Ralph Johns

iChat Information Pages

iChat Icon

These iChat (Version 1) pages are coloured Blue and have the iChat (1) icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs from later ones by having the Running Man.  

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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superceded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

iChat 1 Pictures

You are In:- iChat >> Versions >> iChat 1 >> iChat 1 Pictures Index >> iChat 1 Preferences Index >> Top Of Buddy List
folder with UP and Back Arrow Disabled Back Arrow icon Next Arrow icon 1[4] 04 Top Of Buddy List Oct 2008
Top of Buddy List
1 Top of Buddy List

This is the Top of the Buddy List in iChat 1.

The Buddy List that Logs into the AIM Servers, whether you use an Apple Name or an AIM one, will say Buddy List at the top. The Rendezvous one will say Rendezvous across the top.

Generally speaking the Buddy list will try to expand height-wise to encompass all your Buddies. If you have more than can be fitted in or you adjust it to be shorter it will add a Scroll button - as can be seen on the right hand edge in the picture.

As the writing on the picture says you can toggle (click and click again) the displayed Name. In this version it shows the "Real Name" I have in the Address Book. The other one will display the current Logged in Screen Name you are using.

This can not be done to the Rendezvous Buddy List that will always display the name you call yourself in the Address Book. What this name is can be important if you have two Macs at home and have the same name as the Users Account with the same info in the Address Book at the Me Card. Rendezvous Chat will not be able to resolve this. I tend to edit the My Card in the Address Book so that will show something different on the least used compputer to answer Buddies on.

Just to the right of the tip of the arrow and under my name is the Word Available. Clicking this will bring up the option pane to change this to Away or a Custom choice for both Available and Away and an Edit choice. I will come on to more about this in the last picture in this series.

If you click on your Buddy Pic you can change it here as well. At first you see a Panel of Recent Pictures. At the bottom of that is an Edit option that allows you to navigate to any picture on your Hard Drive. In iChat (1) you will first get offered the same pictures as the User Accounts and Address Book use. If you choose your own pic then you can resize in iChat and the result is saved as a .tiff copy just for iChat.

THe next picture is Bottom part of the Buddy List

Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

©  Ralph Johns. Created October 2008

Revised and Edited Links and Content with corrections and updates Nov 19th 2024.

Information Block

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 superceded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

This 2024 Edit/Update does make some tense changes to the Contents but mostly it stands as written. The general purpose of the update was to move, as much as possible to HTML 5 compliance where I could.

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x

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

This Information Block will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

About This Page

A brief run down about what can be done at the top of the Buddy List.

Compatibility

As mentioned above this has had a major Edit/Update in September 2024 meaning that the Browsers listed below are likely to no longer work.

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.

The original pages worked 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) would only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.