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 categories 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 category' from the pop-up menu

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

Step 3
enter a name for the new category 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 groups as you like for maximum flexibility.

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

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

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

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

Step 3
select the category to move the nickname into

Pals from other IM services can also be moved into any category.
see adding pals from other IM services

note:  you can only place a pal in one category - pals cannot be duplicated in multiple categories

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 - a USB memory stick or a floppy disc will do just fine

Step 4
insert your USB memory stick or floppy disc into the computer 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 floppy into the '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 category of pals with a blast IM
A 'blast IM' will send a message to everyone in a selected buddy group.
see blast IM