21.5. Making a List

21.5. Making a List
When you start iChat, your buddy lists automatically appear (Figure 21-2
). If you don't
see them, choose the list you want from the Window menu: Bonjour, Buddy List, or
Jabber. (Or press their keyboard shortcuts: -1, -2, or -3.)
Adding a buddy to this list entails knowing that person's account name, whether it's on
AIM, Mac.com, or Jabber. Once you have it, you can either choose Buddies Add
Buddy (Shift- -A) or click the + button at the bottom-left corner of the window.
Down slides a sheet attached to the Buddy List window, offering a window into the
Address Book program (Chapter 19
).

Tip: As you accumulate buddies, your Buddy List may become crowded. If you choose
View Show Offline Buddies (so that the checkmark disappears), only your currently
online buddies show up in the Buddy List—a much more meaningful list for the
temporarily lonely.

Figure 21-2. Left: Click the + button to add a new buddy, either by choosing from
your address book or from scratch (by clicking New Person). If you've used AIM
before, you may find that you've already got buddies in your list. AIM accounts
store their buddy lists on AOL's computers, so that you can keep your buddies even
if you switch computers.
Right: Is your Buddy List taking up too much screen space? Use the options in the
View menu to lose the buddy pictures and other chunky icons to streamline the
window.


If your chat companion is already in Address Book, scroll through the list until you find
the name you want (or enter the first few letters into the Search box), click the name, and
then click Select Buddy.
If not, click New Person and enter the buddy's AIM address, .Mac address, or (if you're in

the Jabber list) Jabber address. You're adding this person to both your Buddy List and
your Address Book.
21.5.1. Broadcasting Your Status
Using the pop-up menu just below your name (Figure 21-3
, right), you can display your
current mental status to other people's buddy lists. You can announce that you're
Available, Away, or Drunk. (You have to choose Edit Status Menu for that one; see
Figure 21-3
, left.)
Better yet, if you have music playing in iTunes, you can tell the world what you're
listening to at the moment by choosing Current iTunes Track. (Your buddy can even
click that song's name to open its screen on the iTunes Store, all for Instant Purchase
Gratification.)
For some people, by far the juiciest option is a new one in Mac OS X 10.5: a status called
Invisible (available for .Mac and AIM accounts only). It's like a Star Trek cloaking
device for your onscreen presence (Figure 21-3
). Great for stalkers!
Figure 21-3. Left: Choose Edit Status Menu from the pop-up menu at the top of the
iChat buddy list to set up more creative alternatives to "Available" and "Away."
Right: Your edited list of status messages is now available. The most interesting one
is Invisible. It lets you see your friends online, but they can't see you—great when
you're too busy to chat with annoying barely-acquaintances, but want to keep an
eye out for a particular pal. You can still send and receive messages anyone on your
Buddy List.



21.5.2. Sorting and sizing your friends
In View Sort Buddies, you can rearrange your buddies as they're listed in the Buddy
lists:

•
By Availability. Your available pals move to the top of the list, sorted
alphabetically by last name. Unavailable buddies (marked by red dots and visible
Away messages) get shoved to the bottom.
•
By First Name, By Last Name. Just what you'd think.
•
Manually. This option lets you drag your friends up and down your Buddy List in
order of your purely personal preferences, regardless of the alphabet.

Tip: In View Buddy Names, you can chose to see your friends listed by Full Names,
Short Names (usually the first name), or by Handle (IM screen name). If your Buddy List
is showing screen names ("jdeaux444") mixed in with proper names ("Johann Deux"), it's
because you haven't recorded the real-nameless people's real names. Click a buddy's
name, choose Buddies Show Info, then click Address Card and fill in the person's
first and last names.

Once you get a lot of people piled on your list, all with their buddy pictures and
audio/video chat icons, you may feel like iChat is taking up way too much screen real
estate. If you want a more space-efficient view of your buddy list (like the one shown on
the right in Figure 21-2
), go to the View menu and turn off Show Buddy Pictures, Show
Audio Status, or Show Video Status. You can turn off Buddy Groups here as well, if
you'd prefer to see your buddies in one undivided list.