Configuring Kopete
To configure Kopete, look in the Settings menu.

Global Shortcuts
Kopete defines some shortcuts which are valid in any application.
Global Keyboard Shortcuts	Action
I	Read Message. This is useful if you have hidden the Contact List window and the system tray icon is animating to tell you you have a new message.
C	Show/hide (Dock) the Contact List window. Warning: If you have disabled Kopete's System Tray icon or don't have a system tray, this can make the Contact List vanish - the only way to restore it is to repeat this shortcut.

The Configure Kopete Dialog

Adding and Editing Accounts
We briefly showed you how to add an account in Getting Started. To change an account's settings later, open up the Configure Kopete dialog, with Settings Configure.... Much like the Control Center, the configuration is separated into sections. The icons on the left side of the dialog switch between sections.
On the Accounts page, you can Add, Remove, or Modify accounts. Editing accounts is much the same as adding them, but note that you cannot change the UIN, buddy name, or whatever account identifier your IM system uses. This is intrinsic to the account. If you want to change this, you will have to add another account with the new account identifier and (optionally) remove the old account.
You can quickly distinguish between multiple accounts using the same IM system by giving a custom color to each account's status bar entry and contact icons. To do so, select the account and click the color selector on the right side of the page.
You can control the priority of accounts using the Up and Down icons on this page. If you have more than one way to message a contact, this determines the IM system Kopete will use to communicate them.

Global Identity
Kopete's Global Identity lets you set your own nickname and photo once for all your IM accounts. You can read these details from the address book entry for yourself, from a single one of your contacts, or add a completely new nickname or photo. If you have an exciting dual life, you can create multiple identities and switch between them in the Identity section.

Behavior
Behavior covers the way Kopete integrates with your desktop, Away settings, and chat user interface options.

The General tab
Here you can customize Kopete's desktop integration, and control the way the contact list is laid out.
Show system tray icon 	 By default, Kopete places an icon in the System Tray. If you prefer, you can turn this off here.
Start with hidden main window 	 This causes Kopete to start with the Contact List window hidden (docked). You can make it visible by clicking the system tray icon or with the Show Contact List global shortcut.
Open messages instantly 	 New messages open chat windows as soon as they arrive.
Use message queue 	 The message queue is where Kopete puts messages when there is no chat window open. This allows you to be notified of new messages with popup speech bubbles; or by animating the System Tray icon. If you choose to disable the message queue, chat windows will open as soon as you receive a new message.
Use message stack 	 If you use a message stack, Kopete shows recently received messages starting with the last message received.

Notifications
Show a bubble on new message 	 This option shows a speech bubble; coming from the System Tray icon when you receive a new message. You can start a chat or ignore the message. s are extracted from the message; if you click a link, your preferred browser will open the link and the message will be dismissed.
Flash the system tray on new messages 	 This option causes the System Tray icon to animate when you receive a new message. Clicking the icon will show the message in a chat window.
Enable events while away 	 If you do not wish to be distracted by these notifications while you are set Away, uncheck this box.
Configure Sounds & Events 	 Sounds, flashing taskbar entries, passive popups and more exotic notifications are supported in Kopete using the notification system. Type help:/kcontrol/kcmnotify in or select the Help tab in the System Notifications section of the for more information.
To add custom notifications for a contact, right click that contact in the Contact List and select Properties. This lets you start chats, play a custom sound effect, or display a message for that contact or group. Otherwise you can use the Execute a program notification to perform custom notifications. As an example, if you have XOSD (X On-Screen Display) installed, you can get OSD online notifications by executing the following command when the User goes online event takes place:
echo %s | osd_cat -o 100 -p bottom -A center -f -*-helvetica-*-r-*-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-*-* -O 2 -c gold
OhReally at the Forum suggests having your online notifications read out by a speech synthesizer, using MBROLA like so:
echo %s | sed -e 's/online/onlaain/i' | /usr/local/bin/mbrdico.dutch.female
The 'sed' in the middle phoneticises Kopete's output to so the synthesizer has a better Dutch pronunciation.

Away Settings
Notify all open chats when I go away 	Be careful if you enable this item; it will cause a message to be sent to open chats when you become away, which some people may find intrusive.

Auto Away
Here you can choose to have Kopete set you away after a period of inactivity.

