Mac OS X Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Real Mac Genius

How to: Customize Icons in Mac OS X for Free

One thing that I always liked to do was customize my computer icons so that they would look cool and stands out from the crowd. For that same reason I want to show you two different ways to customize your icons. The first way that to customize your icons are by just going to the apple website and downloading icons or by downloading apps.

I would recommend this way of customizing your icons for people who have a lot of time or really want personalized apps. First access the Apple Download’s page and then look through the list of icons, screensavers, and ect but when you look through the list make sure what you select is an icon download and not a screensaver or something else. You can even do this with your own pictures by opening them in preview and cropping the part that you want and clicking “Command + C. After you download the file open it up and you will notice that they are just thumbnails. What you need to do is select one of the thumbnails and click “Command + C”. From that point go to the app(s) that you want to customize in finder, select it, and press “Command + I”. Then on the top left of the new screen that popped up should be the icon and select the icon and click “Command + V”. After that the thumbnail that you copied should have replaced the old icon.

For those of you people who don’t want to waste to much time replacing every app you can just download and app. Some of my favorite two of my favorite apps that I use for downloading is “Candy Bar” and for my dock “Dock Library”. For “Candy Bar” you can either put “Change all icons” or you can select certain icons that you want you customize. Now “Dock Library” is a little more confusing because you have to go to different websites like Lepoard Docks and download the a few neat custom docks. What “Dock Library” is for is to actually convert your dock. The way to do that is after you download the custom dock that you want you go into “Dock Library” and import them by clicking the “Import” sign on the top. The Dock should appear below and from there you select the dock on the bottom that you want and click activate.

Overall, no matter what tool you use, make sure your dock bounces off the wall!

What do you think? Leave a comment with a link to a picture of your dock? Who’s is the coolest?

Quick Look is a quick preview feature developed by Apple. It operates on the Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard”. The Quick Look feature instantly let’s you preview your documents without ever having to open them. All it takes is a single click and your files are presented to you instantly. Quick Look works with almost every file including PDF documents, movies, Keynote presentations, Mail attachments, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Make the most of your Quick Look feature because it is just that handy. You can listen to songs, flick through movies, and more without even having to open up the document.

There are many features such as the index sheet, zooming and examining your trashed files. The index sheet feature allows you to look at many different windows without having to flick through them one by one. The previews of each file will shrink down to one grid, once you click on one window; it will automatically open up to full size. To zoom into different objects, you hold down the option key and a magnifying glass will appear. To zoom in and out, you use the scroll wheel on the mouse. To put a whole bunch of files into your trash is a complete hassle. Not only do you have to examine each one very closely, but once you trash them they are usually gone forever or you have to replace them back onto your desktop. Luckily Quick Look works with items in your trash so that you can quickly go thorough them to check if you deleted anything important.

Quick Look is actually very handy because it makes your life easier and less complicated. Quick Look makes your computer hassle free and finding documents are easier then ever. The time machine allows you to store your documents once you trashed them. When you go back to check the document, Quick Look is there to help you look at the file quickly and then restore it back onto your desktop. Quick Look doesn’t just look in the finder, but also your Mail and iChat. If you receive an email with a bunch of attachments, you can use Quick Look to put them all onto a grid and see the attachments all at once. Many people always need to find that one document that you saved many years ago. Quick Look helps you go through those hundreds of documents you saved quickly.

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