Mac 101

[kerpow]

I've tried to follow this simple guide for changing icons but it doesn't work.

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/customize/6/

When I click on an icon file - *.icns that I downloaded from interfaceLIFT - get info - Edit - Copy is grayed out.

Tried it on several different files. Tried just copying the icon file but then when I get info of the application that I want to change the icon of Paste is greyed out.

I'm obviously missing something.

 

[robbieduncan]

You can't do the edit/copy thing on icns files. The tutorial uses a tiff and mentions jpegs. Nowhere does it say you can do this with icns. If you double click the icns file it will open in Preview from where you CAN copy. Then you can paste.

Unfortunately when I do that I loose any transparency in the icns file.

 

[Frozonecold]

I've tried to follow this simple guide for changing icons but it doesn't work.

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/customize/6/

When I click on an icon file - *.icns that I downloaded from interfaceLIFT - get info - Edit - Copy is grayed out.

Tried it on several different files. Tried just copying the icon file but then when I get info of the application that I want to change the icon of Paste is greyed out.

I'm obviously missing something.

I had the same problem. Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

 

[kerpow]

OK, well thats fair enough. I assumed that that all icon files had the same extention like in Windows.

So I've copied the icns file as you mentioned

But when I try to Paste it'd still greyed out. I get info on say, Image Capture, but can't paste.

I can paste it into a Word doc. just to prove I'm skilled in the Cut and Paste department

 

[72930]

Sorry, I have no idea - but where do I get the icons in the sample picture?

 

[robbieduncan]

You need to click on the icon in the top left of the info window to give the paste system the context that you want to paste into.

And all Icon files do have the same extension: icns. All the others are full blown image formats which is why they behave differently.

 

[bearbo]

OK, well thats fair enough. I assumed that that all icon files had the same extention like in Windows.

So I've copied the icns file as you mentioned

But when I try to Paste it'd still greyed out. I get info on say, Image Capture, but can't paste.

I can paste it into a Word doc. just to prove I'm skilled in the Cut and Paste department

so you have 2 files... one with .icns, another one is the file of which you want to replace the icon of, let's call this the target

if the target is a folder, it's another process.. slightly different

click on the icon file, do command+c (same as edit, copy)... yes, the file itself, don't need to open it or anything

now right click on target file, get info.. you'll have this long column window thing open, on top, left corner there is its original icon... click on that icon, it will then have a blue border, then command+v (aka, edit, paste) now the icon will be replaced by that... i think you can still get the transparency


hopefully that helps

edit: i take it back, folders are exactly the same... but you cannot do it with some partitions (i'm assuming only NTSF since you cannot edit the file within?)

 

[robbieduncan]

With a .icns file that did not work. It pasted the icon of the icns file, i.e. the standard system wide icns icon, not the contents of the icns file which would be the icon you want to paste.

 

[bearbo]

With a .icns file that did not work. It pasted the icon of the icns file, i.e. the standard system wide icns icon, not the contents of the icns file which would be the icon you want to paste.

edit: haha... i stand corrected, ignore small font parts

i'm assuming you were replying to me?

i believe a .icns file is just an image file... as it's something you can read with photoshop with a plug in and write with photoshop with a plug in.

and if that's true, the icon of the icns file is the content of the icns file

and when you copy that, it will work (that's what i've been doing at least)

well... why would someone change the icon of icns file to something else?

 

[robbieduncan]

ei believe a .icns file is just an image file... as it's something you can read with photoshop with a plug in and write with photoshop with a plug in.

and if that's true, the icon of the icns file is the content of the icns file

and when you copy that, it will work (that's what i've been doing at least)

You'd think wouldn't you. icns files created with the Apple tools do not have the preview as the icon. The Finder shows then as though they do, but if you get info on them you see they don't actually. The Finder is messing with us.

The attachment shows an icns file created with Icon Composer (part of the Developer Tools). If we imagine we want to use this icon as the custom icon for another file we can try all the command-c command-v we want. As you can see the Finder displays the icon file as it's contents but as the Get-Info clearly shows this is not the files actual icon so copy past ends up setting the icon of the file to the standard icns one.