Important Tips For Every Google Talk User

[Computer_Freak]

Unlike most other IM clients, Google Talk is also very minimalist and doesn’t intimidate you with ads and the like, so people are just sticking to it.Google Talk is the messenger of choice for Gmail users. Although the desktop client hasn’t been improved for a long time, many people use it as their primary instant messenger just because they are loyal Gmail users and many of their friends are.

Desktop Shortcuts to Contacts

This is probably the quickest way to initiate a chat with a Google Talk buddy. Using this method, you can create a desktop icon. When clicked, this icon will directly open a chat window where you can chat with your friend.

This method doesn’t work on Windows Vista, but only on XP. To create a desktop shortcut to quickly chat with your GTalk friend, just right click on your desktop and go to New > Shortcut and type gtalk:chat?jid=username@gmail.com. To initiate a quick call, use the shortcut gtalk:call?jid=username@gmail.com where username should be replaced by your buddy’s GTalk ID.

Making the Status Always Idle

There’s no way to control you can control your Idle Status on Google Talk. But, if you can install gAlwaysIdle, you can choose to remain either ‘Always Idle’ or ‘Never Idle’. Just by right clicking on the Google Talk system tray icon, you can make use of these idle options.

gAlwaysIdle adds two new options to Google Talk, allowing you to change your status to be 'always idle' or 'never idle'. When your status is set to 'always idle', you'll appear idle to your Google Talk buddies, even if you're sitting at your computer typing e-mails and sending IMs.

[Computer_Freak]

Formatting Text in the Chat Window.

You can even format text in the chat window. even though there are no visible buttons present for that purpose. You can do basic formatting in Google Talk like making the text bold, italic and underline. To make the text bold, just enclose it within *asterisks* and to make it italic, just enclose it within _underscores_

[Itronix]

For more tips on google talk,

See this Google Talk keyboard shortcuts and other tips
Tricks and Tips of Gtalk

[Kraker999]

great article for gtalk users. learned some new tricks from here.I’m glad you found this article useful.

I have used gIdle quite a lot and without it I am bombarded with multiple chat windows, so I would recommend that tool to any user who gets too many IMs in Gtalk