. Click on the Remove button to remove the account. To change your personal information, your alias and your icon (the image that other contacts will see of you), for each of your accounts, proceed as follows: From the main window, select Edit Personal Information . From the Account drop-down list, choose the account you want to edit. In the Alias text box, write your new alias. To change your icon, click on the person-looking button and choose an image file. When done, click Close. An alias is an alternative way you can identify yourself. You can use your real name or your nickname. TODO All the contacts are handled within &app;'s main window. You can add or remove a contact or you can edit the information of a particular contact. It is also possibile to arrange contacts in groups. You can have a group for your work contacts, one for you family contacts, and so on. To add a new contact, proceed as follows: From the main window choose Chat Add Contact... . The New Contact dialog will be shown. From the Account drop-down list, choose the service used by the contact you are adding. In the Identifier text box type the address of the contact in the form of user name@service domain. In the Alias text box type the name you want to give at the the new contact. Click on Add to add the new contact. To remove a contact, proceed as follows: From the main window, select the contact you would like to remove and right-click on it. From the popup menu, choose Remove to remove the contact. An alias is an alternative way you can identify that particular contact. You can use the real name or the nickname of that person. To edit a contact, proceed as follows: From the main window, select the contact you would like to modify and choose Edit Account Modify , or right-click on it and choose Modify. From the Edit Contact Information dialog, you can modify the alias and the group of the contact. An alias is an alternative way you can identify that particular contact. You can use the real name or the nickname of that person. For more information about groups, see and . To add a contact to one or more groups, proceed as follows: From the main window, select the contact you would like to modify and choose Edit Account Modify , or right-click on it and choose Modify. From the Groups section, select the group, or groups, you want to add the contact to. When done, click Close. To add a new group, proceed as follows: From the main window, select one contact and choose Edit Account Modify , or right-click on it and choose Modify. In the Groups section, write the name of the group you want to add and then click on Add Group. When done, click Close.