Olila’s Second Life - Tutorials & Diary Diary & Tutorials

Did you get through the initial parts of Second Life?
Congratulations! Now you are a so called ‘Newbie’ in Second Life!

So maybe you wonder where to go and how to get around?

Help Island Public

The safest first stop in ‘the public parts’ of SL would be ‘Help Island Public’! This place look’s almost exactly as ‘Help Island’ - a place that might have been your very first stop in Second Life - but this place is open for everyone - not only new residents. Help Island is a really good place to get to know Second Life - lots of boards with tutorials.

What’s great about this place is that here you will always find friendly volunteers: ‘Second Life Mentors’. Ask them if you want help! You can spot the mentors by the title above their names. You may also meet older residents - not only official Mentors. These people just hang there sometimes because they like to help new residents out.

If you want to know how old a resident is, right-click that avatars body and choose ‘Profile’ on the pie-menu that pops up. That will open up that avatars Profile-window and there it is stated when he/she was born. Nooo! Not in real life, silly! SL-age of cource

Orientation Island Public

Another safe place to start is: ‘Orientation Island Public’. Here you can learn the basics and connect with other residents. Follow the arrows on the ‘walking-stones, touch the green ‘SL-eyes’ for notecards - if you want to learn some useful stuff.

This is a place for learning - and it’s open for everyone in Second Life (as you can see in the picture ).

You can visit this place whenever you want!

Welcome Areas

Many people start their SL mainland journey at a Welcome Area. There are several and they do look pretty much the same. ‘Welcome Areas’ are great for hanging out to begin with, since many new residents come there - and a lot of ‘Second Life Mentors’ visit these areas too.

Another great thing is that you can decide to ‘Set your home’ at a ‘Welcome Area’. After a while in SL you will discover that it’s great to have your home set to a place you have chosen yourself. More about that further down.

How to get to one of these places? Open up your inventory by clicking the ‘Inventory’ button at the bottom of your screen (to the right). Now open the Library-folder and the Landmark-folder inside. There you will find landmarks to all three. Right-click on a landmark and choose ‘Teleport’ and you will be taken there.

Environment Settings

Before you start getting around big time in the big SL world it can be useful to know about the ‘Environment Settings’.

Second Life has day and night just like in the real world (much shorter, though) and sometimes it can be hard to get around if you find yourself in a place ‘where the sun don’t shine’. (Oh my God - that sentence didn’t come out quite as expected… But to funny to delete! )

Here is how to change the sunlight in SL: Click ‘World’ at the top menu bar at your screen, select ‘Environment Settings’, then choose the light you want.

‘Midday’ creates a ‘midday light’ that is good for travelling around in SL, but be aware that sometimes ‘Region Default’ creates some really nice ‘Environment light’.

 You can also use the ‘Environment Editor’ and use the sliders to set the daylight to exactly what you want - and make you look your best if you want to take pictures

Teleporting, Search, Landmarks & SLURL’s

To move around in SL your avatar isn’t going to burn any calories! That’s because the best way to move from place to place is by Teleporting. Wish I could do that in real life (RL) sometimes - so much less expensive than taxi’s!

Search

If you want to find places to go to in SL one way is to use the ‘Search-button’ at the bottom of the screen. That will open up the search-window.

Here you can search for a number of things by opening different tabs - like people by typing their names. But for places: Open the tab named… Well: Places!

Now search for something you like to find! Like ‘Nightclub’, ‘Nude beach’, ‘Bikinis’ ‘Romance’, ‘Animations’, ‘Wedding’, ‘Education’, ‘Hair’, ‘Shoes’, ‘Clothes’, ‘Lingerie’, ‘Art’, ‘Shapes’, ‘Eyes’…

Or maybe for a certain place like Olila’s Yardsale ?

Type ‘Olilas’ and press ‘Search’. Highlight the Yardsale. A window with a picture I took and some information I wrote will show. At the bottom of this window you will find a ‘Teleport-button’. Press it and you are on your way! Simple as that!

Landmarks

When you travel around SL you can create a landmark when you like a place - that will make it easier for you to find if you want to get back later!

How to create a landmark for yourself when you are in a certain place: Click ‘World’ at the top menu bar at your screen, select ‘Create Landmark Here’.

