Mail 2.0 (Plastic?) Theme for Finder?

[Starfury]

Having had the chance to play around with Tiger for a few days now, it's become more and more evident that (in my opinion) that the mismatch of themes in Tiger don't really work.

While it's just personal preference, I really like the emerging interface that we see across Mail 2, System Preferences and the Spotlight results window. (I'd actually go as far to say that it seems that Apple might have initially been aiming for a consistent UI based around this theme, but that's another story!)

Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone had any information as to whether there are any themes for Tiger (specifically the Finder) that replicate the look we see in Mail 2?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Electric Monk]

The theme is called Aqua. Difference is, it's using a checkmark called unified title/toolbar

It's pretty easy to do (although I have no idea if you can do it to the Finder), but finding the right file can be tricky.

Open up Interface Builder (In Developer/Applications)

Go to File:Import Resource File

Navigate to the Application you want to change.

Then look for the correct .nib file.

For example to change OmniWeb you go to Applications/OmniWeb/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/WebBrowser.nib

Then open up the inspector palette (Tools:Show Inspector) and hit the checkmark for Unified title/toolbar look.

Then save of course.


Problem is selecting the right .nib file. I don't have a huge amount of experience in this regard (I've mostly been fooling around with this stuff in order to better understand it).

 

[Starfury]

The theme is called Aqua. Difference is, it's using a checkmark called unified title/toolbar

Yes and no. I don't think I was clear about what I was actually referring to. Indeed, there is the unified toolbar, however this is a very small part of the overall look (or theme). For example, you could theoretically take the Panther Mail app and create a unified toolbar but it would still look *completely* different to Mail 2.

I think that the Mail 2 'theme' (for want of a better word) falls into the following categories:

The Unified toolbar
The toolbar buttons
The side-bar
The side-bar colouring / shading

While I'm still not completely taken on the new buttons, I think they are an improvement on those in previous versions of Mail. The Unified toolbar we have discussed, however the side-bar and the subtle light-blue shading makes the application look distinct. (This is also evident in the Spotlight search window with the 'Group By' quasi-sidebar and blue section headings).

To explain my comment in the previous post, I think that this look may have been intended for all of Tiger, replacing non-unified Aqua and Brushed metal
theme. This, I think, would create a happy medium between the two themes... (As to why this hasn't happened, I would speculate that development time on Tiger ran out, with Mail being a pilot app which couldn't easily be retrofitted, or was released just for feedback...)

 

[abrooks]

Nice topic, I don't know how to skin the Finder but I do know a lot about the themes within Tiger of which there are quite a few now a days .

The new mail.app has a theme which has been named Plastic, in my opinion its a damn nice look and I feel it will become more present over time, but considering Apples history of this stuff it might not. The Finder is a mix between Aqua and Brushed Metal, and there are still some Pinstripes hanging around some places, now we have Aqua with the new Endless title bar in prefs and Spotlight, I think this will be the next move, a shame really I like Brushed metal.

 

[NaMo4184]

New Mail and Finder

I absolutly love the new mail theme. I have been keeping quite because of all the negative comments about but i am glad to see others like it. I also am happy with the current inconsistent UI. I think that as long as There is the same underlying theme then its all good. I guess maybe they can use the appearences for specific types of apps. All in all i like how its not monotenous like XP. Go Metal!! Go Platic!!

 

[TigerPRO]

I dispised it at first. But it looks much better in person than it did in the screenshots. It only took a couple days, and now I love it. And that's saying something, because i've always been a crabby traditionalist of the Jaguar days.