Faster Direct Messages on Twitter via Firefox

Overview

Direct Messaging is a key feature within the Twitterverse. There are times when email is too slow, txt is too abstract and IM is not available. Twitter DMing is a solid fit. While it does have it inadequacies, many people rely on direct messages daily. The pulldown menu on the direct message page is not the best way to find the person you want to direct message. ul.timate.info has 2 quick and easy ways to send direct messages on Twitter, via autocomplete in the timeline and by right-clicking a user's screen name on the timeline and composing the message on the existing direct message compose page.

Why?

While I, personally, don't use direct messaging too often, the times that I do, I am commonly coming from a recent post on the timeline or via someone's web page. It seemed like a natural feature addition to ul.timate.info.

How to Use

1. Right-click a user's name
   • Using the mouse or trackpad, mouse over a Twitter screen name (or even their Twitter link on any web page)
   • Right-click on the link
   • Scroll down and select "Direct Message"
   • You'll be immediately taken to the Direct Message compose page
2. Auto-complete from your Twitter homepage
   • Click the text field under "What are you doing?"
   • Enter the letter "d"
   • Press the SPACE bar
   • Enter the "@" symbol and begin typing the user's name
   • As soon as you think you've typed enough to auto-complete the name, hit the TAB key and the name will auto complete. If there is more than one match, all of the matches beginning with the fragment you've entered will display in a popup modal window. To select one, click the person's name and it will populate in the status field.
   • Press the SPACE bar and continue to type your direct message
   • Press the "send" button
   • Your direct message will be sent.