Yet another Mac question

[elaby]

Another Mac question: I'm using Yahoo! Messenger version 3.0 beta 1 for Mac OS X. Is there any way to make it so that my IMs are visually configured the way they were in older versions and in the Windows versions - that is, to make it so that the messages go UserName: "Blah blah blah" instead of the comments being in bubbles like in comic books?

Also (and more importantly) is there any way to save IM transcripts? I've been poking around using Google and I haven't found any way to do so. I looked at something called Chat Transcript Manager 1.0 that I found on VersionTracker.com, but the reviews say it doesn't support Yahoo IM. I really want to be able to save my chats if I'm doing RPG stuff or something.

Suggestions? Should I just start using AIM or something? I seem to remember trying to get AIM to work but being unsuccessful. Most of my friends use Trillian, so I don't think it'd be a big deal if I started using something other than Y!M.

Comments

[merrick42.livejournal.com]

On Mac's, I find Yahoo Messenger is very crippled versus the Windows version. I tend to use a program called Fire instead of AIM and YIM which does allow you to automatically save transcripts. You can get Fire through VersionTracker or through the download section of Apple's site.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Oohhh, I've heard of that. I thought I downloaded it once and it didn't work or something, but I could very well be on crack. I'll try it. Thanks for the advice!

[white-death.livejournal.com]

Pidgin also works really well and automatically saves transcripts. When it was GAIM, it had versions for every operating system, so I'd be surprised if it doesn't work with Mac.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Ah, cool! That's another one I've heard of. Thank you!

[merrick42.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about Pidgin/GAIM as well, but have to echo thasolumn's comment. I can't remember if I have tried Adium, but I know I've looked at it before. May not have used it because of the OSX version I was using at the time.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's good to know about these things.

[white-death.livejournal.com]

No prob! If it turns out it's not compatible with Mac, let me know. I'll know better what to tell someone next time. ^^

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Will do :)

[thasolumn.livejournal.com]

Adium. Mac-native in style and pretty much all the features of GAIM/Pidgin. For the record, I don't think there's an OSX-native version of Pidgin and getting it working otherwise would probably require more UNIX hacking than I gather you'd want to do.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not at all familiar with UNIX. Thank you for the suggestion! That's really good to know.