Chatbubble Experiment: Sammy Stephens Explains It All

it’s just like


it’s just like


it’s just like


a mini


mall.




[See this YouTube clip if this doesn’t ring a bell]

The above is me testing out Rajbot’s Chatbubble tool, which endeavors to make it easier to display chat logs in HTML that look like iChat sessions. The tool consists of a CSS file, an icons directory, and a Python script you feed message text through. If you’re using it on WordPress, you also need to use Alex King’s WP-Unformatted to stop WordPress from adding unnecessary p tags to blog entries that use Chatbubble.

I used to love the pre-AOL partnership Progressive Boink “Dugout” feature (hat tip to Matt Hunt for introducing me to it) and I could see using Chatbubble for similar antics, or just as a new format for explaining things comic-style.


It doesn’t yet work right on all browsers, and it appears to need a light background because of the aliasing tricks.

I want to do what I can to help move this project along, so if anyone thinks they would benefit from a full “how-to” on using it, let me know and I’ll whip one up.

8 comments

  3. Thanks for the offer for a how-to for ChatBubble!

    If you need background information for your how-to,
    there is a description of how CB works here: http://www.tikirobot.net/wp/2007/12/17/how-to-style-a-div-to-look-like-an-ichat-speech-balloon-using-css/

    Here is information about the Even More Rounded Corners technique that we use: http://www.schillmania.com/projects/dialog2/

    That technique seems to work on all web browsers, so I must have done something to stop it from working in IE. It seems to be working on Firefox, Safari, and Opera. I’ll work on IE support when I get a hold of a windows machine..

  4. Looks like Google Reader doesn’t know what to make of it. The text just shows up as text, instead of word bubbles.

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