Create and manage chat rooms

You can create chat rooms in Group Chat if you have been granted permissions by the support team. When you create a chat room, you are automatically designated as the chat room manager. This lets you manage all the settings of the chat room.

What do you want to do?

Create a chat room

Manage a chat room

Configure chat room settings

Add or remove chat room members

Add or remove chat room managers

Create auditorium chat rooms

Manage an auditorium chat room

Restrict chat rooms

View chat room details

Create a chat room

To help you create chat rooms, Group Chat provides a Create a Chat Room wizard.

To create a chat room

To create a chat room, do the following:

1. On the File menu, click Create a Chat Room.

2. In the Chat room name box, type a name for the chat room. The name must start with an alphabetical character. It can contain the characters A - Z, 1 - 9, _, and -. It cannot contain spaces.

3. Do one of the following:

   • To set the chat room settings based on an existing chat room, click Use settings similar to this chat room, select the chat room from the drop-down list, and then go to Step 4.

   • To set the attributes based on a particular category, click Use settings from a specific category, and then click Next. In the Categories box, click a category, and then click Next.

4. Type a topic and a description for the chat room (optional), and then click Next.

5. To create the chat room with you as the only member, select Start with only me.

6. To create the chat room based on membership information from the inherited chat room or category, click Include the same members as the category <name>.

7. Click Next. If the chat room is created successfully, it appears in My Chat. Click Next to create another chat room, or click Finish to exit the wizard.

   Note:  If the chat room isn't created, you might not have sufficient permissions to create a chat room with the settings inherited from the chat room or category (on which you have based your chat room). In this case, use a different chat room or category to create the chat room. Contact the support team if you still cannot create a chat room.

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Manage a chat room

You can manage a chat room under these conditions:

• You are a chat room manager. For more information about chat room managers, see Add or remove chat room managers.

• You created the chat room, which makes you a chat room manager by default.

• You have Chat Room administrator permissions, which let you manage any chat room.

If you are the manager of a chat room, the Manage menu appears on the Action menu in the Group Chat window, and the Manage this chat room button appears in the toolbar above the Participant List.

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Configure chat room settings

After you create a chat room, you can edit chat room settings from the Manage Chat Room dialog box.

To edit chat room settings

1. In My Chat, click the chat room that you want to open.

2. Right-click the chat room, click Manage, and then click the Settings tab.

3. To apply and save the settings, click Apply.

Option	Description
Name	The name must start with an alphabetical character. It can contain the characters A - Z, 1 - 9, _, and -. It cannot contain spaces.
Disable this chat room	To deactivate a chat room, click Disabled. Users cannot join a deactivated group chat room, and anyone currently joined (including you) is removed. If you deactivate a chat room by using Group Chat, it can be reactivated only through the Lync 2010 Group Chat Admin Tool.
Description	A description for the Group Chat room. Users can use this description when they search for a chat room to join.
Type	Normal – all members can post to and view the chat room. Auditorium – Only members who are on the chat room's Presenters List can post to the chat room. Non-presenting members can join and view the chat room. However, they cannot post or view other non-presenting members.
Topic	A chat room discussion topic. The topic should be more concise than the chat room description. The topic appears in the chat room header when a member joins the chat room.
Add-in	Select any add-in component from the drop-down list.
Create a new membership list	To override the parent category's members list, select the Create a new membership list check box. The parent category is the category under which the Group Chat room is created. If the parent category's members list is overridden, a new members list is built in the chat room; otherwise, the chat room inherits the category's members list.
Chat room settings
Visibility	If you want the Group Chat room's visibility level to be the same as that of its parent category, in the Visibility list, click Inherit from Parent. To make the chat room visible to all in the scope of the group chat room, in the Visibility list, click Scoped. Group Chat rooms inherit scope from the category to which they belong. Users who are in the scope of a Group Chat room are eligible to become members. To make the chat room visible to members of the group chat room only, in the Visibility list, click Private.
Invitations	In the Invite list, specify whether members receive an invitation to join when they are added to a Group Chat room.
Chat history	In the Chat History list, specify whether message history is kept for the chat rooms.
File uploads	In the File Post list, specify whether members can post files in their messages.
Parent category settings	Identifies the corresponding parent category setting for each chat room setting.

