Personalizing Your IM Conversations
| Changing Font and Color | Using Emoticons | Using Audibles | Using Buzz |
Changing Font and Color
Brighten up your instant messages by using Messenger’s formatting tools. Not only will you enjoy the different look, so will your contacts. Whatever font changes you make in your conversation windows, your Messenger contacts see in their windows (if they allow your font changes to appear in their windows). You can change the font for all of your conversations, or you can change the font for individual conversations that you have going.
Tip: Font changes aren’t visible when you converse with contacts outside the Yahoo! network, such as your Windows Live™ Messenger contacts and your Pingbox™ visitors.
Here’s How
To change the text and color in all conversations:
Open the Preferences window by selecting Preferences from the Messenger menu in your Messenger window or from the Conversation menu in your conversation window.
On the left side of the window, select the Appearance category.
On the right side of the window, click the Change Fonts & Colors button.
The Message Text Style window opens.
Change the style settings you prefer, then click the OK button.
All conversations that occur after you click OK use the new style settings, unless you change the text in a specific conversation.
Tip: These text changes don’t affect conversation windows opened before you made the changes.
To change the text and color in a specific conversation:
Just above the input area in your conversation window, click the format button to display the formatting tools.
Note: The formatting tools aren’t available when you’re conversing with a Windows Live™ Messenger contact.
The formatting tools open above the format button.
Use the format tools to make text style changes.
These changes affect this window only. The text in any other open conversation windows remains unchanged.
Tip: Similar to a text editor, font changes made using the format tools apply to text typed after the change. To change existing text that hasn’t been sent, select it, and then apply the new formats.
What’s Next: Control how your conversation window behaves when your contacts change their fonts and colors
By default, Messenger allows text changes made by other contacts to appear in your conversation windows. You can control this through the Preferences.
Open the Preferences window, and select the Appearance category. (Remind me how.)
In the section titled When other people customize their fonts and colors check Always use my fonts and colors to use your font and color settings for all sent and received messages, regardless of what your contacts have specified.
Words to Know
- Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
- Instant messaging: the ability to exchange messages in real time with other people over the Internet.
- Pingbox: an embedded box on a Web page where visitors to the page can send you instant messages and which lists visitors on your Messenger List.
- Windows Live™ Messenger: Microsoft® Windows’ free instant messaging application.