Instant Messaging in Opera

Setting up the Instant Messenger

Setting up an account in the instant messenger couldn't be easier! Access the "Messaging" menu on the main menu bar in Opera. Here, select the menu entry "New account...", to be prompted with the "Add new instant messaging account" dialog. From this menu you can select to set up an account and either get a new instant messaging address or use an existing instant messaging address.

Please see the two following sections for how to set up your instant messaging account by one of the two means provided above.

• Get new instant messaging address
  If you do not have an ICQ account this is the option for you. Select it to be taken to the Instant messaging account, fill in the fields and create a new ICQ account!

• Use existing instant messaging address
  If you already have an ICQ account, you may set up Opera to make use of that account by selecting this option in the "Add new instant messaging account" dialog. Selecting it will take you to the Instant messaging account dialog, effectively the same as when you opt to create a new ICQ account in Opera, but you will have to fill in more information.

Tip! It's possible to have several ICQ accounts in Opera! Have as many as you want and jump between them easily in the "Messaging" drop-down menu.

Instant messaging account

In this dialog you will be presented with the various fields that need to be filled in in order to complete the setup of either a totally new ICQ account in Opera, or the setup of an existing ICQ account in Opera. The following explains the sections that need to be filled in:

Account

In this section of the menu, you'll see the fields relating to the ICQ account's mechanical setup.

Address

The field of "Address" cannot be manipulated by the user, unless you elect to erect an account with an existing ICQ address, that is, because when the fields in this form have been filled out and you press the "OK"-button in the bottom right corner, it will send the information to the server which will generate an ICQ address for you.

Password

What you must do if you wish to create a new account is decide on a password to use with the account. This password should be entered into the "Password" field, would you believe it, and Opera can be set up to save the password for you, so that you won't have to enter it manually every time, by checking the box on "Remember password".

Protocol

The field of "Protocol" is currently unavailable for user manipulation as well, because it is reserved for future versions of Opera when a standardized instant messaging protocol has been decided upon by the IETF, as mentioned in the introduction above.

Privacy

The privacy section sets the privacy level of the account. The privacy issue of ICQ and other instant messengers is debated vociferously by people in the know, because just as spam e-mails have plagued e-mail users for years, instant messengers are also very much in the danger zone in this matter.

The options in this section of the dialog, "All users may add me to contact list" and "Authorization required", both have their benefits and drawbacks.

All users may add me to contact list

This option leaves you the least where personal security is concerned. Your ICQ address, nick name and other general information will be publicly available if this option is selected, presented to any party that opts to find you, either through the Mirabilis Web site or by using ICQ's "Find user..." function. On the plus side, however, you will easily be able to get in touch with other ICQ users if this option is enabled, and that's basically what instant messaging is about - communication with others.

Authorization required

This option gives you a higher level of security than the former, in that users may locate you by nick, but will not be able to start chatting with you until they have sent you an instant message requesting your permission to start communicating with you, avoiding spam messages. The drawback with this method is that you will have to authorize their requests, and if they have their ICQ account set up to require authorization too, they will have to authorize you putting them on your contact list.

General information

General information about yourself should be entered into this menu, but do note that this information will be publicly available for anyone else on the ICQ network to see.

• First name
  Enter your given name into this field.
• Last name
  And this field should contain your family name.
• E-mail
  Adding your e-mail address to this field will make it openly available for others to see.
• Nickname
  And, finally, select a "nickname" for yourself. This nickname will be the one that other users on ICQ identify you with. Since the ICQ protocol operates on the basis of every user's unique ICQ address, several users may share the same nickname, as long as their ICQ address is not the same.

About me

A short description of yourself should be placed in this field. The description will be very useful for other users of ICQ to learn something about you before starting to talk to you, and it should be well worth your time to write something descriptive, yet catchy, because you never get a second chance at making a good first impression.

Below these fields there are three buttons:

Details
Pressing this button will take you to the Mirabilis Web site. It will open the ICQ White Pages.

OK
Confirms your selections and saves the settings you have set in this menu.

Cancel
Discards your current setting changes and closes the menu.

The instant messenger window

The instant messenger window will show up in the Opera workspace when a chat is initiated and stay up for the duration of the chat. You will notice these buttons at the top of the window:

The Send button is used to send what you have currently written into the bottom part of the instant messenger window to the person you are currently chatting with. When the E-mail button is pressed, it will bring up a new e-mail compose window with the e-mail address of the person you are communicating with in the "To:" field, and, finally, the User info button brings up the contact properties of the person you are chatting with.

Adding a user to the Contact list

In order to add a user to the contact list, you will have to "find" the user. Use the "Find user..." entry on the "Messaging" drop-down menu to bring up the "Find user" dialog.

On this dialog you will see these fields:

Search details

Searching for other users by these details:

E-mail
If you know the e-mail of the user, search by it.

Nick name
If you know the nick name of the user, search by it.

First name
If you know the first name of the user, search by it.

Last name
If you know the last name of the user, search by it.

Address
Use this field to locate users by their unique ICQ addresses.

To the right of these fields you will find the "Search" button. Pressing this button will take your search on-line, as you search the Mirabilis White Pages.

Search results

The results of the search will be displayed in this field. If a user fitting the criteria you gave in the fields above shows up and you wish to start communicating with him, press the "Add user..." button to the right to bring up the contact properties for that user.

Sending an authorization request

Any ICQ user has the option to demand authorization before accepting a chat from another user. This means that you may have to fill in an authorization request before starting a chat.

This is the "Request authorization" dialog:

Request message
Use this field to present yourself. Although you may enter whatever you want, if you really want to make an impression, try to make it as original and neat as possible.

Now press the "OK"-button to send your request of authorization off to the user!

Accepting an authorization request

Any user may send you an authorization request if you have elected to require authorization with the current account setup. If that's the case, you'll see the Authorization request dialog:

Request by

This field contains information about the "requestee", so to speak.

Address
The instant messaging address of the user requesting authorization.

Nick name
The nick name used by the user requesting authorization.

First name
The user's first name.

Last name
The user's last name.

Message

Below this field is the message field. Herein lies the message that the user entered in the hope of having you authorizing him/her.

If you wish to authorize the user, press the "Accept"-button. If not, press the "Refuse"-button. You may also wish to add the user to the contact list. In that case, press the "Add user..." button to bring up the contact list.