iChat Preferences

To open iChat Preferences, from the iChat menu choose "Preferences…." Click one of the buttons at the top of the Preferences window to show the options for that particular iChat category.

Many of the preferences don't need explanations. The next several pages provide comments and explanations for those that may not be obvious.

General preferences

Use the General preferences to customize some of iChat's behaviors.

The Accounts preferences

The Accounts pane is where you add, delete, and manage accounts. The Accounts preferences are separated into three tabs on the right side of the window: Account Information, Security, and Server Settings.

Account Information settings (shown top-right): Your chat accounts are listed in the "Accounts" pane on the left side of the window. Bonjour is automatically listed here (see page 518 for more information about Bonjour).

To add a chat account, click the plus button in the bottom-left corner (see page 505 for details).

To delete an account in the list, select it, then click the minus button.

Check "Use this account" (top-right) to activate the selected account in the Accounts pane.

Security settings (shown middle-right): Checkmark "Block others from seeing that I am Idle" if you don't want your online status to show as "Idle" when you've been away from your computer for a while. An Idle status message also shows how long the computer has been idle, and you may not want others to know this information.

In the Privacy Level section, choose who you want to allow to see you online and who you want to block. If you choose "Allow specific people" or "Block specific people," click the "Edit List…" button to open a sheet (shown bottom-right) in which you can enter the chat names of specific buddies you want to allow or block.

To add a name to the Block list, click the plus (+) button, type a buddy chat name, then click "Done." To remove a name from the list, select it, click the minus () button, then click "Done."

Server settings

This pane contains server settings for the selected chat service. If you don't know what these settings are all about, you shouldn't try to change them.

Messages preferences

Use the Messages pane to customize the appearance of your Chat windows, such as the color of speech balloons, the font used for your messages and color of your font. You can choose to reformat incoming messages if you don't like the font and balloon color chosen by a buddy. As you change settings, your choices are previewed in the pane shown below.

Alerts preferences

If you're busy working, it's easy to miss a chat opportunity because you didn't see the incoming message alert appear on your screen. iChat can use additional alerts by playing a sound, bouncing the iChat icon in the Dock, or even make the computer speak a message in one of its computer voices.

From the "Event" pop-up menu, choose an event, then set the alerts you want for that event.

Video preferences

This pane lets you preview your video camera picture, customize various settings for sound input and output, and adjust the bandwidth limit for your broadband connection.

Use the Microphone pop-up menu to choose a source for audio. The options that appear in the "Microphone" pop-up menu vary depending on the computer you use and other hardware you may have connected.

• Choose "iSight Built-in" if you have an Apple iSight camera connected. If you have some other FireWire video camera connected, the camera name or model number appears in this pop-up menu.

• Choose "Internal microphone" if you want to use the built-in internal microphone that may have come with your computer.

• Choose "Line In" if you have an external microphone connected to your computer through the Line In port.

Use the Bandwidth Limit pop-up menu to set limits for how much bandwidth to use when having a video chat. Lower bandwidth limits are best for slower connections.

• Choose 100 Kbps or 200 Kbps (kilobits per second) if you have a relatively slow broadband connection.

• Choose 500 Kbps for a good, average broadband connection.

• Choose None or 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps (megabits per second) if you have a really fast broadband connection.