Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition

Making a List

When you start iChat, your buddy list automatically appears (Figure 12-16). If you don’t see it, choose iChat Buddies from the Window menu.

Adding a buddy to this list entails knowing that person’s account name/address (for example, [e-mail] or [e-mail]).

Once you have it, click the + button in the bottom-left corner of the iChat Buddies window; in the resulting window, click Add Buddy.

Down slides a sheet attached to the buddy list window, offering a window into the Address Book program (Chapter 16). Using the “Add to” pop-up menu, choose the service you want to use for chatting with this person (Yahoo, Google, AIM, whatever).

Tip

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

If your companion’s chat address is already in Address Book, then double-click the person’s name, or click it and then click Add.

If not, enter your pal’s chat address in “Account name.” Enter this person’s real first and last names in the appropriate boxes, if you like.

Tip

Just to make things more complicated—er, flexible—iChat lets you organize buddies into groups, like Work, Family, and Fantasy Badminton League. Use the “Add to group” pop-up menu here to specify which group you want—or just choose Buddies to leave the new person in the general sloshing bucket of humanity. ...