I have never used chat before. Everyone writes like they've been doing chat for 20 years. Is there anyplace that someone who hasn't done chat before to learn how to do iChat? Where is the iChat tutorial on the web?
There's no good tutorial, but here are a few important tips for beginners.
When in a group chat, you won't be able to see other users' custom icons and custom available/away messages unless you add them to your buddy list. Here's a tutorial video for that:
Usually I'll just add *everyone* in the chat to my buddy list while chatting and then later after the chat if I feel my buddy list is getting too crowded, I delete some of them.
Also, note all the options in the View menu (also available if you right-click or control-click anywhere in the chat text). From there you can set things like name display, icons, balloons, etc.
Oh, and smilies. If you can remember them, the smilies are a lot easier to just type in rather than have to pick out of the menu. Here is what you would type for them:
You don't understand. I need step by step instructions on HOW TO SET THIS THING UP to begin with. I need to be treated as though I am BRAIN DEAD. Please. You are all way too experienced. Think STUPID. Think iChat for DUMMYs. PLEASE. STEP BY STEP. 1. open iChat. 2. What? 3. Then what? Nobody have that kind of time or patience to help?
Here's what I have to work with. I registered a screen name of "kunga1" at AIM.COM today but my email address is [email protected] so that's out of the realm right? I have a user name of 14 characters long registered at .mac "taylorbarcroft" email [email protected]. I never use the mac.com address. I don't even check my mail at that free account. I don't know how to check my mail at that account. I don't know how to use my free mac.com account. But I plan on giving Apple $49 for the next year at the end of the month anyway.
Arr, perfect time for AOL servers to crap out and stop accepting Mac.com accounts! WTF? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
"The Instant Messenger service cannot accept any more logins right now. Try again later."
*whew!* AIM came back online just before I was getting ready for bed.
Now, time for my tutorial/overview of iChat!
--------------------
The first time you launch iChat, you'll be greeted by a dialog like this:
Enter your account name and password in the fields provided. You can use either your mac.com information or your AOL information. It really doesn't matter. All the features will be the same regardless of which name you use.
Click OK.
You'll be asked if you want to turn on Rendezvous. Unless you are on a LAN with other iChat users, you should say no. If you decide at a later time that you want to change the rendezvous option, just open the iChat preferences.
iChat will then attempt to connect to AIM's service.
When connected, you will see your buddy list centered on the screen in the metallic window. At first, of course, you'll have no buddies in your buddy list. So, let's get started.
To join a chat room, once connected, choose "Go To Chat" from the File menu. From there, enter the chat room name. For AI, the name is simply appleinsider. A new window will pop up for this chat room and a drawer will slide out containing a list of the people in the chat room. From here, you can chat away! Type some text in the box and press enter to send.
As I mentioned in my previous post, though, you will not see other users' personal icons in a group chat unless you add those users to your buddy list (personally, I consider this a bug). There are two ways to do this. In the buddy list window itself, you can click the + icon at the bottom. From there, you can choose people from entries that are already in your address or you can click New Person and provide a specific user name. The other method is simple drag and drop. When you're in a chat, just open the participants drawer by clicking the little person icon, then drag the names into your buddy list window.
Once you've got some people in your buddy list, you can initiate a private chat with someone by double-click the person's name from the buddy list. If you have someone's name but don't want to add it to your buddy list, you can simply choose "New chat with person" from the file menu and you'll be prompted for the name to chat with.
Should you ever want to send a file to a person you're chatting with or post an image inline with the chat, you can do one of three things. You can click the paperclip icon in the IM window with the person to choose your file. You can drag the file and drop it into the text entry box of the IM window with the person. Press enter to send it once it's in the little box. You can also drag the file to the person's name in your buddy list or in the participants drawer of the chat. Note: you can not send a file to everybody in a chat room with many users. You must send the files individually to the users.
