Change iChat picture based on status via AppleScript
Feb 13, '07 07:30:03AM
Contributed by: servo
I wrote a small AppleScript called iChatStatusImage (42KB download) that monitors my iChat status and changes my picture based on that status. The script needs to run in the background, but it's got a pretty small footprint. If you know of a way to make it even smaller, feel free to let me know.
It's very simple to use -- unzip the archive and replace the JPG files in the folder with JPG files of your choosing. I recommend keeping the images to around 100x100 pixels in size (iChat will resize them to 28x28). It is very important that you have these four JPG files in the same folder as the iChatStatusImage application:
- available.jpg
- away.jpg
- idle.jpg
- offline.jpg
If you don't, the application will die (it won't hurt anything though); it's not fancy enough to be graceful. Double-click the application to start it, or add it to your startup items to have it run when you log in. It will run in the background, so if you want to quit it you will need to do so using Activity Monitor or the Terminal. If you open the application in AppleScript Studio and make a change, it will no longer be a background app after you save it. To make it a background app again, you will need to run the application through Drop Script Backgrounder.
[robg adds: I have mirrored the zip file here on macosxhints, just in case, but the above link should always have the latest version of the package.]
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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070208143257620