Connect2Family includes a messaging system for communication with relatives. The Messages page shows messages and conversations.
Conversations
Conversations are on the left and identify the other parties in each conversation. Clicking on a listed conversation opens the messages for that conversation on the right.
If no conversation is open, a New Conversation block appears on the right, instead of messages. Entering a name allows searching for a relative who is a user with that name. Partial names can be searched. All found relatives matching the searched name are displayed. Click on the desired name to start a conversation with that person. If a conversation is open, a
New Conversation
button appears in the Conversation list. Clicking the button closes the open conversation to display the New Coversation block.
Messages
When a conversation is open, the messages in the conversation are displayed on the right side of the page. Messages are separated between sent messages, which are shifted right, and received messages, which are shifted left. Messages are tagged with the date and time of the message. Received messages are also tagged with the person who sent the message.
A new message box appears at the bottom of the messages list. Enter the new message text and click on the send button. There is also an
Attachment
button for adding attachments to messages. For more information, click
Attachments
.
New participants can be added to a message list by clicking on the
+ Participant
button on the upper right of the messages list. A search dialog box appears into which a name can be entered, same as for creating a new conversation. A
Cancel Add Participant
button can be used to close the dialog box without adding a new participant to the conversation.
If more than five messages are in a conversation, a
Load Previous
button appears in the upper left of the messages. Clicking this button loads another five previous messages.
When you have new messages, the navigation bar displays the number of new messages. Similarly, when the messages page is open, the number of new messages are displayed for each conversation.
