Chatting in a chat workspace

You can hold ad hoc chatting sessions with your Groove contacts by creating a "chat workspace". A chat workspace is like any other standard workspace except that it only includes features for chatting, and ends when you close it.

You can start a new chat anywhere in Groove you see a list of contact names (for example, the Contacts panel in the Launchbar or the Workspace Members panel for a workspace). Right-click one or more contacts and select Invite to New Chat. Invitations to the chat are sent immediately and the chat opens on your desktop.

If you want to invite people to chat whom you don't have in a contact list, you can create a chat invitation and search directories for contacts:

Select Options - New Chat... to open the Send Chat Invitation dialog box.
Select options in the invitation dialog box the same way you would for inviting people to a workspace.
Click Invite.

Groove creates and opens the new chat, and sends the chat invitations.

Using a chat workspace

The features in a chat are much the same as those for chatting in a workspace. There is one important exception: Alerts are not supported in a Chat workspace.

Note that closing a chat ends your participation in it (unless another member of the chat re-invites you). If you want, you can save a chat as a workspace as described in the next section.

Chat workspace compatibility details

If you're interacting with Groove users who haven't yet upgraded to Groove version 3.0, note the following compatibility details:

If one or more people you initially invite to a chat workspace are running Groove 2.x, the chat workspace will use Groove 2.x workspace components, for compatibility purposes. If you later save the chat workspace as a standard workspace, Groove 2.5 tools will be added to workspace.
If all people you initially invite to a chat workspace are running Groove 3.0 or later, the chat workspace will use Groove 3.0 workspace components. If you later save the chat workspace as a standard workspace, Groove 3.0 tools will be added to workspace. However, if you subsequently try to invite a Groove 2.5 user to this chat space, that user will be prompted to upgrade Groove before accepting the invitation.

Tip: If you want to invite a Groove 2.5 user to an existing Groove 3.0 version chat workspace, and not force that user to upgrade, start a new chat workspace and include the Groove 2.5 user with the initial invitation. If you want to retain the chat transcript from the original chat, you can copy and paste it into the new chat as a new chat entry.

Saving a chat as standard workspace

Only members assigned the manager role in a chat workspace can save the chat as a standard workspace.

To save a chat as a workspace, select File - Save as Workspace. The chat opens in a standard workspace window with all entries retained, and with a Files and a Discussion tool. All other members in the chat see a notification telling them that the chat has been saved as a workspace, though they can continue using the same chat window. However, you and other members will now see the new workspace in the Workspaces panel of the Launchbar and the Workspace List.