[javadesigner]

Hi Folks:

I've used Mac's since OS 6-9, then windows 2000 for a few
years and now back to using Mac OS X part time. I also
know/use linux/unix fairly well.

Having gotten familiar with Aqua, I have a few questions:

a) Is there any way to stop the "x" "-" and "+" appearing
inside the red, yellow and green window buttons when you
move your mouse over them ? I know what those buttons do and
having text appear within the buttons is very annoying.

b) Is there any way to boost the default system font size ?

By system font, I mean the font used to render window titles,
icon sizes etc. On windows, you can right click on the desktop,
go to the appearance tab and boost the size of window titles,
fonts, close, min and max buttons, scrollbars, icons etc. I
haven't been able to figure out a way to do this on OS X

The closest I have come to is messing with the view option on finder windows but that only changes a few things in *that* window or if I
choose "all windows" then only all the windows that happen to
be open at *that* time. (which of course is far lesser than the
windows that can theoretically be opened, i.e., one for each
folder on the hard drive). [I have played with universal access
and screen magnification but that doesn't cut it].

What I want is similar to how on windows every UI element/widget
gets boosted when you choose an "extra large theme" under
the "control-panel->desktop->appearance" tab.

Best regards,

--j

[Jerommeke]

Help me please ppl, wasn't Tinkertool the thing to do the second thing with? The first thing is something which could be done by theming your system with a theme wwithout such behaviour, however as a (beginning?) user I wouldn't start immedaitely with it..

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by Jerommeke:
Help me please ppl, wasn't Tinkertool the thing to do the second thing with? The first thing is something which could be done by theming your system with a theme wwithout such behaviour, however as a (beginning?) user I wouldn't start immedaitely with it..

Silk does the font changing I guess...

[suthercd]

Check on Versiontracker for Tinkertool. It is a Preference Pane that will appear in your System Preferences Panel after installation. You can change System Fonts and sizes.

I do admit I have gone back to the default fonts after spending time with several others

[Northform]

You can change the image used for the mouse over with the red, green, and yellow buttons. I don't know off the top of my head what resource to change, but if you look around some themeing sites you will get more complete info.

You would just need to change the image with the +, -, etc. with the normal one that doesn't have that.

Windows XP does highlight the minimize, etc. icons when you run the mouse over them.

[javadesigner]

Hi:

Thanks to all those who mentioned tinkertool as a way to change the system wide default font.
Unfortunately, I have tried tinkertool with 10.2.4
and although I set a different font in the "font"
tab of tinkertool, the finder does not honor these
settings.

tinkertool even says that it is upto the application
to honor/not-honor these settings, so I guess
the Finder does *not*.

This sucks. I want the finder menu fonts, scrollbars etc., all to be larger somehow. Any
other suggestions ?

[smeger]

You can change the font using Silk 2, currently in beta. Take a look in the GUI forum for more details.

You can change the x, +, - widgets using ThemePark, available from my signature. There's a general tutorial here.

Good luck!

[dfiler]

OS X must kick ass if the inclusion of mouseover feedback on window widgets makes it onto a new (returning) user's top two complaint list.

But seriously, I hope you find the answer. I'd help out but I haven't researched tweaks since the default settings work well for me.

[javadesigner]

Originally posted by dfiler:
OS X must kick ass if the inclusion of mouseover feedback on window widgets makes it onto a new (returning) user's top two complaint list.

Are you kidding ? Mac OS X kicks serious booty. I am using
(administrating it) in a lab environment and NetInfo (aka
yellow-pages/NIS in the SUN world) is awesome.
Never thought I'd see 'bash' (my favorite shell) and 'man'
on a Mac. Apart from some GUI quirks, the *only* fault I
can find is the lagging java support (I know the reasons why
but it still sucks to have a new version of the JDK lag behind
by about a year, for example, win[jdk1.3]+ 1 yr = mac jdk1.3
and win[jdk1.4] + 1yr = mac jdk1.4). I'm hoping this does not
happen with 1.5 (generics, new JMM) but I digress...

--j