Second Life Skills

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When you enter Second Life you will get a screen with a bewildering array of controls. There are a few that you'll find immediately useful, and I'll mention only those; you can familiarize yourself with others as you become more comfortable with Second Life. You can also just ignore the whole menu section for the moment, go straight to the Navigation section and come back to the menus later. Many menus duplicate functions found in other menus, and you will develop your own routines for accessing specific menu functions.

The Top Screen Menu:

The Bottom Screen Menu:


The Left Side Menu Bar:

 
 
 
 

Personal and Object Menus:

The Personal Menus appear when you right-click on yourself, somebody else, or an object. Different menus come up in each case. They are dead useful controls and you will use them frequently. We'll take a quick fly over the menu and you can come back later for more leisurely exploration of the offerings in each.

You: right-clicking on yourself opens a set of menus related to your avatar, including your profile, and the avatar editing menu that you use for editing your eye color, height, and clothing. There is also a submenu for removing items you are wearing or carrying, including your clothes. Use this with caution; you don't have to remove clothing to change clothes and an inattentive avatar can accidentally become naked in public. You can also access your Friends and Groups list from this menu.

Another Avatar: right-clicking on another avatar opens a set of menus similar to your personal menu, with a few differences. You can use one of the options of this menu to add the avatar to your Friends list, and others to initiate an IM, give money or to offer a group invitation.

Ground: right-clicking on the ground opens a menu that will give you information about the land you have clicked on, including who it belongs to and what its activity restrictions might be. Genome Island, for example, does not permit public building, weapon damage or the operation of nonresident scripts.

Object: right-clicking on an object opens a thick multilayered menu of options that may or may not be available to you, depending on the object's permissions settings. With objects you don't own, most of your interactions will be initiated by LEFT-clicking on the object. After you have created an object, compare the menu you get when you right-click on your own object with that you get when you right-click on an object belonging to somebody else. Should you accidentally activate the “Put on/Wear ” option and wind up with a box on your head, just right-click and select the “Detach” (return to your inventory) option. 

 

 

Navigation: Walk, Run, Fly, Sit, Stand, Teleport

Let’s just admit up front that the navigational interface at Second Life isn’t as slick as the interface in a high-end game like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings. For builders at Second Life, it can even be a bit of a hazard, as it is easy to disappear that wall you just lovingly created with a careless mouse move. However, that said, it’s really easy to get around in Second Life and there are multiple ways to do it.

Communication: Chat, IM, and Voice

Second Life is, among other things, a large social network. Unlike most games, there are no Non-Player Characters, so everybody you meet there is backed by a real person, and opportunities for professional networking and collaboration abound. You can work through class assignments or explore the other areas of Second Life on your own, but learning is a social activity and is deeply enriched by your interactions with other people. So you’ll want to communicate. People at second life are generally amiable and helpful, so never hesitate to ask a question.

You can communicate in multiple ways in Second Life.

Inventory: Finding and Managing Stuff

During your Second Life, you will acquire stuff – clothing, gadgets, landmarks, notecards, and various other objects. Open your inventory from the lower screen menu to see what's in there now. You will have two main folders: “My Inventory” and “Library”. The Library inventory is common to all avatars and contains a number of folders in which you will find various basic items: Clothing, Objects, Notecards, Landmarks, Scripts and other things. You have the same folders in the “My Inventory” section, and new items in various categories will go into these folders. You can also create new folders from the Inventory menu, so that as the number of items you acquire grows, you can file them appropriately. Folders can have subfolders, so you can organize your stuff in any way that makes sense to you. Items in your inventory can be sorted either alphabetically or by date of acquisition, so that new items always are high up in your various lists.

New inventory items can come from several sources. Another avatar gives or sends you a present. You get something from an object. You buy something or pick it up as a freebie. Items given to you by an object or another avatar will always ask for permission before entering your inventory. When you give it, it will automatically go to the appropriate folder, new clothes to Clothing, new objects to Objects, etc. If you pick up an object yourself, either by purchasing it or from a freebie warehouse, you'll need to add it to your inventory. Initially, you'll do a “Buy” command, or a “Take Copy” if it is a free item, and it will probably go into your inventory in a new Folder. If what you have is a Box, you may need to take it out of inventory and right-click it to get the “Open” option. Most purchased items will give you instructions on how to take the item out of its box.

Point and Click: Communicating with objects

Most objects in Second Life that are not simple buildings, landscaping or furniture are interactive. That is, you LEFT-click on them and they will respond in some way. Interactive objects will always elicit the “hand” symbol when you put your cursor over them. What happens when you click will depend on the object. Some common possibilities are: