When brainstorming ideas for this article, I was trying to come up
with topics that did not relate to Mac OS X. Alas, even two weeks
after OS X's introduction, it is still the hot thing in the Mac
community. This tutorial digs deep into the innards of Mac OS X
and teaches you how to customize it to fit your needs and
preferences.
Customize Those Icons!
A number of good resources have popped up that provide quality Mac
OS X icons. The most popular are the now well-known Xicons.Com, and Icon Factory. Changing icons in Mac
OS X is slightly different from OS 9, but it's still quite
similar. For starters, Mac OS X marks the demise of the "Get Info"
panel and introduces the "Inspector" window. The Inspector changes
according to the application or folder selected. This reduces the
likeliness of multiple "Get Info" windows and over-cluttered screens.
You can launch the Inspector by pressing Command-I. Once you are in the
Inspector, click on the icon image and copy it (Command-C). Click on
the application or folder where you want the icon to reside and simply
paste it back in the Inspector by pressing Command-V.
The majority of icons can be changed using this method. However,
there are a number of icons, such as the hard drive, trash,
applications folder, and other system icons that cannot be changed. To
change these icons, use a slightly more
complex method described by X Icons.
Customize The Toolbar
Although a program for creating and swapping toolbars has not been
published (one was created but quickly disappeared), it can still be
easily done. As one Mac OS X
Hints reader notes, you can easily add any folder or application to
the toolbar by going to View > Customize Toolbar, and then simply
dragging it on from another open window. This simple trick will quickly
let you launch any app (look mom, no dock!), or change the default
icons of the toolbar.
Customize The Dock
You may have heard some hacks about changing the orientation of the
dock. When I first read how to do this, it seemed way over my head. But
after digging around a bit, I found that using the Terminal is much
less intimidating than it looks. First, launch the terminal, an
application located in the utilities folder. Type in the following and
restart your Mac:
- defaults write com.apple.dock orientation right defaults write
com.apple.dock pinning end
Change the "right" at the end of the first line to wherever you want
the dock to be located on your screen.
Speed Up Mac OS X
After playing around with Mac OS X for a few weeks, I've found
that the claim that Mac OS X is faster than OS 9 is an
overstatement. To me, Mac OS X seems very sluggish. However, there
have been a number of ways that Mac OS X users have found to speed
it up. The most popular is simply installing the Developer Tools CD
that came with Mac OS X. Supposedly, this initializes the system
in a way that the regular Mac OS X Installer does not. Reports
have varied, but many users have noticed a large increase in speed.
New tips, tricks, and hacks are popping up all over the place. Be
sure to keep an eye out for new software that helps you customize your
Mac OS X experience. Remember that Mac OS X is new, and
developers are still finding ways to dig deep down into its preferences
and play around a bit.
