Chat, Email, Interact with all your contacts on a single window

We all use multiple IM’s like GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, AIM etc. As well as we also use multiple social networks like Twitter , Facebook etc to communicate with friends & co-worker or like-minded people. All of us have so far used many specially dedicated clients to handle them separately. Let me show you how to use them all in one place.

Digsby is one such client that lets you handle all the IM’s as well as all the social networks at one single window. Not only these it also lets you add all your email accounts at one place & check all your mails simultaneously. Follow the steps below to get your job done.

1. Download & Install Digsby on your machine.

2. After installation you’ll need to signup for a Digsby account.

3. Now start Digsby, put in the username & password & then log in.

4. Now lets start with the setup process.

• Adding your Instant messengers : Go to Tools > Preferences. Click the button shown in the image below & select the type of IM interface you want to add. Now fill up the details. After adding it, check the box to the left of it. This will make this IM to be logged in whenever you login to your Digsby from the next time. You can possibly add all types of IM interface here which includes Gtalk,Yahoo Messenger,MSN,AIM,ICQ,Jabber & even the Facebook chat and Myspace IM. Go on adding as many as you like. And the good news is that, it can handle multiple instances of the same kind. After you are finished press “Done” button at the bottom right corner.
• Adding your Email Accounts : Go to Tools > Preferences. Click the particular button(refer image below) & select the kind of email account you want to add. Now fill up the details. After adding it, check the box to the left of it. This will make this email account auto-loaded whenever you login to your Digsby from now on. The types of email accounts that you can add includes Gmail, Yahoo Mail,Hotmail,AOL/AIM Mail & also the IMAP/POP Email. Go on adding as many as you like. In this case also, you can add multiple instances of the same kind. After you are finished press “Done” button at the bottom right corner.
  
• Adding your Social Networks : Go to Tools > Preferences. Do same as the previous two are described. Nothing to say much. This supports social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn & Myspace.
• Play around with all others : Other than the above settings you can play around with minor configuration changes in the other parts. There are multiple options in the left pane(of the preference window) like General & Profile, Skins, Buddy List, Conversations, File Transfers, Status, Privacy, Notifications, Widgets & Research Module. All of these are set to a default settings that just works fine with all. Though altering those may optimize the Digsby experience for you. I will cover some of them in my later posts as this is beyond the context of  this article.

5. Some other Cool features that Digsby offers are : Hover the mouse on any contact, you will get many other options other than chatting with him/her.

• File Transfers : This is a very neat feature that lets you send files directly to your contacts from the IM window.
• Chat History : As seen in the image, Digsby keeps all the logs of past chats for future use. Refer the screenshots to use it.
  
• Invisible Status : Unlike GTalk, Digsby offers you to be invisible to all your online contacts present on all your IMs(that you have added earlier). Go to Digsby > My Status and select the status. Keep hiding.
  
• Emailing From the IM window : It also provides an option of emailing your contact right from the IM window. So you do not need to open your browser again.
• Yet more : Reading your emails, Tweets & Facebook updates and also updating your Facebook & Twitter status etc to name a few. Do all these right from the Digsby window.

Well I hope you are convinced enough to use this for yourself. The best part of all the above things are free i.e Digsby is a free tool to use. Put your comments while enjoying this great tool.