There are two ways to add new contacts to your ActiveList. One way is to pick up some of the available contacts in Contact Browser, the other way is to add contacts manually.

To open Contact Browser, hit F3 or use the Find/add contacts button on the ActiveList toolbar, or the Find/Add Contacts command in the ActiveList menu.

To add a contact manually, just type the name in the Address Box below the ActiveList control and then press ALT+INSERT or click the Add Contact/Group/IP button on the ActiveList toolbar, or select the Add Contact/Group/IP command from the ActiveList menu.

When you add an IP address, it will automatically translate to one or more messaging names, if the remote computer is capable of receiving SMB/CIFS messages.

To send a private message (whisper), click on the New Message field and type in your message. Then, move to the ActiveList control using TAB, or just click on it, and then select the recipient(s) for your message or specify the recipient in the Address Box below.

Click the Send button or just hit ENTER to send your message to the recipient(s).

When you send messages, they are automatically added to Message History and Message Box.

To send a domain/workgroup message (broadcast), you should use the Send To Domain button.

It is not required to specify recipients when you are sending to everyone in your domain/workgroup.

LanToucher Messenger offers a nice "Away" feature. Just set up the status message you wish to be automatically sent as a reply to each incoming private message while you are busy or out of the office. To set up a custom status message, switch LanToucher Messenger to Passive mode, then activate the AutoRespond check box, type in the message you want to leave in the space provided, or select a message from the Passive mode pop-up menu.

After you have received or sent an instant message, you may want to minimize LanToucher Messenger to the Windows taskbar or the taskbar notification area (system tray) and get back to your work. To minimize LanToucher Messenger, click the Minimize button at the bottom of its window, or just press the ESC key. If you place the mouse pointer over the LanToucher Messenger tray icon, a tooltip will appear. The tooltip indicates the messenger state and the count of unread messages (if there are any).

In order to restore LanToucher Messenger, click the system tray icon or press CTRL + `.

Use this function if you wish to clear the entire message base. Note that the messages are deleted permanently, so make sure you have made a backup of your messages. To delete all messages, use the Delete All Messages command from the File menu or the Message History/Message Box context menu.

If you wish to save your message base to a file for future reference, use the Save All Messages command from the File menu. You can save the messages either to a plain text document (.TXT) or to a rich text document (.RTF). To view the saved messages, use Notepad or any other application capable of displaying text documents.

Use message forwarding to forward all incoming messages to another user or computer on your network.