Usually you can add an avatar to your Online Notifier by either selecting their name from the menu (if they’re nearby) or by typing their name. If you type their name then the tool attempts to convert it to an avatar key by using a key lookup service on the internet. This is required because Second life does not provide a built-in way of achieving this.

The database of keys contains a huge number of avatars, but not all. If an avatar is not found in the database then you’ll receive a message like “name could not be found in the key database”. If you receive this message then you have two choices. You can either ensure they’re nearby when adding them (guaranteed to work), or you can obtain the avatar key yourself. The following steps explain how to do this:

Tip: Another possible reason for receiving this message is when you’ve mistyped the avatar name. To ensure you have the name exact you can copy/paste it from their Profile page.

• Step 1: Click the “Search” button in Second Life.
• Step 2: Ensure the “All” tab is selected. THEN also ensure the “People” drop-down option is selected.
• Step 3: Do a search for the avatar name.
• Step 4: Click on the avatar name.
  Note: Ignore the “Resident Profile” result. Click on the standalone name.
• Step 5: Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a message like:
  Link to this page: http://world.secondlife.com/resident/1fd0f162-7d93-42a6-9299-4db3d3ca3c46

  The key is shown at the end of the url there, so in this case the avatar key is “1fd0f162-7d93-42a6-9299-4db3d3ca3c46”. Copy it to the clipboard.

• Step 6: Add an avatar to your Online Notifer, and instead of typing an avatar name simply paste the avatar key instead.

Alternatively, if all else fails and you really do need an avatar on your list, you can do the following steps. This is guaranteed to work but I’ll warn you up front it’s quite fiddly.

• Step 1: Ensure you have the “Advanced” menu option showing in Second Life. If you do not see it press Ctrl+Alt+D to toggle it on. It will appear right next to the “Help” menu.
• Step 2: Select from the menu: Advanced > Consoles > Debug Console. You should see an ugly block of weird text on your screen now.
• Step 3: Click “Search” and ensure the “All” tab is selected. Do a search for the avatar name and click the name to view their Profile page. Now you can close the Profile/Search dialogs!
• Step 4: If you look closely at the debug text you’ll see a new line like:
  INFO: dispatch: url: secondlife:///app/agent/1fd0f162-7d93-42a6-9299-4db3d3ca3c46/about

  Or:

  INFO: onLocationChange: http://world.secondlife.com/resident/1fd0f162-7d93-42a6-9299-4db3d3ca3c46

  You’ll notice that the key is shown in the URL. In this example it’s “1fd0f162-7d93-42a6-9299-4db3d3ca3c46” (That’s my own avatar key! You’ll see the key of the avatar you searched for obviously)

• Step 5: Add an avatar to your Online Notifier as you would normally, but instead of typing the avatar name just copy/paste the key you obtained from step 4. You may have to re-type the key out manually – yes I know it’s a pain!