ICQ is a communication service, which allows you to exchange messages, URLs, data and also provides chat facilities. Chats with more than two users are possible, as well.
An ICQ client can also tell you whether your friends are online and whether they are ready to chat.
To communicate with other ICQ users you need to connect to an ICQ server, to accomplish this select "Connect" in the File menu or press CTRL+C. As long as you are not connected you appear to be "Offline" to other users, sometimes this is desirable and you can go offline by selecting "Disconnect" in the File menu (or by pressing CTRL+D). You don't need to quit KXicq to disconnect, so you'll still be able to browse old messages, prepare messages etc. You won't be able to send and receive messages, of course.
ICQ let's you select in detail how available you want to be to others, you can specify that via the Status menu in the File menu. The options are sorted by degrees of privacy, from very open (FFC) to very private (INVIS).
FFC - Free For Chat
To indicate that you would like to chat.
Away
This let's you set an away message - when other users want to connect to you they can read the message. When you activate this mode, you'll automatically be prompted for your away message. The default is "User is currently away, please leave a message." Normally there won't be an audible alert for new message in this or more private modes.
N/A - Not Available
Like "Away" but intended for longer periods of time - as in "Away" you can set a message for users who try to connect to you.
OCCUP - Occupied
Other may still send you urgent messages, or send messages to your contact list, but you'll indicate that you are busy.
DND - Do Not Disturb
In DND mode other users can now only send messages to your contact list.
INVIS - Invisible
You are online, but this not visible to anyone else.
The "Add User" dialog can be activated via the file menu. This dialog allows to locate other ICQ users and to add them to your contact list. You can either fill out a search form with nick name, first/last name or email (depending on the available information) or select "UIN Search" and enter directly the ICQ number (=UIN).
After search has been performed, the possible matches are listed below the search form (the server will return not more than 40 possible matches). You can now select one of the matches and right-klick to get a pop-up menu: the option "Get User Info" can be used to verify whether the selected entry is the desired match, the option "Add User" will append the user to the contact list.
To send a message to someone, click on their entry in your contact list. A message window will pop up, and you can enter the text, you want them to receive.
If you receive a message, there'll be an audible alert (per default KXicq will play a .wav file saying "Message for you Sir"). There will be a message icon displayed on the contact list, next to the contact list entry of the sender. (Or at the system entry, if the sender is not on your contact list.)
To read the message just click on the entry, and a window will pop up and show you the message content.
When you right-click on a contact list-entry you'll see the option "Show History". Selecting this will generate a window with the message history for this person. It will list all the messages which you exchanged with them. You can change the view to display only sent or only the received messages. Double-clicking on a message will display the complete message text.
To send a URL, right-click on the recipients entry in the contact list and select "URL". A window similar to the message window wil pop up. It will have two fields for text entry. Type the URL in the upper field and an accompanying text in the lower field.
To send entries from your contact list to another user, right-click on the recipients entry in the contact list and select "Contacts". A window will pop up which allows you to check the contacts (ICQ number and related info) which you want to send to that user.
In order to chat with someone they need to be online (this means they'll show up in the online window). To setup the chat, you first need to send a "Chat Request". You can do this right-clicking on the their contact list entry and selecting "Chat Request". If the other person accepts your request a chat window will appear. The upper field will show the text they type, the lower window will show the text you type.
If someone is online, but not currently available, you'll see their status displayed in the contact list, next to their nick. When they set their status, they'll have an option to provide a message for people who want to contact them. (E.g. they might want to tell you when they'll be back online.) You can read these messages by right-clicking on their nick and selecting "Read Away"/"Read DND" or whatever their status might be.
All these options can be selected by right-clicking on a nick in the contact list:
Remove Contact - this removes the entry from the contact list, it might be used when someone is no longer online
Update Nick - this updates the persons info in your data base, you might want to do this if someones address, or email address changed
Rename Contact - per default people are listed in your contact list with their nick, but maybe you've always known someone as "Andi", then you can change the entry to "Andi" instead of the nick "superman". :)
Show Info - this will display the info about this person, like nickname, email address, first and last name etc.
Options - this allows you to set some options for a nick:
Online Notify - if checked, you'll be notified if this user goes online
Invisible - your online status will be invisible to this user
Visible - this will be able to see that you're online even if you set your status to "Invisible"
Always Through Server - Messages are always send via the server instead of direct
Ignore - ignore messages and chat requests from this user
The File menu contains the action "Random Chat". This allows you to find a random ICQ user to chat about a topic of your choice. Selecting "Random Chat" will produce a search form, in this you can select a chat topic. If you than press the "Search" button, the ICQ server will search for a random ICQ user, who wants to chat about the same topic. The search result will be displayed in the "Found" section. This will consist of the data for the user (as far as provided) and possibly additional text in the "Info" field. Here the ICQ user might have provided additional information about himself or the topic he wants to chat about.
You can then send the user a message, request a chat or add him to your contact list.
You can obtain additional information about the found user (if available) by pressing the "More info" button.
To make yourself available for random chat (so that other people can find you in such searches) select "Random Chat" in "Privacy Settings".