Use Unicode symbols in iChat status messages

Oct 17, '08 07:30:01AM

Contributed by: robg

Recently I noticed some buddies with unique iChat status messages -- one appeared to be upside down text, the other had small graphics around the text. After thinking about it for a bit (sure, I could have asked, but where's the challenge in that?), I figured out what they'd done: taken advantage of OS X's support for Unicode and used the Character Palette to embed Unicode characters in their status messages.

To customize your own status messages, I suggest building them in something like TextEdit, then copying and pasting the result into iChat. Launch TextEdit, then press Command-Option-T to bring up the Character Palette. I find it easiest to set the View pop-up to All Characters, and then click the by Category tab. Select a symbol you want to use, and then drag it to TextEdit (or click the Insert button). There are literally thousands of characters available, including Mac keyboard symbols (⌃ ⌘ ⌥), circled letters and numbers (①②③④⑤, ⒶⒷⒸⒹⒺ), bar graph elements (▇▆▆▅▄▃▂▁), and much more. Click through the various entries in the categories on the left, build something you like, then copy and paste it into iChat as your status message.

I'm not sure how Unicoded status messages appear on other platforms and/or chat clients, but they work perfectly with others running iChat on OS X. (Note that this hint may not look correct on some browsers or operating systems, as they may not correctly display the Unicode characters I've embedded in the hint -- and that's why I write out Command in other hints, instead of inserting the Command key's Unicode symbol.)

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2008101606150460