SkyHistory User Manual

1. Button Bar
2. User pane
3. Calendar pane
4. Bookmarks pane
5. History Window
6. Search/Filter
7. Status bar

Navigation Panes

Users

The window contains the imported Skype user contacts that are divided into 4 group types. In the single or multi-select mode the selection is treated as a filter by users and is applied against the main history window.

• Recent Users – all users with chat history; Recent Users are sorted by the time of the latest instant message;
• All Contacts – all Skype contacts;
• User Defined Groups – imported from the Skype user defined groups of specific contacts; depending on the user settings there may be several groups of this kind displayed as root elements of the contacts tree;
• Ungrouped – contacts that have not been categorized by the user.

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Calendar

Conversations are sorted by date and organized in a tree-like manner. Each tree node represents the year, the month and the day when a conversation started.

The end element contains a quick reference to the last message of the conversation and includes the conversation start time and the participants' names.

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Bookmarks

This section is used to store messages that have been marked as Bookmarks.

One can mark a message as a Bookmark using the context menu in the history window by selecting the “Add bookmark” option. Selecting of a bookmark brings the user to the appropriate message in the history window.

The bookmark name consists of the author’s Skype name and the first message string, the total length of the bookmark name not exceeding 50 characters.

History Window

The History Window is populated by the messages from all conversations in which the contacts selected in the Users pane took part. The messages are grouped by chat and message time (from older messages to newer ones). Chats are presented as separate blocks and do not intersect messages from others chats.

1. Chat header. Includes the chat start date. The contacts that participated in the chat are indicated in brackets.

2. Contact's name. In Skype there are 3 variants of displaying a Skype account name:

   • "Display name" – the Skype account name given by the user;
   • "Contact name" – the account name indicated in the profile;
   • "Skype name" – the login name.

   The History Window is configured to show Display name if available, otherwise the Contact name is displayed. If the Contact name is not specified, the Skype name is used.

3. Message text

4. The date and the time when the message was sent. Regional settings are applied.

5. Selected the required message and its context menu.

   Options available in the context menu:

   • The "Copy" option allows to copy the whole context of the message (the sender's name, date and time, the text itself):

     Dave Smith, 3/1/2010 11:06:39:
     Hello Tom, How are you?

   • The "Copy text" option is designed to copy only the message text:

     Hello Tom, How are you?

   • The "Delete" option is used to delete the selected messages. When messages are deleted from the database, a warning message is displayed. The "Add bookmark" option allows to add the message to the Bookmarks pane.

6. Message in the edit mode and its context menu. One can enter the edit mode in two ways: by double-clicking the message or by selecting a message and hitting ‘Enter’. This mode does not allow to edit messages, but you can select a text fragment to copy.

   Options available in the context menu:

   • The "Copy" option allows to copy the selected part of the message:

     I traveled a lot

   • The "Delete" option deletes the selected message. When messages are deleted from the database, a warning message is displayed.

To navigate the History Window the following keys can be used as well:

• Up and Down arrows move the focus across the messages;
• PgUp and PgDn keys control scrolling;
• Enter sets the selected message into the edit mode;
• Esc sets the selected message into the read mode

Search

Searching enables the user to quickly find in the history window the message that meets the search criteria defined in the search box.

To find a message one can use parts of the text or wildcards like “?” or “*”. The wildcards are applied only if the checkbox “Use Mask” is checked, otherwise the special symbols “?” or “*” will be treated as common characters.

Then you can use left and right arrows to look up for older or newer messages or conversations.

To clear/reset the search criteria use the button.

Filter

Filtering allows the user to leave in the chat history window only those messages that meet specific criteria defined in the filter box. All the other messages will be hidden and made unavailable for the user.

As a filter one can use parts of the text or wildcards like “?” or “*”. The wildcards are applied only if the checkbox “Use Mask” is checked, otherwise the special symbols “?” or “*” will be treated as common characters.

To clear/reset the search criteria use the button.

Clear History and Delete Message(s)

There are three ways to delete a message:

• The first way is to select a message you want to delete in the chat history window and use the ‘Delete’ option in the context menu;

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• The second way is to select one of nodes in the Calendar Pane and, using the ‘Delete’ option in the context menu, delete all conversations that are related to the selected node (the selected conversation, all conversation for the given month, all conversations for the given year);

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• The third way is to select one of nodes in the Users Pane and, using the ‘Clear History’ option in the context menu, delete all conversations that are related to the selected node (all conversations for the selected contact(s), all conversations for the selected group).

