Your style must show highlight. In Kopete and Adium, the %textbackgroundcolor{}% is replaced with the highlight color. Add this style attribute: background-color: %textbackgroundcolor{}% to the HTML element that display the message.

This guideline is for people rewriting old XSL styles to the new format. All styles must supply a template for consecutive messages. It is now a default feature.

The title said it all. You must save your files to UTF-8.

The Contents/Info.plist file is not used in Kopete yet. But if you want your style to be compatible with Adium, you must supply that file. Here a basic example file. Strings to replace are enclosed with "$".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
	<string>English</string>
	<key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
	<string>$Your style full name$</string>
	<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
	<string>$Your style ID in the form: com.adiumx.smooth.operator.style$</string>
	<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
	<string>1.0</string>
	<key>CFBundleName</key>
	<string>$Your style name here$</string>
	<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
	<string>AdIM</string>
	<key>MessageViewVersion</key>
	<integer>3</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

You must place a file named buddy_icon.png in the Incoming and Outgoing. These images will be used when the contact have no photo.

%messageDirection% keyword is present for languages in the world that write right-to-left. It define the message direction, if it is "rtl" (right-to-left) or "ltr" (left-to-right). Add this style attribute to the HTML element that display the message: direction: %messageDirection%. Style preview in appearance config include a right-to-left to check if your style display it correctly. It should begin the string from the right.