PC Refugeee hits a wall

[Fed Up Newby]

Recent convert to Macs & OS X. generally its great but...

As Yahoo chat client is apparently useless I came here. Lots of good reviews.

Download & install was easy, Connected to yahoo account successfully. Went to add a contact. Entered the details and Ta Da.. Add button isn't highlighted.

Messed around, tried the help function, tried these message boards. No answer found in 20 minutes, so now its in the trash and maybe I'll try Fire.

It shouldn't be this hard guys! Adding a contact should not
need special skills or experience.

Back to the PC for now.

[TheSilverFox06]

Can you elaborate? The "Add" button becomes active as soon as I type something into the screen name field. The only other thing I can do to deactivate the Add button is to uncheck all of the available boxes in the "Add to accounts" area.

Seems pretty intuitive to me.

I think you'll find that Fire isn't even in the same league as Adium.

[Lyg]

This has happened to me to. I don't quite remember what I did to fix it, but I can tell you this: "threatening" to use another product or ditch Macs doesn't make the developers any more inclined to help you. It simply shows you are likely not mature enough to work with them to help you with your problem (and everyone's problem if it is a bug within the source, which I think it is). I believe the Add button is grayed out because it initially does this until an amount of characters are inputted that make for a correct screen name. For example, AIM has a three character screen name limit. If I type two letters into the screen name column, there is no reason for the Add button to be active.

Actually, it may not be a bug. Have you clicked an account to add to when you enter the screen name (make sure that account is online)?

[Adam Iser]

Make sure:
1) You're entering a valid yahoo username
2) Your account is online
3) You have an account checked to be added to
4) Your contact list has atleast one group on it to add the contact to

If you're frustrated with Adium over this minor issue, you don't stand a chance with fire. Good luck

[evands]

4) Your contact list has atleast one group on it to add the contact to

That has always bugged me... think we could create a group automatically if none exist and you try to add on a service which doesn't support that sort of shenanigans?

[zaudragon]

Hehe, try removing caps, spaces, and returns

[Adam Iser]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

[zaudragon]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

I think the button should read “Verify screenname and accounts” when the user is being stupid like that, bbut it's a little long…

[evands]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

Yeah, perhaps leaving it enabled and having an error sheet explaining "You have to be acting rationally for this function to work"?

[TheSilverFox06]

I think you should have something along the same lines as entering a link in a conversation, where there's a little alert thingy that appears in the window if what you have entered is invalid.

[The_Tick]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

Well. and don't flame me here, it's an example, but windows xp shows a nice tooltip with an arrow when people try to log in with capslock, basically saying "capslock on". Maybe something similar?

[Son of a Preacher Man]

I think you should have something along the same lines as entering a link in a conversation, where there's a little alert thingy that appears in the window if what you have entered is invalid.

Seconded

[evands]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

Well. and don't flame me here, it's an example, but windows xp shows a nice tooltip with an arrow when people try to log in with capslock, basically saying "capslock on". Maybe something similar?

OS X behaves the same way, showing a caps lock icon in the text field when it's on.

[The_Tick]

So I pose a question. The way Adium behaves now (dimming the add button) leads the user to believe that Adium is a fault. Is there a way we could make this dialog behave differently so that the user knows they're the one screwing up by entering an invalid name or doing something stupid like unchecking all the accounts? Would chucking an error dialog up in their face be a better interface here?

Well. and don't flame me here, it's an example, but windows xp shows a nice tooltip with an arrow when people try to log in with capslock, basically saying "capslock on". Maybe something similar?

OS X behaves the same way, showing a caps lock icon in the text field when it's on.

Right (was on the phone with an xp user at the time, heh). Point is, can we give the user some kind of hint regarding this with a tooltip or redesign it as a "wizard" or something?

[Son of a Preacher Man]

The aforementioned error icon, with an explanatory tooltip when you hover/click on it?

[TheSilverFox06]

The aforementioned error icon, with an explanatory tooltip when you hover/click on it?

Sounds like a perfect plan to me.

[Fed Up Newby]

but I can tell you this: "threatening" to use another product or ditch Macs doesn't make the developers any more inclined to help you. It simply shows you are likely not mature enough to work with them to help you with your problem

Ahem!

I'm new to Macs. I don't come looking for a community, the chance to work on a development team or personal emotional development. Just software that works intuitively.

I'm not 'threatening' anyone. I may be guilty of sharing my frustration with you, but on mature reflection I come to the same conclusion - if it ain't working, dump it. I went to Fire. It worked 1st time with no hitches. That is all I need.

I wonder how understanding you would be of the Great Devil if their software exhibited the same symptom????

Sorry for being a poor dumb schmuck of a user. I'm clearly not worthy and won't trouble you all again.

[Son of a Preacher Man]

I wonder how understanding you would be of the Great Devil if their software exhibited the same symptom????

Pretty peeved, cos I'd have paid for it

[Adam Iser]

Please do not troll the forum.