Share Files with iChat

Task #97

Difficulty Level 3

You can send and receive files with iChat. When chatting with a buddy, you can send a file to that person in one of two ways.

The simplest way to send a file to someone is to drag it from the Finder and drop it in the text box of the chat window. When you drop the file in the box where you type text, an icon appears in the chat text box representing that file.

You can also send a file to someone in your Buddy or Rendezvous list by using the Buddies menu or a contextual menu.

Sharing files in iChat is great for exchanging photographs, short movie clips, r sum s, or even homework with friends, coworkers, or schoolmates. You could send the same files with e-mail, but transferring files with iChat is much more immediate. You do not have to wait for your e-mail to bounce around all over the world until it reaches its destination. iChat sends the file directly to your recipient, who can in turn use it immediately.

Did You Know?

One of the great things about transferring files with iChat is that you are not hampered by the file size limits that you usually encounter when sending files by e-mail. There does not seem to be a limit — at least not within reason — to what size iChat can transfer. E-mail, on the other hand, often tops out at a few megabytes.

Caution

Sometimes iChat can be finicky about sending certain types of files. If you run into a circumstance in which iChat will not cooperate, try compressing the file in question first. You can use almost any compression format, such as StuffIt, ZIP, and TAR, as long as the recipient has a decompression application. Try resending the newly compressed file instead of the original.