About the Contact List toolbar
We’ve received a number of emails telling us that the Customize Toolbar menu item is grayed out [when the Contact List is frontmost], or asking us what happened what happened to the Contact List toolbar.
For those who don’t know what it is that they’re asking about: In 0.89.1, the Contact List had a toolbar:
We didn’t realize that this was so popular. We replaced it with this much simpler toolbar:
This is the only possible toolbar in Adium 1.0—the old one is gone. And come to find out, a lot of you miss it.
So we are now looking at ways to bring back the functionality of the old toolbar in some future version. In the meantime, here are some workarounds:
- Toggle Groups Display: View menu→Show Groups
- Add Group: Contact menu→Add Group… (or ⇧⌘D)
- Preferences: Adium menu→Preferences… (or ⌘,)
- View Logs: Contact menu→View Chat Transcripts (or ⌘L)
- Message: Double-click on a contact
- Show Info: Contact menu→Get Info (or ⌘I)
- Toggle Offline Contacts: View menu→Show Offline Contacts (or ⇧⌘H)
- Add Contact: Contact menu→Add Contact… (or ⌘D)
- Send File: Contact menu→Send File (or ⇧⌘F)
We do ask that you give 1.0 a fair shake. Certainly all of us have not been using this—that’s why it’s been so surprising to find out that it was in such wide use. So we know that it is possible to use and enjoy Adium without needing the Contact List toolbar. Please give it a try.
If you really, really can’t go without those toolbar items, and don’t mind running a now-unsupported version of Adium, you can get 0.89.1 from the link on the front page (which we put there for Jaguar users).
February 5th, 2007 at 1:47 PM
Its gone and its good. My contact list dont even shows the simple toolbar of 1.0. I have never used this feature and i dont need the maximize and minimize functionality. i just want a clean contactlist
and this is what i had with 0.89 and still have with 1.0. 
thanks a lot to the adium team for this great piece of software!
February 5th, 2007 at 2:55 PM
i like the look of Adium 1.0 much better, i never used the toolbar anyway.
but since so many users seem to ask for it: wouldn’t it be possible to have the toolbar at the bottom of the contact list (like iChat and Yahoo Messenger handle it)?
February 5th, 2007 at 3:19 PM
meandcat, that’s one of the options we’re considering, definitely
February 5th, 2007 at 3:49 PM
0.8′s toolbar was USEFUL.
1.0′s is a waste of space.
You guys really blew me off when I had the gall to complain about the toobar’s loss during early beta cycle, in the beta forum and the irc channel. Nice to see you’re rethinking it.
In general, throwing away working functionality between releases is rarely a good idea…
- Dan.
February 5th, 2007 at 4:30 PM
1.0′s toolbar is much better! It allows to change quickly my screenname and picture, this is a great step forward in usability.
I’m not sure you should take notice of this first-hand feedback, perhaps you should wait and see how things evolve in the future.
February 5th, 2007 at 6:14 PM
“In general, throwing away working functionality between releases is rarely a good idea…”
Actually it’s almost always a good idea. I’d even say always. Otherwise you end up with huge applications that no one can understand. I certainly intend to throw away further working functionality in 1.1. Did you notice, for example, that the “output device” preference was removed in 1.0 with no replacement? So far 0 people have mentioned it to us.
I also think the 0.89 toolbar was inherently flawed, due to the narrow width of common contact list configurations (see how absurd the screenshot in this blog post looks). A replacement will have to address space usage better.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:18 AM
I do think you are right to remove the old toolbar
the new is simple and useful.
the old one did NOT have the MOST useful feature needed and took too much place.
thanks you for the new ui in adiumX 1.0
I used the beta for month for many reasons, the new toolbar was one.
please please please, keep it simple in the future. we need simpler software. we are not all so versed in computers interfaces.
thanks for the hard work.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:08 AM
Personally, I liked having it how 0.89.1 had it, where I could have it to only the status was visible. The other options never get used, and waste space for me, even how 1.0 has it.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:26 PM
I also used the toolbar on my contacts list frequently, and I miss it! My list feels naked with out it.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can have it back?
February 6th, 2007 at 3:29 PM
i also really miss the pop up bubble that shows each contacts away messages when you scroll over their name. is this feature still available somewhere in the prefrences? or is it gone for good?
February 6th, 2007 at 4:55 PM
I don’t think it is good design to have like 1000 ways to do the same things. Therefor I think it is all cool to remove the toolbar.
(And for the last post. Go to “Adium > Preferences > Advanced > Contact List > Tooltips” and change it to suit your needs…)
February 6th, 2007 at 7:21 PM
Thanks for the great work on 1.0. Such a relief to have file transfers working so much better… but yeah… the one thing I miss is the old toolbar… really just having a “show offline contacts” button. At any rate, Thanks again for the hard work
February 7th, 2007 at 1:08 AM
thanks smacmac for telling me about the tooltip preference, i appreciate it!
the new version really does kick ass, i just have to get used to it, and i already am so yay for 1.0!
February 7th, 2007 at 3:54 AM
you know what else was nice about 89.1? Not having my “alias” under the personal tab the universal item showing up for all my accounts. leaving that blank should simply mean use the accoutn login, no?
February 7th, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Well, I agree with most users that Adium 1:0 is great and the toolbar is simple and useful. However concerning the earlier contacts-toolbar I still think “add contact”, “preferences”, “add group” and “show info” would be nice to have it back. Maybe underneath like some allready suggested…
It´s just a hassle to allways have to open the message drawer.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:12 PM
I don’t miss the old toolbar, 1.0 is fine the way it is.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:37 PM
i agree with hellmark — all i want from toolbar is the ability to make it tiny. the new one is too big and only tells me things i know.
speaking of removed funtionality, though – i almost can’t use tabbed chat now because my tabs don’t sort anymore. can we please have that back?
February 7th, 2007 at 3:20 PM
I think you did an great job with Adium 1.0. I like the new Toolbar much more then the older one. I agree with smacmac it isn’t verry good to have 1000 ways to do the same thing. It’s all right with new contact list. Don’t waste time for going a step back.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:45 PM
I have limited space on my screen so I liked having just my username and status at the top of my contact list… If I could just get rid of my icon up there that would be enough for me.
Thanks so much for working on this, Adium Team! You folks are so good about trying to support us stubborn folks who don’t like to change
PS- Thanks to the person who put the old Adium status gems up on the xtras page, I love you.
chb
February 9th, 2007 at 8:26 PM
It would be great if we could “customize” it like before. Novices or those who rely on keystrokes can leave it as-is. But removing the toolbar was a UI mistake. I look forward to it returning in future versions.
Keep up the great work.
February 17th, 2007 at 1:01 PM
I really miss the costomized toolbar. I downloaded the new version to find that I don’t like it nearly as much! Could you have it so that it is possible to download old versions of Adium as well as the new? Other than that, I really like it.
February 17th, 2007 at 3:38 PM
Are there any free applications that you can download to make custom toolbar icons? I would really like to know because ive only seen two sets of custom toolbar icons and my current ones dont match my theme. And are there anyways to make the contact list “lock on” to the chat window and stay in place? Im tired of having to drag them both around and minimizing them one at a time, its just inconvenient.
-Thanks!
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 PM
ok so you guys should def bring back the toolbar, its soooo much more easier to just click a button to add a contact or buddy then going to file the add buddy or whatever, it was just a really nice convenience that you guys took away from us.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:26 PM
I certainly miss it — I had the Get Info, Send File and Logs button there and I used it every time I opened Adium.