The Buttons

Along the bottom of the screen, you'll see a number of buttons.

IM lets you Instant Message friends, groups, and people you meet.

Chat opens a chat bar you can use to talk to people nearby.

Friends pulls up your Friends list, so you can add people you know, view their profile, etc.

Fly lets your avatar take flight. (You can also use F or the Home key when you're not chatting.)

Snapshot takes a snapshot of the current screen, which you can save to Inventory or disk, or mail as a postcard to someone else.

Events allows you to view upcoming events.

Find opens a dialog to help you find people, places, groups, events, and other things in Second Life.

Mini-Map shows or hides the small map in the upper-right corner of your screen.

Map opens the World Map window to give you a bigger picture of where you are.

There's one more button to look at, in the lower-right corner of the screen: Inventory.

Inventory opens your Inventory -- your storage "bag" for everything from Friends' contact information, to landmarks, to outfits for your avatar.