*** From the Archives ***

This article is from February 9, 2001, and is no longer current.

The Mac Authority: Make Mac OS X Your Own with Just a Few Changes

Operating system: Mac OS X

Mac users are a peculiar breed. We claim how great our user interface is but then the very first thing we do is learn how to change its appearance. Sometimes Apple helps by letting us create themes, but usually the major changes, the customization that screams “This is my Mac and I’m my own person,” comes from a little healthy hacking. But we’re not talking about major changes that will void your computer’s warranty or make your system begin to smoke. We’re just suggesting a few minor changes that will make your desktop match your personality. After all, we’re all different! So let’s begin by examining the desktop as it is.

Making Changes Carefully
In many of these tips we’ll be showing you how to modify the way some of the elements of the new interface look. However, it’s important to note that in the Mac OS X environment, applications are bundled into a single file. So if, for instance, you navigated through a Finder window to the Dock it would appear as an application. If you booted from Mac OS 9 on the other hand, you’d see that the Dock application is actually a folder named Dock.app that contains several files.

To display the contents of a Mac OS X application in Mac OS X, use the Finder window to navigate to the application and then press the [control] key as you click on the file. A contextual menu appears with the Show Package Contents option.

Since you can mess up the system pretty easily when you move files around, you’ll be better served to make any changes to the Mac OS X files after booting from Mac OS 9. Also, as always, work on a copy of a file instead of the original–just in case.

Viewing Your Options
As you browse through the features of Mac OS X you’ll undoubtedly begin noticing that the icons appear much clearer than the older versions of the operating system. That’s because the Mac icons have gone from the old 32 x 32 pixels to an amazing 128 x 128 pixels. In addition, you can now create full photographic quality icons with 8-bit transparency. As you’ll notice from the example shown in Figure A, this means you can really make your desktop graphic to the max. Just choose Desktop > Dock & Desktop Preferences, click on the Desktop tab and move the Icon Size slider to the right. The icons increase and decrease in size to give you instant confirmation of your changes.


Figure A
Talk about a graphical interface!

You’ll also notice that we’ve added a few custom icons. Yes, Apple has again made it easy to change the standard icons for files. Simply select the file that contains the new icon and choose File > Show Inspector. Your Mac then displays a window that looks surprisingly like the old Get Info window of previous OS releases, as shown in Figure B. Click on the icon in the Inspector window and then choose Edit > Copy. Now, just click on the file you want to add the icon to. When you do, the Inspector changes to reflect that file’s info. Then click on the icon and choose Edit > Paste.


Figure B
The Inspector window is the Mac OS X equivalent of the Get Info window.

Moving To the Right
The old-dog-and-new-tricks rule is apparently very true in the Macintosh world. We’ve noticed several people still looking for ways to have their hard drive partitions and mounted volumes displayed on the right side of the desktop (where they should be). Fortunately, you can do a little UNIX tweaking to solve the problem. Just launch the Terminal application, enter the following command, and press the [enter] key:

    defaults write apple.finder Desktop.HasLocalVolumes 1

Now, close the Terminal application and log out. Then, when you log back in, you’ll see your mounted volumes on the right just like they used to be in the earlier versions of the operating system. To reset the defaults to the original Mac OS X version, just fire up the Terminal application again and re-enter the same command as before, replacing the 1 for a 0.

There are a couple of other commands you can use to make the interface more Mac-like. For instance, you can use the command

    defaults write apple.finder Desktop.HasTrash 1

to display the Trash icon in the lower-right corner of the desktop (and again move it back by changing the Desktop.HasTrash value to 0). You can also hide the transparent applications so they don’t appear in the Dock at all. To do so, enter the command

    defaults write apple.dock showhidden -boolean YES

and press the [enter] key (-boolean NO returns the applications to the Dock). Remember, you’ll again need to log out and log back in to see the changes.

What if you want to turn the Dock off altogether? No problem. Just launch AppleScript’s Script Editor and enter the very straightforward script

      tell application “Dock”

 

      quit

 

    end tell

When you run the script, the Dock will silently drop out of sight. To turn the Dock back on you’d use the script–you guessed it

      tell application “Dock”

 

      launch

 

    end tell

Changing the Dock
While we’re picking on the Dock you might as well know how to change its appearance–maybe to a different color or pattern? Again, not a lot of hocus pocus–just a little Adobe Photoshop work. To begin, launch the application (or any other application that will open and allow you to modify PDF files). Then navigate to System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources and locate a file named middle.pdf. When you open it up you’ll learn that it’s nothing but the lines in the Dock. Make any changes you wish to the color, transparency and pattern and then save the file. You don’t have to stick with the 8 x 8-pixel size for the PDF if you don’t choose to. In fact, you can create a very long picture Dock if you want. Now when you restart Mac OS X, your Dock will show your changes.

Other Changes
You can also access the Boot Panel and the Poof images in the same manner. (The Boot Panel is the window that appears that asks you to enter your username and password and the Poof images are the clouds that appear when you drag an item off the Dock.) Like the elements of the Dock, both of these items are in a PDF format.

To begin, use your image-editing software to navigate to System/Library/CoreServices/Resources and locate the file named BootPanel.pdf. When you open the file you’ll see the Apple along with the words Mac OS X. Since the bottom part of the window will contain the buttons and the text fields, you should keep any changes you make isolated to the top of the page. When you’ve finished, save the file and you’re good to go.

You can use the same process to modify the Poof images. Just navigate to System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources and open the file named poof.pdf. (Hey, we weren’t making up the name!) When you open the file you see a series of clouds, as shown in Figure C.


Figure C
You can replace the clouds with anything you want!

The left side of the image is the picture that appears on the desktop when you drag an item off the Dock. The right side is the mask. You’ll need to change each of the five pictures (which are 128 x 128 pixels in size) separately. Once you’ve completed your work with the images, make sure the masks match. Then save the image as a single PDF file and remove the resource file with ResEdit.

Tweaking the Clock
The lowly little clock just sits there in the corner ticking away. And surprisingly, Apple only gives you two different views to choose from–digital and analog. But not to worry, the faces are simple TIFF images that you can alter to your heart’s content. To do so, fire up your favorite image-editing application, chose File > Open, and then navigate to Applications/Clock.app/Contents/Resources in your Mac OS X volume. Oh, and again you’ll find it easier if you do this in the Mac OS 9 environment.

In the Resource folder you’ll see two files–Background.tif and Clock2.tif. As you can see from Figure D, these two files are the faces for the analog and digital clocks. At this point, make any changes you wish to the color scheme or design. But be sure you save room for the clock and date on the digital face and the clock hands on the analog face. Once you’re satisfied with your handiwork, save the files, launch Mac OS X, and gaze in amazement at your new clock faces. If you want to change the clock face but aren’t feeling particularly creative, you should visit the Macwater site at www.macwater.net. They maintain a number of attractive and innovative alternatives for the Mac OS X clock faces.


Figure D
You can customize these clock faces with any image-editing application that can read and write TIFF files.

Mac OS X vs. Mac OS X PB
At press time the final version of Mac OS X hadn’t been released. And with Apple keeping such tight wraps on the final features of the new OS, a few of the hacks that we’ve included in this article may be moot–Apple might have introduced a control panel or command option that performs the same function in a simpler manner.

Conclusion
No matter how hard Apple works to get the very best user interface possible, people are going to do their very best to in some way make the look and feel of the computer their own. After all, we all want to think different.


Copyright © 2000, Element K Content LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Element K Content LLC is prohibited. Element K is a service mark of Element K LLC.

 

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