Mac 101: Tabbed windows in iChat
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools.
As a Mac user, you've got several options for chat clients -- Adium, Fire and IRC are all worthy -- but in this post we're going to focus on Apple's iChat.
Create an account
When launched for the first time, iChat will prompt you to create an account. You've got five options, namely
- MobileMe
- AIM
- Jabber
- Google's GTalk
- Jabber
Make your selection and enter your information. If you're new to instant messaging, simply click the "Get an iChat account." Now your account is ready to go.
Among my favorite features of some of the non-Apple chat clients: tabbed windows. This allows you to collapse all of your open chats into a single window. That way, there's no need to have two or more windows open. Here's how to enable this in iChat.
From the Preferences window, check the "Messages" tab. Next, select "Collect chats into a single window." That's it! Now, iChat will list all of your open chats in a drawer along side your chat window. To move from one to the other, just click your chat partner's name.
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New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key...
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How come this doesn't work for me? I've got 6 different chat windows currently open. I go to Prefs, toggle the appropriate box, and nothing happens. I see no drawer. My chats are still in separate windows. Any ideas?
November 19 2008 at 12:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI am having the same problem. Went to preferences, made the above recommended change, and I still see the same thing as before. I even closed and restarted the program, and all of my separate chats are still in different windows :(
December 13 2008 at 10:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhoa, that's three times jabber there! Jabber, GTalk and Jabber all over again - wooow :)
November 19 2008 at 8:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySign me on to the TUAW team, and I'll host this "Mac 201" series.
Blatant attempt to plug myself = Success.
Attempt to join the TUAW team = Fail.
I've been using a mac for over 6 years, and I never even knew this was possible, lol. Anyone know how to toggle when chats are in the same window?
On that, does anyone know how to toggle between tabs in safari?
Command + Shift + left or right direction arrow.
November 18 2008 at 11:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAlso, if this is easier for you, which I can't see it being, btw.
Command + Shift + Brackets keys ( [=left and ]=right)
"When launched for the first time, iChat will prompt you to create an account. You've got five options, namely
* MobileMe
* AIM
* Jabber
* Google's GTalk
* Jabber"
Does anyone else realize that that's only four options?
Unless Jabber is now a different service than... Jabber.
I think he was going for ICQ. You could also use Jabber transports to connect to other services (i.e. MSN or Yahoo), but that would probably require a separate post to explain.
November 18 2008 at 10:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI would love it if Apple bought Adium and combined iChat and Adium into the perfect messaging/video/audio application.
November 18 2008 at 8:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou forgot to mention that if people don't have Leopard, they can add tabs to iChat by installing the plug-in Chax.
Here is the link:
http://ksuther.com/chax/
Good point, but our aim with the 101 series is mostly new users. While many of us "old salts" are comfortable with plug-ins (and the requisite "update breaks plug-in, wait for fix, apply, lathter, rinse repeat" cycle they create), the average new Mac user needs just the basics to get going.
Perhaps we should start a Mac 201 series?
@vagredajr: Personally, I think that would be a great idea. Don't call it 201 though... call it something like Mac Plus :P Essentially, posts that offer slightly more advanced tips that power users might like, or ones that help you get a little more out of your Mac.
November 18 2008 at 10:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIf only we could tab each of the contact lists into one. Or a consolidated list like Palringo, Adium, etc. iChat is an amazing communication tool but the lists and account management side of it needs some work.
November 18 2008 at 7:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOh please yes... I'm fed up with having 3 buddy lists open just for iChat.
November 18 2008 at 8:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply@Gary - then get chax, it puts all buddies into one window
http://ksuther.com/chax/
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