Before you visit the island there are a few things you need to take care of first, on this page, we'll run through each of them in turn.
Please note: Parts of this guide were originally written by Gemma Mclean & have been reproduced and built upon here with her permission.
Download and install Quicktime
Quicktime is required by Second life to show web content in the 3D world - we make extensive use of this feature on our island so you will need to have Quicktime installed on your PC/Mac.
You can download and install it for free via Quicktimes website: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
For a step by step guide on how to do this, please watch the video below, or click here to view it in high res.
Create a second life account
Please note: In this section we are assuming that you are creating your second life account from your home PC.
If you have any concerns about this then please contact a member of the SHSS TELLS team who can guide you through this process.
If you have not already done so, you need to make a Second Life account in order to use Second Life.
In this section we’ll show you how to do this: - Go to the Second Life Website: http://www.secondlife.com
- Click on the “Get Started” button:
- The account creation form will appear, fill it in:
- Once the form is filled in, you’ll be sent an email to the email address that you provided in the form, it will read something like this:
Welcome to Second Life, <Your character name>! Please keep this email in case you need to retrieve your account name later.
Account Name: <Your character name>
CLICK HERE TO ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT.
https://join.secondlife.com/activate.php?id=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
If you are unable to click the above link, copy and paste it into your browser.)
Please check your email and then click on the link provided to activate your account.
Back to top.
Installing Second Life on a PC
In this section we will guide you through the process of installing Second Life onto your PC, assuming you have either been prompted to download Second Life, or have gone to the install page and clicked on the large orange button as shown above, you should now see the dialog box shown below:
- Click on the Run button:
- The Second Life Installer will now download:
- When it’s finished downloading, the installer will start automatically:
- Choose your preferred Language and then click on the OK button.
- You can now choose where to install Second Life, in most cases the default location will be fine:
- Second Life will now install, once it’s finished you will be asked if you wish to start Second Life now, click on the “YES” button to continue.
Installing Second Life on a MacPlease watch the video below to learn how to download and install Second Life on a Mac.
Configure the Second Life ViewerAs previously mentioned, we make extensive use of streaming media on the UWN SHSS island, so it's always good idea to tell second life to automatically play streaming media. The video below will show you how to do this:
Login to Second Life for the first timeYou are now ready to Enter Second Life, type your login details in the boxes provided on the main login screen and then click on the Log in button:
The first time you login, you’ll be asked to agree to the Second Life terms of use – click on the “I agree to the Terms of Service” option and then click the Continue button: You will now enter Second Life!! Back to top. Familiarise yourself with the Second Life Interface
The first time you enter Second Life with your new character, you will be placed in a training zone called "Help island".
It is strongly recommended that you complete all of the tutorials on the island before you begin to explore the Second Life universe.
 The Help Island starting zone, all new avatars begin their Second Life journey here...
NB: If you would like a refresher, you can visit the public version of Help Island at any time via the following link:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public////?img=http%3A//farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/2067511471_389cec9521_o.jpg&title=Help%20Island%20Public
How to move aboutWalk using the forward and back arrow keys, and the left and right arrow keys to turn.
How to flyTo make your avatar airborne simply press and hold the ‘ page up’ key. Whilst airborne use the directional arrow keys to navigate as you would on foot. Press and hold ‘ page down’ to come back to ground level.  Flying is the fastest way to get about an island.Chatting to people
You can use the keyboard to chat to other people that you meet in Second Life.
Click the speech bubble button in the lower left corner of the screen to bring up the local chat text box.
Type text in to this text box and hit ‘enter’ to send what you’ve typed to everyone who is standing within a 10 meter range.
To view a history of what has been said, click the ‘local chat’ button.
 The following video shows the above steps in action:
Using voice chatWhilst you can type things into Second Life to communicate with others, it's much simpler if you use the built in voice chat feature. To use this you will need a microphone plugged into your computer - we recommend using a headset with a built in mic.
To learn how to use voice chat in Second Life, please watch the video below:
Touching Objects
Many objects can be interacted with in Second Life simply by touching them. This is done by left clicking on them with your mouse or right clicking on them and then selecting ‘touch’ from the circular menu.
Examples include clicking doors to open them, clicking buttons to activate them and clicking objects to interact with them in ways you would expect in real life (e.g. answering a telephone).
SittingTo sit on a chair or an object suitable for sitting on, simply right click on the part you wish to sit on (e.g. the flat part) and select ‘sit here’ from the menu. If there is a small ball on a chair, then select that part of the chair to sit on – this is called a poseball and will position your avatar nicely.
On the SHSS island we have made this process simpler, if you can sit on an object your mouse cursor will change into a little chair when you move your cursor over it. When this happens, just click the left mouse button and your character will sit on the chair in question.  To learn more, please watch the video below:
Standing Up
To stand up, simply click the ‘stand up’ button at the bottom of the screen.
This button only appears when you are sitting down.
Looking about
Second Life is a 3D world, and so it pays to have a look around your location so you on't miss anything of interest.
Watch the following video to learn how to use the camera controls so you can fully take in your surroundings:
One of the nice things about Second Life is that you can customise the appearance of your character to make it look more like you... or not!
The following video will show you how to do this:
Back to top. Editing your Second Life profileYour second Life character has a profile which is viewable to other people. You can edit this profile to prove more information about yourself to others. It's
especially useful if your Second Life name is very different to your
real name, as you can put your real name and a photgraph of yourself
in the "First Life" tab of your Second Life profile. Watch the video below to learn more about editing your profile:
Searching for places to visit
There are thousands of places for you to visit within Second Life, not just the school's island.
In the following video you'll learn how to search for places and visit them:
Back to top. Teleporting & Landmarks
Second Life locations are a bit like web pages, in that if you find one you like you can add it to your favourites list so that you can easily come back to it later.
The video below will show you how you can keep a record of your favourite locations by creating "landmarks".
Once you have watched the video, see if you can create a landmark of the School's island.
How to add people to your friends list
Second Life is designed to be a social tool - it's main function is that it allows people to interact with one another irrespective of where they actually are in the world. There may be times where you want to stay in touch with a person you've met in Second Life, these could be other members of staff in the school or students - or just random people you've met whilst exploring Second Life. In such cases you can add these people to your Second Life friends list - the advantage of this is that you will be able to see if they are logged in and also send them messages regardless of your characters location within the Second Life universe. Watch the following vide to learn how to add people to your friends list:
How to add people to your friends list
Click here to watch this in high res.Listening and watching lecture materialIn certain locations video and music/sounds become available. When this media is available, the media controls in the menu bar become ‘ungreyed out’. To listen to sounds click the play button by the musical note icon. To watch videos click the play button by the camera icon. Control the volume using the slider on the right hand side. Look out for video screens within Second Life – this is where the video will be screened once you’ve pressed play. An example of this can be see in our Lecture Theatre where you'll be able to listen and/or watch lecture material, click here to learn more about the school's Second Life lecture theatre.
Further Tutorials
In order for you to use Second Life effectively it's essential that you are comfortable with the user interface, the links below will take you to a 2 part tutorial in using Second Life - it is well worth a look:
Print out the Second Life controls
OpenVCE has kindly put together a "Cheat sheet" listing all of the keyboard & mouse controls for Second Life.
Slow computer? Run Second Life in "text only" mode
If your computer struggles to run Second Life then you can still access the island via METAbolt or Ajaxlife.net. Both provide a "text only" version of the Second Life viewer that lets you interact with people who are logged into Second Life without using the normal Second Life Software.
Your avatar will still be displayed in the 3D world though, so to all intents and purposes it looks as if you are logged in as normal to everyone else.
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