I've sent more mis-tells/mis-channel messages in the past few days of CO than I have in the entire year I've spent on EVE Online. I'm not blaming the game; it's more or less me not getting my stuff in order. It took me five days to figure out I needed to choose a channel with the drop-down menu on the bottom left; before that I was typing into local and wondering why no one seemed to hear me. So, for the sake of all the community, I want to ask your opinions on how I should set this up. Roleplaying puts a bit more emphasis on the chat system, so you can probably help me more than the official forums will.

First off a question: exactly how far is local chat? I know it's short ranged - shorter than a character can see, but how far exactly? Fifty feet?

Next, how do you guys set up the chat window, and what tabs do you use? Right now mine is a mish-mash setup with the three starting tabs (Chat, NPC and Combat), plus two tabs dedicated to CORP and Champion RP respectively, and lastly a Team tab with local also on. It works, but I have a few problems. I'm use to chat tabs in EVE blinking when there's a new message; CO doesn't do that, so I end up missing a ton of stuff. I'm going to add an 'observer' tab with fairly much everything besides Zone, NPC and Combat on so I don't miss out on one channel.

Any tips?

On chat distance: I think local's range is about as far as average ranged attacks (30 yards, wasn't it?). There's an easy way to check it, though: go into Club Caprice and look for people talking at a swift pace. Approach these people, then back away in a straight line until you can't hear them anymore. Tada, you've discovered chat range.

I found that the tab behaviour changed just recently.
Before, it would keep the current channel no matter which tab you were on. Now it seems to change channel to the last used channel for that tab, when you change tabs. This is better in the long run, but may be the cause of some of the confusion.

Other than that, I have about the same setup as you. I moved Zone and other fastmoving channels to a specific Spam tab though. I only look there when there's nothing else going on.