Preferences:

The following buttons have the same behavior regardless of the topic that is currently selected:

The Cancel button will discard all changes that you made since opening the Preferences window.

The Save button will save all changes that you have made.

The Use Defaults button will set the default preferences for the currently selected topic.

The Preferences popup menu allows you to select from several topics, described below:

General:

Your Chatter Network Name:  This is the name Chatter will use when presenting itself to other Chatter users on the network. If the name is not unique, Chatter will inform you and use the name of your Macintosh.  If you change your network name, you must quit and restart Chatter for the changes to take effect.

  Show All Connection Info: If this box is checked, the source and destination AppleTalk sockets are displayed at the bottom of the window,  in addition to the state of the connection. If it is not checked, only the connection state ( Open, Closed, Opening, etc. is displayed ).

  When in background, beep:  These radio buttons allow you to configure when Chatter will play the system beep to get your attention if something has happened while Chatter is in the background. The settings have the following effects:

   Always. Chatter beeps when a new connection is created, or if it’s in the background and new data has been received.

  Only On Connections. Chatter will beep only when a new connection has been established.

Never. Chatter will never beep unless an error of some sort has occurred.

In addition to beeping (or not ),  Chatter will put a blinking icon in the system Applications menu if something you should be aware of has happened while Chatter is in the background.

Search:

Search for other Chatter users: 

This is the number of seconds Chatter will spend searching for other Chatter users. On fast networks, this value can be 1 second. It can be set higher for slower networks.

Hold:

The message that gets sent when the Hold button is pressed can be stored here.  It cannot be longer than 255 characters.

Shrink Windows During Hold:

This will collapse the window so that only a Resume button is showing.  This is handy if you don’t want people reading over your shoulder.

Listener:

  Don’t launch Chatter Listener:
If checkmarked, the Chatter Listener will not be launched when Chatter quits. See Chatter Listener for more information.

  Install Listener
  This will install the Chatter Listener in your extensions folder. See Chatter Listener for more information.

Answering Mode:

The message that is sent to connecting users when Chatter is in Answering Mode is stored here.