How to browse history. Using the meter object.

To the left bottom of the factCHAT screen, there is a line-meter-type object, that we call the time meter. It shows the time line. The red line, which is static and is always at the center, points to the current moment, that is the time of the current message that is on top in the blackboard. While in edit mode, this would always be the date of the last message received, which would be very close to now. While you keep receiving messages, the meter will change, by moving down - in the meter down is to the past, and up is to the future.

Different areas of the meter are colored in different colors. The white zone means that this time zone is in the current downloaded messages, and the current chat session. The dark gray zone is empty - it is either in the future, or before the creation of the chat-room. The light gray zone means that this part is not downloaded, but contains messages. The dark green zone indicates the downloaded for quick view (see below) messages zone.

The zoom "zoomer" that is at the top of the meter object, is used to determine the zoom of the meter. This means that if it is at it's lowest (1), the less time will be displayed, and the higher - the more. The highest is 8. Experiment to see the difference.

You can directly click/drag on the meter to change the current time. You can freely browse through the white zone (the current chat session). If you attempt to go on a dark gray zone, you wont be allowed to, because there are no messages there. If you go to a light gray zone, the factCHAT will download the messages that are around this time, where you pointed on the meter. After the download is complete, you can see the messages on the blackboard, and the area that is downloaded will be indicated on the meter with dark green color.

While you are browsing the history, you are in view mode. While you are browsing through downloaded messages (the dark green zone), you are in quick view mode.

The more easier and intuitive way is to use the arrow buttons to the right of the meter (the up and down arrow ones). They go one message to the future (up), and one message to the past (down). After you have reached the very first downloaded message, the factCHAT will again start to download messages for the view mode. If you press up, and reach the top (which means reach "now"), you will enter the online/edit mode.

The button at the top of the meter take you to "now" and online/edit mode. Use this button anytime to enter the standard mode and continue chatting. The button at the bottom of the meter take you to the first downloaded message for the current chat session.

The meter object is quite hard to understand and get used to. But after some time of usage, you will know how to make it work the way you want it to. It is strange for instance, that two different messages may be with a gap of one whole day. This means that pressing the up/down buttons will make the meter scroll very much, but you will not even notice it. In most cases, using the up/down buttons is most popular. You will rarely want to drag the meter, or directly click on it. The search is also much easier, when you want to take a look at an old conversation, especially if it was a long time ago (see below)