These iChatAV (Version 2) pages are coloured Green and have the iChat 2 icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs from Version 1 by having the camera logo added.

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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

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iChatAV (Version 2) Pictures

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04 iChat 2 Text Chat WIndow

Oct 2008

4 Text Chat Window Picture

This is the iChat 2 Text Chat Window.

A plain 1-1 Text Chat can be started be clicking on the line the Buddy is on. At your end it will open like this picture shows with your Buddy Picture and the Thinking Bubble with " … " as the typing of your first message is entered.

When you send that Message your Buddy will see an Invite window at least (if they have Alerts set they may get a sound). When they click that to Accept they will have the same window.

The Incoming person will be on your left and you will be on the right. In Group Text Chats everyone else is on the left and you are on the right still. The only time this changes is if you change from the default Bubbles and Use Plain text when you are all on the left in the relevant Coloured bars (it is a strip/bar or background colour the same colour as your Bubbles choice would be).

The Window has two main parts. The Message Display area where your IMs and your Buddies are displayed and the Text Entry Field along the bottom of the window.

Smilies are added by either typing the Keystrokes or by clicking on the grey Smiley on the right hand end of the text field and bringing up the options to the left. (The pic is of the increased range from iChat 4). Mousing over a Smiley will show you the Keystrokes as the Angry one does in this pic.

The text field will now in iChat 2 expand to include everything you type.

Files and Pics can be dropped in the Text Field and sent that way which in turn will cause Pictures to be Displayed in the Chat.

The Chat window can be dragged bigger from the diagonal bars on the bottom right corner and the picture will dynamically enlarge until it reaches it's full size (Or you run out of Screen). This is due to differences in the Actual Pic pixel dimensions against the 72 dpi the screen shows.

The Next picture in the sequence is the HyperLink in Text Chat window

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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

The Text Chat Window.

A simple rundown of How to text from causing a Chat Window to appear to Sending the Text. It mentions the variants of sending Smilies and dropping files or Pictures into the Text field to Appear in the Chat as the last picture shows. It mentions resizing the Chat Window to accomodate those pictures with the potential limits of this.

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.