cocoaforge

Hi!
first of all i want to say hello to all of you... this is my frist post here...

i see that MSN protocol shows e-mail in the "user name" while yahoo or icq show "display name".... so maybe there's a way to change the MSN part of Adium to show the "display name" instead of e-mail.

i don't know if anybody will understand what i'm trying to say...

i've set an alias for all my contacts and i'd like to see their names (display name) in the message window... there's an option to show alias or user name, but, again, in MSN user name is the e-mail address

i see in the MSN tab of advanced prefs there's an option to show "display name" as status messages... but i'd like to see both display name and status message


thanks anyway

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Next time try searching before posting. For most of the things you could imagine coming here for, somebody else has probably beat you to it!

its no biggy, but it's easier for you in the long run!

take at look at this - from just yesterday! hope it helps

Thanks budoink for replying but... my request is that the adium "screen name" command refers to "display name" instead of e-mail.

I've tried that thing, showing display name as status message... but that's not what i want.
I'd like to still view the status message (be right back, etc.), and when i select in the message view in the advanced prefs show "user name" i'd like to see the user name instead of the e-mail address.

Now i've seen that there's something similar in ICQ, "user name" means "icq number"...

maybe in the next adium version

thanks again

does it work how you want with the other protocols?
what do u mean by username/display name?
if i log into msn with budoink@hotmail.com, that is my username.

i get the feeling you're after budoink, but in hotmail the username is the whole email address because you can register a none hotmail/msn address with .net passports so if that is what your askin, then i don't think it's possible, the closest thing would be to give the contacts aliases or nicknames in your addressbook i think :-(

edit: reading through again, i think i know what u mean now, u want the display name (which most people use as their status) to show up under username. Ive never noticed how there isn't a display name option. Although, msn seems to be the only protocol with a display name, yahoo and aim just have alias, and when you set the custom name format to alias, it does show the msn display name, how is that not what you want?

perhaps i was right the first time - that you want budoink and not the whole email address? ive confused myself now

let's see...this can be very confussing... maybe with an exemple....
a conctact e-mail: bufaso@hotmail.com
his "display name" (the alias this person has set himself): soundchaser
alias (the alias i've set to him): adium

view-> contact name format:
-alias ..... i see "adium"
-alias (user name).... i see "adium (bufaso@hotmail.com)"

i want to see my alias in the list, but i want to see his display name in the message window.
list: adium
message window: soundchaser

so, i'll set "alias" in view-contact name format, and "display name" in prefs-advanced-messages-use custom name format
but this option is still unavailable

if i select "show display names as status messages" i won't be able to see the status message

most of my msn contacts have long display names that don't fit in my list... so i set an alias for them... but i'd like to see the display name in the message window.


thank you very much for trying to understand me... i think this is too much...

okay i understand now. Wouldn't it get a bit confusing using an alias in the contact list and display name in the message window though, especially when msn contacts change their display name so often? and also inconsistent, as contacts using the other protocols would just be identified by there username/alias?

bufaso wrote:if i select "show display names as status messages" i won't be able to see the status message

also you still won't be able to get your contacts display names to appear in message windows,

but as yet msn doens't have status messages as far as i am aware (in adium/with gaim at least), only statuses which you can see from the status icons

so i personally find the the best option is to show display names as status message, that way you can identify the contact from their alias, and read their display name in the contact list, and you can make the text smaller so more of the display names fit into the contact list.

i presume the reason why there is no option to use display name as a custom name format in messages is because only msn has display names, most people use their display names as a status message (and it would seem silly to identify aol or yahoo contacts by their status messages). Athough, not all msn users do this, so maybe having the advanced msn option for display names as a custom name format is something worth the devs considering, but i doubt they will feel it is necessary

i think i remember hearing something about msn having custom statuses not too long ago, i wonder how the devs plain to implement this.

This has been suggested a few times before i think, but it seems relevent here, - i think a good idea would be having the option of including the display name in the status message (or including the actual status in the status message(display name set to staus message))

so if the custom status was "boiling the kettle"
and display name "blah blah",
the status message would read "(boiling the kettle) blah blah".

Infact I think this might be pretty cool (but not really necessary) to implement this even if msn dosn't have/get custom statuses and for the other protocols too, so the actual status and display names/status messages can both be read.

How relevant this is to the topic depends on your reasons for wanting to see the display names in the message windows though, is it just so you can access the display name, alias, and status? or is it simply because you want to see the display name in the message window like users of the official client?

the only status messages in MSN are:
- be right back
- on the phone
- out to lunch
- busy
if i set "show display names as status messages" i won't see any difference between those states and away... i'll see always away

anyway... i'll stay with that option unchecked and i'll see the display name by pointing the cursor over the contact...
i only wanted to see display names in the message window... but i didn't remember that when you open a message window, the user pics and the display name won't refresh... so if the user changes the display name in the middle of a conversation i won't see the new one.

so... my solution is a message window without user pics and with just the alias (the one set by me).