Welcome to our Chat page- I hope you find the following information helpful.    As the Manager in charge of the Chats, I will be doing my best to assure that chats run smoothly and continue to be interesting, fun, and exciting! If at any time you have questions, problems, or ideas, please feel free to post me through the boards,  or e-mail  me directly at Lisa@thegrandfatherclaus.com    Chat Times-  Dates and times for chats will be announced on the chat message board along with any special information on guests and topics. They will also always be posted on the calendar along with the times for all US time zones.    (Our regular weekly chats will not always be posted) World time zones are available at www.worldtimezones.com for any of our members from around the world.   Times zones are- Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern Topics and Guests-   We really want these chats to be events you can all look forward to participating in. They can and should be a wonderful source for friendship, advice, learning, sharing, and support- not to mention a Santa sack full of fun!   Topics and guests will also be included on the calendar, events page, and of course, frequent reminders on the boards.  We already have some wonderful ideas for guests and just taking all the topics I personally need to learn more about should give us enough to last awhile. Basic Chat "how to" and info.-  Chat rooms are easy to manuever through once you know the basics and get a chance to become familiar with following threads and conversations.   We'll keep it simple here just to get everyone started!  Entering the Chat room The "Enter Chat Room" button at the top of this page will take you directly into the chat room.  Additionally, to the left of your screen you will see a Link for Chat.  Simply click on either link to be taken to the chat room.  You will have to wait a moment while you are connected. Once in the chat room, you will see yourself announced as entering. On the right of the screen you can see how many others are in the room with you. Chatting At the bottom of the chat screen you will see a text area.  Just type whatever you would like to say into that area and hit you "Enter" key, or the "Send" button to the right.  You will see your text added to the main chat screen above as will the whole gang chatting with you. Hitting the "!" key will enter your text on the screen in italics. It just takes some practice to figure out who is talking to whom and about what- everything is a bit delayed since you are waiting for others to think and type. I know you will all get the hang of it.  It can make it easier if you start your entry with the name of the person to whom you are asking a direct question or directing a response.   Don't be concerned about poor spelling, typing mistakes, or lousy grammar! We are here to have fun not be graded (thank heaven!!)  If you type something conpletely unintelligable you may want to re-type and clear it up, if it is just a bit off, don't bother- we will know what you meant and it can get more confusing if everyone keeps re-typing. Sometimes a question can get lost in the shuffle of a busy room- if you asked something and get no response, don't hesitate to ask again. It is also a bit easier for us to get to know one another if you nickname is your actual first name as you like to be called. This can be changed by going to Member Tools, View Your Member Profile, and "Edit my Profile" You will see a coffee cup icon  to the right of your name in the list to the right of the screen.  If you have to step away for a moment (the phone always rings and the dogs always need to go out during a chat- just some extras you should know!) just click on the coffee cup icon and you will see that you are marked as being away.   Use this to let other chatters know you will not be responding but will be back! To leave the chat, just close the page by any of the following- Back Button "X" in upper right by clicking on another page at left sign out of MSN etc... Common Problems-  Chat does not currently support NetScape 6.x or Macintosh.  So if this is the Browser you normally use, you will have problems getting into the chat room and participating.  If you have a second Browser, log onto SantaMakers using that alternative. (i.e. Microsoft Explorer) Security Settings can be set so high that you are unable to get into the chat room as well.  If this is the case, you will have to "play" with the settings to get them low enough to allow chatting. The problems are most often with settings pertaining to JAVA script. There are several other known issues that can affet you ability to log into the chat room.  I have included a site page with the instructions as given by MSN Groups support techs. on resolving them. Please follow the link below or the link at the left to access the page.  MSN Instruction to resolve entry problems   Chat Room Options- Below the Enter text box is a link to your Chat room options.  Here you can choose the Font, Script, Style, and Color that your text is displayed in. Changing these settings and trying to have a good variety will help us all to follow the conversation a bit more easily. You can also select settings for what is displayed on your personal chat screen and if and how you want to be notified of various chat events. Advanced Chatting-   Once you have the basics of chat down, you may want to experiment with some of the more advanced options to get the full scope of the chat experience! Tagging-   if the chat room is crowded (I hope!!!) you can "tag" the entries of specific chatters to key in on their entries.  To do so,  Right click on their name in the list on the upper right. Once they are highlighted, click the check mark below the list.  When that participant places and entry, you will see the entry check marked in your conversation pain. To Tag more than one person, hold down the CTRL key and click each nickname, then the check mark. To Un-tag someone, repeat the same steps. Whispering-  This allows you to have a private conversation with select chatters apart from the group chat.  This is helpful if you notice that the topic only seems to interest specific chatters and can clear up some confusion in a large group chat.  To keep anyone from feeling excluded, you may want to announce a private chat on a topic and ask anyone who would like to participate to let you know. Click on the names in the member list on the top right  (again using CTRL to select multiple names) Once you have the names highlighted, click on the text bubble icon below the list. A seperate conversation pain will open for those selected.     PLEASE Read BEFORE entering a Guest Chat Following are the guidelines for our guest chats.  These guidelines are an effort to assure that the chats run smoothly, cover as much information as we can,  get questions answered from all our members (even those who can not participate directly)  and not crash the boards in the process!                            Thanks in advance for your help and adherance. Chat rooms do not support Macintosh computers of Netscape 6.0 If you are running on either, please do not attempt to enter the chat room. I will be presenting your questions (those pre-posted on the message boards) to guests in a pre-determined order of topics. To post a follow-up question you will "whisper" the question to me.  This is done by double clicking on my name to the right of the dialog pane- a new window will open and you will type your question into that new text area.  This will keep guests from being over run by many questions all at once as well as duplicates. I will try to make sure as many of the questions as possible get posted to the chat- however, we will be limiting each topic to a set time limit so I am sure we will not get to all of them.  Most guest agree to allow these questions to be e-mailed to them and will answer any we miss- these follow ups will be posted to the boards. Any questions asked that are not whispered to me first will not be answered- without this there would be no chance of staying on track and again, the goal is to learn as much from our guests as we can! While you are not going to be posting questions,  it is a chat after all, and you are encouraged to be chatty!  Please feel free to post comments and information you feel is in keeping with the current thread.  Ohhs, ahhs, thanks, and even anecdotes and observations- just not questions.  We want our guests to know you're out there and into it.   See, that's it-  not to many rules at all- Now, join us in the chat room and I hope you all have a wonderful time- See you in there!  Lisa          That should do it for now.  I will be updating this page as need arises and as I receive input from all of you.  Please help to make the chats a big success- one of the best ways to do so is to share your ideas  and suggestions with us as well as your special talents.  If there is an area of Santa making, design, or media that you are especially gifted in, please let me know!      Contact me at Lisa@thegrandfatherclaus.com anytime.   Thanks!