openSUSE-Dokumentation Chapter 15. Instant Messaging with Kopete / 15.3. Customizing Kopete
	15.2. Chatting with Friends		15.4. For More Information

Customizing Kopete

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

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 15.2. The Main Kopete Window

Empty groups can be disabled by activating Settings+Hide Empty Groups. To customize a special group only, right-click the respective entry and select Properties in the popup window that opens. Now change the icons or your notifications.

Using an Identity

Kopete can manage several accounts, which is helpful if you have friends using different messenger protocols. Each account can be associated with a different identity. This is useful for privacy or business reasons and if you do not want to reveal your name. To create a new identity, proceed as follows:

In Kopete, select Settings+Configure and go to the Accounts tab. The configuration window appears.
Select Add Identity... and enter a name, nickname, and other information.
If you want to use the new identity for different accounts, simply move your account into your new identity.

Configuring Notifications

Kopete allows you to configure notifications for events such as contacts coming online or going offline or an incoming message for you. This can be done globally, for a specific group or a single contact.

To activate the notifications option proceed as follows:

Make sure all your contacts are shown in the Kopete window. If not, select Settings+Show Offline Users.
Right-click your preferred contact and select Properties. The notification dialog appears, see Figure 15.3
Figure 15.3. Notification Dialog in Kopete
Go to the Custom Notification tab and select Contact Gone Online.
Decide which action should be executed for this event: Play a Sound, Show a Message in a Popup, Log to a File, Mark Taskbar Entry, or Run Command.
Click OK to confirm your settings.

To modify the default notification options, select Settings+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.

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.