How to have pidgin chat windows open up on all workspaces?

I use pidgin as my chat client on ubuntu lucid. Whenever I have a chat window open, I like to mark it as "Always on visible workspace" as it's just more convenient.

Is there a way that I can force chat windows to already be marked as that when they open up? So, if someone started a conversation with me on gtalk (for instance) the window would automatically be on all workspaces, and I wouldn't have to mark it manually.

Solution 1:

If you are using compiz (desktop effects), you can set up “window rules“. Install compizconfig-settings-manager and open it in the System->Preferences menu. Chose the plugin Window rules and set a rule identifying the Pidgin window (for example using its title) and set the sticky attribute for such windows.

You can find an explanation for the various possible rules here: http://wiki.compiz.org/WindowMatching but the compiz settings manager also allows for simply clicking on a window to set up a matching rule.

Solution 2:

On systems without Compiz, you can also accomplish this using Devil's Pie and the following configuration in ~/.devilspie/pidgin.ds:

(if (is (application_name) "Pidgin")
    (if (is (window_role) "conversation")
        (pin "TRUE")
    )
)