This will put a landmark in your ‘Inventory’. You will find it in the folder named ‘Landmarks’. Whenever you want to get back to a place: Right-click (or double-click) on the landmark and choose ‘Teleport’. Click ‘Teleport’ in the pop-up-window and you will be taken there.

SLURL’s

There are lots of webpages that write about Second Life. Really common is that nice people want to give you advice about great places to visit or shops in SL that sell great stuff.

On webpages you can find something called: SLurl’s. That’s a weblink (url) to another webpage that will help you Teleport to the right place inside Second Life.

Press the link on the webpage and you will be taken to a SLurl-page with a map and a teleport-button.

Press the button and the Teleport-window will open up on your Second Life Screen inworld. Press the Teleport-button and teleport! For this to work you have to be logged in to Second Life or you will be asked to log in.

This is a SLurl to Olila’s Yardsale: SLurl: Philereme/244/87/56

There is a LOT more to learn about SLurl’s. Here you will find a SLurl video tutorial by Torley Linden. Linden? As in Linden Labs - the company that runs Second Life? Yes! Linden Lab employees have ‘Linden’ for a surname!

InfoHubs

In SL you can find places called ‘InfoHubs’. InfoHub-places always provide you with an ‘information-spot’ where you can pick up useful knowledge about SL.

To find InfoHub’s - search for them in Search / Places.

Many New Residents hang at InfoHubs because there you can ‘Set your home’… However it has to be an ‘InfoHub’ on the mainland to be able to do that! Read on…

Set your home

You can ‘Set Home’ in SL on: ‘Your own land’, a ‘Welcome Area’ or a ‘Mainland InfoHub’.

Pick a Welcome Area or an InfoHub you like - because it can be really useful having a public place to call home in Second Life before you own your own land! And here is why:

• If you ever find yourself in a situation you want to get away from - the fastest way is to TP (teleport) ‘Home’. Press Clrl-Shift-H and you will find yourself in a familiar area. Home sweet home!
• Sometimes places in SL are really crowded, so crowded that your client-program shuts down. Then you probably want to log right back in to SL - but if you use the default settings you will start at ‘My Last Location’. To avoid returning to that same over-crowded place and get shut down again you can change your ‘Start Location’ before you log back in. The easiest way is to choose ‘My Home’.

This is how to ‘Set home’ in SL:

Visit the place you like to set as your home. Click ‘World’ at the top menu bar at your screen.

Select ‘Set Home to Here’ and you’re done

This is how to change your ‘Start Location’:

Open your client-program. Before you log in: Click ‘Edit’ at the top menu bar at your screen and select ‘Preferences’ (or press Ctrl-P).

At the tab ‘General’ change the ‘Start Location’ to ‘My Home’ - and you’re done :). When you log in you will arrive at your home location.

Sandboxes

Before you own land you will sooner or later have to visit a ‘Sandbox’. At a Sandbox everyone is allowed to build, not only the landowner as in most locations. That means that you are allowed to create and ‘rez’ objects there. And that is in many cases necessary when you start buying things. To open a box containing stuff you bought you have to place it on the ground (rez it) to be able to get that stuff into your inventory.

This is what Linden Labs (the company that runs Second Life) say about Sandboxes:

“The Linden sandboxes are provided so that those without land, or those who need more space to build than their parcel allows, have a place to create in. They can be found by opening the Map Window and typing ’sandbox’ into the region search. There will be several to choose from. Once you have selected one, you can click the Teleport button to go there.”

It can be really interesting to look around sandboxes and get an idea about what people are up to… And sometimes… NOT!

You can also find Sandboxes provided by other residents. If you want to find one of those: Use the Search window to find them.

IMPORTANT! Sandboxes are automatically cleaned many times a day. They are often crowded and may go down so you have to take backups of your work so that you don’t lose anything. And if you leave the sandbox without your stuff thinking you will get back there in 5 minutes - mean while someone could have built something over the TP point so you can’t get in… Accidentally or on purpose…

Final words : )

If you ever need help about something in SL you can press F1 or visit the Support at Linden Labs Official Second Life website.

If you want to find more Newbie-Hangouts: Check the Inworld Locations for Volunteers at Second Life Wiki website.

See you ‘around’ He he! :)

Find All ‘Newbie’ Tutorials

« 1: First steps of Second LifeNewbie Tutorial 3: Buy stuff & Unpack boxes »

 

Updated: August 2009