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Before you start Registering for and installing Second Life Your first steps inworld Basic skills Finding cool stuff to see and do Doing more Moving on In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano Português Türkçe Русский 日本語 Before you start Important: You must install a standalone program, the Second Life Viewer, to enjoy the rich 3D content in Second Life. The installation process is quick and easy, but your computer must meet the System Requirements. Second Life will not run on systems that fail to meet these requirements. Registering for and installing Second Life Follow this quick three-step process to register for and install Second Life. 1. Choose your starting avatar and provide your account information Your avatar is how you will appear in Second Life. You can choose from a wide selection of avatars, and if you change your mind later, don't worry —you can select a different avatar any time you want! Once you learn Second Life, you can also customize your avatar to your heart's delight, or pick from a vast selection on the Second Life Marketplace. Your username is the account name that you use to log in to Second Life. It has to be unique, so you may not get to choose a simple or common name. Later, you can also choose a display name that everyone sees in addition to your username. For more information, see Usernames and Display names. Warning: Choose your username carefully! Once chosen, you can't change it without paying a fee. Although you can designate a "display name," your username will still be visible, and others may use it to refer to you. Fill in your remaining account details including your email address, date of birth, and password. Make sure to use a memorable security question in case you forget your password! Note: When you create your account, you will receive a message in your email asking you to verify your email address. Verify your address in order to receive offline messages from other Second Life Residents and to ensure that Second Life can send you important emails like password help and receipts. 2. Choose your membership level Choose a free Basic account or sign up for a one of Second Life's subscription memberships for additional benefits. For example, with a standard Premium membership, you get your own private Linden Home (if you're at least 18 years old), virtual currency rewards, exclusive virtual goods, and many other benefits. For more information on premium accounts, see Premium membership in the Second Life Knowledge Base. If you choose a basic account now, you can always upgrade to subscription membership later. 3. Download and install Second Life To enjoy the rich 3D content in Second Life, you must download and install the Second Life Viewer, an application that runs on Windows and Mac OS. Most web browsers will download the installer automatically; if that does not happen, just click Download & Install Second Life. You may need to run the installer program manually after downloading. Your first steps inworld Now that you've registered for Second Life and installed the Second Life Viewer, you're ready to start your adventure in the virtual world—or "inworld," as we call it. Logging in Start the Second Life Viewer and then log in to Second Life by entering the username and password you selected when you registered. If you have problems logging in, see Login failure in the Second Life Knowledge Base. The first time you log in, you will be in an area known as Welcome Island, set up especially for new users. Follow the signs and simple instructions to learn the basic skills you'll need. The following sections describe the most important parts of the Viewer and how to get the most out of your experience. To help you get going, I'll give you a quick introduction to the Second Life Viewer, the program you use to experience Second Life. Basic skills Some of the first things you'll want to learn how to do include: Walking Flying Changing your view Text chatting Changing your avatar Interacting with objects Finding out more about nearby people Controlling inworld media Walking There are four ways to make your avatar walk: Click to walk. Simply click on the ground at the point to which you want to go. If your mouse pointer turns into a hand instead of an arrow, you won't move but will instead interact with the object under your mouse pointer. See the Interacting with objects section. Use the arrow keys. The up-arrow ↑ and down-arrow ↓ keys walk you forward and backward, respectively. The left-arrow ← and right-arrow → keys turn you left and right, respectively. Use the W, S, A, and D keys. The W and S keys make you walk forward and backward. The A and D keys turn you left and right, respectively. Make sure you click inworld first so that the chat field doesn't have focus. Otherwise, you'll be typing chat text instead of walking. Click the Walk/Run/Fly button to open the Movement controls. You can click which direction you'd like your avatar to move, as well as toggle between walk, run, and fly modes. Running To run forward, simply double-click the W or up-arrow ↑ key. To run backward, double-click S or the down-arrow ↓ key. Flying Flying in Second Life is really fun, and it lets you move around much faster than you can by walking or running. To fly, press and hold the Page Up key or the E key. Press and hold the Page Down key or the C key to land. Use the same keys to move through the air as you do to walk. Note: Some regions don't allow flying. In these areas, you'll see this icon in the location bar and you won't be able to fly. Keyboard shortcuts See Keyboard shortcuts for a quick reference guide. Changing your view By default, your view is from directly behind and slightly above your avatar. However, it's often useful to see things from a different viewpoint! There are several ways to change your view: To rotate your view, click and drag anywhere on the world. NOTE: If your mouse pointer turns into a hand before you click, then you'll interact with the object instead of rotating your view. To zoom in, press and hold the Alt key, then click and drag your mouse; or use your mouse wheel. To orbit, press and hold the Alt and Control keys, then click and drag your mouse. Click the View button and use the controls, shown at left. To return to the default view, press the Esc key. Text chatting . Click the Chat button (by default in the bottom toolbar) to text chat with people nearby. Everyone within twenty meters of you will be able to see what you type. To shout, press Control-Enter instead of Enter after typing your chat text. Everyone within 100 meters will be able to see what you type. Click the triangle icon in the chat field to show recent chat history. Mouse over names in chat history and then click the icon for more options. Changing your avatar Click Avatar to change your avatar to one of the free provided avatars. You'll be able to choose from a wide variety of avatar looks. For information on customizing your avatar, see Editing your appearance. Interacting with objects To interact with any object you encounter, right-click it and select from the menu of actions and tools. For example, you can right-click on a chair and choose Sit Here from the menu to have your avatar automatically sit on the chair. Some objects (such as furniture) automatically provide a "sit" icon when you mouse over them. Simply click on the object to sit on it. To stand up again, just click the Stand button that appears near the bottom of the window. If your mouse cursor turns into a hand when over an object, you may be able to interact with the object by clicking on it. In some cases, clicking performs an action (such as turning on a light switch); sometimes, the object displays a special menu that lets you select from a variety of actions. When you hover your mouse cursor over an object, you may also see an information box, for example as illustrated at left. Click on the icon for more information about the object. Finding out more about nearby people To find out about those nearby, mouse over their avatars and click the icon that appears. You'll get an information box with: Their avatar name and how long they've been in Second Life. Profile "biography" information (if they've added it). Voice chat volume control for that person only. A View full profile link t osee more options and information. See the Using Profiles section. Controlling inworld media Many areas in Second Life have music playing for ambience, or video displayed on an inworld surface. Use the controls in the upper right of the Viewer window to control the volume of the audio or, if you like, to turn it off entirely by de-selecting the box to the right. The Pause button to the left of the main volume control button allows you to start or stop streaming videos or media. You can cover your mouse over any streaming media playing inworld for additional controls. Mouse over any inworld surface displaying video or other media to show special media controls. Finding cool stuff to see and do Click Destinations to see the Second Life Destination Guide. Click on a category, then click on a destination in that category to teleport there immediately. Go to http://secondlife.com/destinations/ to see more categories and destinations. Doing more Once you become familiar with walking, flying, and the other basic functions, you may want to try: Using voice chat Making friends Seeing nearby people and friends Using profiles Using voice chat Tired of typing? You can use voice chat to talk to nearby people, if they've also enabled voice chat. You'll need to set up a headset or speakers and a microphone in order for voice chat to work. Using a headset avoids annoying echoes of your own voice. Generally, it's best to connect your audio devices before you start Second Life. After you have connected your headset (or speakers and microphone), you may need to configure your sound devices. To do this, choose Me > Preferences > Sound & Media. You'll be able to select your input and output devices and change your volume setting. Once you have configured your sound devices, simply click Speak to speak to those nearby. Click it again to turn off your microphone. If you're having trouble getting voice chat to work, see Voice chat FAQ. You can also visit the special region Voice Echo Canyon to safely test voice chat -- the region will play your voice back to you, but no one else will hear you speak, allowing you to test how you sound without having to ask other people. Note: Some regions disable voice chat. In these areas, the Speak button will be dimmed, and you won't be able to use voice chat. Voice chat dots You can tell if voice is enabled and working properly because you'll see a small white dot floating above your name tag, as shown below. If other people have voice enabled, they will have voice dots as well. Making friends To make someone your friend, mouse over their avatar, click the and choose View Full Profile, then click the Add Friend button. This person will receive a friendship request: if they accept it, then they will be on your friends list, and you will be on theirs. How to accept or decline a friendship offer When someone else offers you friendship, a dialog box appears in the lower-right corner of your screen. If you click Accept, your new friend receives on-screen notification that you have accepted the friendship offer. If you click Decline to cancel the offer, the other person receives a notification that you declined the friendship offer. Tip: Strike up a conversation or have some interaction before asking someone to be your friend—it's good manners! Seeing nearby people and friends Click the People button to open the People window, which has four tabs: NEARBY shows everyone within 100m of you. MY FRIENDS shows your friends list, with those currently online shown first. MY GROUPS shows information on your Second Life groups, which are like clubs. See Groups overview for more information. RECENT shows everyone with whom you recently communicated via instant message or group chat. In all of these tabs, a person's name appears dimmed if they are not currently online. Mouse over a person's name for additional options: Click to see more information about the person; then click View full profile for more options. The mini-map in the NEARBY tab shows a bird's eye view of the area you're in; the yellow dot shows your location, and the green dots represent other people. Zoom in and out with your mouse wheel or right-click the map for more options. Using profiles Click Me > Profile to edit your profile. Use your profile to express your personality and interests. You can also share things with your friends and see things they share with you, similar to social networking sites. You can link your Second Life profile with your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular social networks. To view someone else's profile, mouse over their avatar, click , then click View full profile. You'll be able to see the things they have allowed based on their privacy settings. To configure your privacy settings: Click Me > Profile Click Edit Profile to customize your profile settings. Click the Privacy tab. Tip: Want to add a profile picture? You'll need to save a snapshot to your PC first, or you can upload an existing snapshot. Adding a Profile picture is a great way to show off your avatar. (Remember, profile pictures must be General maturity!) Moving on Once you've mastered the basic skills covered in this article, you're ready to move on to learn the full richness of the Second Life experience. Have a look at the Second Life User's Guide. Most importantly, have fun!

Landmarks and teleporting Troubleshooting teleporting SLurls How to use and make SLurls Converting a landmark to a SLurl (and vice-versa) Setting your home and login locations Home location Login location Landmarks and teleporting Landmarks Landmarks are similar to bookmarks or favorites in a web browser. They record a Second Life inworld location, so you can teleport back there whenever you want. To create a landmark for your current location, click the icon in the location bar at the top of the Viewer. Teleporting To teleport, double-click a landmark or a location on the World Map, or click a saved location in your favorites bar. Map - Chose World > World Map or World > Mini-Map. Using SLurls - Click on a SLurl to display the Place Profile, then click Teleport to teleport there. To offer to teleport a friend to your location: Click Click MY FRIENDS Mouse over your friend's name then click Click Teleport Your friend will see a message offering to teleport them to your location; they can accept or refuse the offer. Note: Your intended destination is marked with a red arrow. If you get a message that you can teleport no closer, simply put the landmark on your Map and fly the rest of the way. You can also use the Teleport buttons in Search listings to access locations. See Search FAQ for more information. If you don't arrive at your intended destination If you attempt to teleport somewhere, but don't arrive there, the estate owner may have set up a telehub (teleport hub) to control where visitors initially land. The telehub will be in the same region as your destination, but will generally provide new arrivals with orientation and other welcome information. Infohubs (also known as a Welcome Area) are mainland telehubs owned by Linden Lab and are shown on the world map. See World map and mini-map for more information. Troubleshooting teleporting Check maturity settings If the land you are trying to access has a maturity rating above that set in your own preferences, then you won't be able to go there. See Accessing Adult land and content for more information. To find the maturity rating of the land you are trying to access: Choose World > World map to view the World Map. Type the name of the region, then click Find. The World Map will show the region. Hover your cursor over the region on the map to see the maturity rating. Take off attachments An attachment you're wearing might be preventing you from teleporting successfully. Right-click your avatar. Select Take Off. Select Detach All. Try to teleport to your destination. Teleport to mainland Sometimes, it can help to try teleporting to your intended spot from a different destination. Click Map. Type in "Pooley". Click Search. Select Pooley from the list. Click Teleport. After you arrive at Pooley, try to teleport to your destination. Fly up, then teleport Your current location may be preventing you from teleporting successfully. Fly to an altitude of 200 meters. Try to teleport to your destination. Adjust firewall configuration If your firewall is blocking outbound TCP port 12043, then teleporting, viewing the World Map, crossing regions, and related activities won't work. See Using Second Life with a firewall for more information. Reduce maximum bandwidth Bandwidth settings might be responsible for an unsuccessful teleport. Select Me > Preferences. Click the Setup tab. Reduce the Maximum bandwidth setting to the minimum, "500" kbps. Now, try to teleport to your destination again. Exit Second Life and log in at your destination You can set your preferences so that you can choose your login location, and then enter your destination so you appear there when you log in again. To set your login location: Choose Me > Preferences. Click the General tab. Under Start location, choose Show on login. Click OK. Choose Me > Exit Second Life to log out. Then, start the Second Life Viewer again, and: In the login screen, under Start at, choose <Type region name>. Enter the name of the region where you want to go; for example, Pooley Click Log In. Now you will log in at the region you entered. Check for Network Lag If you are still having problems teleporting, your connection may be too slow. For more information, see How to improve Viewer performance - Troubleshooting tips. SLurls SLurls and landmarks serve the same purpose. The main difference is that a SLurl is simply a text link, while a landmark is an inventory item type which can only be used inside of SL. How to use and make SLurls To use an existing SLurl: Click this example SLurl. On the page it takes you to, click Visit this location to open it in Second Life. To make a new SLurl: Move your avatar to where you want to create the SLurl. Click the place name in the location bar (near the top of the Viewer window) to convert it to a SLurl. It'll look like http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Here/128/128/44. Right-click and Copy the SLurl while it's selected, or use Ctrl+V. Paste the SLurl where you want it. Alternatively, you can also use the World Map to get SLurls: Select World menu > World Map. Click Copy SLurl. You can also enter another place on the map, then click Copy SLurl to get a remote SLurl. Converting a landmark to a SLurl (and vice-versa) To convert a landmark to a SLurl: Select Me > Places. Right-click a landmark and select Copy SLurl. Paste the Slurl where you want it. To convert a SLurl to a landmark: Click or otherwise use the SLurl to get to its location. Select World > Landmark This Place. The landmark is saved to your inventory. Setting your home and login locations Home location There are three types of land you can set as your home location: Land you own Land set to group access for a group to which you belong, if you have the necessary ability. For more information on group land, see Group-owned land. For more information on group roles and abilities, see Creating, managing, moderating, and disbanding groups. Infohubs To set your home: Move your avatar to the chosen location. Use World > Set Home To Here. A message appears confirming if your home is set successfully. You can always teleport straight to your home location by using World > Teleport home. Login location By default, you will always login at your last location inworld. You can also set your login location to be your home and whether to display the option in the login screen. See Change your login location.

