Are there keyboard shortcuts for responding to messages or hails?
or must one always type /msg...

How does one respond to a hail? does one hail back (/hail "name" blah blah) or should it be a message, as in a private message?

Hails are only a shortcut for sending a fixed message PM to your target. You can auto-reply to the last person to send you a PM by pressing TAB on an empty chat bar. Names can also be auto-completed by typing part of the name and then pressing TAB.

thanks.

so if I'm hailed I can quickly reply by using TAB?
I assume then that Hail will count as a PM

Yep, just be sure to open the chat bar first before pressing tab.

Thanks kierky, this is very helpful.

By chance does anyone know how this is done on a tablet?

The soft-keyboard we use on mobile has a "tab" button as well, works the same way. Plus, you can also soft-define the macro buttons to be different common canned responses, if you want.

No, it doesn't work the same way, Incarnate. Have you tried tab-completing names using tab on the droid versions? For multi part names you need to begin the name with " before it even let's you complete it. I think this is also the same for names which don't require quotes.

It's not the same on Android, even if you have a hardware keyboard like my phone it still won't tab-complete any name unless you begin it with a double quote. Even then it doesn't add the other quote at the end. The way it works on PC platforms is definitely less of a hassle.

More specifically, tab-complete on mobile requires a double-quote (") only if there is any text preceding the name to be completed.

> drau<tab>
-> draugath

> /msg drau<tab>
fails

> /msg "drau<tab>
-> /msg "draugath<space>

The fact that tab-complate doesn't put a trailing double-quote also creates more work for mobile users because in addition to having to put the first double-quote (3 extra button presses), they now have to backspace once and then add another double-quote (4 extra button presses).