Hi Carol Once you get as far as getting your passport, you may find the following notes regarding using Messenger helpful which I think I adapted a while ago from the JFW Lite web page. MSN MESSENGER OR WINDOWS MESSENGER Although the following refers to MSN Messenger, it is applicable to Windows Messenger in XP. The first thing you need to do in order to use Messenger is to get a passport. Hotmail addresses already work as a passport by default. If you want to use your own email address, go to http://register.passport.net to get a passport. You will need to verify your email address. To verify your email address, an email will arrive with a link in it that you enter on and then you have to enter some information and follow the steps. Next install Messenger. You can download it by going to http://messenger.msn.com/ If you are using Windows XP, it already comes installed with Windows Messenger, so you don't need to install it. When it is finished installing, press insert f11, and you should find MSN Messenger not signed in listed in your system tray list. Hit enter on MSN Messenger and arrow down on the context menu to sign in and enter. Once you have signed in, you need to set up Messenger for best performance with Jaws. First, you need to change the way that MSN Messenger sorts contacts, and then you need to make some changes to the appearance of the conversation window. To change how MSN sorts contacts: 1. When in the main MSN window, hit alt t for tools, and then c. This will open the sort contacts by sub menu. 2. Arrow down to online/offline and press enter. The first time you have a conversation with someone, to remove the tool bar and side bar from the conversation windows, and disable emoticons: 1. Open any conversation window. 2. Press alt v, and arrow down until it says enable emoticons. If it says checked, press enter to uncheck it. 3. Re-enter the view menu, and arrow down until you see show toolbar. Press enter if it is checked. 4. Re-enter the view menu and arrow down until it says show sidebar. Press enter if it is checked. You should only have to do this once, but there is a slight possibility that you will have to do it twice. After that, the settings should remain as you set them. Next here is a quick overview of the changes you might need to make in the options. Press alt T for tools, O for options. On the personal page, you can type in a screen name as you want other users to see it. Also tab to show graphical emoticons and uncheck it. Control tab to the preferences page and if you don't want MSN to start automatically with Windows, uncheck the box for run this program when windows starts. (Note, also if you use OE, go to your tools menu in OE and then options and tab to automatically log onto Windows messenger and uncheck it.) On the preferences page leave the alert checkboxes checked as they are for sound notifications. Enter on okay to close the dialog. Now that you have MSN set up, to add a contact, press alt T for tools, and enter on add a contact. Leave the radio button selected for by email address and enter on next and enter the person's MSN contact address. To send a message to a contact, you can hit enter on the contacts name in the main messenger window. You can save your conversation by going to the files menu with alt f, then press A, then a standard save dialog appears. The conversations will be saved as a text file. To leave a conversation hit escape. To start a voice chat with a contact, press the windows application key while focused on the contact name and choose start a voice conversation from the context menu. I recommend you go to the tools menu and run the audio tuning wizard first before you try to voice chat with someone. You can also start a voice chat from a conversation window by pressing alt A for the actions menu and enter on start talking. Once they accept your invitation to voice chat you can just start speaking into your microphone. To send a file, press the windows application key while focused on the contact name and enter on send a file from the context menu. You can also send a file from a conversation window by pressing alt A for the actions menu and enter on send a file. A standard open dialog will come up for you to locate your file. As well, if someone sends you a file, it will be placed in c:\my documents\messenger service received files or c:\my documents\my received files. You can block or unblock a sender by focusing on the contact name and then pressing the application key and arrow down to block or unblock. If you want to find out who a contact might be, hit alt enter on their name and use the JAWS cursor to read their email address. To change your status, tab to where it says my status and your name in the main messenger window and press the application key and enter on the status you wish to be seen by others. If you use Jaws 4.50, it will already come with some excellent scripts that will automatically read incoming messages to you, alert you when contacts come online and notify you of who is sending you a message. The messages will be placed on the task bar and you can alt tab to the conversation when you are notified that someone has sent you a message. Reading Messages When the conversation window is maximized, JAWS automatically reads incoming messages. JAWS automatically maximizes the message window as soon as it is opened. JAWS also provides commands that allow you to read previous messages. For more information about these commands, refer to JAWS Commands for MSN Instant Messenger. MSN Messenger Notifications MSN Messenger displays notification messages to indicate when a contact has signed on and to inform you when a new HotMail email message has been received. JAWS reads these notifications when they appear, even if you are working in another application. To hear the name of the contact who signed in most recently, press ALT+SHIFT+F12. JAWS says, "X signed in at y," with y being the time the contact signed in. If you are working in another window, MSN plays a sound to alert you that someone is sending you an instant message. To switch to this "urgent conversation," press CTRL+SHIFT+DASH. JAWS reads the most recent message in the conversation window. Typing Notification When a conversation window is maximized, a clicking sound is heard while the contact is typing. To toggle this sound, press CTRL+SHIFT+F12. JAWS can also announce when the contact is typing a message. To toggle the status of this announcement, press ALT+CTRL+F12. If typing sounder and announcement are disabled, press F12 to check the typing status. If the contact is typing a message, a single click sounds. Channels Channels allow you to move quickly to a conversation window from any other open window, including the windows for other applications. To assign a conversation to a channel, press CTRL+1 through 5. To move to a channel which has been assigned, press CTRL+SHIFT+1 through 5. Emoticons Emoticons are combinations of characters that resemble graphics when rotated. JAWS provides a list of common emoticons for use with MSN messenger. JAWS also uses this list to interpret emoticons in the message window and reads them as part of the incoming message. To open the list of emoticons, press CTRL+SHIFT+M. To move through the list, press UP or DOWN ARROW. To insert the selected emoticon into your conversation, press ENTER. VOICE CONVERSATIONS To start a voice conversation, from within the main message window, tab to the button labelled Start a Voice Conversation. Brian Hartgen ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq