If you connect to more than one character or more than one MUD (using the Another Character menu command or the Connection Wizard), zMUD will put each character into a different window. This allows you to control multiple characters at once (called multiplaying and is banned on many MUDs).
The commands that you type in the command box are sent to the character window that currently has the focus. This is usually the window on top. You can change the currently focused window in several ways: select the window from the list given in the Window menu, select it from the "tablist" of windows shown at the bottom of the screen (just above the command line) when more than one window is open. You can also cycle through the open windows using the Ctrl-N or Ctrl-Tab keys.
Each window has a name associated with it. The default name for a window is the ID of your MUD character. You can change this name using the #NAME command.
To send commands to a different window, precede your command with name: where name is the name of the window you wish to get focus, and : is the focus character (which can be changed in the Preferences). The indicated window will be brought to the top and focused, and the command will be sent to that character. To send a command to a different window without changing the focus, precede your command with :name: where name is the name of the window you want to command sent to. In this case, your current window will be unchanged. If you do not specify any window name, and just enter :hi then hi will be sent to all windows.
Note that when referring to windows by name, you don’t have to spell out the entire name, just use enough characters to uniquely determine the window. For example, if you have a window named zugg, then typing z:hi is enough to send hi to the zugg window. You can also refer to windows by there number (shown next to the name in the Window menu). For example 1:hi sends hi to the first character window. Variables are also allowed before the colon. If the variable @tank contains the value zugg, then @tank:hi will send hi to the zugg window.
Note that you can also mix these focus commands within your command line. For example, entering zugg:eat;aurora:drink will send the eat command to zugg’s window, and the drink command to aurora’s window. Aurora’s window will have the focus at the end of this. Let’s look at some more examples to make this clearer. In all of these examples, assume that we have two windows, Zugg and Aurora, and that Aurora’s window currently has focus.
Finally, you can use tab completion to change window focus without sending any commands to the window. Typing zugg: and pressing <TAB> will give the zugg window focus and bring it to the top. The command buffer will then be cleared, awaiting commands to be sent to this window.
When you have more than one window open, each window is listed along the bottom of the screen in a "tab bar". Each tab shows the name of the window. If you move your mouse over the tab, more information about the window, such as the MUD name and character name will be shown. To activate a window, just click on a tab. This is the same as clicking on the window itself, or selecting it from the list in the Window menu.
To the right of the window name in each tab is an activity indicator. When the indicator is a simple circle, that indicates the current window that has focus. Other status indicators include:
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