The Second Life Glossary can be found on the Second Life wiki.

Please see the official Second Life System Requirements page. For additional information, see Graphics Cards.

Keyboard controls Onscreen controls Mouselook Avatar mouse steering Advanced camera controls This article explains how to control your point of view in the 3D Second Life world. Keyboard controls By using your keyboard and mouse to control the camera, you can view nearly any object or avatar from any angle or distance. Alt + Left mouse button: Press and hold to zoom your view in when you move the mouse up or down. Orbits your view around the focal point when you move the mouse left or right. Ctrl + Alt + Left mouse button: Press and hold to orbit your view around the focal point when you move the mouse in any direction. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left mouse button: Press and hold to pan your view parallel to the plane of your screen. Mouse scroll wheel: Zooms in or out. Escape key: Resets your view to its default location behind your avatar. Moving your avatar also resets your view. Onscreen controls There are three ways to access onscreen camera controls in the Second Life Viewer: Click the Camera Controls button on the bottom bar of the Viewer From the menu bar, select Me > Camera Controls Or use the keyboard shortcut Control-K (Windows) or Command-K (⌘K) (Mac) Once the Camera Controls floater is open, you can use the precise controls to adjust your camera to your liking. If you like your adjusted camera angle and would like to save it, you can click Save as preset... to give it a unique name and to make that view available from the Use preset dropdown in the future. The profile icons include five default camera presets as buttons: Front View, Side View, Rear View, Object View (represented by the magnifying glass icon) and Mouselook. You can switch between these default views by clicking on the icons. Rear View is the typical default camera position in the Second Life Viewer. Holding the Alt key and clicking on any object will center your camera on that object; from there, using the precise camera controls allows you to zoom in, orbit, or pan your camera from that object's position. Holding the Alt key and clicking on distant objects can be a fun way to explore a region without physically moving your avatar from place to place, and is especially helpful for getting a closer look at things at busy events. Mouselook Mouselook sets the camera to a first-person perspective, allowing you to view the world through your avatar's eyes. You can enter mouselook by pressing the M key or by using your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom all the way in on your avatar. When in mouselook, your avatar turns to face the direction in which you are looking, which allows you to steer with your mouse while you walk or fly. Mouselook is also often used in order to aim or activate scripted objects. Tip: Should you ever find yourself navigating a tight space, entering mouselook can help you get your bearings. Avatar mouse steering You can orbit your view around your avatar by clicking anywhere on your avatar and holding the Left mouse button. As you turn your view left or right, your avatar turns to face the same direction as the camera, allowing you to steer your avatar. Advanced camera controls There are two options in the Advanced menu that allow you to see objects or terrain at a considerable distance from where your avatar is standing: Disable Camera Constraints increases the distance you can zoom. Limit Select Distance allows you to right-click on faraway objects to find their owners. To enable these features: Select Me > Preferences > Advanced. Select the Show Advanced Menu checkbox. The Advanced menu now appears at the top of your Viewer window. From the Advanced dropdown, uncheck Limit Select Distance (this is on by default). In the same menu, choose Disable Camera Constraints. Click the Alt button, left-click your target, and zoom in using the scroll wheel. Right-click any object you see and select Edit > General to find its Creator and Owner.

Moving your avatar Walking Running Jumping and ducking Flying Double-tap run Using vehicles Physical v. non-physical vehicles Where to use vehicles Scripting a vehicle Troubleshooting avatar movement In other languages: Deutsch Français Moving your avatar Walking Watch this video tutorial to get started, then read on for details: BASICS: Moving & flying from Torley on Vimeo. There are three ways to walk your avatar with the keyboard: Arrow keys W A S D keys - Inworld must have focus, meaning that the chat bar is closed or you've clicked inworld. Otherwise, these keys will type in the chat bar. Numeric keypad - Not all keyboards have this. You can also strafe — walk sideways without changing your camera focus — by holding Shift ? and the left and right movement keys. For example, Shift ?+←. Instead of turning, your avatar will walk in those directions. Running Running is done with the same keys as walking. Running is usually a toggle: press Ctrl+R and try moving around! Jumping and ducking Tap Page Up or E to jump. Hold Page Down or C to duck (squat). Tip: After jumping, hold down Space to slow your ascent dramatically. It looks almost as if you're frozen in mid-air. Flying Holding the same key to jump makes you fly. Tip: If that doesn't work, go to Me > Preferences > Move & View and enable Arrow keys always move me. You can also select Move > Fly from the toolbar at the bottom of the Viewer window. Note: In Second Life, there's no effective height limit to flying. Unaided, an avatar can reach approximately 200 vertical meters, but if you've got a flight assist script, you can continue to propel yourself upwards to millions, even billions of meters. See also Limits. Double-tap run If you don't want to always run, you can make your avatar