6.3 Customizing Kopete

Kopete offers numerous options to customize it according to your needs. Find some examples in the following sections.

6.3.1 Adding Groups

Grouping contacts in your list can give a better overview. Click File > Create New Group. Name the group and confirm this with OK. A new folder appears in the contact list that can be used to store the desired contacts. Drag and drop contacts into the desired folder.

Figure 6-2 The Main Kopete Window

Empty groups can be disabled by activating Settings > Hide Empty Groups.

6.3.2 Using a Global Identity

Kopete can manage several accounts which is helpful if you have friends using different messenger protocols. Instead of creating several identities for various protocols, you can also set up a global identity:

  1. In Kopete, select Settings > Configure.

  2. In the configuration window, select Identity and activate Enable global identity.

  3. Click New Identity and enter a name for your global identity.

  4. Specify some details for your identity such as nickname or photo.

    1. On the Nickname tab, decide if you want to use a Custom nickname or a nickname already specified in another Kopete account.

    2. If you want to add a photo, select one of the options on the Phototab.

    3. In order to use data that you have already specified in KAdressbook, go to the Address Book Link tab first. Click Change..., select your entry from the list and click OK. Now you can switch back to the Nickname or Photo tab and activate the address book options there.

6.3.3 Changing the Appearance

Kopete lets you install new themes, change the style of the chat window or modify colors and fonts. To change the appearance, select Settings > Configure and click Appearance. Find two examples below:

Installing a New Icon Theme

On the Emoticons tab, click Get New Themes... for a list of themes available from the Internet. To download one or several themes, select an entry in the list and click Install. The new theme is added to your list on the Emoticonstab. From there, choose the desired theme and click Apply.

Changing the Style of the Chat Window

Choose one of several Kopete styles available from the Chat Window tab or download new styles with Get New....

6.3.4 Configuring Notifications

Kopete allows you to configure notifications for events such as contacts coming online or going offline or an incoming message for you.

If you want to be notified if a certain contact has come online, proceed as follows:

  1. Make sure all your contacts are shown in the Kopete window (otherwise select Settings > Show offline users).

  2. Right-click your preferred contact and select Properties.

  3. Go to the Custom Notification tab and select A contact has gone online.

  4. Decide which action should be executed for this event: Play a Sound, Display a Message, Start a Chat or Suppress Standard Notifications.

  5. Click OK to confirm your settings.

To modify the default notification options, select Settings > Configure Notifications. Select which event is important for you and change the notification settings. For example, if you want to be informed by a sound when any of your contacts has come online, select A contact has come online and activate Play a sound. Select the sound and click OK to close the configuration dialog.

6.3.5 Configuring Kopete Plug-ins

Kopete offers some nice extensions for you chat sessions which can be accessed from Settings > Configure Plugins. For example, you can auto replace text, encrypt outgoing messages, highlight text if the message contains some interesting words, render LaTeX formulas, or translate messages.