Tricks and Tips of Gtalk

[Larry ward]

The Google Talk downloadable application for Windows offers many features for communicating with your friends and family.All most all of you have already switched/using to Gtalk, and started chatting there, you might also know some tips and tricks of it like how to type in bold, italics etc... I have collected all the tips and tricks (most of them) of Gtalk at one place;-

If you'd like to change the appearance of your chat windows, choose a custom theme. Here's how:

1. Sign in to Google Talk.
2. Click Settings at the top of your Friends list.
3. Highlight Appearance, and select a theme from the drop-down menu under Chat Theme.
   • A preview of each theme is displayed when selected from the drop-down menu.
4. Click OK.
5. Changing your chat theme doesn't affect the appearance of your friends' chat windows.

Keyboard Shortcuts 4 Google Talk

1. ALT + ESC: Minimize the current window
2. TAB: Switch between multiple chat windows
3. CTRL + I: Same as TAB
4. SHIFT + TAB: Same as TAB but in reverse order
5. CTRL + TAB: Same as SHIFT + TAB
6. Windows + ESC: Open Google Talk (if it's minimized, or in the tray)
7. F9: Open Gmail to send an email to your friend
8. F11: Start a call with your friend
9. F12: Stop the current call
10. ESC: Close the current window

Conversation Text

• A message can be 32767 characters long.
• Certain smileys are recognized by Google Talk and will be shown in blue.
• :-| :-O :-x :-P :-D ;-) :-( :O :x ;-| ;-O ;-x ;-P ;-D ;-) ;-( ;| ;O ;x ;P ;D ;( B-| B-O B-x B-P B-D B-) B-( B'( BO Bx BD B) B( B) And you can put a ' between the characters to get another one shown in blue.
• To write text in bold, put it between *asteriks*
• To write text in italic, put it between _underscores_
• You can insert special characters like ♥♫☺ with 'Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Character Maps'.

Secret Startup Parameters
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• 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: ?

[Orlando]

Some more tips of Google Talk:-

Conversation Window

• Drag a conversation window on top of another and they will dock together.
• Drag a file onto the chat history and you'll send the file to the selected contact.
• When you see a message notification, you can right click it to close it without focusing the conversation window.

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 2 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.

Shortcuts:-

• Ctrl + E - It centralizes the selected text, or the current line.
• Ctrl + R - It justifies to the right the selected text, or the current line.
• Ctrl + L - It justifies to the left the selected text, or the current line.
• Ctrl + I - The same thing does that Tab.
• Tab - It is giving the area to each of the windows opened by Google Talk.
• Ctrl + Tab - The same thing does that Shift + Tab .
• Shift + Tab - The same thing does that Tab but in reverse.
• Ctrl + Shift + L -Switch between points, numbers, letters, capital letters, roman numbers and capital roman numbers
• Ctrl + 1 (KeyPad) - It does a simple space between the lines.
• Ctrl + 2 (KeyPad) - It does a double space between the lines.
• Ctrl + 5 (KeyPad) - A space does 1.5 between the lines.
• Ctrl + 1 (NumPad) - It goes at the end of the last line.
• Ctrl + 7 (NumPad) - It goes at the begin of the last line.
• Ctrl + F4 - It closes the current window.
• Alt + F4 - It closes the current window.
• Alt + Esc - It Minimize all the windows.
• Windows + ESC - Open Google Talk (if it's minimized, or in the tray)
• F9 - Open Gmail to send an email to the current contact.
• F11 - It initiates a telephonic call with your friend.
• F12 - It cancels a telephonic call.
• Esc - It closes the current window.

[Namchan]

I'm wondering whether Google is still working on the Google Talk client. There hasn't been an update on google talk client for a very very long time, while the google talk gadget is being improved step by step with mindblowing features.

[Michael Sabin]

Nice Tutorial Guys...!! Its gonna very useful for Gtalk Users..

Thanks Guys! Indeed, very useful.