walk or run with use of your arrow keys. Double-tap and hold the up arrow key to run forward. Tap and hold the up arrow key again to walk. This feature gives a more realistic appearance to avatar movement. To enable double-tap run: Open Me > Preferences to open the PREFERENCES window. Click the Move & View tab. Check the Tap-tap-hold to run checkbox. Using vehicles In Second Life, there are many kinds of vehicles, from realistic sports cars to fantastical spaceships. You can browse and buy from thousands of vehicles on the Marketplace. Vehicle operation varies widely; consult each vehicle's specific manual, or ask the creator for help. You can however operate most vehicles by right-clicking and selecting the appropriate option. Your avatar is seated in control of the vehicle, and the same directional keys used to control your avatar are now operating the vehicl, as shown in this video: Driving a vehicle from Torley on Vimeo. All capable vehicles are scripted; there is an amazing array of possibilities. Vehicles come in physical and non-physical varieties (although some can "switch" from one to another as-needed for specific purposes, like dampening the adverse effects of region crossings). Physical v. non-physical vehicles Physical vehicles behave according to Second Life's physical rules. For example, if you drive a car over a ledge, it may coast for awhile due to the momentum propelling it forward, but gravity acts upon it until it hits the ground. Physical vehicles must be 32 prims or fewer (see Limits). This prim economy makes vehicle-creators quite savvy and resourceful about how each prim is used in vehicle's overall construction. Non-physical vehicles can be 256 prims or fewer (see Limits), including the driver and passengers, each of which counts as a prim. Since non-physical vehicles are not affected by physics, their motion may appear stilted and stiff, although their visual appearance may be more detailed. This generally makes "non-phys" vehicles a better choice for floating UFOs and large warships which don't need to interact with collisions and other kinetic behaviors. The best way to understand is to learn, so try out various vehicles of each type. Where to use vehicles Your vehicle can go just about anywhere your avatar can go. To rez a vehicle, you need to find a buildable parcel of land (make sure that there is no icon in the menu bar that shows a prim with a slashed red circle on top of it). There are many public roads and waterways constructed by Linden Lab to enjoy traveling on. Some of these are marked as Protected Land (shown as the parcel name in the menu bar); others have been crafted by the Linden Department of Public Works. Scripting a vehicle If you are interested in learning how to script a vehicle yourself, the Linden Vehicle Tutorial is a good place to start. Troubleshooting avatar movement If your avatar begins moving erratically or uncontrollably: Try logging out of Second Life and restarting the program. If that doesn't work, try right-clicking on yourself and selecting Take Off > Detach All to remove your attachments. Then, try relogging. Scripted attachments have the ability to affect your avatar's movement, so always try to make sure you know what you are attaching to yourself! If you have dropped an object on the ground which is animating your avatar, follow these steps to stop the animation: Locate the rezzed object. Right-click on it and select Take. Locate the object in your inventory, right-click on it and select Wear. Detach the object. A simple wear-and-detach can often "reset" unexpected scripting problems in attachments. If that still doesn't work, try unplugging your modems and routers for a full minute, then plug them back in and log back into Second Life. If you get stuck in something (like a box or a cage): Look for the ground or an object in the open. Right-click on it and select Sit Here. It takes a few seconds, and you may hear some bumping noises, but your avatar should magically fly out of there soon enough. If that doesn't work, remember that you can always teleport somewhere else to escape!

What are notifications? Some actions or events in Second Life can deliver information to you by displaying a notification. A notification is a brief message that appears in the Second Life window and then automatically disappears after several seconds. Some notifications, such as Linden dollar (L$) transaction notices, system messages, friend invitations, and group notices, are saved and may be viewed at any time by pressing the envelope button that appears at the top right corner of the Second Life window. The notifications window The Notifications window allows you to view your notification history. Open it by pressing the envelope button that appears when you receive a new notification. The notifications are sorted into four tabs: System - Displays general notifications, such as inventory transfers and friendship status changes. Transactions - Displays notifications that result from Linden dollar (L$) transactions. Invitations - Displays group invitations. Group - Displays notices from groups you are in. Remember that attachments to group notices still expire after a time. If these attachments are important to you, you should open them as soon as possible. Each notification in the list can be individually expanded or collapsed by clicking the arrow at the bottom right of the listing. You may also use the Collapse all button to collapse any expanded notifications. If a notification requires your input, you may click it in the Notifications window to interact with it. Once you resolve a notification in this way, it is dismissed from the list. You may delete notifications from the list by clicking the x button at the upper right of each listing. Alternatively, you may click the Delete all button to delete all notifications in the current tab.

