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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.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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01 iChat 2 General Preferences

Oct 2008

1 General Preferences Picture

This is the iChat 2 General Preferences.

This is an extra Pane compared to iChat version 1. Some things that were in the Accounts Preferences of iChat 1 are now here. It is this that increases the Preferences Panes, along with the Video one, to six panes.

The first item is somewhat self explanatory.

The Second needs a bit of an explanation in that iChat does Not fully log out of AIM when you Quit iChat. It will make you appear as Away to some AIM clients. With some AIM clients this allows Off-Line Messaging. However iChat 2 does not do Off-Line Messaging and as Away will let someone send you an Invite it can make you appear rude in not answering. As you can see in this picture I prefer to be seen as Off-Line if my iChat is not an Open Application as I tend not even to have the computer on if that is the case.

iChat 2 introduces Groups to the Buddy List. In the Buddy list this is a Pop Out drawer controlled from the Buddy List itself if this item is selected here and the View Menu

The OS X introduced the 3D looking control items of the three Coloured blobs top left of most windows to close, minimize or adjust the size of the window. iChat uses the same to Indicate the Statuses of your Buddies but the next items can change these to shapes - they remain coloured but it helps if you are Colour Blind.They are a green Square for Available, an Amber Triangle for Idle and a Red Circle for Away. (Note: you can not specifically set Idle as your Status. It is based on the lack of actions on the keyboard or mouse).

The next item dictates if a small icon appears in the Menu Bar on the right hand end towards the Clock. This Menu Bar Item will display your saved Status Messages and those Buddies Online when clicked. It becomes a drop down. You can also use it to Log out of AIM or Rendezvous.

The items below the divider control what happens if you are away long enough for your Screen Saver or your Computer's Sleep time kicks in. There is a sort of two tier system here. You can set Away before you leave the computer. As soon as you touch the keyboard the setting here applies. However if you leave the Buddy list as Available then after a certain time you will register to the AIM servers as Idle and your Status will turn Amber. iChat did not deal with this particularly well and you could find that using the keyboard does not end the Idle Amber setting.

The Final item is where downloads (incoming files) get put. By default it is the Desktop as shown. You can create another Folder or link to an existing one but this only works for loose files sent to you. If any Chat is open to the same Buddy it will put them on the Desktop whether you want them there or not.

The Pane that follows is Accounts.

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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

What the General Preferences of iChat controls.

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.