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HellionNecrosis · Jan 16, 2005, 01:43 AM

Hi, everyone. Well I'm back to using a MAC. It's been since 1994 since I last used one. Just had to switch back over. Got really tired of XP crashing like crazy and the whole M$ monopoly. I use linux on my PC's but it has its limitations.
I got a new Powerbook G4, 15" 1.5ghz, 1gig ram, superdrive 80gig HD. I've had it for about a week now and man am I loving it! Gonna get the ole lady an ibook once I figure out how to use this one. I've been looking around in various forums and web sites and have not come up with a good TUT on how to install/change new icons, backgrounds in other words a whole new Desktop theme(s). I've seen where I can download them, but hey where do they end up?

I see an eject disk on the desktop but then how do I use it. I eject it and then it's gone. I've gone to the system prefs and when I click on the icon folder or some of the other ones they are empty nothing. I've dragged pics to the icon folder and still nothing shows up. Does anyone know a good website or area where I can start learning some of the basics before I just end up gong out and buying a book?

You guys's help would really be great!

man i'm loving this powerbook.

nbn22385 · 02:18 AM

i'll do my best to help you out:

Change many icons at once - use Candybar Premade icon packages are called icontainers, or you can download icons and make your own icontainers in Candybar.

Change themes - Use Shapeshifter (install APE too from unsanity) Drag .guikit files into the Shapeshifter window to install them, then apply.

Backgrounds/Wallpaper - Can be applied through Shapeshifter or in "System Preferences > Desktop and Screensaver"

If you check out the readme files or websites for Candybar and Shapeshifter, you can get the basics for applying themes/icontainers. I believe Shapeshifter handles icontainers too, but to be safe, i only use Shapeshifter for themes, and save the icons for Candybar.

Regarding the disk on your desktop; you might have downloaded a .dmg file. Opening this will mount a virtual disk on your desktop containing the file/application you intended to download. You can "eject" it and opening the .dmg file will remount it. Just drag the file where you need it to be.

I'm relatively new to Mac's myself so most likely others could elaborate on this.

HellionNecrosis · Jan 16, 2005, 01:22 PM

Thanks for the help, I'm about to go check those sites out. Will post results!

sayonaraML · Jan 16, 2005, 07:11 PM

Let me add a question to this. I'm using DBX as a theme and would like to change the icon set I'm currently using (Somatic). I can't use Candy Bar with Shapeshifter so am thinking that I need to drag the new icon set into the pref pane in SS but every time I've tried to do that they don't stick. Is there a folder the icons need to go to? You mention using Candy Bar to create an iContainer but if Candy Bar doesn't work with SS enabled, how is thst supposed to work?
Thanks in advance!

nbn22385 · Jan 16, 2005, 10:08 PM

let me say that i first was weary about using SS and CB together. While researching this, i found a post somewhere that said to leave the icons set to default in SS, and then Candybar would be fine. I have been doing this since i got my computer and there has not been any hint of problem.

My setup:

Shapeshifter:
Theme: ProLCD Blue
Icon Sets: Default
Cursor Sets: Default
Desktop Picture: Default (can change through SS or display prefpane)

Candybar:
System: Smoothicons
Applications: Smoothicons

demograph68 · Jan 16, 2005, 10:17 PM

Originally posted by nbn22385:
let me say that i first was weary about using SS and CB together. While researching this, i found a post somewhere that said to leave the icons set to default in SS, and then Candybar would be fine. I have been doing this since i got my computer and there has not been any hint of problem.

Since Shapeshifter 2, I've stopped using Candybar to apply icons. I will only use it now to make the icontainer that Shapeshifter needs. It works fine that way and costs lest too. (One less app to pay for.)

nbn22385 · Jan 16, 2005, 10:40 PM

Originally posted by demograph68:
Since Shapeshifter 2, I've stopped using Candybar to apply icons. I will only use it now to make the icontainer that Shapeshifter needs. It works fine that way and costs lest too. (One less app to pay for.)

The mabye you help me. I can't get shapeshifter to apply application icons, only system icons. I get an error when dragging in an application icontainer. That is the only thing stopping me from using it exclusively. Mabye i'm missing the part where i should be saving the icontainer in a format that shapeshifter uses.

HellionNecrosis · Jan 17, 2005, 02:32 PM

Just a bit of an update. I have finally figured out where all my downloaded files end up and how to switch the themes using SS. I might just end up paying for that little program. Now I gotta investigate using SS with icons and I might not end up paying for the Candy one if I don't need to! thanks guys for all the help! As a side note. This powerbook gets really dirty really quick. I just have it on my desk and it stays there, but man I tell ya what. The top of it is already getting dirty quick. I'll be heading out to the apple store and picking up some of that iklean. But I'm thinking of getting some 320 grit or something not so harsh and doing some sanding and painting to it. A bit of customization.