The following recommendations are based on personal usage, and are
listed only where different from the default preferences.
They are grouped in the same order as Trillian groups its
preferences.
Recommend obtaining instant messenger IDs for AIM and/or MSN as
both allow file transfers. Yahoo does not, and ICQ does not,
so they are less functional. Use them if you wish to
communicate with others that use them. IRC is quite different
in concept than the others, so avoiding it avoids a learning
curve.
If you have other IM clients installed, it is probably appropriate
to turn them off. Before exiting them, change their
preferences or options so that they are not even started when
Windows restarts. At least AIM and MSN (even the one built in
to WinXP) have such an option.
To get to the Trillian preferences page, first make sure Trillian
is running (If the Trillian icon is in the system tray, it is
running. If it is not, it can be started from the Windows
Start Menu.... Start / (All) Programs / Trillian). Right
click the Trillian icon in the system tray, and choose Trillian
Preferences. The preferences are organized into pages, each
has an icon in the opening screen. But once you click the
first icon, the collection of pages (except advanced preferences)
is then listed down the left-hand side of the Preferences window
for easy accoss. Do not click the Close button until you have
altered all the pages of preferences. An alternate way to the
preferences is via the buddy list window. The Trillian menu
there contains an entry for Trillian Preferences.
After you set most of the prefences, then you can return to the
Preferences Home, and select Advanced Preferences, and adjust those
settings also.
Each page is listed below,
and my recommendations are that all the items listed below should
be checked, and all the other items unchecked. For items that
are not check boxes, only the items that should be changed from the
defaults are mentioned. Other non-checkbox items should be
left at the original setting.
There is no requirement that you slavishly follow every
recommendation--but these are the ones that work best for me.
Installation & Startup
Show Trillian in start menu
Check for software updates
Connections
Each connection that you create, if you select it in this list, has
a Change button available. Depending on the type of
connection, the settings vary. The per connection settings
are shown below, under IM
services recommendations. If you have more than one ID on a
service, note that you can "Export settings to all <that type
of> accounts"... however, this seems to only set the defaults
for new accounts rather than being applied to all existing
accounts. In any event, the settings for each account should
be verified individually, because I have encountered cases where
the "Export..." feature does not adjust all the settings for all
accounts for all tabs.
Away Mode
Set me back when I send an instant messages
if Trillian was set away automatically (idle, screensaver,...)
You may wish to add a number of Away messages to deal with various
situations.
My Identity Information
This is subdivided:
Basic Information
Choose an appropriate display
name. It only applies to some services, not all.
My Icon
Choose an icon. Change it
occasionally as you wish. You can use any 48x48 pixel JPG
file, stripped of extraneous information added by some programs
such as Adobe Photoshop which bulk up the size of the file.
This only applies to some services.
Contact List
Categorize offline contacts
Show secondary status icons
Display recently online and offline icons for
180 seconds (180 gives you a chance to see
them before they disappear, generally. Adjust to suit)
Hide empty groups
Show group counts
Sort contacts by Status
Dock the Contact List when near the edge of the screen
Message Windows
Flash the window 3 times
when a new message or request arrives
Show the window on desktop
Show at the previous location and size
For each type of Window in the Default Appearance section,
choose
Opacity 90%
Notifications
Play sounds
Play sounds for incoming requests only when window is out of
focus
A contact signs on
A contact signs off
Show 12 windows at maximum
Text Conversations
Display Timestamps
Show Emoticons within messages
Play Emotisounds when messages contain them
Scale Emoticons to match font size
Scale images into Text Display area
Open links in a new browser window
Audio
<no changes>
File Transfers
Save files to... Browse to a handy location, such as "My
Documents\IM files" (possibly creating such a folder). Make
it easy to find. Be cognizant of backup procedures, and
whether or not you wish to create the folder somewhere that does
get backed up, or does not. Be aware that if people IM files
to you, that they might be large.
Create folder based on sender's name
Users on Contact list: Select: always
Show "Send File" menu in Windows Explorer
Activity History
Contacts
Conferences
Connections
Text Conversations
Icon Changes
Skins
<no changes>
Plugins
<no changes> You can enable and disable installed
plugins from this screen, if you purchase Trillian Pro, and have
the ability to install additional plugins.
Advanced Preferences
Shared Trillian
If you have multiple people using the same computer, but want to
have separate Trillian IDs, set that up here.
Automation
This section is a bit different than the others. For the
predefined events, I recommend turning off the outbound message
sounds (looks like ).
If you wish to have unique
sounds for particular buddies when they sign on, you need
to click Add for each such buddy, and fill out the new event
form. Here is an example form for that purpose. The
added entry will be added to the event list in this category, and
can be enabled and disabled with the checkbox.
The Automation interface has lots of event types and events
defined, and you can do many other things with it.
Buddy Icons (n.b. Haven't found a setting for this in Trillian
3. Used to be one in Trillian 0.74i and at least some prior
versions)
Users on Contact List: always
IM Services
Recommendations
AIM
Connection
Reconnect on disconnection
Save passwords
Attempt to reconnect 1234567890 times
Privacy
Allow all users to contact me
... how long I've been idle
... that I am typing a response
Direct IM
For users on my contact list: Allow
For users not on my contact list: Display Approve Dialog
Chat
Show announcements when users enter and leave room
Miscellaneous
Show contact status updates in connection status window
Dim contacts after they have been idle
15 minutes.
Activate SecureIM Capabilities
ICQ
Connection
Reconnect on disconnection
Save passwords
Attempt to reconnect 1234567890 times
Miscellaneous
Show contact status updates in connection status window
Print warning when speaking with users of older protocols
Use dynamically allocated port numbers
Activate SecureIM Capabilities
MSN
Connection
Reconnect on disconnection
Save passwords
Attempt to reconnect 1234567890 times
Privacy
Alert me when other users add me to their contact list
Misc
Show contact status updates in connection status window
Yahoo!
Connection
Reconnect on disconnection
Save passwords
Attempt to reconnect 1234567890 times
Misc
Show contact status updates in connection status window
IRC
<I have no recommendations for IRC. It is quite different
than other IM services.>
).
sounds for particular buddies when they sign on, you need
to click Add for each such buddy, and fill out the new event
form. Here is an example form for that purpose. The
added entry will be added to the event list in this category, and
can be enabled and disabled with the checkbox.