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Add or remove chat room members

Members are users and user groups who can join a chat room.

To add a user or user group to the list of members

1. In My Chat, right-click the chat room, click Manage, and then click the Members tab.

2. To add a member, click Add.

3. In the Search for box, enter the user's first or last name, or e-mail alias, or distribution group alias, and then click Search. User searches within Group Chat can return a maximum of 20 users.

4. In the Results box, click a user or user group, click Add, and then close the Search dialog box.

5. Click Apply.

To remove a user or group from the members list

1. In My Chat, click a chat room.

2. Right-click the chat room, click Manage, and then click the Members tab.

3. Select the user or user group that you want to remove from the members list, and then click Remove. Do this for each user or user group that you want to remove.

4. When you have finished, click Apply.

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Add or remove chat room managers

Use the Chat Room Managers tab to add or remove chat room managers.

To add a user or user group to the managers list

1. In My Chat, right-click the chat room, and then click Manage.

2. Click the Chat Room Managers tab.

3. Click Add.

4. In the Search for box, enter the users first and last name or e-mail address, or enter a group alias name, and then click Search.

5. In the Results box, select the user or user group that you want to add to the managers list, click Add, and close the Search dialog box.

6. Click Apply.

To remove a user or user group from the managers list

1. In My Chat, right-click the chat room, and then click Manage.

2. Click the Chat Room Managers tab.

3. Click the user or user group, and then click Remove.

4. Click Apply.

   Note:  Managers can be removed only at the level at which they were added. For example, if they were added at the category level, you cannot remove them at the chat room level. Managers that appear dimmed on the managers list are inherited from the parent category's managers list. You cannot remove these managers by clicking the Remove button.

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Create auditorium chat rooms

An auditorium chat room is a unique type of chat room. Instead of allowing all members to send messages to the chat room, auditorium chat rooms enable only defined members to send messages. All other members are given read-only permissions in the room. The Behavior setting determines if a chat room is an auditorium chat room.

To create a new auditorium chat room

1. From the File menu, click Create a Chat Room.

2. Select Use settings similar to chat room, and then select the existing auditorium chat room from the drop-down list. Follow the steps in the wizard to continue to create the group chat room.

To turn an existing chat room to an auditorium chat room

1. In My Chat, right-click the chat room, click Manage, and then click the Settings tab.

2. In the Type drop-down list, click Auditorium.

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Manage an auditorium chat room

Auditorium chat rooms have a presenters list which determines who can post messages to the chat room.

To edit the presenters list

1. In My Chat, right-click the chat room, click Manage, and then click the Presenters tab.

2. Click Add.

3. In the Search for box, type search criteria such as the user name, and then click Search.

4. In the Results box, click the user or user group you want to add to the Presenters list, click Add, and close the Search dialog box.

5. Click Apply.

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Restrict chat rooms

Chat rooms can be restricted by using the members, or scope list. If users try to join chat rooms for which they do not have permission, messages notify them that they cannot join. To join the chat room, users must ask a chat room manager to add them to the members list. The Chat Room Details dialog box identifies the chat room managers.

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View chat room details

Details are available for all chat rooms on the system. Information that appears includes the topic, description, the category in which the chat room was created, the chat room managers, and the members list.

To view chat room details of chat rooms of which you are a member

• In My Chat, right-click the chat room, and then click View Details.

To view chat room details of chat rooms of which you are not a member

1. On the File menu, click Join Chat Room. Perform a search for either specific chat rooms, or display a list of all chat rooms on the system. For more information, see "Join Group Chat rooms" in Get started with Group Chat.

   Note:  Managers can be removed only at the level at which they were added. For example, if they were added at the category level, you cannot remove them at the chat room level. Managers that appear dimmed on the managers list are inherited from the parent category's managers list. You cannot remove these managers by clicking the Remove button.

2. In the Join Group Chat Room dialog box, click a chat room, and then click the View Details button.

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