I have accounts with all four major instant messenger protocols. Because I hate each one of their native programs, I use a single program that can log into each of them and keep it into one single interface. This prevents me from having to switch between multiple applications, taking up tons of RAM, and communicating as quickly and efficiently as possible with the people on my contact lists.

There are several applications that group all the IM protocols together, such as Trillian, Miranda IM, and GAIM. To varying degrees, each of these applications minimizes all the extra clutter and maximizes your ability to customize the application for your preferences. They’re all valid options, but of these three I’ve chosen Gaim because of one simple feature:

I can make my IM windows stop blinking!

In every other IM application, your IM windows blink and make a sound every time there’s a new message. This is really irritating and distracting, and pulls me away from my work. I can’t ignore it, because it’s designed to be attention-catching, so I tend to open them just to make them stop blinking, and it disrupts my workflow.

I COULD just turn off IM, but I can’t do that for long because I communicate with my artists through IM, so making the windows not blink keeps them in the background to check at my leisure.

The way to do it in Gaim is this:

Open the Gaim window -> Tools Menu -> Plugins -> WinGaim Options -> Configure Plug-In -> Uncheck ‘Flash window when messages are received.’

In all likelihood, I will never switch from Gaim for this one simple feature. Thank you, Gaim developers. 🙂

Does anyone else have a pet feature they love about software they use?