Shoutbox

I've had a go with the public beta of WLM and was trying to get the custom names to something like I have with MSG 7.5. In 7.5 with plus I have a custom name (or nickname) in bold and coloured, according to the group, followed by their full msn display name in a grey colour then their personal message in black (I didn't specify this bit but it seems to do it automatically and I like it).

In WLM I couldn't see any way to format the custom (nick)name or include their full display name afterwards (not just the personal message). I'd like to do this because for some reason some of my contacts put their 'personal message' in their normal display name and a lot don't use their real full name anyway, so I like to see what they've called themselves .

From what i've heard MSG Plus Live won't have any custom display name feature so i'd like to know if i'll be able to customise the display names like I can in msg 7.5 with plus. Seems like a step backwards if I can't .

Thanks.

You cannot do this with Windows Live Messenger unfortunately, and as yet I haven't seen any features regarding the formatting options of coloured nicknames.

People have asked about the feature of being able to see the contacts personal nickname in the conversation window before, Patchou may or may not be incorporating this into future versions of Plus! Live, I'm not entirely sure though. I know that it is definitely possible to do so, just not sure how much effort would be put into doing it.

This isn't so much about using colors in name, nor about seeing the screenname of contacts in conversations (as many people don't like the very long blahblah in a conversatioon anyways), it is more about the Plus!'s custom names in general (and even more about the use of the (!N) and (!M) tags) and seeing customized names in the contactlist.

Patchou has removed the custom names feature in Messenger Plus! Live because Windows Live Messenger now includes a renaming feature for your contacts and thus the custom names would have become an useless feature (more or less his own words).

However, as many have pointed out before and as many _will_ point out as soon as Plus!Live is released, they are not the same and the WLM nickname feature doesn't have the same functionality than the Plus! custom names, especially considering colors, but more importantly considering the (!N) and (!M) tags.

It is indeed very true that the WLM nickname feature is a serious step backwards and I also hope that Patchou reconsiders and that the custom names feature will be re-introduced in Plus!Live so people can use the (!N) and (!M) tags again (and colors).


So to answer very short: no it is not possible with Plus!Live, WLM or any combination of it to alter contact names so that you have a personalized nickname _and_ that you can see the screenname or email that they have put for themselfs.



EDIT: to Patchou, if he reads this: no offense though, just mild poking with a stick

Thanks for your replys. Thats what I thought and it does seem like a shame. Perhaps plus could have an advanced custom name option or something. I think it would be quite difficult to implement without completely overriding the WLM custom names with the old plus style (which wasn't exactly user friendly) but even then you've got conflicts with the whole user details thing which has been added to WLM.

I think i'll stick with messenger 7.5 for now and see what happens.

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Originally posted by Joe771
Thanks for your replys. Thats what I thought and it does seem like a shame. Perhaps plus could have an advanced custom name option or something. I think it would be quite difficult to implement without completely overriding the WLM custom names with the old plus style (which wasn't exactly user friendly) but even then you've got conflicts with the whole user details thing which has been added to WLM.

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not nessecairly....

The "new" custm names could be integrated in the existing WLM nickanme feature. All it would take is that Plus! interperts the shown nicknames in the contactlist and convo's, more specifically the color codes and (!N)/(!M) tags which you have set in WLM's own  nickname feature, and replaces them with the correct colors, screenname and/or emailadres.

Nothing different than how it was before... (in fact a bit easier as no GUI should be provided with it as you can use WLM's own contact info window)

The big problem here is: How should Plus! uniquely identify the nicknames so it knows what to fill in in the (!N) and (!M) tags (colors aren't the problem).

In Plus!3 this was done by automatically setting the contactlist so it showed the emails. Emails are unique, so Plus! used that to identify which custom name belonged to what user and thus could fill in the (!N) and (!M) tags.

With the "add custom names to WLM's nickname feature" system, as described above, this isn't possible as you can have the same nickname for several contacts, thus not uniquely....

But, maybe it is still possible to automatically show the contactlist with emails (just as before) and grab WLM's nickname via the known emailadres of the contact and interpret it that way....

Dunno, just wild guessing here...

I do hope he finds a way though.... The custom name feature is/was popular just because of the use of the (!N) and (!M) tags, IMO.


Also, the current WLM's nickname feature is as 'friendly' as the custom names feature of Plus!3 though. I don't see how you can make it more friendlier than that. You always will need to fill out a nickname/custom name contact per contact...

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Also, the current WLM's nickname feature is as 'friendly' as the custom names feature of Plus!3 though. I don't see how you can make it more friendlier than that. You always will need to fill out a nickname/custom name contact per contact...

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Yeah looking at it now it is fairly easy, unless you start trying to format parts of the name differently (although I guess if you're trying to do that your an advanced enough user to understand the different tags and the Ctrl-K colour feature). I certainly hope it can be implemented like you say.

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Patchou has removed the custom names feature in Messenger Plus! Live because Windows Live Messenger now includes a renaming feature for your contacts and thus the custom names would have become an useless feature (more or less his own words).

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That's too bad. When MS incorporated chat logging, Patchou left logging integrated in Plus!, and I've continued to use it. Custom names are one of my favorite features, and I would hope to see it integrated in a future release.