This is my first mac. The awesome '11 iMac. I could not be happier, other than me seriously needing to get more ram.
I love how easy I have found it was for me to customize the appearance. Some I do with simple apps or some I've figured out to manually alter once I find the proper resource files.
I've also found it pretty easy to find a huge selection of docs and icons. Then recently I found out how easy it was to change the glow on expose.
I came to an article about eliminating the dock stack grid so that the icons would appear to 'float.' Well I did not like that at all because I couldn't read the icon names with certain backgrounds as it is white. I was not about to figure out a way to change the text. I looked through Google to see if I could find any customized dock grid backdrops and came up with only a way to change the center portion of the backdrop. Great, but not the full solution. So I just opened each file in Photoshop and started to play with them to get the color right and viola, I have a tinted green backdrop to match my current theme. Same white outline and all.
I'm a newbie to the mac world, but I figure I've done well so far in learning the ins and outs of the OS. As it is SUPER easy compared to Windows and I will never go back. But in telling my story here if you are interested in what files these are they are located:
System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources
It's all the stackbackground files, and the stackbackground-c.png file is the one which will change the entire center picture. So far that's all I know about within that folder as I haven't even investigated the others.
Of course we must always backup our system and system files before messing with these files. And always relaunch the Dock before trying to use it. My favorite way I've found is to use Terminal: killall Dock. Extremely handy trick as I've found the other methods always seem to end up not reopening the dock for some odd reason.
One thing I haven't been able to figure out correctly is how to properly change the boot logo. I've read it can be more difficult with the current updated systems, so I haven't taken the time to go there yet, other than my first initial tries.
So here is my little story and hope you like it.
I love how easy I have found it was for me to customize the appearance. Some I do with simple apps or some I've figured out to manually alter once I find the proper resource files.
I've also found it pretty easy to find a huge selection of docs and icons. Then recently I found out how easy it was to change the glow on expose.
I came to an article about eliminating the dock stack grid so that the icons would appear to 'float.' Well I did not like that at all because I couldn't read the icon names with certain backgrounds as it is white. I was not about to figure out a way to change the text. I looked through Google to see if I could find any customized dock grid backdrops and came up with only a way to change the center portion of the backdrop. Great, but not the full solution. So I just opened each file in Photoshop and started to play with them to get the color right and viola, I have a tinted green backdrop to match my current theme. Same white outline and all.
I'm a newbie to the mac world, but I figure I've done well so far in learning the ins and outs of the OS. As it is SUPER easy compared to Windows and I will never go back. But in telling my story here if you are interested in what files these are they are located:
System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources
It's all the stackbackground files, and the stackbackground-c.png file is the one which will change the entire center picture. So far that's all I know about within that folder as I haven't even investigated the others.
Of course we must always backup our system and system files before messing with these files. And always relaunch the Dock before trying to use it. My favorite way I've found is to use Terminal: killall Dock. Extremely handy trick as I've found the other methods always seem to end up not reopening the dock for some odd reason.
One thing I haven't been able to figure out correctly is how to properly change the boot logo. I've read it can be more difficult with the current updated systems, so I haven't taken the time to go there yet, other than my first initial tries.
So here is my little story and hope you like it.