A user guide to the Seesmic Desktop (0.1.1)

The Seesmic Desktop is a brand new Twitter client, and is especially designed for Twitterati – not happy with Twitter’s default and rather basic web interface – who simply must keep on top of the relentlessly surging Twitter stream.

Seesmic is by no means unique, there’s a number of other applications with similar functions, and my intention here is only to go over some of the basic Seesmic features (it’s part of a presentation I’m doing), and I’m not out to compare or criticise different Twitter clients.

If you’re considering trying out the Seesmic Desktop be aware it is very much in beta, at the time of writing I was using version 0.1.1, which was displaying a few unstable quirks. Presently Seesmic is only available to Windows and Mac users.

Main interface screen (figure 1)

• 1. Account selection drop down box. Seesmic Desktop supports (or will) multiple Twitter accounts. This option also appears in the left-hand sidebar.
• 2. Text input field.
• 3. Configuration options. Pretty basic at the moment. Set up Twitter accounts, select notifications, language, and software auto-update options here.
• 4. Main Twitter-stream. The tweets from everyone you’re following will show here.
• 5. Userlists: build up (unlimited I am told) lists of the people you follow however you wish to. Sort by friends, colleagues, old school friends, A-List Twitterati, or whatever you want. Herein lies the power of these types of Twitter clients, keeping tabs on multiple Twitterati in multiple columns or streams.
• 6. Userlist twitter streams. You can have as many of these open as you want. If there are more than two or three open on the average size monitor a horizontal scrollbar will allow you move between streams.
• 7. Responses to replies you make to Tweets are shaded light yellow.
• 8. Search box.
• 9. Sound toggle button. If you’ve enabled audible notifications you can mute them here.

Tweet input area (figure 2)

• 1. Account selection drop down box.
• 2. Add an URL. This will automatically be shortened (see figure 3).
• 3. Share an image. Use Twitpic or a similar service to post photos and images (see figure 4).

Add a short URL (figure 3)

Share an image (figure 4)

Seesmic communication functions (figure 5)

Mouseover the avatar of someone you are following to enable additional Seesmic features.

• 1. Reply.
• 2. Private message or direct message (DM) facility.
• 3. Retweet button.
• 4. Extras button. At the moment this only allows you to add someone you are following to one of your userlists. In future versions you will able to favourite tweets and block users.

Adding followers using Seesmic Desktop

Note: at present (as of version 0.11) adding someone to a userlist is the only way to follow them. This still does not make them an official followee (that is they won’t show as a follower should you login to Twitter’s web interface). This will change in future Seesmic versions.

Removing people from userlists (figure 5a)

This is easy.

• 1. Select the userlist you would like to edit, and click the “users” button.
• 2. Click the red delete/minus icon beside the person you want to take off the list and you’re finished.

Main Twitter stream footer functions (figure 6)

This feature appears when you click on the username of a Twitter user, whether they be visible in the main twitter stream (item 4, figure 1, above) or in one of your userlist streams (item 6, figure 1, above), and produces a user view stream, which includes user details, follower numbers, URL, etc.

• 1. Home: closes the user view stream and returns the main Twitter stream.
• 2. Reply to a tweet of whoever you are looking up.
• 3. Private message or direct message (DM) the user.
• 4. Archive button. This displays your tweets or replies.
• 5. Lookup button. Upon clicking this a search box appears allowing name or username searches of Twitter members.

Replies archive stream (figure 7)

A nice touch in @Replies. Your avatar plus that of anyone you’ve messaged or replied to.

Closed Userlist message status (figure 8)

Consider this a WISHLIST request. It would be great if future versions of Seesmic included an “unread messages” indicator, displaying the number of new tweets that been made in userlists that are CLOSED.

Considering an unlimited number of userlists can be setup, this would be handy as Seesmic users may not want to have all their userlists open at once.

Help, support, and further information

Visit Seesmic’s feedback forum for news about patches, updates, and to submit your wishlist requests for future versions of the application.

Note: You will also need to download and install Adobe AIR if you wish to run the Seesmic Desktop.