Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2.
Click the file whose icon you want to replace, and hit
COMMAND
+
I
to view
the file's info. In the window that appears, click the icon preview at the
top left. This will highlight the icon. Hit
COMMAND
+
V
to paste in the new
icon image. The change should take place instantly.
To restore the original icon, repeat the step to open the file's info window and
again select the icon so it's highlighted, but this time hit the
DELETE
key.
Using Icons from Other Files
You can also copy and paste icons from one file to another. Just open the
info panel for each file, as described earlier, and then highlight the icon in
the first file by clicking it. Hit
COMMAND
+
C
to copy the icon. Click to highlight
the icon in the other info window that you want to replace, and then hit
COMMAND
+
V
.
Using this tip, you can personalize the entire OS X interface. You can find
icon replacements online at a variety of sources.
10
Usually, replacement icons
can simply be dragged and dropped onto the icon preview at the top left in
the info window, without the need to open and copy them first in Preview.
Tip 117
Bring Widgets to the Desktop
Unlike some versions of Microsoft Windows, OS X uses the Dashboard space
to present applets to the user (known as
widgets
in Mac-speak). However,
with a little hacking you can also put widgets on the desktop. It's not quite
like Windows because the widgets stay on top of every other window, rather
than on just the desktop, but for those with large monitors it's an excellent
way of keeping useful widgets such as the time and date visible at all times.
Setting Up
To get Dashboard widgets on your desktop, it's first necessary to turn off the
Dashboard being managed by Mission Control. To do this, open System
Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences), and then click the Mission
Control icon. Remove the check next to Show Dashboard as a Space. Note
that in the future to bring up the Dashboard you'll need to use the keyboard
