Many newbie questions on getting started

[carpediem]

New user here. Lost and confused. Lots of newbie questions. Please help me.

I'm running OS X 10.3.9 and installed Adkum version 1.0.6 and Growl. I used the import Fire accounts and logs feature.

1. Is there any way to tell Adium to open but not to sign into an account until I tell it which one I want? If yes, how? Or can I tell it which ones to sign into but not others?

Each time I quit and restart Adium it tries to open every single account that I had in Fire. I have several Yahoo profiles under one main account, and more than one AIM username.

2. Is there some trick to make Adium remember the passwords?

Each time I quit and restart Adium several of the accounts prompt me for passwords even though I've already entered them and clicked the remember password box.

3. What "name" is Adium displaying for me to others? Somehow or other it's gotten my real name (I never entered it anywhere) and it's displaying it in the contacts window. I want my chat partners to see my user name for each service, i.e. the part before @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com or that I use with AIM. How do I do that?

4. What's the "Personal" options all about in the Preferences? I've deleted my real name repeatedly and it keeps appearing. There's some tooltip that says it will send my real name to some services. What's this all about? How do I make it not send my real name to anyone?

5. What's the Message Display options under the "Advanced" options in the Preferences? I don't understand what Alias, Alias (user name), User Name, User Name (alias) are supposed to mean.

6. How do I set different avatars for my different user accounts and services?

For some reason, it's grabbing the user icon for my Mac OS X account and is displaying that under the contacts window.

/end questions

So if someone can help me figure this out, I'd appreciate it. I couldn't find any user manual type info anywhere. Is there any tutorials or Help anywhere ?

Thanks.

[David Munch]

1. Hold down the shift-button while starting up Adium. Then you can access individual accounts using the File menu.

2. They shouldn't really be doing what you describe.. Have you tried repearing your disk permissions lately? (Shot in the dark)

3 + 6. Its displaying the Nickname you've entered for each account. You can access these under Preferences --> Accounts. Select each of them, and click the 'Edit' button, and then the 'Personal' pane. Here, you can also set indiviual buddyicons for each account.

4. Just type in another name than your real one. Im actually not quite sure what the 'Personal' pane shows to other users? I mean, you have individual options under each account too..

5. It ask how you would like your name to be displayed in the message-window, whenever you have a conversation with another person; You can make it display your nickname/alias or account name, or some combination of your choosing. This is purely a visual on your side and doesn't affect what other users see.

"6." You can access Adium Help under the Help menu, and from there you have a few helpfull topics. Also, you can do a search for topics on the Adium Trac, that might be helpfull.

[carpediem]

Thank you , David.

1. Hold down the shift-button while starting up Adium. Then you can access individual accounts using the File menu.

I tried that. It still tried to sign on each of multiple Yahoo and MSN messenger accounts, but none of my AIM or Jabber accounts. The problem is that my main YIM identity gets signed out when its sub-profile gets signed in. (I get error messages saying I've been signed out because I signed in on another machine.)

I can't even figure out how to turn off the YIM accounts that are signed in that I don't want running.

If I look at the Adium menulet there's 2 or 3 sections that look like the different status messages from YIM and AIM. Below that is a list of every single account that has a "(Connecting)" next to it. Then below that some of the YIM accounts are repeated and some have grey balloons next to them and some have green balloons. Then some of the AIM accounts are repeated with "(Connecting)" again with grey balloons. Then the MSN messenger accounts are repeated with green balloons.

In the Contacts window, only the YIM accounts and one of the MSN accounts are shown.

This is extremely confusing. Looking at the menulet, I have no idea what accounts are really signed in or not.

2. They shouldn't really be doing what you describe.. Have you tried repearing your disk permissions lately? (Shot in the dark)

Actually, I backed up, ran all the permissions and chron scripts, and used Disk Warrior (my monthly maintenance and pre-installation routine) before installing Adium. I've repaired permissions again. It looks like maybe it's saved the passwords.

