How do I read, post, or delete chat messages?

By default, all site participants may read chat room messages, post in chat, and delete their own messages.  Additionally, site administrators may delete any messages that have been posted.

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Go to Chat.

Select Chat from the Tool Menu in your site.

Read messages.

When you access the Chat tool, you will enter the default room (as specified by a site administrator).

  1. To change rooms, select Change Room, then select the room to enter.
  2. To hide or display the date or time messages were posted, select the appropriate option from the View drop-down list:
    • Time Only,
    • Date and Time,
    • Date Only,
    • Neither Date nor Time,
    • ID Only.
  3. If you have permission to change how many messages you see, you may select one of the following options from the View messages from... drop-down list:
    • Last 1000 messages,
    • Last 10 messages,
    • Past 3 days,
    • Show no message history. If you choose Show no message history, you will see only messages posted after you made this selection.
  4. Messages appear in chronological order, with the most recent at the bottom. Messages will always identify the sender.
  5. To see who is presently in the room, look under Users in Chat on the right side of the screen.

Note: A site administrator can select a different number of messages or days to display, up to a maximum of 1000 messages.  If the number of messages or days have been changed for a specific chat room, options with numbers other than Last 10 messages or Past 3 days may be available.

Post a message.

  1. In the Enter chat message box, type your message.
  2. Hit Enter (on a keyboard) or select the Add message button to post the message.
  3. To discard a message that you have not sent yet, select Clear.

Delete a message.

Select the trash can icon (Delete this message).

To delete a Chat message, select the trash can (Delete this message) icon next to the posting.

Note: If a trash can (Delete this message) icon is not available for a message, you do not have permission to delete it.

Confirm the deletion.

On the Deleting chat message screen, select Delete to confirm the removal of the message.