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Adium Theme - Minima

In this post, I’m going to share with you how I customize Adium to look like the screenshot above. I personally name it the Minima theme. It works best with the dark background. So if you’re like me, who prefer dark background, don’t miss out.

Dark Translucent Windows Bar

Let’s do this staring from the trickiest part. We’re going to change the usual aluminium windows bar into the dark rounded translucent bar.

We’re going to use the Adium HUD theme and replace some files in the Adium packages.

Before you do anything with the HUD theme file, you’ll have to open the Adium package content. Mac OS X bundles all the application files into one package, so we’re going to peek inside it by right clicking the Adium and show the package content.

Once the package is opened, we’re going to move the earlier HUD theme files into the resources folder under the Contents. It’ll ask whether you want to overwrite the files. Choose to apply to all.

Adium Xtras for Minima

I bet you’re familiar with the Adium Xtras or if you don’t, play around with it for a while. We’re going to install the series of Xtras to make the Adium into Minima style.

• Service Extension White - I don’t need this because I don’t use multiple client. But you might need it.
• Anxiety Status - One of the best icon set that match this theme. You can also find the one you like, I suggest the white icon set with simple shape.
• futura - The simple dock icon for your desktop.
• Pretty Simple Contact List - Minimalist style, the font (Gill Sans) is very sleek and pretty.
• Pretty Simple Message Style - You’d love this over on your dark desktop.

Once you install all the Xtras, configure them so it looks like the picture above. As you can see I set the emoticon and menu bar icon to nothing and default because I don’t use the menu bar and don’t like any of the emoticon set on the web. I find that emoticon is the best when they’re not replaced.

Don’t forget to configure your message style.

You can set hide the menu bar icon if you don’t use it often. If you’re any question or problem with configuration, you can leave it in the comment or send me an email.

Problem with Windows Bar

If you’ve problem with the windows bar or want to change it to default, you can reinstall the Adium to replace the resources folder you’ve modified or just open the new Adium and copy the resources folder into your applications Adium using the same method.

Update 14/12/2010

I know some of you want the input message box to be black so it blends well with the whole theme. Actually you can download the plugin and install it by following the instructions in there. But remember that if you plan to revert to the default input message box color, you will need to delete the plugin which is quite troublesome. However, if you plan to stick with this theme. Feel free to install it. I’ve used it since I customize this theme. Cheers. :)

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