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 In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Message and FaceTime. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.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

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5[8]

05 Buddies Menu.

Nov 2008

5 Buddies Menu

This is the iChat 4 Buddies menu.

The menu method of Starting Chats (Invite To…) once a Buddy is Highlighted in the Buddy List. This menu is also used as a means of starting the Add Buddy process.

iChat 4 gives you access directly to the Profile your Buddy has when using an AIM valid name.

Overall the menu has been Streamlined to have stuff that only relates to info or the display of your Buddies.

Show Info opens the Info card of the Buddy. The Shift key (⇑) shown as part of the Keystroke is not needed if you Highlight a Buddy in the List then use Apple (/ Command/⌘) key and i together like regular Finder Get Info. This opens a window three tabs.

The Show Profile option opens the same card but straight to the Profile tab. Even if there is no Profile as in this case it does show the capabilities of that Buddy.

You may have realised that the three above pictures are the same Pane but with the different buttons activated, but the Alerts need you to have opend the Pane with one of the other options.

Both these top two options in the Menu have to have a Buddy selected in the Buddy List.

Show in Address Book only works if the Buddy is in the Address Book. For this to work you have to have entered one or more of the following. A First Name, Last Name, Nickname or an email address. (iChat no longer assumes an @mac address is a Valid email and does not add these to the Address Book - this may be different with the newer @me addresses as they have to actively cancelled during the trial, so they will be valid and may get added - I don't have any Buddies with one yet.)

A Change. Add Buddy works slightly differently depending on what you are doing. The main picture has the Buddy List active and the Buddy highlighted has already been Added. The name used to show but was greyed out when this happened. This is a change for iChat 4.

If any 1-1 chat is open then the Buddies Name will appear in the Add Buddy Spot - greyed out like before if already added - within square brackets for you to Add them from the Menu.

Whichever method you use to add a new Buddy will open the Add Buddy screen (See the separate picture series)

More Changed. The Invite to Chat has replaced to various options that used to be shown for Direct Chats and Group chats and plain 1-1 Text chats. There seems to be no difference between this and Send Instant Message. (Edit 2024:- in fact it turned out Send Instant Message was for sending SMS. Intitially it only worked in the USA as the iPhone Release dates brought Text - the fore-runner to Messages on the iPhone).

Send Email and Send File speak for themselves. The files sent this way are the same as dropping a file on a Buddies Name. Chat does not have to be open. If you live in the United States then you may also have Send SMS in this section.

Both New and Changed. Mainly as the Screen Sharing options have been added (The Buddy I have highlighted in the Buddy List does not have the ability to do this so they are greyed out). The number of ways you can Start an A/V chat has been reduced. Whereas before if a Buddy had a Camera and a Microphone you had a choice of full 2 way chats or One-way chats for both Audio and Video, you now have a reduced selection.

The last section is where you can Block a person. If a Chat is open or a Buddy is selected in the Buddy List their name will show here (It is edited out in the main picture).

Ignore Person is a method to dismiss any Invite to Chat without answering it.

Request Authorisation is for Jabber Buddies when you first add them to the List. You have to have their Permission to be in your Buddy list. This part is time semsitive and can be an issue if your Buddy does not confirm fast enough. They then sit in your Buddy list with a little grey message under the name saying "Awaiting Authorisation".

Next - Video Menu

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

The Buddies Menu. Starting Chats and in iChat 4 changing your own Buddy Pic and access to Writing and changing your Profile.

The Info card has 3 panes as seen in the pictures.

Show Profile is your Profile and is where you can Add one if you have used a separate app in earlier versions.

Inviting to… has been cut down to three options listed as two Screen Sharing options have been added, if your Buddy has an iChat version that can do it.

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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