About Live Chat Basic
Volusion Live Chat Basic is a free online chat program you and your staff can use to communicate with visitors to your website or online store. No need for your customers or visitors to download any software - they can simply click on your site's Live Chat button to communicate with you.
This article describes how to install and configure the Live Chat Basic application. For information on Volusion's Live Chat Premium edition software, click here: Volusion Live Chat Premium Help.
Installing Live Chat
- Go to the the Free Live Chat Software page and click the Download button.
- Click Save when the download window opens.
- When the software has downloaded, double-click it to launch the installation wizard.
- Follow the installation instructions as displayed.
- When the application has been installed you will be asked for your my.volusion.com email and password, or to create a new account.
- You will now be logged into Live Chat. The Live Chat Settings screen is displayed. Enter the screen name you want to use in chats and click Save. The default screen name is "Operator".
- You can now click the Go Chat link to test Live Chat.
Testing Live Chat
If you scroll to the bottom of the Live Chat window, you will see a button you can click to launch an incoming test call from your own machine. 
This will enable you to see how Live Chat looks from the caller's side, and to familiarize yourself with the application before adding the button to your store front.
Note that you can launch multiple test chat windows.
What the Caller sees
When someone clicks on the Live Chat button when Live Chat is online, the Caller window is launched. 
Here the caller enters his or her name and email address, a question in the Type your question field, and then clicks the Chat button when done. 
If you do not accept their chat immediately a message is displayed saying the caller is next in the queue or, if there are multiple people waiting to chat, it will say how many people there are in the queue before him or her.
When you chat, your responses and the caller's questions are shown in different colors. 
If you do not have Live Chat running, clicking on the Live Help Offline button will launch a window in which the caller can email a question to you. 
What you see
When someone sents you a chat message, a yellow dropdown appears. 
The Queue tab at the bottom of the window will show the caller's name, how long the caller been waiting and his or her message. 
Click on the yellow dropdown or the Accept button in the Queue tab to launch a chat tab for this person.
If you have more than one person wanting to chat, you can accept multiple chats. These are shown on separate tabs. When you select a tab, details about the person are displayed in the column on the right. This shows the IP address, email address, the page from where Live Chat was launched and the chat duration. 
Once you are familiar with all aspects of chat, you can add the button to your site.
Adding Live Chat's JavaScript on your Site
You now need to add the Live Chat button to your store front. If you have a good understanding of HTMLand how the template is laid out, you can do this by pasting the provided JavaScript directly into your template, otherwise:
- Still on the Live Chat Settings screen, click on the Copy this script to ClipBoard button. This will copy the Volusion Live Chat javascript into your clipboard.
- In a seperate browser window, open your Volusion store and log in as administrator.
- Go to Marketing > Nav Menu Promotions.
- Click Add.
- Select Misc from the Group dropdown.
- Paste the Javascript from step 1 into the Body field.
- Enter a number into the Special Order field so that the chat button will appear in the appropriate place in your menu column.
- Click Save.
Now if you look at your storefront you will see the Live Help button. 
You may need to experiment with the Special Order setting, depending on what other promotions you have in the menu column and in what order they look best. You can also add spacing before and after the Body field to increase the gap between the button and other objects in the column using simple html </br> tags.
Ready to Chat for Real?
Now you can start Live Chat for real! Just double-click on the Live Chat icon on your desktop. 
This will launch the Live Chat window on your computer and any browsers displaying your storefront will show the online version of the Live Chat button. You can leave Live Chat running while you do other things on your PC; the Live Chat tab will flash on the task bar when someone wants to chat. 
Customizing the Live Chat button and Chat window
If you want to change the online/offline buttons and the text in the chat window, click the Customize Design link. Here you can customize the following:
Company Name / Logo
You can create a logo to appear at the top of the caller's window or enter your company's name.
If you want your company logo to appear in the customer's chat window, you will need to create a version of your logo of the appropriate size. This can be a .GIF, .JPG or .PNG file up to 480px wide and 90px height. Click Upload my own logo, then click the Browse button and navigate to the logo file.
You can click on Text Title if you just want to display your company name in plain text.
Online/Offline Buttons
You can create your own buttons to fit your page's image. We recommend you keep them to about the same size as the defaults (120px by 80px) and display "online - click to chat" and "offline - click to email" or similar.
Online/Offline Text
You can also create your own versions of:
- the welcome message that appears when the online button is clicked
- the welcome message that appears when the offline button is clicked
- the please wait for operator message
- the thank you for the email message
E-mail Address
By default, the email address you entered when you logged in is displayed here. It will be this address where emails are sent when Live Chat is offline. You can alter the displayed email address if required. Email sent when Live Chat is offine will be sent to this address.
When you're finished making any changes, click Save Changes.