Minor iChat gripe (any suggestions?)

[alawrence101]

I did a search and found plenty of gripes about minor annoyances with iChat, but I didn't find anything addressing this particular one...

We all know the away message functionality sucks. It's awkward and not remotely user friendly. In particular, though, does anyone know how to incorporate a carriage return into an away message?

Some of the away messages I like to use just look terrible all crammed into one string of text, and I would really like to break them up. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this.

It won't let me enter the carriage returns into the normal away message manager window, I've tried using the option-return that works in the normal iChat message windows, and I've tried first writing the text (complete with carriage returns) in TextEdit and pasting it into iChat, but to no avail. Am I pretty much screwed here, or is there some way to do this?

I love iChat and strongly prefer it to Adium, but there are so many minor annoyances like this...

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Doctor Q]

It works when I type text into TextEdit, complete with linebreaks, and paste it into iChat. I'm surprised that doesn't work for you.

 

[26139]

Explanation

I believe that option-return allows you to have carriage returns.

 

[Macaddicttt]

Yes, Option-Return works for the actual messages, but the OP is wondering about Away Messages. I tried myself, and both Option-Return and copy-paste do not work for Away Messages.

 

[Doctor Q]

My mistake. I misread the question. I never use long away messages.

 

[alawrence101]

Hmmmm...

Looks like it'll remain a mystery.

I'd say that it must just not be possible in the current version of iChat, but I actually had an away message with some carriage returns in it a while back. I have no idea how I got those in there...

 

[Doctor Q]

Hey, I know! You could create multiple iChat names, such as alawrence101, alawrence102, alawrence103, etc., so they would line up in order in somebody's iChat window, then set their away messages in sequence to the lines you want displayed, one line per name!

OK, terrible idea, but I'm out of other suggestions.

 

[alawrence101]

Hey, I know! You could create multiple iChat names, such as alawrence101, alawrence102, alawrence103, etc., so they would line up in order in somebody's iChat window, then set their away messages in sequence to the lines you want displayed, one line per name!

OK, terrible idea, but I'm out of other suggestions.

Wow, someone has put more thought into this than I have...