Chax
Current Version: 1.5 (September 5, 2007) / 2.2.2 (July 27, 2009) / 3.0.2 (March 8, 2010)
Chax is a free collection of minor modifications and additions that make using Apple's iChat more enjoyable.
Chax comes in two versions - 1.5 for Mac OS X 10.4 (iChat 3), and 2.1.2 for Mac OS X 10.5 (iChat 4).
Features of version 1.5 for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger include:
User list:
- Toggle text status visibility of users
- Set font of names, status messages, and group separators
- Show animated user icons
- Ability to hide iTunes music store links in text statuses
- Idle time included in tooltips
- Display Address Book nicknames instead of full names
- Option to show a warning before messaging mobile users
- Hide the audio/video status icon at the top of the user list
- Message a specific screen name for people with multiple screen names
Message window:
- Tabbed chats, allowing you to keep all of your chats together in one window
- Option to auto-accept text chats, skipping new message notification window
- Show status changes directly in the message window
- Disable the smiley button in text input lines
- Option to open images sent through direct connect directly in Preview
- Send away auto-reply only once per conversation
- Save and restore window positions for individual screen names
Other:
- Unread message notification in the dock
- Growl notifications for new messages
- Properly use ICQ accounts without sending text formatting in messages
- Automatically set status to away when screensaver is activated
- Option to auto-accept file transfers
- Hide all iChat windows when iChat is inactive
- Always on top option for user lists, text chats, and audio or video chats
- Set a custom away auto-reply that is different from the away message
- Change the delay of or disable auto-away
- New message windows cascade properly instead of always appearing on top of each other
- Built-in log viewer
- Activity window shows history of user status changes
- Warn before quitting while there are active chats
- Option to disable pausing of AV chats while there are active file transfers
- Disable picture-in-picture in video chats
- Automatically reconnect when disconnected
- Disable alert sounds when away, idle, or available
A detailed feature list with screen shots will provide you with even more information on this very handy - and free - product.
Version 1.5 adds/changes the following:
- (Bug) Fixed an issue where some incoming messages could not be accepted
- (Bug) Fixed missing strings in the Italian localization
- (Bug) Increased responsiveness of the log viewer
- (Bug) Log viewer now sorts logs by creation date
- (Bug) Fixed an issue where the Chax preferences could become hidden
Features of Chax 2.2 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard include:
- Unified contact list shows all contacts from all accounts in one window
- Growl notifications for new messages and users changing status
- Automatically resize the contact list to fit the number of visible users
- Built-in log viewer
- Activity log that displays your contacts' status changes
- Auto-accept file transfers, AV chats, and screen sharing requests
- Toggle text status visibility of users
- Always on top option for contact list, message windows and AV chats
- Set font of names, status messages, and group separators
- Option to auto-accept text chats, skipping new message notification window
- Show status changes directly in the message window
- Additional unread message notifications in the dock
- Automatically go away when the screensaver activates
- Properly use ICQ accounts without sending text formatting in messages
Version 2.2.2 adds/changes the following from version 2.2.1:
- (Note) The preference for "Show Text Status" in the View menu has been reset for improved compatibility for future releases
- (New) Option to automatically clear successful file transfers
- (New) Can now remove individual items from the activity window with the delete key
- (New) Added a hidden preference to always send Growl notifications even when iChat is active (defaults write com.ksuther.chax AlwaysShowGrowlNotifications -bool YES)
- (Bug) Activity window dates now use the system-defined date and time formats
- (Bug) Fixed the unified contact list position not saving for some localizations
- (Bug) Reduced log viewer load time
- (Bug) Suppressed warnings related to Chax when launching garbage-collected applications
Features of Chax 3.0 for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard include:
- Rewritten for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Version 3.0.2 adds/changes the following from version 3.0.1:
- (Bug) Fixed a serious crash when that could occur if using groups.
User Reviews
"Chax adds critical features to iChat - most notably tabbed chat windows and notifications of IMs with actual names over the iChat icon in the dock - that enable iChat to function much better, but there is still much to be done. iChat isn't going to change for a while and Chax has only made so much progress. Nevertheless, Chax is essential for iChat users that need a little more functionality out of their chat program."
—Chris May
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the Mac OS X 10.4.3+ (Universal) version (1.5).Also See . . .
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