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When messages are deleted, the following warning messages will be displayed:

• on deleting messages

  

• on deleting chats for the given period

  

• on cleaning up the chat history for specified contacts/groups

  

One can disable displaying of warning messages in the SkyHistory preferences (page with the database settings of the “Options" dialog”) or by unchecking the combo box in the warning message dialog:

Configuration and Options

Grid Setting

This page allows the user to configure how messages will be displayed in the History Window. They can be customized:

• Skype name for incoming messages (font and text color);
• Skype name for outgoing messages (font and text color);
• Time and date of incoming messages (font and text color);
• Time and date of outgoing messages (font and text color);
• Incoming message (font and text color, background color);
• Outgoing message (font and text color, background color);
• Chat header (font and text color, background color).

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DataBase Location and Import

This page contains the chat history database settings that can be customized by the user.

Here you can:

• Define whether a warning message will be displayed or not each time when a message is deleted from the database;
• Select a path to a folder containing the application configuration files and the chat history database;
• Import the existing messages from Skype if you have just installed SkyHistory;
• Update your message database if you imported your message history previously. In this case SkyHistory compares the chat history in Skype and in the SkyHistory database and updates its database with the missing messages.

Security

Chat history security settings. On this page the user can define for which Skype contacts the history should be tracked or ignored.

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Main sections and settings in the INI file

[ApplicationRun]	Application start settings
FirstTimeRun=1268143292	Used to check whether it is the first application start
[HistoryWindowParams]	Main window parameters
VertSplitterPos=210	Location of the vertical splitter
Width=960 Height=533	The main window size
PositionX=160 PositionY=104	The start location of the main window on the screen
FirstTimeRun=1268143292	Used to check whether it is the first application start
[NestedWindowParam]	Navigation page settings
TopPartSize=0.596939	The Users pane size percentagewise
MiddlePartSize=0.403061	The Calendar pane size percentagewise
BottomPartSize=0.104072	The Bookmarks pane size percentagewise
[UserListParam]	User pane settings
ExpandedGroups=Recent Users!	List of groups separated by an exclamation point that should be automatically expanded
[Incoming nickFontParam]	Sections with the settings to control the way messages are displayed in the History Window
[Outgoing nickFontParam]
[Incoming timestampFontParam]
[Outgoing timestampFontParam]
[Incoming messageFontParam]
[Outgoing messageFontParam]
[Start of chat textFontParam]
[RemoveMessage]	Option to control the way warning messages are displayed upon deleting a message from the database
Show=	1 - enabled, 0 – disabled
[DB]	Database settings section
Path=	Path to the database containing the chat history
[AllowHistory]	Security settings section
tom.morento=	1 – history tracking is allowed, 0 - history tracking is disallowed

Useful things you can do to adjust the layout

Resize the main window – drag window corners to make the window bigger or smaller.

Resize the panes and message history windows horizontally – drag the vertical splitter between the panes section and the history window to make them wider or narrower.

Resize the “Users", “Calendar”, “Bookmarks” panes vertically – drag the horizontal splitter below or above the necessary pane to make them higher or lower.

Show/hide the “Users", “Calendar”, “Bookmarks” panes – just click the button in the caption of the required pane to hide and the button to show it again.

The Button bar

	Show/Hide the "Navigation" panel (CTRL+N)
	Show/Hide the "Filter" panel (CTRL+F)
	Show/Hide the "Search" panel (CTRL+S)
	Show the "Options" dialog (CTRL+O)
	Show help file (F1)
	Show the "About" dialog (CTRL+?)

Status bar

Displays the total number of messages and conversations that meet the search users/groups criteria as well as the criteria specified in the additional filter of the chat history window.

Keyboard layout

F1	Show help file
ALT+?	Show the "About" dialog
CTRL+F	Show/Hide the "Filter" panel
CTRL+N	Show/Hide the "Navigation" panel
CTRL+O	Show the "Options" dialog
CTRL+S	Show/Hide the "Search" panel
CTRL+Q	Quit the application