I’ve had a few readers write asking how to change the look of icons in OS X since I posted the set of glass folders last week. The easiest way is to buy a copy of CandyBar 3. That, however, will cost you $29. If you want to do it by hand that is also possible with the following steps.
First you will have a file for which you want to change the icon. Here is a rtf file that deserves some attention.
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Next you need to find a new icon. There are a variety of sources on the interweb. One of my favorites is Interfacelift where I got this clone soldier icon.
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Now copy the new icon by clicking once on it and then pressing …
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Now go back to the file that is to get a new icon. First click on it and then press …
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This opens the information panel for that file which should look something like this.
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Now comes the tricky part. Click on the icon in the information panel once. It should then have a faint little blue halo on it.
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Once the icon has the blue glow then you paste the new icon you copied by clicking …
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That is it. Close the information panel and you should be good.
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Sometimes OS X is a little slow updating the icon but it generally happens right after you close the information panel.
If you decide you want to return a file to its default icon, you just give it the blue halo in the information panel and then click …
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Just to give an example of how crazy this can get, here is my daughter’s dock. Whenever I use her computer it takes me five minutes to find Safari … which is coincidentally (this week) the peace symbol.
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