Before 60: World of Warcraft Tips

World of Warcraft is a deep, complex game with a lot of configurable options to help make playing easier.

In addition, World of Warcraft supports user-made “User Interface Modifications” which are also called “Addons” or “Mods” when talked about online. These Addons are designed to make playing easier, by presenting information in a more useful way than set by default, or by bringing the ability to execute specific commands further up front for player access.

This entry is NOT about the user-made Addons, it’s about the configurations available through a basic World of Warcraft installation which has been updated to the latest patch-level. In other words, if you’ve got the game installed and have successfully created a character and logged in at least once, you’ll be able to change these configurations without downloading any additional files.

In addition, since these configurations are part of the base game, players may revert back to original configuration at any time with ease, and therefore there’s basically NO chance you could “screw up your game” by changing these configurations. On the other hand, if you were installing third-party user-made Addons, problems could occur that would leave the game virtually unplayable until part of the WoW file directory is deleted by you and recreated by the game’s re-start.

Now, let’s get into the configuration changes!  This is part one, about the Chat Window interface.
Chat Window

Personally, I find two things with my screen resolution:

• Text in the “General” chat window is too small

• Configuration change steps to change from 14pt to 18pt text:

• Left click in the chat window area to activate the chat tabs at the top
• Right click on the chat tab labelled “General”
• In the menu that pops up, left click on “Font Size” located under the yellow “Display” heading
• By default, 14pt has a checkmark beside it. If you click on 18pt, this will become the new font size setting
• You will need to make this change with every toon you play, as the configuration is not a global setting.

Configuration change steps to move the position of the General and Combat chat windows:

• Left click in the chat window area to activate the chat tabs at the top
• Right click on the chat tab labelled “Combat”
• In the menu that pops up, left click on the top selection - “Unlock window”.  If “Lock window” is your only choice, skip this step.
• Left click on the Combat tab and drag the chat window to its new location on your screen. (you can also move the General tab this way, click-drag on the tab of an unlocked window)

Configuration change steps to resize the boundaries of existing chat windows:

• Left click in the chat window area to activate the chat tabs at the top
• Right click on the chat tab of the chat window you want to resize
• In the menu that pops up, left click on the top selection - “Unlock window”.  If “Lock window” is your only choice, skip this step.
• Now that the chat window is unlocked, experiment with left-click-and-dragging near the edges and corners of the chat window, until you are comfortable with resizing the window and have it set the way you want it.

Completing Chat Window Changes 

After you’re satisfied with any location and sizing changes you’ve done, be sure to Right click on the appropriate chat tab and select “Lock window”.  Leaving your chat window in an unlocked state means the windows can get in your way while playing (resizing the chat window by accident when you’re fighting for example), and I’ve been known to accidentally delete a chat window…

There’s more on this topic, I’ll post another entry soon about what to do if you accidentally delete the General or Combat chat window in World of Warcraft, and want to get them back!