These iChat 4 pages are coloured Gray and have the iChat 4 icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs little from the Version 3 version.

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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Message and FaceTime. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

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iChat 4 Pictures Preferences

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04 Alerts Preferences

Nov 2008

4 Alerts Preferences

This is the iChat 4 Alerts Section of the Preferences.

This Pane could equally be called either Actions or Events, the latter based on the title of the First drop down and the former based on what actually happens.

Using the drop downs and the tick boxes you can set sounds for actions/events within iChat to have their own sound and/or spoken phrase.

In the second drop down are the iChat sounds. The drop down is also divided to show the System wide Alert sounds and any sounds you have in your ~/Library/Sounds folder.

Once chosen the sound is played in everyday use at the volume you have set in System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects tab for the System Alerts. It can seem louder when testing in iChat itself.

Next Changed and New. Not so much as changed but Added to. Apple have changed the Auto Accept item to include Text Chats, Audio only Chats, Video Chats and Screen Share Invites in addition to the Original File Sending acceptence one. These are stored in /Library/Scripts/iChat. (that is Hard Drive then Library). You can add your own to a Folder in ~/Library/Scripts/iChat (that is Hard Drive/Users/(Your home folder/Library/Scripts/).

Using the Open Scripts Folder will open your Home Folder/Library/Scrips/iChat where as Choose Script will open to the Apple ones in /Library/Scripts/iChat.

By looking at the ones created by Apple it is possible to create your own Specific ones for Video Chats on an Invite Starting and another for when it has Ended (Extract just the Video line and change the wording to change Status Message from Accepting) Clue:-

using terms from application "iChat"
	
	on av chat started
		set status to away
		set status message to "In Conference . . ."
	end av chat started
end using terms from

and (but not formatted)

using terms from application "iChat"
	
	on av chat ended
		set status to available
		set status message to "I was Busy but Now I am Not"
	end av chat ended
end using terms from

There is also a New Auto-Decline one and the New iTunes Controller one in the /Librabry/Scripts/iChat set.

A Changed item. The Spoken phrase, Announce When Event Occurs, is now a default for that action, such as the "(Buddy) has Logged in". The Buddy's name will be read as it is displayed in the Buddy List. The Voice used is whatever you have set in System Preferences > Speech. You can no longer change the phrase to read/say whatever you want.

Next - Audio/Video Pane

Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

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Created October, 2008 Major Update/Edit October 2024.

 ©  Ralph Johns. Created October 2008

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

About This Page

This is the pane that adds Sound and Speech to the Events or Actions that happen within iChat.

In the Events drop down you select an Action/Event. In the next you mark if it should play a sound and then select one from a drop down

As an added help you can make the iCon in the DOCK bounce to call things to your attention.

There is an Added AppleScript option. But the Announce item near the bottom no longer has the ability to type in the Speech you wanted the app to make.

Compatibility

As mentioned above this has had a major Edit/Update in September/October 2024 moving towards being fully HTML 5 compliant 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) should/may only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.

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