iChat 5 How-tos: Ordering the List

iChat 5

iChat 5 comes with Snow Leopard (OS 10.6.x). At the time of writing that is 10.6 through 10.6.3 iChat was updated to verion 5.0.1 in 10.6.2 and to version 5.0.3 in 10.6.3

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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Message and FaceTime. That effectively makes this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

As with other versions here are the links to:

Menu For the Different How-to pages

Within certain limits the the Buddy List can be ordered. This page says how. Certainly more can be done in iChat 5 with the use of Groups compared to iChat 2. In iChat 5 they can be seen directly in the Buddy List. Compared to iChat 3 Groups are even more flexible

Ordering the Buddy List

So you have added a few Buddies and you want them to appear in a different order.

Within certain limits this can be done from the View Menu. There are also Buddies Groups in iChat versions 4 and 5

View Menu blank gif As with other items in the iChat menus, the correct window within iChat has to be the front one. Is this case you want the Buddy List as the Front window and for the Picture grab it was. You need the second section mainly although Show Groups and choosing Not to Show Off Line Buddies may also play a factor

You can see that it says "Sort By Availability" with a tick next to it. You can also apply a two pass method of selecting one of the Alphabetical options then the "Sort By Availability" to have an Alphabetical List with the Available ones at the top.

Buddies can be in one of 4, visible to you, states. Green as Available, Amber (orange) as Idle, Red as Away and greyed out as Off-Line. There is an additional selection to decide whether to display Off-Line Buddies or not at the top of the View menu items. (Show Off-Line Buddies)

Notes: Idle is when a Buddies computer is on and iChat is logged in but they are not touching any input device such as the Mouse or Keyboard, and will show after 10 minutes of non input even if their computer is rendering a video clip for example.

By default iChat will be set to the Available setting although you can change this in the iChat menu > Preferences > General and Accounts Sections based on 1). Whether an Account/Screen Name should Log-in in the accounts section and 2). What iChat should do at Start Up in the General Section.

Notes: You can not drag the Buddies into the order you want - if you use the "Sort By..." options. The "Manually" option does let you drag the Buddies into the order you want

iChat version 5 does allow you to order your Buddies into Groups as well. There are 4 default groups.

The ability to Edit Group Names is no longer an Option in the + symbol that gave you an Menu to Add Buddies, add Groups an Edit groups in iChat 4. However Right/Control clicking a Group header bar within the Buddy list will bring up a Contextual menu that allows you to Edit (Rename) the name. If you also Click and Hold then Drag the Group title Bar you can reorder your Groups this way, as they are no longer Alphabetically organised

By default Buddies tend to be in only one Group and dragging them one to another moves them. However if you hold down the ALT (⌥) key before clicking and dragging a Buddy they will be copied to the second group (Providing the ALT (⌥) key is let go last).

Using the Reveal Arrow to the right of the individual Group name bar opens or Closes that Group from view. Other than placing the Buddies in different Groups the other formatting of Status/Availability (Available, Idle or Away) is set from the View Menu.

Next:- Start a Text Chat

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This Page deal with the various ways you can Order the Buddy List. From the Sort Option and the possibility of using two passes to See Available by Alphabetical order to using Groups and draging them into the order you want (New for iChat 5).

It also talks about how you can get Buddies into two or more Groups. In iChat 3 when Groups first appeared there was a limit or 200 Buddies and having people in two or more groups had them counted at least 2 times towards this limit. That limit seems to have disappeared.

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