Movement View Communicate System General For advanced users Shortcut keys differ between PC (Windows and Linux) and Mac not just in Second Life, but across applications in general. PC shortcuts are indicated in the tables below. For your convenience, here's a table showing how modifier keys for keyboard shortcuts translate between platforms: PC Mac Ctrl Cmd ⌘ Alt Opt ⌥ Shift Shift Right-click Right-click (Ctrl-click with a single-button mouse) Movement Walk forward W or ↑ Walk backward S or ↓ Turn left A or ← Turn right D or → Run Double-tap W or ↑ (forward); S or ↓ (backward) Always run Ctrl+R Jump E or PgUp (Tap once) Toggle flying F or Home Fly up Hold E or hold PgUp Fly down Hold C or hold PgDn View Mouselook M Reset View Esc Look at Hold Alt and click mouse to re-center Zoom in Ctrl+0 Zoom default Ctrl+9 Zoom out Ctrl+8 Zoom camera in Alt+↑ Zoom camera out Alt+↓ Orbit up Alt+Ctrl+↑ Orbit down Alt+Ctrl+↓ Orbit left Alt+Ctrl+← Orbit right Alt+Ctrl+→ Pan up Alt+Ctrl+Shift+↑ Pan down Alt+Ctrl+Shift+↓ Pan left Alt+Ctrl+Shift+← Pan right Alt+Ctrl+Shift+→ Communicate Friends Ctrl+ Shift+F Local chat history Ctrl+H Look at last speaker Ctrl+\ Gestures Ctrl+G Previous message entered* Ctrl + ↑ Next message entered* Ctrl + ↓ *Available in Nearby Chat, Group Chat, and Instant Message windows. System Undo Ctrl+Z Redo Ctrl+Y Cut Ctrl+X Paste Ctrl+V Duplicate Ctrl+D Select all Ctrl+A Deselect Ctrl+E Close window Ctrl+W Close all windows Ctrl+ Shift+W General Preferences Ctrl+P Help F1 Search Ctrl+F World Map Ctrl+M Mini-map Ctrl+ Shift+M Teleport home Ctrl+ Shift+H Inventory Ctrl+I Build Ctrl+B Upload image Ctrl+U Take snapshot Ctrl+ Shift+S Quit Second Life Ctrl+Q For advanced users It is possible to remap the Second Life Viewer's keyboard controls, but be aware that the procedure is risky and can compromise the Viewer's functionality. To learn more, read our wiki article on Keyboard mapping.

Questions about searching How do I use the search window? What is the difference between the Everything tab and the other tabs? Why doesn't the Everything tab show what I searched for? Is search functionality available on the web? What about search in Viewer 1.23? Why don't I see the item I'm looking for? Why am I getting an error that some search terms have been removed from my query? Why isn't my last search showing? What's included in the Everything tab of the Search window? How can I search classified ads only? How do I sort search results alphabetically? Can I use Boolean operators or other advanced search techniques? Can I filter search results by maturity rating? Do searches match partial words? Privacy concerns Land parcels Groups Profiles Objects What happens when I transfer an object set to show in search? Events Questions about creating search listings Why is my listing lower than it should be? Why isn't my listing shown? Why isn't my event or Destination Guide listing on the home page? Why are search results so different with newer Viewer versions? What do I do if I can’t find my parcel or region when I search for it? Why can’t I find Events in "Everything"? Why do you hate me, my store, my parcel, my friend? Are objects on "private land" that are set for sale included in search? Do objects with the default name "Object" affect results? What about things inside a vendor? Are people able to use a search result teleport link to access a private parcel? When are search results updated? How do I list my land as a rental? Create a classified ad Set land category Set parcel description Questions about searching How do I use the search window? The Second Life search window has four top-level sections: Events - Displays events that are currently in progress. You may teleport directly to the events or click through for more information. Destination Guide - The guide lists inworld locations hand-picked by Linden Lab and sorted into a wide variety of categories. See What is the Second Life Destination Guide? for more information. Land & Rentals - Lists prominent real estate offerings. Classifieds - Shows top classified ads. This section is always visible at the bottom of the search window home screen, no matter what other tab you have selected. See Classifieds FAQ for more information on classified ads. Once you enter a search term and press Enter or Search, you may filter your search results using the tabs on the left side of the window: Everything Classifieds Events Destination Guide Groups Land & Rentals People Places Check a Maturity rating to filter results to GENERAL, MODERATE, or ADULT content. What is the difference between the Everything tab and the other tabs? The Everything tab combines results from multiple collections to bring you relevant results from a variety of sources. The other tabs restrict your query to that single collection only. Why doesn't the Everything tab show what I searched for? Everything search finds items listed in People, Places, and Groups, depending on relevance. When searching for people in Everything, you must enter their full names. If you do not know the full name, use thePeople category. Note: A Resident's full info appears in search results only if he or she has checked Show me in Search results in Me > Preferences > Privacy. Is search functionality available on the web? Search results are available to the public; anyone with a Web browser can view results athttp://search.secondlife.com/. External search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, and Google may also pick up the search results, although we're not explicitly asking search engines to crawl them at this time. It's important to remember that this information is not tied to your real life identity and is the same information anyone can access with a free Second Life account. What about search in Viewer 1.23? Viewer 1.23's search feature still mostly works, but All and Group searches no longer work in Viewer 1.23. Why don't I see the item I'm looking for? Results on the Everything tab are ranked differently than on the other tabs, so the results are shown in a different order. It may be that the item you are looking for is ranked either higher or lower than on other tabs. Why am I getting an error that some search terms have been removed from my query? There are content restrictions that affect search results in all of Search. Certain words are not allowed in search, or are only allowed if you are an adult at least 18 years old and have set your preferences to see adult content. Why isn't my last search showing? Your last search is shown if you reopen the search window within 15 minutes of running your query. Otherwise the search home page is shown. What's included in