Back again after 4 months of translating Japanese to English.

This time we’re going to change screen name colors for Aim 7.1, and it’s going to work without signing off.

AOL loads a certain CSS file each time you re open an IM window.

So feel free to go far beyond this tutorial and customize the colors of AIM as you see fit. This page will get rid of that ugly brown color they use for your screen name.

Before we Start

This tutorial requires a certain skill level. You must be able to do the following on your own.

• Navigate folders in Windows Explorer.
• Understand the process of opening a file in notepad.
• (Vista Only) Changing File Permissions under Administrator.
• Understand the process of copying and pasting text.

If you are unable to do these tasks please do not continue this tutorial.

Unlocking Vista’s Notepad: 

• Open Notepad with Administrative privileges by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then right-click Notepad and select to open as Administrator.

Preparation

Unlike Aim 7 Beta, Aim 7.1 has made the process of editing screen name colors very easy. All it requires is pasting a few html colors within the a CSS file.

The first step is to find the default.css file that controls screen name colors.

This file is located in the folder:

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7###\content\im\ 

Simply copying and pasting the above path will not work in Windows Explorer. You must manually navigate to the folder using My Computer if you have Windows XP or Computer in Windows Vista.

Program Files, Vista users may see Program Files (x86), if you can not locate the AIM 7 folder, try the other Program Files folder.

Ver7### represents your Aim 7 version number which you will instantly see if you navigated to the folder manually.

en-US is the language and region folder.

Screen Name Color

Open Notepad (Vista users must open as Administrator) then drag the file, default.css, into notepad. You are going to look for the line below…

.color_font-header_local, .color_font-header_local_inline
{
color: #864F04;
}

Highlighted in brown in the code above is your screen name’s default color. To change your screen name color, replace it with an html color code of your choosing.

.color_font-header_local, .color_font-header_local_inline
{
color: #b2bf16;
}

I have now changed the color to #b2bf16 to match my new AIM  7 skin. You can of course edit the screen name color of the person you are iming by changing the color on the line below it.

.color_font-header_remote_0, .color_font-header_remote_inline_0
{
color: #e49600;
}

To summarize, .color_font-header_local changes your screen name’s color. Whereas .color_font-header_remote_0 will change the person you IM.

When you are done you must save the file.  For your changes to show up, close ALL IM windows, you don’t need to shut down AIM, then re open them. Even though you have completed the tutorial, you can also edit other colors as well.

Screen Name Status Color

If you still have default.css open,  look for this line.

.color_font-screenname_status,
.color_font-state_status,
.color_font-timestamp_status
{
color:#5D6E87;
}

Editing that html color will change the color of the status message. Here I changed the color to pink to match the website.

So you’ve been enjoying AIM 5.9′s incredibly familiar red and blue screen name colors. AIM 7 replaces the screen name color scheme yet again with a pretty natural green and a horrendous brown color.

Fear not, you can change these screen name colors to any color you wish to use.

You will do this by editing one extremely long file with notepad. So let’s get started!

Preparing your files

The first step is to find the file that controls screen name colors.

This folder is located at

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7###\resources\en-US

Simply copying and pasting the above path will not work in Windows Explorer. You must manually navigate to the folder using My Computer if you have Windows XP or Computer in Windows Vista.

Ver7### represents your Aim 7 version number which you will instantly see if you navigated to the folder manually.

en-US is the language and region folder. Obviously if you are using the Spanish language of AIM7, the folder’s name would change to sp-US, or french would be fr-FR. This last folder will be instantly obvious if you manually navigated to the folder.

As you reach that folder open notepad. You will drag the file strings.xml into notepad.

Strings.xml controls a lot of stuff. It’s imperative that you do not try to edit anything else in this file unless you know what you are doing. You might want to expand notepad’s window a bit so you can see what you are doing.

Changing Your Screen Name Color

Search for the line below.

<string name="imForm.history.header.local.color">#864F04</string>

Note the HTML color code is highlighted in brown. Use the HTML Color Code site to insert a color of your into this area. After you are done you can save the file and RESTART AIM.

Changing Other Screen Name Colors

Similar to Aim 6, you can edit the colors of other screen names. Remote.color is located a tad below the local.color so it should be easy to find. Remote.color.0 represents the person who IMs you. Any number higher than 0 represents chatroom screen name colors.

    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.0">#0172F3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.1">#0052a3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.2">#0860A8</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.3">#F91361</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.4">#0197B5</string>

The colors of the first 5 screen names in a chatroom are already highlighted for you. You can change any of them by typing any HTML color code you want. After you are done save the file and RESTART AIM.

Some people might not like the screen name colors in Aim 6, and may want it to be red and blue, or blue and green. Here’s a quick guide on how to change the colors of your screen name and to change the colors of other people’s screen name.

To change Your Screen Name colors in Aim 6

Navigate to the directory below. Depending on your Version of Aim. If you can’t find it, upgrade to the latest version of aim at aim.com

Please note that # represents your AIM version. You must manually locate this directory through Windows Explorer. Simply copying and pasting the path below will not work. The path below applies to any Aim 6 version, including Aim 6.8 and Aim 6.9.

C:\Program Files\AIM6\services\
imApp\ver6_#_#_#\content\im\default.css

• Open the default.css file in C:\windows\notepad.exe
• Scroll down to .localname
• Next You will have to Find an HTML Color Value to input.
• Visit Colors, and select a color.
• Notice the 6 digit code combination at the top.
• This Code is what you will type under local name.

.localName {

font:12px Arial;

color:#D73306;

}

• Highlight over the Color Code. In this example it is #D73306
• Type the Color Code from the Website that you chose.
• Put a ‘#’ before the code and make sure there is a ‘;’ after your code

.localName {

font:12px Arial;

color:#000000;

}

• Press File > Save

To Change the Screen Name Color of the person you IM.

In default.css find any .remote name

.remoteName0 {

font:12px Arial;

color:#0F0595;

}

• Change the color by inserting a color value just like you did above.

Other .remoteName deal with the color of screen names in chatrooms. You can change any of these screen name colors the same way you did before. These colors will be given to people at random so do not expect to see much changes unless you drastically changed them all.