Aim 7.1: Changing Screen Name Colors

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.

Aim 6.8 Skin: Leopard OS X

Introduction

OS X Leopard is a skin featuring a design similar to Apple’s OS X Leopard.

OS X Leopard is a part of the OS skin pack which includes five skins:

• AimXP
• AIMXP Blue
• Vista Basic
• OSX Leopard
• OSX Leopard White

Each skin is included in the pack, you do not need to download them separately.

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