Interesting Tweaks regarding GOOGLE TALK

Tips & Tricks Change the font size - While holding the control key, move the scroll wheel on your mouse either up or down. This trick works while being focused in either the read or write area. Insert line breaks - If you want to have a message that spans multiple paragraphs, just hold shift and hit enter. You can add as many new lines as you want to create. Bold Text - To write something bold, you can use an asterisk before and after the word, like *Hello* . Italic Text - To use italics, use an underscore before an after the word, like _hello_ . Switch windows - Hitting tab will cycle through open windows. It will select minimized conversations, to expand them just hit enter. If you just want to cycle through IM's and don't care about the buddy list, control-tab will do that and will automatically expand a minimized conversation if you settle on one. Invitation Tips - You don’t need to say Yes or No when someone wants to add you as a friend; you can simply ignore it, the request will go away. (On the other hand, someone with whom you chat often will automatically turn to be your friend, unless you disable this in the options). ] Show Hyperlinks - You can show your homepage or blog URL simply by entering the it in your away message (at the top of the main window). It will automatically turn to a link visible to others. A message can be 32767 characters long. How To Conference Calls : What you need to do to have conference calls: Open up a copy of Google Talk on all computers with which you wish to conference. After one copy is opened make a new shortcut for Google Talk but at the end of it add /nomutex. If you installed it to the default folder then your shortcut should read "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex. Open 2nd instances of the software on every user's computer. After this start a chain: User 1 should connect on one instance to user 2. User 2 will connect on his second instance to user 3. User 3 will connect using his second instance back to user 1. With this chain everyone is connected to everyone. Nickname & Status Message : You can't change your nickname in a way that other people will see it change. Every nickname in the Google Talk contact list is the part that is before @gmail.com (only the alphabetical characters are used) or the name you chosen for your GMail account. To change the nickname need to go to your Gmail account and change the name there. Choose Settings, Accounts, and then Edit info. Click on the second radio button, and enter your custom name. As a result all of your emails will have that nick as well, there is no way to seperate the two. You can add a website in your custom message, it will be clickable when someone opens a conversation window with you. Contacts: You don't need to say Yes or No when someone wants to add you as a friend; you can simply ignore it, the request will go away. (On the other hand, someone with whom you chat often will automatically turn to be your friend, unless you disable this). The Gmail account 'user@gmail.com' can't be invited as your friend. Play Music: It's possible to broadcast music, MP3, etc.. through Google Talk. Unplug your microphone. Double click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner. This will open up "Volume Control". Select "Options" and then "Properties". Then check the button next to "Recording" then click OK. You may also have to change your setting under Mixer Device. Now the Recording Control screen should be up. On my computer I selected "Wave Out Mix". Click on the green phone in Google Talk and call your friend. Use Google Talk via a Web Browser You want to use Google Talk anywhere ? Follow these guidelines. Step 1: Opens your favorite web browser at the following address : http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/popout Step 2: Follow the instructions of the Page. Step 3: You can talk with your friends Google's Secret Command-Line Parameters There are a few secret parameters you can add to Google Talk and make it function differently. To add these, open up your Google Talk shortcut properties, and where it says "Target:" add one or more of these inside the quotations, but after the .exe part. The most important, I think, is /nomutex, which allows you to run more than one instance of GT. Here are the others: Example: “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex /nomutex: allows you to open more than one instance of Google Talk /autostart: when Google Talk is run with this parameter, it will check the registry settings to see if it needs to be started or not. If the "Start automatically with Windows" option is unchecked, it won't start. /forcestart: same as /autostart, but forces it to start no matter what option was set. /S upgrade: Used when upgrading Google Talk /register: registers Google Talk in the registry, includig the GMail Compose method. /checkupdate: check for newer versions /plaintextauth: uses plain authentication mechanism instead then Google's GAIA mechanism. Used for testing the plain method on Google's servers. /nogaiaauth: disables GAIA authentication method. The same as above. /factoryreset: set settings back to default. /gaiaserver servername.com: uses a different GAIA server to connect to Google Talk. Used for debug purposes only, there are no other known GAIA servers. /mailto email@host.com: send an email with Gmail /diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode /log: probably has something to do with the diagnostic logging /unregister: ? /embedding: ? That's it for today's post, feel free to try and post comments.