the Everything tab of the Search window? Places People Groups Note: Classifieds are shown in a separate column in search results on the right. How can I search classified ads only? To search only classified ads, choose Classifieds from the dropdown menu next to the search field. Search results are listed in descending order of the price the Resident paid for the ad. How do I sort search results alphabetically? On most tabs, you can filter search results by choosing a sorting method from the Sort by dropdown menu. You may not sort Land & Rentals or Everything in this way. Can I use Boolean operators or other advanced search techniques? No, you cannot use Boolean operators when searching Second Life. Can I filter search results by maturity rating? To filter search results by maturity rating, check the boxes for General, Moderate, and Adult in the Search window; for more information, see Maturity Ratings and search. To view Adult search results, you must be at least 18 years old. Do searches match partial words? No. However, you can use an asterisk * as a wildcard character for searches on the People tab. For example, a search for Jer* Lin* returns "Jeremy Linden" and any other matching results. Privacy concerns You can specify what's included in search. For the initial population of the search, we made some assumptions for the default settings of each type of result (explained below). You can change the default after it has been set, although it may take one to two days before changes are reflected in the search results. Due to the nature of search indexing, we cannot make any guarantees about when changes will appear. Be aware that search results are available to the public; anyone with a web browser can view them from the proper search page. External search engines like Yahoo and Google may also pick up search results, but we are not explicitly asking search engines to crawl them at this time. It is important to remember that Linden Lab does not tie this information to your real life identity. However, if you provide real life information in any of the content types indexed by All search, it could be viewed by people via the Web as well as by anyone with a free Second Life account. Land parcels Warning: There is a L$30 per week fee to show your parcel in search. Parcels must be at least 128 square meters in order to appear in the All Results or Places search. Do not spend L$30 to list parcels smaller than 128 square meters, since they won't be listed! By default, land parcels do not appear in search results. To make a parcel appear in search results: Right click on the parcel and select About Land or choose World > Place Profile >About Land. Select the Options tab. Check Show Place in Search. Select a Category from the drop-down list. Groups If you are an officer or owner of a group, you can make the group visible in search results. Under My Groups / General, select the Show in search check box. Groups with fewer than two active members (that is, members who have logged into Second Life in the past 6 months) do not appear in search results. Profiles All Resident profiles are included in search by default. You can limit the amount of information others can search in your profile by unchecking the Show me in Search results check box in the PREFERENCES window, under the Privacy tab. When you do this, search results show only: Your avatar's name Your avatar's portrait You profile's maturity level, based on the maturity level of its content Objects The Show in Search option for an object is unchecked by default. To make an object visible in search: Right click on the object and select Edit. Click the General tab. Check Show in Search. What happens when I transfer an object set to show in search? Objects for sale and set to show in Search default back to the Show in search option unchecked for the purchaser of the object. Objects set to show in Search that are transferred to another Resident keep the Show in search option checked. The new object owner can uncheck this option. Note: For an object to be visible in Search, it must be on a parcel of land that has Show Place in Search checked. Events All events are automatically included in search in the Events tab. You can search on any information within the event details. Events also appear in search results on the Everything tab but have a reduced ranking; for the best results, use the Events tab. For more information on events, see Inworld events. Questions about creating search listings Why is my listing lower than it should be? The new search engine determines relevance of items differently than the old system. In comparison tests, Residents indicate that the new search engine results are more relevant three out of four times. If your listing is lower than you expect, make sure that your description is human-readable: avoid keyword stuffing. Refer to the Guidelines for creating search listings for more tips on how to affect your search ranking. Why isn't my listing shown? There are several reasons your listing may not be showing up: It may take up to six hours for new items to show in search. The "Everything" tab is a much stricter search than the other tabs; otherwise there would be too many results. When looking for Residents or places on the "Everything" tab, try searching for the full name. If your listing isn't shown in the expected category, verify that the Show in Search check box has been checked. Parcels for sale or rent show only if they are at least 512m2 in size. Why isn't my event or Destination Guide listing on the home page? The Events and Destination Guide listings on the home page only appear if they are currently active. Why are search results so different with newer Viewer versions? Viewer 1.x search looks only for the exact words you typed into the search field and returns results that contain all of those exact words. Searches using the current Second Life Viewer attempt to find matches using possible suffixes (-ing, -ed, -s) and other factors to determine the relevance of results before returning them to you in order of relevance. What do I do if I can’t find my parcel or region when I search for it? Please be aware that if you've created a new parcel or recently purchased one, it can take 2 days for it to appear in Search. Also, if you have split your parcel and it is less than 128 m2, it will not show in results. If you've changed the title or description of your parcel, you may need to wait up to two days for the change to be reflected in search rankings. Why can’t I find Events in "Everything"? Events receive a lower search ranking when shown in the Everything tab. Why do you hate me, my store, my