Predefined Away Messages
You can define as many custom away messages as you like here, and choose from them when you go Away using the Status button on the main toolbar.

Chat Settings
Raise window/tab on new messages 	This causes a chat window to pop up when it receives a new message.
Show events in chat window 	Some IM systems can give extra information, like people joining or leaving chats. This option lets you receive these messages in your chat window.
Highlight messages containing your nickname 	This simply emphasizes messages in a chat that contain your nickname. For more powerful control over highlighting and other events, see the Highlight plugin.

Interface Preference
Kopete can send messages using either a fire and forget interface that does not wait for a reply, or a chat window where the conversation is visible as it unfolds. Here you can choose which style to use by default.

Chat Window Grouping Policy
If you wish to group chats within tabs in a single window, Kopete lets you choose several ways to determine the grouping.
Open all messages in a new chat window
Group all messages from the same account in the same chat window
Group all messages in the same chat window
Group all messages in the same group in the same chat window
Group all messages from the same metacontact in the same chat window

Chat Window Line Limit
Maximum number of chat window lines 	This limits the number of lines of text the chat window can display.

Appearance
Appearance governs the style of the Chat window, its colors and fonts, and lets you choose your preferred emoticons.

Emoticons
Emoticons (also known as smileys) are combinations of characters such as ;-)that look like a face, and communicate moods or expressions. Kopete can optionally use graphical emoticons in place of the characters themselves.
On this tab, you can select which emoticon set you prefer, or turn off graphical emoticons altogether.
See Specialized Actions for details of how to install extra emoticon sets.

Chat Window

Styles
The style of the chat view can be altered to look like other clients. Installed styles are shown in the list on the left and are previewed in the main panel. See Chat Window Style guide for a document how to make your own style.
Third party styles are available at http://kde-look.org. Kopete 0.12 now supports styles from Adium(an IM program on OS X). So you can download styles from Adium here: Adium Xtras and select Message View Styles.
To install a style, click Install.... Select an archive file containing the style. To delete a style, select a style in the list and click Delete.
Group consecutive messages is a useful option to make your chats more readable. If you receive several messages in a row from the same contact, they are grouped without repeating the sender name.

Contact List
Arrange metacontacts by group 	 By disabling this, Kopete's groups are hidden, and contacts are divided only into Online Contacts and Offline Contacts.
Show tree branch lines 	 Usually Kopete displays contacts and groups as a tree, where group members are indented. For a simpler appearance, you can disable this, so the contact list becomes a flat list. You can also control whether branches are indented here.
Contact Display Mode 	 There are several ways you can present the contact list here. Of particular interest may be the Use contact photos when available option, that shows the contact list using photos chosen by your contacts or the Address Book
Contact List Animations 	 This controls the degree of animation of the contact list. Turning this off will make Kopete more responsive on slower machines.
Contact List Auto-Hide 	 By enabling this, the contact list will automatically disappear a few seconds after the pointer leaves the window.
Change Tooltip Contents... 	 You have a lot of control over how much or how little detail appears in the tooltips shown on the contact list using this dialog.

Colors and Fonts

Chat Window Colors
Here you can alter the base font and text colors used for chatting.

Formatting Overrides
If your contacts tend to choose fonts and colors that you dislike, you can tell Kopete to ignore these and use your regular font.

Contact List
Some IM systems let you see whether contacts are idle at their computers. This option enables you to change the color used for idle contacts.

Devices
The Devices section allows you to choose and configure which multimedia devices are used for A/V chatting. Whether this works for you is highly dependent on the hardware you have and how well it is supported by your operating system.

Video
Kopete uses the Video4Linux 2 system for video. This shows a blue square if no video device is found, or a preview if the camera is working. For up-to-date information on Kopete webcam support, see the Kopete Webcam Support wiki page.

Audio
Audio support in Kopete is at an experimental stage. If you have an Audio tab, you are probably using a preview build of Kopete.

Loading Plugins
You can customize Kopete with special functions that may be useful or just a bit of fun. Bring up the Configure Plugins dialog with Settings Configure Plugins....
Plugins can be turned on or off in the list on the left side of the page. Each plugin may be configured on the right side. See the chapter on plugins for details on each plugin.