IM clients
Dear LazyWeb,
The soon-to-be-only "supported" IM client is soon to be one that has some accessibility problems for me. I've been told that I can get a security variance to install a different one. I probably get one chance at this.
The folks who told me this recommended Pidgin. (Others they mentioned included Trillian, Adium, Exodus, Pandion, and Jbother. I haven't done anything with those yet.) The main thing I need to be able to do with an IM client (that the current client doesn't already do) is modify the fonts and colors in the UI.
Pidgin claims to have themes. I even see that the (Windows XP, in case it matters) distribution came with some, and I've found sites where I can download more. What I can't find is a way to actually apply those themes. Per this FAQ (or a link from it), I've tried using GTK Theme Selector; it doesn't change anything, even after restarting Pidgin. I also found allusions to a .gtkrc file, but not enough information (so far) to just go and roll my own. (And anyway, if someone else has already done the work...)
This article recommends using GTK+ Theme Control from inside the UI. That worked exactly once; having set one theme from the installed set, I can't change it to another.
Can anyone out there offer me some guidance? I guess I'll move on to Trillian in the meantime, but I was getting a strong "use Pidgin if you can" vibe so I'd like to figure this out.
Edit 12:30AM: Pidgin themes installed into the right directory are eventually noticed. The sequence seems to be: use Theme Selector to pick a theme, then go into Pidgin and enter the name of that theme (both steps are required), and then maybe it works. There appears to be a delay; this failed for me initially and worked an hour later. As for editing, it turns out that each theme is (wholly?) defined by one config file, and while I don't know the whole language for that yet, I've been able to make some progress by cloning a theme and tweaking the colors. I don't yet know how to do font sizes.
The soon-to-be-only "supported" IM client is soon to be one that has some accessibility problems for me. I've been told that I can get a security variance to install a different one. I probably get one chance at this.
The folks who told me this recommended Pidgin. (Others they mentioned included Trillian, Adium, Exodus, Pandion, and Jbother. I haven't done anything with those yet.) The main thing I need to be able to do with an IM client (that the current client doesn't already do) is modify the fonts and colors in the UI.
Pidgin claims to have themes. I even see that the (Windows XP, in case it matters) distribution came with some, and I've found sites where I can download more. What I can't find is a way to actually apply those themes. Per this FAQ (or a link from it), I've tried using GTK Theme Selector; it doesn't change anything, even after restarting Pidgin. I also found allusions to a .gtkrc file, but not enough information (so far) to just go and roll my own. (And anyway, if someone else has already done the work...)
This article recommends using GTK+ Theme Control from inside the UI. That worked exactly once; having set one theme from the installed set, I can't change it to another.
Can anyone out there offer me some guidance? I guess I'll move on to Trillian in the meantime, but I was getting a strong "use Pidgin if you can" vibe so I'd like to figure this out.
Edit 12:30AM: Pidgin themes installed into the right directory are eventually noticed. The sequence seems to be: use Theme Selector to pick a theme, then go into Pidgin and enter the name of that theme (both steps are required), and then maybe it works. There appears to be a delay; this failed for me initially and worked an hour later. As for editing, it turns out that each theme is (wholly?) defined by one config file, and while I don't know the whole language for that yet, I've been able to make some progress by cloning a theme and tweaking the colors. I don't yet know how to do font sizes.