On a similar note, you can also drag an image into the main text area of a chat window to set it as the background. You can clear or change the background from either the View menu or by control-clicking in the main text area.
Also once you have a buddy list, you may wonder what the green, yellow, and red dots are for. Green indicates that the user is available for chat. Yellow indicates that they have been idle for an extended period of time (that they aren't even using the computer, moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard). The length of time the user has been idle is displayed by their name in a light grey text. Red means that the user has put up an away message, which also will be displayed by the user's name.
The display of the buddy list has minimal customization. All of the display options are available in both the View menu and the bottom left button with the lines on it. The options are self-explanatory.
The other buttons at the bottom of the buddy list from left to right are Show buddy info, Compose e-mail, and Send an instant message. Again, these are pretty self-explanatory. The e-mail button only works if the user has an e-mail address entry in your Address Book.
At the top of the buddy list is your name, your icon, and a status menu. The icon well makes for very quick and easy changes of your icon. If you have an icon set for yourself in the Address Book, iChat will use that. The standard size for this kind of icon is 48 pixels wide by 48 pixels tall. You can also drag and drop a picture there or if you've copied a picture to the clipboard, you can click in the image well and simply paste it in. If the image is too large, you'll get a dialog to scale and move it to fit.
The status menu it actually kind-of hidden. You probably won't even know it's a menu until your mouse rolls over it (this is a VERY bad UI design, but I'll leave my complaints about it to other threads ). Anyhow, the default status probably says Available. If you choose Offline, it will disconnect you. Choosing any other status will bring you back online. You can set custom away and available messages through that status menu. If you're in someone else's buddy list and you put a custom message up, they'll see it by your name.
Well, that covers the majority of iChat's functions. The only important things I haven't covered are your preferences. Again, most of these things are self-explanatory. Where the "my balloon color" option is, that also will set your background color if you or the other chat people choose not to use the balloon mode in chat.
If you have any other questions, feel free to IM me at [email protected]. I'm usually online during the evenings and sometimes on during the day as well (EST USA).
dang, boy, don't you ever sleep...the ai community thanks you for the long-winded post about a very simple program.... you are just such a helpful young man, and nice to your elders too....awwwww, your mother should be proud.... g
now if only you could get them to change AI over to vB i would support the movement to have you canonized by the catholic church...but then would we call you St. Brad or St. StarFleetX?
Comments
When in a group chat, you won't be able to see other users' custom icons and custom available/away messages unless you add them to your buddy list. Here's a tutorial video for that:
<a href="http://brad.project-think.com/movies/iChat-01.mov"; target="_blank">http://brad.project-think.com/movies/iChat-01.mov</a>; (only 300 KB)
Usually I'll just add *everyone* in the chat to my buddy list while chatting and then later after the chat if I feel my buddy list is getting too crowded, I delete some of them.
Also, note all the options in the View menu (also available if you right-click or control-click anywhere in the chat text). From there you can set things like name display, icons, balloons, etc.
:-p
:-D
=-o
:-*
>:o
:-$
:-[
:-!
O:-) (that's a capital O, not a zero)
:-X
:-\\
Here's what I have to work with. I registered a screen name of "kunga1" at AIM.COM today but my email address is [email protected] so that's out of the realm right? I have a user name of 14 characters long registered at .mac "taylorbarcroft" email [email protected]. I never use the mac.com address. I don't even check my mail at that free account. I don't know how to check my mail at that account. I don't know how to use my free mac.com account. But I plan on giving Apple $49 for the next year at the end of the month anyway.
"The Instant Messenger service cannot accept any more logins right now. Try again later."
Okaaaay. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Well, as soon as AOL gets its act together, I'll be able to finish the tutorial and post it.
sort of like AI not accepting anymore registrations?? perhaps gorganzola is in charge of updates and upkeep at AOL too.....
Now, time for my tutorial/overview of iChat!
