Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

chloroplasty · Aug 12, 2006, 05:59 AM

hi. i am new to this whole concept of mac-tual customizationizing. i've purchased shapeshifter, and love it, but i was looking for a little more oomph. i notice in some screenshots i see here there are small, non-invasive icons that appear to show itunes status with play/next buttons...and like a little weather thingy. these look neat and i was wondering how i could get those.

also, i was wondering if candybar is the program to make your desktop icons all huge and sexy and change the way the text is under them and all. i was thinking about buying it, but only if thats what it can do (seriously thats all i want it for).

disengage!

air · Aug 12, 2006, 07:28 AM

1. shapeshifter changes the appearance of windows, the menubar, buttons, etc.

2. candybar is required to change all icons that appear in the finder, desktop, dock, etc.

3. silk is a program used to change the system fonts, (the text under icons, menubar, dock...)

as for the program that controls itunes in the menubar there are a few

like http://specere.net/menuet - Menuet, which has a lot of varient appearances (skins)
and http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/ - synergy which also has a many skins, buttons on the menubar. (http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/buttons/)

chloroplasty · Aug 12, 2006, 03:50 PM

thank you for those links. synergy is a really nice program! however, i was looking for these programs that are in this screenshot: http://www.hellacio.us/ss/08/10m.jpg

notice in the upper left and lower left corners of the screen there are two very non-invasive, sexy looking icons. are those dashboard widgets? if so, where might i find them?

air · Aug 12, 2006, 05:51 PM

i believe those are some yahoo widgets
http://widgets.yahoo.com/

or you can just private message the author of that screenshot with a kind question.

SLiMeX · 01:41 AM

Nice job, responding, Air, your tips have helped me get started modding out my MacBook.

I'm a bit confused, however. Is Candybar the only program that allows you to haxxor your buttons and icons? I mean, ShapeShifter has a tab for icons, can't i just use that? If not, how does that work exactly?

air · Aug 13, 2006, 03:44 PM

shapeshifter gui kits (packages) can contain system-wide icons. So, lets say the theme artist wanted to include all black icons for an all black theme, he/she would create an iconset that could be applied by shapeshifter.

candybar is much more powerful in that you can customize every icon, including application icons, at your own choice. you can even make your own iconsets and mix and match icons from other icon sets.

i prefer using shapeshifter + candybar

Ren Qian · Aug 13, 2006, 09:06 PM

"also, i was wondering if candybar is the program to make your desktop icons all huge and sexy and change the way the text is under them and all. i was thinking about buying it, but only if thats what it can do (seriously thats all i want it for)."

Just control+click on your desktop for menu then scroll to 'Show View Options'. Resize icons, text options, etc.

SLiMeX · Aug 14, 2006, 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by Ren Qian

Just control+click on your desktop for menu then scroll to 'Show View Options'. Resize icons, text options, etc.

Man, I am learning so much from this thread!

smeger · Aug 14, 2006, 03:47 AM

ShapeShifter can also, of course, read the iContainers generated by CandyBar or Pixadex. So any icon customization you can do with CandyBar you can also do with ShapeShifter, without modifying any operating system files, and on a per-user basis instead of globally.

Judge_Fire · Aug 14, 2006, 04:03 AM

Icons can be individually replaced by simply a copy/paste, too.

Select an icon in Finder, go to File : Get Info and copy from/paste to the small icon at the top.

air · Aug 14, 2006, 08:36 AM

However, not all can be replaced by this meathod. Some of the icon resources override whatever you paste over them, so programs like Candybar are required, or some knowledge of the application's package resources.

eyevaan · Aug 14, 2006, 09:19 AM

SS can implement some of those package resources, if you have used ThemePark to create the GuiKit icon package but I recommend the CandyBar method and just live with the shortcomings - since they are so few.

Ren Qian · Aug 14, 2006, 10:22 AM

What I like about SS for icon shifting is that you can have different sets of icons for each user on the computer, to compliment different themes.

fuzzball963 · Aug 14, 2006, 11:57 AM

This is really informative but I have a couple questions. If I change the theme of the Mac can it be changed back to standard easily ? And also does putting themes like Suma on the mac make it unstable? Would shapeshifter be the program for that

? Ireally like the theme.

eyevaan · Aug 14, 2006, 12:37 PM

You present the question that causes some the most entertaining and stupid/futile arguements on the forums for Mac customizing. I will attempt to avoid such silliness by talking in <circular> speech...

SS is the theme changing program. There are others, and you are welcome to use them, I tried and they worked. They are often free - and well free is good we LOVE free - but free is free so don't come back worried that your system is snowed. SS HAS caused SOME people grief. I am not one of them - I have theme attention span of a gnat and my theme will change twice to three times a week. NEVER a problem.

Once you have changed the theme, you want the Aqua back, hit select default, apply. Log out and Log back in.
Done.

Is there a performance hit for this level of flexibility?
Yes. <insert tiny type here>very small performance hit <end tiny type> the biggest long standing complaint is from PowerBook users - preferrably in the 3 year old computer range. They have some really issues, apparently, if you are running something current, don't give it another thought.

You can avoid the performance hit by swapping out your Finder.rsrc and by going into the package contents of the Finder. <Please see aforementioned note about complaining about snowing your machine> this is neither endorsed or recommended by any of the SS community. That does not include, a couple of talented Mac users who choose to do this method. The honest fact is the swap method, actually replaces the resources, therefore, no performance hit. If you make a mistake, and loose your way, it will cause a really big performance hit, as in you won't be running at all.

test drive SS - buy it if you like it. Keep coming around. Start thinking different. Build your own and share it.

fuzzball963 · Aug 14, 2006, 03:34 PM

So SS will work happily on my 15" Macbook Pro ? From then on out it's just downloading and installing the particular theme I want? I assume I could use Suma or another theme and still change the desktop wallpaper without problems yes?

I've used Mac on and off for years but this will be my first official one and I want to be able to smarten it up a bit. Thanks for the help. It's really nice when someone takes the time to help out the theming n00bs

.

eyevaan · Aug 14, 2006, 04:13 PM

In the words of Marcel Marceau - "Oui" - <sigh> with one small caveat... since (and my apologies for not noticing earlier if you mentioned it) - Intel support of SS is still at Beta - which is good news - since it's free [remember we like free] - and similarly bad because well it's Beta... BUT don't not despair! Unsanity guys are awesome and anything that breaks is fixed in a timely manner. Go here git a copy and play around, anything goes funny - let them know. SS will not break your machine, if things act funny turn it off. Everything goes back to normal.