The address book does work but you have to keep a few things in mind when using it:
1) The order entries are listed determine the coloring order so if (for the sake of argument) you have your nickname colored black and all non ops colored red, and you're a non op, and the entry (for you specifically) is BELOW the other one, you'll be colored red
2) Currently, the protect list does NOT work the way the AOP/AVOICE lists do with the coloring scheme so that may take a bit of work
3) you can use $me instead of a lot of entries for all of your nicknames
4) You have to enable it by selecting the checkbox called "E
nabled" on the page
I hope this helps you out. I've been using the coloring from the address book for a while now and it works brilliantly (for me). I have 11 entries for: me, idlers, ops, voiced, ops DEopped, people on the ignore list, people on my notify list, some others, everybody else and it keeps track of them well