Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

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CHAPTER 12 iCHAT
Figure 12-13. Sharing an iPhoto slideshow in iChat Theater
The one big caveat of iChat Theater is that applications you share have to implement the
functionality. It’s not something that comes for free. Fortunately, many of Apple’s applications
already work with iChat Theater, so you can get some use out of it while third-party developers
catch up.
The easiest way to use iChat Theater is to select File ➤ Share a File With iChat Theater...
from the menu bar. iChat does a pretty good job of parsing many files you’d like to share without
having to invoke another application.
You can also enter iChat Theater from within other applications. For example, in Keynote,
you can select View ➤ Play in iChat Theater from the menu bar. This will present the current
presentation in iChat Theater.
Tabbed Chat
The nice thing about iChat vs. the telephone is that you don’t have any awkward silences. If you
don’t have anything to say, you can just not type anything. Then, if something comes to mind,
you can send it along and it will be appended to the conversation as if no time had passed
(except, of course, for the telltale timestamp).
That means you can have several chats happening at once, potentially causing a lot of clutter,
and making it difficult to know which window needs your attention. Leopard introduces
tabbed chats, which collect all your chat windows into one, as shown in Figure 12-14.
The tabs are actually a list of chats, not unlike a buddy list. If someone has something to say,
a miniature word bubble will appear, making it clear which tab needs your attention. To switch
chats, just click the appropriate tab.