[Solved] Pidgin - Away message

[kurtg]

This seems like such a no-brainer that I'm embarrassed to ask, but if I want to set my away message to something witty like "gone to see my parole officer" or "not here, try my cell phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx" how does one do that?

I've tried emerging the 'x11-plugins/pidgin-extprefs' and looked in the plugin and preferences, but I haven't figured it out yet.

can anybody shed light on this?

PS- I found a thread on ubuntu where it required a plugin to get this preference to show up. I'm still working on the incantation.

[Vaarsuvius]

Do you want to change the away msg that is used when you're idle or do you want to manually change your status?
At any rate, you do not need the extprefs plugin.
In the latter case just click on your status (at the bottom of your contact list), select "Away" and enter your new message.
In the former case do not select "Away", instead select "New status". Enter whatever you want to say in your away-msg there, save it, and then go to Tools->Preferences->Status/Idle. Check "Change status when idle" and select your newly created status from the dropdown list.

[kurtg]

Thanks. I was just looking in the wrong place. I knew it had to be a no-brainer.

btw, I spent a year at the RWTH. I fondly remember hiking the hills around Aachen.

[Vaarsuvius]

btw, I spent a year at the RWTH. I fondly remember hiking the hills around Aachen.

I seriously hope that's not all you remember of that year

[kurtg]

btw, I spent a year at the RWTH. I fondly remember hiking the hills around Aachen.

I seriously hope that's not all you remember of that year

No, I figured out early that I wasn't going to sit the exams, so I used Aachen as a home base and traveled throughout Europe. Strange how I seemed it hit the southern countries more frequently as Winter took hold. I still remember that North Sea wind. Burr.