My list of "new to Mac" questions...help appreciated!

[juiceman311]

Okay, so I'm starting to get the feel of Mac OSX I suppose. But I have some questions that would save me some time.

1- I do not like this iChat at all. The whole balloon thing is silly to me. I use AIM, but I don't like the version of AIM for Mac either since it's not tabbed. Is there a chat client that will use tabbed IMing for Mac without balloons?

2- Can I do tabbed browsing with Safari; how?

 

[gr8tfly]

Okay, so I'm starting to get the feel of Mac OSX I suppose. But I have some questions that would save me some time.

1- I do not like this iChat at all. The whole balloon thing is silly to me. I use AIM, but I don't like the version of AIM for Mac either since it's not tabbed. Is there a chat client that will use tabbed IMing for Mac without balloons?

2- Can I do tabbed browsing with Safari; how?

1- Although you can't change the shape of the "balloon", you can change the color, font and font color.

2- Yes. Check the options in Safari Preferences, at bottom of General, and in the Tabs prefs. CMD-T creates a new tab. CMD-Shift-T toggles the tab bar.

 

[Aranince]

1) I suggest using Adium http://www.adiumx.com/
2) I know you can do it...I'm not the the right key combinations, since I've yet to get a mac

 

[VoodooDaddy]

1) I dont IM much, cant help you there. Lots of ppl swear by Adium, but I dont know if that has what you are looking for

2) from the menu bad: Safari > Preferences > Select Tabs > Check "enable tabbed browsing"

 

[banjomamo]

if its just the lack of tabs that you dont like about ichat you can download chax and see if it fills the gaps for you.

http://www.ksuther.com/chax/

 

[epochblue]

It's been mentioned, but I feel the need to hammer it home....

Adium is by far the best IM client for the Mac.

 

[benlee]

when tabbed browsing is enabled as per instructions above, you can also create a new tab by right-clicking on the tab bar and selecting new tab.

 

[MikeTheC]

I'd like to "third" the vote for AdiumX. It totally rocks. I've used chat clients for Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows XP, and of ALL of them (with the exception of doing IRC-based chats) AdiumX is hands-down the absolute number one best of the lot.

You need to enable tabbed browsing in Safari (as has already been mentioned above) and you have another option of keeping the tab bar visible at all times. I recommend this.

OTOH, I also recommend you take a look at either Firefox or (my preference) Opera for Mac. I think they do a more accurate rendering of web pages overall than Safari.

 

[ross.32]

I know it is possible to have the standard AIM type chat in iChat, I just can't remember how at the moment. I did it on my girlfriend's Macbook. She has the plug-in Chax installed and I want to say that I used that, but like I said I am not 100% sure.