Save Transcripts of Chats

You can save a transcript of any text chatInstant Messages, Direct Messages, and Group Chatsto document a conversation, to read later, or to store in your digital box of love letters.

To save an individual chat

1.	Make sure the chat you want to save is the active window on the screen.
2.	From the File menu, choose "Save a Copy As…."
3.	In the sheet that opens (on the right), name the document, choose where to store it, and click "Save."

To automatically save all chat transcripts

1.	From the iChat menu, choose "Preferences…." The file icon of a saved chat transcript looks like this. The file name includes time and date information.
2.	Click the "Messages" button in the Preferences toolbar.
3.	Check the box to "Automatically save chat transcripts." This creates a new folder inside your Documents folder called "iChats." Every conversation you have in iChat will automatically be recorded and stored in this folderyou don't have to choose "Save a Copy As…."

To open the most recently saved chat transcripts

From the File menu choose "Open Recent," then choose a file from the submenu.

An iChat transcript opens as above, but prints like the sample below.

To read any saved chat

Double-click the chat file icon. The file will open in a chat window. When you open a saved chat transcript you can scroll through it just like you can an active chat window.

To print a chat

1.	Start a text chat, or open a saved chat transcript.
2.	From the iChat File menu, choose "Print…."
3.	In the Print dialog box, click the "Print" button. Or, you can click the "Preview" button to see what your document will look like when printed, then click the "Print" button in the Preview window. The chat prints as a text transcript, as shown to the right.