Our Yahoo chat!

With Frank Knight(FrankJ)

Hi All,

Marilyn has asked me to put together some information on how to get started with Yahoo! Messenger (YM). We can use YM as a supplement or replacement for the e-Row chat function. When there are a lot of rowers or problems with the e-Row server YM would be the perfect place to meet. What I will try to do here is give you a step-by-step procedure on how to install YM and do the initial tailoring.

The place to start is yahoo.com. You should see a web page that looks like this:

On the top line to the right of Yahoo click on the Messenger link. You should then see:

On this page follow the ‘Get it now’ link in the middle right. That will take you to a page that will automatically start the install. The first page of the installation is a welcome message so click next and you will see this page with Install Options. I chose ‘Install Yahoo! Messenger only’ and unchecked the ‘home page’ option otherwise you would be surprised to find out that Yahoo is your browser’s new home page.

Click next here and follow the prompts to finish the install on your PC. When the installation finishes YM will start for the first time and you will see these 2 windows open on your PC.

There are several ways to create an ID but I will show you how I do it. First I ignore the ‘Yahoo! Messenger Tour’ window and click the ‘Get a Yahoo! ID’ in the smaller YM window. You should see a new window open that asks you for name, zip code and other personal information. Then next screen will look like the one below:

Yahoo suggests several Ids but we are creating an ID here that starts with supercanoa. We are suggesting one of two formats:

supercanoaname or supercanoa_name

The second format with the ‘_’ has an unusual problem in that it seems to take days to get listed in the member directory should you choose to take that option. Note I also have ‘Remember my ID and Password’ checked which you may not want to do if you share this PC. You should be able to fill in the other screens on your own but I would like to point out one more item on this screen:

Again if you don’t uncheck the box you will find the Yahoo is now your browser’s home page. Click finish and you should see this:

Click the ‘Login’ button and you will be in YM. From the Login menu select ‘My Profiles’ as in the next picture:

Clicking ‘My Profiles’ will open this window:

On this window click on ‘Create/Edit My Profiles’ which will open a window that asks a question. I uncheck the box and click no. You can chose whatever option you want but I would suggest unchecking the box so you are not asked the question again.

You should then see the following page in your browser:

On this screen you are given the option of editing the profile that we just created. Click the edit button and you will be taken to the following page:

Here we see a display of what the public will see when they select our profile. One more selection to make and that is the ‘Edit Profile Information’ button. Click that and you will be taken to this page:

Actually this is the bottom of the page. I have scrolled down and checked the ‘Directory Listing’ box. With this box checked your ID will be added to the member directory and others can find you by searching on your ID. If you don’t check this box your ID will not show up in a search. Note also as I said above if you have an ‘_’ in your ID it will take one or two days to show up in a search.

That should be enough info to get you started. If you have any questions or problems look for me on YM my ID is supercanoafrankj.

Keep on rowing,

Frank