iChat is a great and powerful Instant Messaging client that comes standard with all releases of OS X. While it has its strengths, it also has its weaknesses.

The lack of ability to communicate with the MSN and Yahoo networks and its default way of separating even your AIM, .Mac, and Jabber contact list can cause a lot of clutter on your desktop. If you don’t use chax, you may need to have a separate Space for each IM network you’re using.

If these issues bother you with iChat, then you may be interested in Adium. A free Instant Messaging client that allows you to connect all your IM networks and keep your contacts in one contact list.

Adium has a lot of customizable features and integrates well into the rest of the OS X environment. Although Adium has some great features, it does not have Screen Sharing capabilities, solid video chat, or some of the other strengths of iChat.

Now… if they could just merge their features..

Like Safari and many of the other Apple applications, iChat supports custom plugins that allow you to customize or optimize your iChat experience.

One great plugin for iChat is Chax. Chax is made by the same developer that brought us WARP for Spaces and adds some great features to iChat.

Merge Your iChat Contact Lists

If you’re a user of multiple instant messaging accounts, Chax will automatically create a new merged contact list for you. Once this list is in view feel free to close your iChat contact lists for AIM, .MAC, and Google Talk.

Additional Features

Additional Chax features include:

1. Unified contact list shows all contacts from all accounts in one window
2. Growl notifications for new messages and users changing status
3. Automatically resize the contact list to fit the number of visible users
4. Built-in log viewer
5. Activity log that displays your contacts’ status changes
6. Auto-accept file transfers, AV chats, and screen sharing requests
7. Toggle text status visibility of users
8. Always on top option for contact list, message windows and AV chats
9. Set font of names, status messages, and group separators
10. Option to auto-accept text chats, skipping new message notification window
11. Show status changes directly in the message window
12. Additional unread message notifications in the Dock
13. Automatically go away when the screensaver activates
14. Properly use ICQ accounts without sending text formatting in messages

Chax is a free download and may be just what you need to get the most out of iChat. Installing Chax is a breeze and a great addition to iChat. What iChat plugins do you use?

We recently explained how the new iChat allows users to share their screen over the internet with other Mac OS X 10.5 users but that isn’t the only nice feature about iChat. One less known iChat feature is the ability to easily send SMS txt messages to your friends and family’s cell phones.

It seems that as mobile phones have become more and more common for people of all ages, so has the use of txt messages between individuals of those cell phones. With iChat, you can carry on a conversation with your txt messaging contacts without the phone.

After logging into an AIM iChat account, click File and then Send SMS. A new window will pop up and ask for the number you’d like to send a message to (US phone numbers only).

Be sure to include the area code of the phone number and click OK. A traditional chat window will appear. Type your message and send it. The SMS txt message will be sent to the phone number you entered. Any response from your friend or family member will appear in your chat window as if you were sending instant messages over the computer.

If you continually go over your allotted number of text messages, you may want to start sending some of them from your computer.

One of the additions to Apple’s new Operating System OS X 10.5 Leopard is the ability to quickly share your computer screen with people in your network (home or office) and with any of your iChat contacts (this works with both .Mac accounts and AOL (AIM) accounts).

Doing so allows you to see or share the screen of the computer you’re connecting to and then take control of the mouse and keyboard as if you were sitting in front of the computer yourself. Additionally, the connection between the computers opens a microphone connection so that you can discuss over the network the work you’re doing on the other computer.

Below is a quick tutorial on two different ways that you can enable and take advantage of Screen Sharing on your New Mac.

SCREEN SHARING OVER YOUR HOME NETWORK

To enable screen sharing with a computer on your network you first need to make sure that you’ve enabled screen sharing in system preferences:

1. Click the Apple on the menu bar
2. Select System Preferences
3. Click Sharing under Internet and Networking Section
4. Be sure the Screen Sharing Box is checked
5. Follow these steps on all computers you’d like to share screens with
6. If you would like to limit who can access your systems screen you can by limiting screen sharing rights to only the users you select

After you’ve enabled screen sharing, open Finder and select the computer on your network under Shared on the left. You should see in the main window now any shared folders you have access to on that computer and to the top right a Share Screen button.

Click the button and enter a name and password with rights created on the computer you’re connecting to. When you’ve finished click ok and a window should appear showing you the screen of the computer you’ve just connected to.

At this point you should have complete control of the computer over the network.

SCREEN SHARING OVER iCHAT

Another way to take advantage of screen sharing is through iChat. Connect to iChat with either your AIM or .Mac account and find a friend that is also connected with Apple OS X 10.5 and using iChat. When you select their screen name you should see the screen sharing button enable on iChat.

Click the button and select either “Share my screen with this contact” or “Ask to share this contacts screen”. After you’ve done this the friend/contact will receive a prompt to either accept the screen sharing request or deny it.

If the user accepts, then a window will display with other computers screen and a microphone connection will be enabled so that you can discuss over the internet what ever you’re doing when you’ve connected to the other computer. Either user can control the mouse and keyboard at this point.

WRAP UP

The addition to share screens quick and easily is one the best new features in OS X 10.5 Leopard. If you have multiple Macs in your home you should quickly learn how to use this feature as it will save you the time of having to wonder around the house to change things or access files on different computers.

The only features that this new addition is really missing is the ability to share screens on old versions of OS X or with Windows or Linux computers. Maybe that capability will be in future releases.