Lotus Sametime – A quick

introduction

Produced by the Information Technology and Management

Support Division of the Charles Darwin University for the
staff of the university

Table of Contents

1 What is Sametime?.............................................................................. 2
2 Requirements to use Sametime ............................................................ 2
3 Setting up Sametime ........................................................................... 3
4 Using Sametime .................................................................................. 5
4.1 What Sametime looks like ............................................................. 5
4.2 Adding People to your List of regular contacts. ............................... 6
4.3 Starting a Chat Session ................................................................. 7
5 Sametime is not just Instant Messaging. ............................................... 9
1 What is Sametime?
Lotus Sametime is an Instant Messaging product that allows staff to
communicate with each other in real-time.

Because it is based on the Lotus Notes Address Book, Sametime provides a

very simple interface in which you can quickly find any Charles Darwin
University staff member(s) and do any of the following:

• Send them a message that will pop up on their screen

• Send them a file you wish them to see
• Start a chat in which all selected people can type messages which
everyone can see
• Start an online meeting in which all selected people can see
documents you share from your computer (you can even allow other
people to edit the document, or control your computer)
• Start an online meeting using video and audio streams so that you can
see and hear each other (to use this facility, people must have web
cameras, microphones and headphones/speakers installed on their
computer)

Sametime chats are encrypted, meaning that they are extremely secure. No
one else can intercept and read your chat messages.

2 Requirements to use Sametime

1. A computer with a web browser.
2. The ability to connect to the Sametime server. This can be achieved
from any networked computer within the university (including Centralian
College, Palmerston campus etc), or anywhere in the world where an
Internet connection is available.
3. A Lotus Notes account for the Charles Darwin University.
3 Setting up Sametime
Follow these steps:
1. Open a web-browser.
2. Enter this internet address: http://kestrel.ntu.edu.au.
3. The resulting page will look like this:

4. From this web page, click on the “Launch Sametime Connect” link.
5. Your web-browser will then launch Sametime, and the first thing you
may see is a security warning. Your web-browser is being asked to
download and run components of the Sametime application. It looks
like this:

6. Select “Always trust content…” etc. Then click YES. This security
warning will only ever appear once.
7. Log on using your Lotus notes internet username and password (this is
the username and password you use to access the internet).
 8. A box like this will appear for you to select the tools you have and wish
to use in your chat sessions.

You are now ready to use Sametime.

NOTE: If you have none of these tools you can still chat using typed
messages. In most cases, it is more convenient to do this anyway.

HINT: When you open the “http://kestrel.ntu.edu.au” link in your web browser,
you will see a “Download” option. Following the instructions at the “Download”
link will install Sametime to your local computer so that it starts automatically
each time your computer is turned on.
4 Using Sametime
4.1 What Sametime looks like
The Sametime interface looks like this:

This window displays a list of people and groups that you have selected as
regular contacts. The people and groups are selected by you from the Lotus
Notes Name and Address book. This Address book is the same list you use to
select people to send e-mails to from Lotus Notes.

This icon to the left of each person indicates their current Sametime status as
follows:
A green square shows that the user is Active, and is available to chat with.
A yellow diamond shows that the user is Away. This means a message can
be sent to them, but they might be away from their computer. They can
respond when they get back.
A black circle shows that the users is Busy, and is unavailable to chat with.

To Sametime anyone in this list, simple double click that person.

HINTS:
• Hover your mouse above the icons at the top of the screens and
messages will appear telling you what each button does
• Right click on any person/group to see the available options
• You can multi select people/groups using the “Shift” and “Ctl” keys
4.2 Adding People to your List of regular contacts
To add people or groups to your regular contact list, follow these steps:

1. Click on the People menu, then on Add.

2. This window will appear. Click on the Directory button and search for the
names of the people you want to be able to chat with. The list displayed is
from the Lotus Notes Address Book.

3. Find the person/group you require, select it and click the Add button. You
can do this for multiple people/groups.
HINTS:
• If you add a group, it will include ALL people in that group in your
Sametime regular contacts. This list will automatically change as staff
are added/removed from that group due to staffing changes. Eg:
adding the group “GRP:Human Resources Division” will provide you
with an always updated list of Human Resources staff to Sametime
with
• The directory screen only shows a limited number of staff at a time, use
the Search button to find staff you require more quickly

4.3 Starting a Chat Session

To start a chat session, double-click on the name of the person you want to
chat with. Then type in a message to the person, and click on Send (or press
Enter).

A dialog box will open up, which shows your conversation in the top window,
and allows you to type your message in the bottom window.
To add other people to the chat session, click on “Invite Others”, and click on
the “Add Invitees…” button.

HINT: You can select all the people you

wish to chat with from your list of regular
contacts before starting the chat.
5 Sametime is not just Instant Messaging.
Other features of Sametime are:
• Voice and video data can be sent in real-time, through the use of a
microphone and a web-cam
• Scheduled online meetings
• Desktop sharing, where members of the session can share out
programs on their computer, for example, allowing others to see a
Word document, and even allowing them to edit it on-the-fly

Setting up Sametime to use these features is straight forward and can be

done by any user.

If you experience problems setting up Sametime, please contact the ITMS

Support Desk on ext: 6600, or via email at itms-support@cdu.edu.au.