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                 AVATAR.TXT for Microsoft Chat Character Editor
                    For Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT
                                October 1997            
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               (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1997


This document provides complementary or late-breaking information to supplement 
existing documentation.


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HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT
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To view AVATAR.TXT on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window.

To print AVATAR.TXT, open it in Notepad or another word processor, 
and then use the Print command on the File menu.


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CONTENTS
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System Requirements
Known issues


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND SETUP
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In order to use Microsoft(R) Chat Character Editor, you must have the following 
configuration:

- Microsoft Windows(R) 95
- At least a 486/66 processor with 8 megabytes of RAM 
  (Pentium with 12 MB of RAM recommended)
- 256 color display

	--or--

- Microsoft Windows NT(R) version 4.0
- At least a 486/66 processor with 16 megabytes of RAM
- 256 color display


KNOWN ISSUES
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Circle drawing tool draws from the center instead of the corner.

Selecting Preview Character does not default to the proper emotion on the emotion wheel.

When the avatar editor is minimized and you right click on the editor from the taskbar, the move option is enabled. This is a problem with Visual Basic and not with the editor.

Your avatar will not "dance" unless more than one neutral character intensity is created for your avatar.

When importing a supported image file using *.* filter, you get the error message "Invalid or unrecognizable picture format." If you have a supported image type, use the appropriate filter in the drop down box to import the image.

The option to save in JPG format will not appear in the dialog box as a save function unless you set your color depth to greater than 256 colors.

Some machines may experience problems refreshing the screen in NT using 256 colors.

When opening multiple copies of the editor, you may lose system resources. Symptoms include loss of buttons or slow performance. May receive the following error "Error loading from file." when trying to open too many instances of the editor. Close other copies of the program to free up resources.

You can only assign up to 6 hotkeys for color selection.

In two-color mode, it is recommended not to select black or white for the transparent color background. To change the transparent background, select file, properties, and color.

If you are reducing the color palette in file properties color and you want to put the color back to it's original color depth, immediately click Edit - Undo.

On some NT machines it may be difficult to select the resize box.

You can import V-Chat characters into the editor.

Using avatar characters created with long file names in versions 1.0 and 2.0 of MS Chat will cause a general protection fault. Either upgrade to MS Chat 2.1 or use 8 characters (8.3 format) for the filename of the avatar file.

Balloon placement may appear differently on MS Chat versions 1.0 and 2.0. Upgrade to MS Chat version 2.1 to view the character properly.
  
If you use "Always on Top" in the zoom window, you must click on the title bar of the zoom window to bring the Character Editor back to the foreground.

The installation directory dialog box during setup does not support extended characters.

Capitalized High Ansi Characters are not converted to lower case when saving an AVS file.

When importing a V-Chat PNG file, the picture poses that you are currently editing may be lost and the not all the poses from the PNG file will be imported. To sucessfully import a PNG file, create a new character first and then import the PNG file.

PEER TO PEER ASSISTANCE
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There is no formal support for the Microsoft Character Editor. However, peer to peer assistance is available on the MS Chat newsgroup [Microsoft.public.internet.mschat] on the Microsoft news server [msnews.microsoft.com].