ralphjohns.co.uk/

Historical Document

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

I will make attempts to renew and refresh Links to either the most current site or use the Way Back Machine Archive so that people can at least look at what was used. I will make Edit Notes on this and on those where I can find no link to replace the older one as I go through the document.

iChat Preferences

iChat In Pictures >> You are in Folder 3_iChat Prefs >> Page: Messages

3[6]

3 Messages Prefs

02-10-2006

These are the changes you can make to the overall format of Messages in Text Chats.

They are the Bubble Colour for Incoming and Outgoing Buddies messages. The Font Style can also be changed as well as it's colour. Think about what is easy to read. White on Light Blue is not a good choice. You look towards light colours on dark Bubbles or vice versa. Also think how opposites work in graphic apps; blue with yellow, green with reds etc.

In many places only the Bubble colour is refered to but in fact whichever choice you chose to use in the Buddy chat is set by the choice here. In iChat 1 that is just the Bubbles and what is called Text which looks like a coloured band. In later versions these are expanded with Compact and Boxes that I don't have examples of. In a chat all but the Bubbles appear on the left for outgoing and incoming chats

The Background Picture you can set in the View menu when a Text Chat window is open will also be displayed here. In some versions a Pic can be dropped on here to change it as well. The Clear Background option in the View menu will delete the pic even if the Chat window is not open.

I have at least one Group chat a week and find it helpful to leave the incoming chats alone. This way you find that most people have already made their choice and it rarely clashes with other people in the chat.

The last option on this page is very useful. It saves your text chats upto the point they ended. I rarely close a window on someone who is testing. This way I get a long record of a continuous chat at my end as they go on and off line to check different settings. They get put in a folder that gets created when you select this option called iChats in your Documents folder so that they remain private from prying eyes.

Next:- Alerts

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Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

© 2005 Ralph Johns: Edited 24/9/2005, 5/5/2006
Updated September 2006
Updated October 2008. Reviewed and Updated to HTML 5 October 2024

Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x
Mostly this is kept as an Historical Document. Some small tense changes have been made but the content is by and large untouched.

It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.

The sections below will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

Options to This Page

To the right you can resize or colour the page as well as choose one of three Fonts.

About This Page

Number 3 in this series of the Preferences Screens - the Messages one.

This one is about how the Text Chat window looks in terms of Colours and Fonts as well as whether you Save the Chats.

Compatibility

Much of this page has been altered to be as HTML 5 compatible as possible. This may cause issues with any of the Browser below.

I have tested in Safari 18.1, Firefox 130.x and 131.0, Vivaldi 6.9.3447.48 and iCab 6.2.3 (All Mac Browsers) I don't have access to a PC let alone multiple browsers to test on.

Previously confirmed to work with Win/IE 5.5 and later (should work in 5.0, but not confirmed), Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, iCab 3.02 and later, Mac/IE 5, Netscape 6 and later

Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) may only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.