Shoutbox

Hi

I have been using http://www.trillian.cc for a while but want to use msn again (Trillian can't keep up with the speed microsoft adds new features).

However, in Trillian I really like the world time clock plugin. It allows you to add your own time zone you would like to monitor. Usefull for I work for an international company with offices, customers and business partners around the globe. With this clock I don't have to calculate the time in another part of the world. The attached screen shot shows how the times are displayed in the trillian contact list, but for MSN I could imagine that it would be on one of the tab pages.

Does anyone know if such a plugin is available for messenger and where I can get it?

Thanks
JeePee

In http://www.worldtimeserver.com you can easyly convert one time from one timezone to another and see the current time everywhere in the world. Maybe you can use Plus' quick texts to launch a browser with the page of the site you want to look. For example, a quick text with the text

/run http://www.worldtimeserver.com/time.aspx?locationid=ES

would show the time in spain. And if you change ES by (!P) you can put the code of the country you want.

I think that's a better solution than coding a plugin, imo. It can also be put in a tab.

A normal plugin is almost useless. You would end up typing the clock commands all the time. And where would it show? I think your contact wouldn't be happy if a time string appears all the time in the conversation so that you can see what time it is in some part of the world.

However, you could say: why not show it in a seperate window. Indeed that would be much better. But then again, you don't need a plugin for this at all. There are already hundreds of (free) programs which you can install which do just the same.

If you realy want to view it inside MSN Messenger itself, the best option you could explore is to add a custom tab with the times of your choice. Either make your own tab (a tab is actually a simple html page, nothing more, so you can easly write some html which shows every clock you want) or sign up for one of those hundreds services where you can pick and choose your clocks (if you don't know html and javascript). Either way, you'll need TabServe to patch your msn messenger and show a custom tab. So patch your messenger with TabServe, sign up for the TabServe service and point a tab to the URL of your choice (weither it is your own made html page on the web or an existing service)...

I don't see any good practical use that i can have of this plugin.

Me niether. If you really need one, then use Google to find a page that lists the current time of all the timezones in the world and add that page to a tab.

Hmmm, I used to have the plan of porting mIRC's CTCP Time function to MSN trough stuffplug,
basicly you could retrieve the time on the other persons computer (if they had the plugin too) by typing just one command...
I might reconsider this feature sometime

Thank you all for your replies.

For all who think it is useless and suggest an internet site... it is sooo easy in Trilian that you only need to open the contact list to see the most important times to you. Call me lazy, but opening a web page just takes more time...

CookieRevised: of course I don't want to type clock commands all the time and I don't want it to appear in a chat session for a contact to see. It would be just for me in the main contact list or on a tab page. Thanks for the tip to TabServe, I already tried making my own tab page with an outline I had for msn6, but then found that the .xml file does not exist anymore in msn7. So I'll try TabServe.

TheBlasphemer: it would be nice if your contacts time could be displayed next to their name in the ocntact list and in a chat window

Thanks again all

JeePee, I would love to have a World Clock function in MSN.  I've got more contacts in other countries then I do in the UK (at least, I speak to the international ones more often), and it's gets frustrating after a while when you have to think about what friend is in what timezone so you know whether they are actually online, or just left thier comp on and have gone to be dfor the evening.

It would be good to not only have it in a tab, but also to have the local time of the person you are chatting to on the MSN window itself, maybe on the bottom right hand side of the window border (where it says "x user is typing a message" on the left).

Finaly someone who would appreciate that functionality . Now let's hope someone who knows how to create a plugin will pick this up and makes it...

Meanwhile, untill this option is available you may want to think of using Trillian. It's a multi platform client which you can use for msn, icq, aol, irc, aim and more. There is a plugin availble for the time zones (see screen shot in my original post - not in chat window "user is typing @ hh.mm hours).

Trillian can be dowloaded for free from http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ the pro version is $ 25,-...

You just need to know and accept that Trillian supports multiple platforms, and as a result it will always offer less functionality then the latest version of the original platform (and for that reason I want to use msn again... IF I find the plugins I need.

I would use a plugin like this lots!