A quick guide to Parmesan

The MSN Messenger service lets you learn about the presence of other people on the Internet and communicate with them in real-time. This is known as Instant Messaging.

Once you've signed up, you can subscribe to the presence of other users to see when they are online, and similarly set your own online status for them to see. There is a set of online states you can choose from - most are fairly straightforward, but two benefit from further explanation:

Idle - this is the state set automatically when the computer is unused for some time, but this isn't yet implemented in Parmesan. The Official Client displays this state as "Away", and users of this can't tell between the two.

Hidden - you appear as offline to other users, but you can still see their online status updates. You cannot send or receive instant messages while hidden.

As well as your status, you can choose a name that other people will see, a personal message shown alongside your name in the status window, and optionally a picture to represent you.

When you have set your own status, you can start conversations with other users, either as a two-way chat or a group conversation with up to 15 people. Messages can include picture emoticons (smileys) - a set of built-in emoticons is supplied, and you can add your own custom pictures (including animations) as well.

Using Parmesan

With the basics of what it does out of the way, we can look at how to use Parmesan.

Signing in

Once run, Parmesan will install an icon on the iconbar, with different pictures to show what your online status is set to. Initially it is grey to show that you are not connected to the MSN Messenger service. SELECT click on this icon opens the connect window, where you enter your Hotmail / Passport / Windows Live login details and the online status to show when first connected - then click Connect to sign in to the Messenger service. Parmesan remembers your details, and an ADJUST click on the iconbar will automatically sign in with the last account used. If you don't yet have an account, you can get one at http://register.passport.com/ (you need to use a capable browser, such as Firefox).

The contact window

The main window shown when logged in is the Friends window. Here you can see all the users whose presence you are subscribed to, and you can also change your own display name and online state.

Changing your own status

You can change your own display name and personal message by Alt-clicking on the relevant text at the top of the window (alternatively you can use the Server Settings option of the window menu). Clicking your online status in the main window display, or on the menu icon at the top of the window, opens a menu where you can set your online status.

Changing your display picture

SELECT click on your display picture in the friends window to choose a new picture. Parmesan comes with one default picture, called Default, or you can choose not to have a picture at all by selecting (None) - the picture then shown is displayed by Parmesan for any user who doesn't have a picture.

To add a new picture click on "Install new" and drag a PNG image onto the install window. Parmesan can't yet help you create these pictures so you'll have to use other programs to do that, for example Darren Salt's Spr2Png. Choose a name for the picture and click install - the image will be copied (you can delete the original) and selected as your current picture.

Adding a new user

Click the Add button at the top of the friends window, type their MSN account name (email address) and click Add.

Interacting with other users

To open a chat window with a contact, double-click on their name or select Chat from the window menu - if there is already an open conversation with that person, it will be brought to the front. If the contact is Offline, Parmesan will instead launch an email to their login email address.

Contacts can also be blocked and unblocked from the window menu. When you block a contact, you will appear to be offline to them and they will not be able to send you messages (you can still send them messages). There is no way you can tell if another contact has blocked you (unless a mutual friend dobs you in!)

The chat window

Nothing much to say about the chat window really - type in the bottom, messages appear in the top. Press Return or click Send to send messages - to insert an actual return character (to send multi-line messages) press shift+Return. Resize the window by dragging any border area. You can drag files into the text entry box to enter the contents as a message. Dragging a file to the top part of the window will send the file to the other person in the chat (see File transfer below). Drag other users from the friends window onto the chat window to start a group conversation.

Attached to the chat window is a tool pane showing the other contact's display picture, or a 'group' picture if more than two people are present. Underneath this are two buttons: the left-hand one opens the Emoticons window (see later), the other sends a nudge.

Other settings

There are two privacy settings stored on the MSN server which can be set by choosing the Server settings option from the friends window menu.

Block messages from users not in your contact list
When you add a user to your friends list, they are also added to your Allow list or your Block list. Any user who appears on neither list (and therefore must not have been added to your friends list) uses this setting, which either blocks them (when ticked) or allows them (otherwise).
Ask before adding users to your allow list
When another user adds you to their friends list, they can be added automatically to your Allow list (not ticked) or Parmesan will ask you whether you would rather block them (ticked).

Emoticons

Picture emoticons are sent in messages by typing their keyboard shortcut in the message. MSN clients come with a set of standard emoticons which can also be used in your personal message. You can also add custom pictures to be used as emoticons - click on the smiley face on the chat window toolbox (or ADJUST click on your display picture in the friends window) to open the emoticons window. From here you can drag a PNG or GIF image into the window to install it as a new emoticon. Give the image a description (this isn't used yet, but it will be) and a keyboard shortcut to use to send it. The image will be copied so you can delete the original, and thereafter typing your chosen keyboard shortcut will replace the text with your picture.

You can also install custom emoticons sent to you by another person: click MENU over the emoticon you want to install, and select "Borrow" emoticon, where the install emoticon window appears as normal.

Clicking SELECT on any of the emoticons in this window "types" the corresponding keyboard shortcut into the window with the input focus.

Removing or editing the installed emoticons isn't implemented yet. Sorry.

File transfer

You can send and receive files using the MSN Messenger service. To send a file to a contact, simply open a chat window with that person and drag the file into the message display (not the text entry part). A suitable DOS style extension will be added to the filename if necessary, and file transfer will start once the other person accepts the file.

When someone wants to send a file to you, a file transfer box appears in a chat window. This has some information about the transfer, and a picture of the file (some clients can send a preview of picture files with the transfer). You can accept the transfer either by clicking on the Accept button, where the file is transferred to a temporary location, or you can drag the picture to a directory viewer to save it there.

You can follow the progress of the transfer in the chat window with the progress bar and byte count, and you can cancel the transfer at any time.

Advanced customisation

Parmesan's graphical display is based entirely on XML and CSS, so if you know how to use CSS, you can configure the look of the application. The default stylesheets are fully cascaded with any found in the Choices directory with the latter taking priority, so you can tweak the bits you want to and leave others unchanged (this also ensures your changes aren't lost and don't conflict with the defaults if you later upgrade the Parmesan application). The default CSS files are stored inside the application in a directory called 'Styles' and you can use these as a reference - to create a new look, make a new CSS file with the same name as the one you want to modify in the directory Choices:Parmesan.Styles.name.

To see the XML that is being styled by the CSS, click on any display while holding both shift keys - a save box appears where you can save the XML document. Holding Control as well saves a DrawFile document of the current layout.

Licence

Parmesan is Copyright © 2005-2007 Christian Ludlam, and is released as FREEWARE. You may distribute copies provided that

Parmesan is supplied "as is". Neither Christian Ludlam nor any distributor or developer make any warranty, whether express or implied, as to the merchantability of this software or its fitness for any particular purpose. In no circumstances shall Christian Ludlam or any distributor or developer be liable for any damage, loss of profits or for any indirect or consequential loss arising out of anybody's use of this software, or inability to use the software, even if Christian Ludlam or any distributor or developer had been advised of the possibility of such loss.

The !System directory in the download archive contains software produced by third parties. Their licences are provided in the Licences directory.