Tkabber FAQ was divided into several parts. This article is about Tkabber's appearance (fonts, color themes, icons, avatars) and its work with sound. There are links to other Tkabber FAQ pages at the bottom.
Contents
- 1 Appearance and sound
- 1.1 Why is Tkabber so ugly?
- 1.2 Fonts
- 1.3 Smilies: 1) using a menu; 2) cannot connect a set; 3) don't want any; 4) animated
- 1.4 Can't see smilies/photos/etc in PNG/JPEG format
- 1.5 Color Schemes
- 1.6 Message colours of ICQ/MSN/etc-users
- 1.7 Does Tkabber support avatars?
- 1.8 Adjusting sound volume
- 1.9 Starpack/starkit doesn't support sound/JPEG,PNG
- 2 Glitches arising during work
- 3 How can I...?
- 4 Miscellanea
Appearance and sound
Why is Tkabber so ugly?
Question: My friends mock at me because I use Tkabber and it is very ugly. I like Tkabber but it's true, you won't show it to your girl-friend... So what should I answer them?
Answer: Let them read this article. If they manage to understand a bit of it they will probably leave you in peace.
Fonts
Question: How could I change font/font size for chat windows and menu items?
Answer: Try to add to your config.tcl file something like this:
option add *font -monotype-arial-medium-r-*-*-11-*-100-100-*-*-iso10646-1
set font -monotype-arial-medium-r-*-*-11-*-100-100-*-*-iso10646-1
The first line manages buttons and other interface elements, the second one is for the roster and chat windows. In this example the name of a font is "arial", its size is 11, the coding page is iso10646 (this corresponds to utf-8). Try different variants till you are contented.
If you'd like to know more about Tkabber-fonts relationship read this article.
Smilies: 1) using a menu; 2) cannot connect a set; 3) don't want any; 4) animated
- Question: I want a menu to choose a smilie from.
- Question: I've edited my config putting there the path to my new emoticon set but they won't connect after restarting Tkabber.
Answer: Read this article. By the way, you can open a smilies menu by pressing Alt-E. Pay attention to Help → Quick help.
- Question: I don't want any smilies, even default ones.
Answer: Read this article.
- Question: My animated smilies don't work! What should I do?
Answer: Sincerely, first of all you should ask yourself something like this:
"Am I a child to be excited at a chat screen full with sparkling banners
smilies?" However, if the answer is positive please proceed to
this article.
Can't see smilies/photos/etc in PNG/JPEG format
Question: My linux version of Tkabber can't display photos in vcard if they aren't in GIF format.
Answer: Install tkImg. If you use Tkabber Starpack go ahead and read this.
NB: Debian users should know that there is a repository of teo (one of Tkabber developers), which contains ready binary packages for all Tcl/Tk extensions that could be used by Tkabber.
Color Schemes
Question: I don't like default color scheme. What can I do?
Answer: First try existing schemes, you can find them in examples. Read this about how to enable them. If you do not like any of them try to create your own scheme. Open one of these .xrdb files in your favourite text editor, save it with a new name and make changes until the result pleases you :) Add the path to this file to your config.tcl, and after starting Tkabber you will see what has been changed. Yes, it is very difficult to "paint" without a WYSIWYG editor but at least you can use Photoshop or The Gimp to choose colors and get their hex-values ;) If you are a tcl programmer you can write a plugin that allows to create new color schemes easily, and everybody will thank you!
Message colours of ICQ/MSN/etc-users
Question: I turned on colored nicks and messages. It works fine but I don't like that their colors are random and sometimes it's impossible to read because of some terrible colour. However, I can change colours of MUC-users via a context menu, but ICQ-users don't have such item in their menu.
Answer: The problem can be solved this way: Tkabber → Chats → Edit nick colors..., or you can also make a right-click on the text of your interlocutor, not on his or her nick, and choose "Edit nick color..." from the menu. Poor logic? Yes, but it's how it's made and it seems that there will be no item about nick color changing in a user context menu in the near future. However, we can reveal a secret that the mechanism of colour assigning will be different. The colours will be assigned automatically, but not randomly. They will be generated depending on the user's JID. Of course, you still will be able to edit the colours.
Does Tkabber support avatars?
Question: JAJC works with avatars perfectly: loads them and shows to your interlocutors in the systray. Can Tkabber do such things?
Answer: Avatar support in Tkabber is implemented minimally: Tkabber can announce and send to the server your own avatar and get avatars of other users (if it is allowed to download avatars, they can be seen in users' vcards).
"Default" Tkabber installation cannot display avatars in chat windows, in tooltips on the roster contacts, neither it can display animated avatars.
However, the main advantage of Tcl and Tkabber is that almost everything can be adapted to the user's taste. Please read how to patch Tkabber to get the extended avatar support in this article.
You can manage avatars via Services → Plugins → Avatars.
NB: This situation with irreducible avatar support can be explained in famous Lenin's words (note that here we use an adapted version of his phrase which is totally opposite) "heads don't want, masses are unable": people that are able to write a necessary plugin think that avatars are the most evil thing in the Universe, and people that cannot live without such a plugin cannot write it (and don't want to learn).
Adjusting sound volume
Question: Is it possible to adjust sound volume in Tkabber?
Answer: Yes, and even in different ways. Read more about it in this article.
Starpack/starkit doesn't support sound/JPEG,PNG
Question: How can it be fixed?
Answer: The solution is given in another Tkabber FAQ chapter.