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mrtew · Dec 26, 2002, 02:13 PM

When I go under the menu item for iChat to someone's name on my buddy list it opens up a Chat window with their name. What's that for? I don't want to Chat them up, I want to IM them. To do that I have to open my buddy list, which starts up the whole program, and then double click on their name, and then close the buddy list. WHY? Is there a way to hack or set iChat to open an IM from the menu item?

yzeater · Dec 26, 2002, 02:52 PM

This seems to be a bug. Sometimes it opens up the chat window, and sometimes it's the normal IM window

Fuzzle · Dec 26, 2002, 03:00 PM

What's the difference exactly?

voodoo · Dec 26, 2002, 03:13 PM

Not alot of difference. When you open an IM window to a person, no one else can be invited later to join. If you open a chat window, you can invite more than 1 person to join.

Both are IM obviously.

I don't see the problem.

yzeater · Dec 26, 2002, 03:15 PM

Also when the chat window is opened, there's a fairly large bar that pops out of the side.

awaspaas · Dec 26, 2002, 04:22 PM

IM window = chat window.

The drawer on the side with chat participants can be revealed or hidden by clicking the leftmost button above the text entry - the head.

frawgz · Dec 26, 2002, 09:05 PM

The problem is that AIM users get bothered with a chat invitation dialog and then enter a large chat window complete with user list and a list of AIM Community Chats. It's bothersome and unnecessary for a one-on-one instant messaging session.

mrtew · Dec 26, 2002, 09:54 PM

I've had people ask me why I opened a chatroom, instead of Instant messaging them. Very embarrasing, especially since I didn't know what they were talking about. Also it's tougher or impossible to include pictures in the conversation when chatting. Plus it bugs me when Apple programs seem like they do their own stupid thing without giving the user any options or control over what's happening. Sometimes it actually does open an IM window. Why?

EmAn · Dec 26, 2002, 10:10 PM

iChat sucks.

sideus · Dec 26, 2002, 11:47 PM

Originally posted by EmAn:
iChat sucks.

How and why? Might want to explain yourself here. I for one love iChat for its ease of use and non-obtrusive interface. It's simple yet effective and gets the job done for me. Unlike AIM, which is ugly and forces ads on you.

King Bob On The Cob · Dec 27, 2002, 12:22 AM

Originally posted by sideus:
How and why? Might want to explain yourself here. I for one love iChat for its ease of use and non-obtrusive interface. It's simple yet effective and gets the job done for me. Unlike AIM, which is ugly and forces ads on you.

Ads are simple enough to get around. iChat refuses to send my font colors through to people and with some of the colors my friends use as backgrounds, it becomes unreadable so I can't use iChat as my full-time IM app yet.

mrtew · Dec 27, 2002, 01:39 AM

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
Ads are simple enough to get around. iChat refuses to send my font colors through to people and with some of the colors my friends use as backgrounds, it becomes unreadable so I can't use iChat as my full-time IM app yet.

I've had friends that use really bad colors but I blamed them. not iChat. I told them and they switched colors, or if I didn't want to do that set the colors I did want to see in my iChat prefs. That seems to work pretty well. Now if I could just get iChat to open an IM from the menu I'd be happy!

milhous · Dec 27, 2002, 02:53 AM

I hardly use iChat due to its flakiness and lack of advanced features. Adium* anyone?

* Yes, I know it doesn't support file transfer capabilities, but whenever I need the feature, I just use AIM and get back to Adium. Quick and Painless.

poocat · Dec 27, 2002, 07:08 AM

the problem with ichat (and aim, too) aside from their very buggy natures, is the simple fact that messaging a whole bunch of people is hard, because the windows only shrink to a certain size!

adium solves this one way.
an option to remove all the fluff (like the ichat pre-response dialogue, which is incredible except for the fact that it doesn't scroll or change when you recieve more than one message...) would also fix this screen realestate issue...

and chat rooms are NOT an option.

you're right, mr. tew, this sucks.
ichat's buggy and needs MANY more options.

pc.

Angus_D · Dec 27, 2002, 10:08 AM

Has anybody else noticed the far more annoying issues with iChat, such as the fact it automatically starts a Direct IM Session if you send a picture, but then closes it after a period of inactivity, making that window useless? Also, if you don't have an IM window open to a person, so start typing a message, but as you're typing receive a message from them, you end up with multiple windows for the same IM session, which really screws up iChat. It's basically a really badly architected PoS, but hey, I'm addicted to the bubbles

starfleetX · Dec 27, 2002, 10:58 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
it automatically starts a Direct IM Session if you send a picture, but then closes it after a period of inactivity, making that window useless?

No, it only closes the session if one of the members closes the chat window. I've left sessions open and inactive for hours without "timing out" like you describe. Most likely, the person you were chatting with closed his/her window, ending the session with you.