--------------------
The first time you launch iChat, you'll be greeted by a dialog like this:
Enter your account name and password in the fields provided. You can use either your mac.com information or your AOL information. It really doesn't matter. All the features will be the same regardless of which name you use.
Click OK.
You'll be asked if you want to turn on Rendezvous. Unless you are on a LAN with other iChat users, you should say no. If you decide at a later time that you want to change the rendezvous option, just open the iChat preferences.
iChat will then attempt to connect to AIM's service.
When connected, you will see your buddy list centered on the screen in the metallic window. At first, of course, you'll have no buddies in your buddy list. So, let's get started.
To join a chat room, once connected, choose "Go To Chat" from the File menu. From there, enter the chat room name. For AI, the name is simply appleinsider. A new window will pop up for this chat room and a drawer will slide out containing a list of the people in the chat room. From here, you can chat away! Type some text in the box and press enter to send.
As I mentioned in my previous post, though, you will not see other users' personal icons in a group chat unless you add those users to your buddy list (personally, I consider this a bug). There are two ways to do this. In the buddy list window itself, you can click the + icon at the bottom. From there, you can choose people from entries that are already in your address or you can click New Person and provide a specific user name. The other method is simple drag and drop. When you're in a chat, just open the participants drawer by clicking the little person icon, then drag the names into your buddy list window.
Once you've got some people in your buddy list, you can initiate a private chat with someone by double-click the person's name from the buddy list. If you have someone's name but don't want to add it to your buddy list, you can simply choose "New chat with person" from the file menu and you'll be prompted for the name to chat with.
Should you ever want to send a file to a person you're chatting with or post an image inline with the chat, you can do one of three things. You can click the paperclip icon in the IM window with the person to choose your file. You can drag the file and drop it into the text entry box of the IM window with the person. Press enter to send it once it's in the little box. You can also drag the file to the person's name in your buddy list or in the participants drawer of the chat. Note: you can not send a file to everybody in a chat room with many users. You must send the files individually to the users.
On a similar note, you can also drag an image into the main text area of a chat window to set it as the background. You can clear or change the background from either the View menu or by control-clicking in the main text area.
Also once you have a buddy list, you may wonder what the green, yellow, and red dots are for. Green indicates that the user is available for chat. Yellow indicates that they have been idle for an extended period of time (that they aren't even using the computer, moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard). The length of time the user has been idle is displayed by their name in a light grey text. Red means that the user has put up an away message, which also will be displayed by the user's name.
The display of the buddy list has minimal customization. All of the display options are available in both the View menu and the bottom left button with the lines on it. The options are self-explanatory.
The other buttons at the bottom of the buddy list from left to right are Show buddy info, Compose e-mail, and Send an instant message. Again, these are pretty self-explanatory. The e-mail button only works if the user has an e-mail address entry in your Address Book.
At the top of the buddy list is your name, your icon, and a status menu. The icon well makes for very quick and easy changes of your icon. If you have an icon set for yourself in the Address Book, iChat will use that. The standard size for this kind of icon is 48 pixels wide by 48 pixels tall. You can also drag and drop a picture there or if you've copied a picture to the clipboard, you can click in the image well and simply paste it in. If the image is too large, you'll get a dialog to scale and move it to fit.
The status menu it actually kind-of hidden. You probably won't even know it's a menu until your mouse rolls over it (this is a VERY bad UI design, but I'll leave my complaints about it to other threads
Well, that covers the majority of iChat's functions. The only important things I haven't covered are your preferences. Again, most of these things are self-explanatory. Where the "my balloon color" option is, that also will set your background color if you or the other chat people choose not to use the balloon mode in chat.
If you have any other questions, feel free to IM me at [email protected]. I'm usually online during the evenings and sometimes on during the day as well (EST USA).
[ 09-13-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
now if only you could get them to change AI over to vB i would support the movement to have you canonized by the catholic church...but then would we call you St. Brad or St. StarFleetX?