In Tiger, having several iChat conversations open at the same time means having several chat windows open, too. In Leopard, you can group all of those open chats into a single window without using any special plug-ins or add-on applications.

Hereis how:

• Launch iChat. If it isnit already in your Dock, check in the Applications folder.
• Choose iChat > Preferences.
• Select the Messages tab.
• Check Collect chats into a single window.

If you already had more than one chat window open, you may have to restart iChat before the change takes effect.

Now all of your open chats will appear in a single window. You can select a chat by clicking on a participantis name in the left column, and the chat with them in the right column. iChat will let you know if someone in a different chat sends you a message, so you donit have to worry about jumping between chats just to see if someone typed something.

Tiger users that want to clear up some Desktop space by grouping chats in a single window can check out Chax from Kent Sutherland. Chax includes some extra features that enhance iChatis functionality, but for now the iChat plug-in isnit Mac OS X 10.5 compatible.

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