Buddy Groups

Paltalk allows you to easily keep track of which of your pals are online.  It uses the concept of a buddy list or 'pal list'.

You add people to your 'pal list' once, and from that point on you can be automatically notified whenever they come online or go offline.

You can quickly wind up with a huge list of pals that are difficult to manage.  Because of this you will want a way to group your pals by category, and send messages to the entire 'group' of pals in that category.  Buddy groups let you do all this.

Creating buddy groups for your pals
To get started creating categories...

Step 1
right click on the word 'pals' (on the top of your pal list)

Step 2
select 'create buddy group' from the pop-up menu

A small window appears that allows you to enter the new category name.  You may want to create buddy groups called 'my room admins', 'friends', 'family', 'co-workers', 'customers', 'students', etc.

Step 3
enter a name for the new buddy group into the create category window

Step 4
press the 'save' button to create the category
press the 'cancel' if you do not wish to create a new category at this time

You can create as many buddy groups as you like for maximum flexibility.

You can right click on any buddy group name and rename or delete, or create a new buddy group.

Moving pals into buddy groups
Once you have created buddy groups you will want to be able to move your existing pals into them with ease.  To move pals into buddy groups....

Step 1
'right click' on any nickname on your pal list

Step 2
select 'move to buddy goup' from the pop-up menu

Step 3
select the buddy group to move the nickname into

Pals from other IM services can also be moved into any buddy group.
see adding pals from other IM programs

note:  you can only place a pal in one buddy group - pals cannot be duplicated in multiple buddy groups

buddy group configuration files
Buddy group configuration is not stored on the paltalk servers.  If you use different computers you may wish to copy your buddy group configuration to all of your machines.  To do this you must copy a small folder that contains information about your Paltalk user names and buddy group configuration.

Step 1
open windows explorer

Step 2
locate C:/ Documents and Settings / %your user name% / Application Data / Paltalk / Groups

Step 3
copy the groups folder and save it elsewhere - on your computer hardrive or USB memory stick

Step 4
insert your USB memory stick or where you wish to duplicate your buddy group configuration to

Step 5
open windows explorer on the machine you are copying the configuration files to

Step 6
locate C:/ Documents and Settings / %your user name% / Application Data / Paltalk

Step 7
copy the groups folder from your memory stick or wherever located on your hardrive into 'paltalk' folder

note:  this method copies all buddy group configuration files for all of your paltalk user names from the first machine to the second machine - you can use this method to copy individual buddy group files for individual paltalk user names by 'drilling down' into the 'groups' folder

Messaging the entire buddy group with a blast IM
A 'blast IM' will send a message to everyone in a selected buddy group.
see blast IM