parcel, my friend? We are not, in any way, punishing individual stores, listings, or residents in Search, and we have no plans to do so. The search system treats classes of content in the same way. For example, the maturity ratings system flags some content, but it flags all listings using the same criteria. Are objects on "private land" that are set for sale included in search? If your parcel is set not to show in Search, your objects will not be listed, even if they are set to show in Search. If your parcel is set to show in Search, your for-sale objects are listed on your parcel page and do affect your search ranking. Do objects with the default name "Object" affect results? The search system ignores all objects with the default name of "Object." What about things inside a vendor? Vendor kiosks must be explicitly set to Show in Search, the same as any other object to be included in search. From the server's perspective, a vendor is just a scripted object — it doesn't really know that the object is selling something. Likewise, it is not possible to search inside the vendor, although you could use the name and/or description of the vendor object to list keywords describing what's inside it. Are people able to use a search result teleport link to access a private parcel? Only if the private parcel owner has given them access. If the owner has enabled Show Place in Search, the parcel search results page shows links to the parcel and to the objects on the parcel. The object links allow people to find things on any parcel more easily, but the links do not circumvent privacy settings. When are search results updated? The pages on world.secondlife.com update within two hours of changes. Results shown in the Viewer update in less than 8 hours. How do I list my land as a rental? You have three options to list a land rental that appears in search: Classified ad Set land category in About Land window Set the parcel description In addition, if you are an estate owner listing a rental on a private estate, you need to set the parcel for sale. We recommend that you set the price as the weekly rental price and disclose any other setup fees or deposits in the description. Warning: Do not set your parcel for sale if you are on the mainland and you want it to be shown as a rental. Any mainland parcel that is set for sale will show up in the Sale section and can be purchased by another Resident. Create a classified ad Create a classified ad on the parcel in the Land Rental category. Either click "Create a Classified" in the search page or: Choose My Profile > MY PICKS. Click the "+" near the bottom of the panel. Choose New Classified. Then: For Category, select Land Rental. Fill in other information. Click Publish. Set land category In the SL Viewer: Choose World > Place Profile > About Land. Click the OPTIONS tab. Set the Category dropdown to Rental. Be sure Show Place in Search is also checked. Set parcel description Choose World > Place Profile > About Land. Click the GENERAL tab. Use any one of the following phrases (case insensitive) in the parcel's Name or Description: Parcel for Rent Mainland Rental Estate Rental Homestead Rental Land Rental Private Estate Rental

Setting your preferences Getting help Resetting graphics preferences Turning off particles The Avatar impostors feature Setting your preferences Choose Me > Preferences or Ctrl-P to set the preferences that control how the Second Life Viewer runs. The preferences window has the following tabs: General - language, maturity preferences, start location, away timeout. Graphics - quality and speed of graphics display; advanced settings. Sound & Media - volume controls, media auto-play, chat settings, input/output devices. Chat - text chat settings, automatic translation, Move & View - view angle and distance, mouselook settings, double-click preference. Notifications - control if and how you're notified when certain events happen. Colors - chat text colors, text opacity. Privacy - whether you appear in search results, who can see you're online, chat log location settings. Setup - cache location and size, web browser settings, whether updates are installed automatically. Advanced - UI text size, multiple Viewers, extra menus. Getting help To get detailed information on each of the fields in the preferences window, simply click the "?" button at the upper right corner of the window to display online help. Using multiple computers You can log in to your Second Life account from any computer. Since your account is stored on the Second Life servers, the Second Life Viewer will have access to your inventory, your friends, groups, your last location inworld, and so on. However, your preferences are stored separately on each system. That means that if you use Second Life on more than one computer, you must set your preferences on each computer. Resetting graphics preferences You can reset your graphics preferences to the way they were when you first installed Second Life by forcing the viewer to auto-detect your graphics hardware and adjust your graphics settings accordingly. To reset your graphics preferences to their original, default values: Choose Me > Preferences Click on the Graphics tab. Click Reset Click OK. Turning off particles Particles are often used for environmental enhancements like fire and smoke as well as laser light shows.To turn them off, choose Advanced > Rendering types > Particles to deselect display of particles. The Avatar impostors feature Avatar Impostors is a performance-improving feature that renders distant avatars more "cheaply" — instead of being drawn in full 3D as usual, impostors are two-dimensional, like cardboard cutouts. This means they look rougher around the edges and aren't affected as fluently by inworld effects like lighting, but it may be worth it for the Viewer FPS (Frames Per Second) you gain, making your overall Second Life experience smoother. This is especially noticeable in large crowds, so go to a popular club or hot event and compare before/after. Avatar Impostors is usually on by default. To toggle it on and off: Go to Me > Preferences > Graphics tab. Click the Advanced button at the bottom to show additional features. Under Avatar Rendering, enable or disable the Avatar impostors checkbox. The Avatars Physics slider (also found here) controls the relative distance at which avatars become impostors. Moving it to the right (High) means avatars become impostors at a further distance, which is preferable if you have a powerful computer. If Avatar Impostors is on, blocking a Resident render thems as a generic gray form: For more information, see Avatar Impostors tech details.