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The Chat Window displays all chat messages, including local sector chat, private messages, channel chat, and status updates. The Mission tab shows mission-related updates. Any messages from the unselected tab will be flashed briefly underneath the message panel.
To send a channel chat message hit the lowercase "t" key. This will bring up a small entry box where you can type your message.
To send a sector message to other pilots in the same sector as you, hit the uppercase "T" key.
To send a private message to another user, open a chat box by pressing the "t" key, and type "/msg username message" where "username" is the user you're trying to reach and the "message" is your message content. If the username has a space or other kind of symbols you will need to put the username in quotation marks. Any username in quotation marks must EXACTLY match the username of the person you are messaging. Example: "/msg "Player" Hello There". You can press the tab key to auto-complete names of players you've seen.
More information on chatting, including some more advanced chat commands, can be found in the Chatting section of this manual.