I looked in the keychain and there's passwords saved (over a time period of 18 minutes) for
Adium.
Adium.AIM.9
Adium.MSN.11
Adium.Yahoo!.15
Adium.Yahoo!.17
Adium.AIM.8
Adium.Yahoo!.1
Adium.AIM.21
Adium.Yahoo!.5
Adium.MSN.10
Adium.MSN.22
Adium.MSN.23
Adium.Jabber.6
Adium.Jabber.18
Adium.Yahoo!.2
Adium.Yahoo!.3
Adium.Yahoo!.4
Adium.Yahoo!.14
Adium.Yahoo!.16
Adium.AIM.20
Adium.AIM.19
Adium.Yahoo!.13
Adium.AIM.7
Adium.Yahoo!.12

Somehow, I don't think that's supposed to be that way though. It looks like it did save the passwords each time I entered them.

4. Just type in another name than your real one. Im actually not quite sure what the 'Personal' pane shows to other users? I mean, you have individual options under each account too..

How do I find out the purpose of this? That tooltip saying it will send my real name is ominous.

5. It ask how you would like your name to be displayed in the message-window, whenever you have a conversation with another person; You can make it display your nickname/alias or account name, or some combination of your choosing. This is purely a visual on your side and doesn't affect what other users see.

Then what do other people see? My account username? When I tried this with a friend in YIM he said my full first and last name appeared in his buddy list.

"6." You can access Adium Help under the Help menu, and from there you have a few helpfull topics. Also, you can do a search for topics on the Adium Trac, that might be helpfull.

Yeah, I tried searching this website and the forum but I didn't notice there was a help menu. I'll look there too.

Meanwhile, I have another problem.

7. My friend sent me a YIM to my main preferred YIM account (the one that keeps getting booted by its sub-profile) and when I replied to him, it showed up as a new chat window with a different YIM account on his end. What's with that and how do I tell Adium which account I want to reply with if it won't reply with the one that the message was sent to?

8. How do I find my buddies? When I use YIM, AIM, or Fire, when I log in my buddy list appears and I can choose someone and IM them. I can't find my buddies anywhere.

Thanks for any help. This program is so confusing to me.

[David Munch]

It still tried to sign on each of multiple Yahoo and MSN messenger accounts, but none of my AIM or Jabber accounts.

Weird, it shouldnt do that. Did you hold down shift *before* you clicked the Adium application, and held it down untill the application was started all up?

I can't even figure out how to turn off the YIM accounts that are signed in that I don't want running.

Under the File menu you can turn of individual accounts. If you dont want them to join on startup, go to Preferences --> Accounts, and check them off in the right side.

How do I find out the purpose of this? That tooltip saying it will send my real name is ominous.

Hopefully someone else will read this thread... Someone that can answer that question.

Then what do other people see? My account username? When I tried this with a friend in YIM he said my full first and last name appeared in his buddy list.

They see your what is written under Preferences --> Accounts --> some account --> Personal Tab.

7. My friend sent me a YIM to my main preferred YIM account (the one that keeps getting booted by its sub-profile) and when I replied to him, it showed up as a new chat window with a different YIM account on his end. What's with that and how do I tell Adium which account I want to reply with if it won't reply with the one that the message was sent to?

Whenever you start a conversation, you can set the sending account in the top of the conversation window.

8. How do I find my buddies? When I use YIM, AIM, or Fire, when I log in my buddy list appears and I can choose someone and IM them. I can't find my buddies anywhere.

View menu --> Show Offline Contacts (I guess...)

[allannyholm]

Maybe for the connecting on startup, uncheck the following box "Connect when Adium opens" in Adium Preferences(Command+,) -> Accounts -> Highlight the wanted account eg. the Yahoo or MSN one -> Click the 'Edit' button in the lower righthand corner.

From now on you can choose which one to connect by choosing the Status menuitem and find your account at the bottom of the list that appears. I think the status menuitem is there in the version you have too, just like it is here on my Mac running Leopard.