rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp) (02/10/89)
--------- Recently, I posted a request for information about how application icons can be modified. To date, I have received three replies.... plus a request to post that information to the net! So here are the responses to my questions. I haven't had a chance yet to try them out, but if nothing else I am encouraged by the response to my request. Here goes..... From folta@tove.umd.edu Tue Feb 7 14:14:29 1989 From: Wayne Folta <folta@tove.umd.edu> Message-Id: <8902072213.AA17781@tove.umd.edu> To: rupp Subject: Icon modification Status: RO You should be able to use ResEdit to do the job. The latest (or near-latest) version is available from Apple's A.P.D.A., or from the Mac Developer's forum on CompuServe. You may be able to find an older version at sunex-aim.stanford.edu, using anonymous FTP. Probably in the "util" directory. You may have gotten it with your compiler (I assume you are a programmer). WARNING: The following is dangerous. USE THESE ON A COPY ONLY!! AND NO GUARANTEES THAT IT WILL WORK FOR YOU! To use it, simply start ResEdit and find and open your application (the executable, of course). In the list of resources, you should see one type called "ICN#". Open (double-click) this, and you should see several icons. These are all the icons the program uses for its various documents and for itself. The Kermit I have (0.9(40)) has two, the program itself and a settings file. Doubleclick on the program's icon and you can fatbits-style edit it. The trick is getting the Finder to use the new icon. I do this by using using ResEdit. After you have changed the icon, use the "close" box to close the windows until you are at the window that shows the application's directory. On the way there, ResEdit will ask you "Save changes...". Say yes. Now, select Kermit with a single click, then do "Get Info" from the File menu. Click off the "Inited" box. Then exit ResEdit, which will again ask about "Save changes...". Then close the folder Kermit is in (if it was open) and open it again. Your icon should now be correct. (The one complication in this is if you have another copy with the old icon laying around... You might want to make a backup copy to diskette and only keep one copy on your hard disk. This should avoid Finder getting confused about the same program having two different icons.) As an alternative to the last paragraph, you can get Finder to recognize your new icon by rebuilding the desktop on your disk. Please see Apple documentation about this. It will wipe out the comments in the Get Info boxes of your files, so you may not want to do it. On the other hand, it speeds up copying files, so you may want to. The whole point of the last two paragraphs is that the Finder displays the appropriate icon based on your program's "signature". It takes the file's "owner program" and looks that up in the desktop file, and gets the appropriate icon. Simply changing the ICN# resource of your program is not sufficient, you must get the new icon to the desktop. You can do that by rebuilding it, or by letting the Finder notice a file which has not been Inited (had its info copied to the desktop). Remember that if you have two copies of the program, with two different sets of icons, it is a toss-up as to which icon makes it into the desktop, and both copies will be labelled with the same icon (until you move them to another disk. Sorry this is so long. And cavaet emptor: I am not a super expert. Wayne Folta (folta@tove.umd.edu 128.8.128.42) ------------- From lwvanels@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Tue Feb 7 16:21:11 1989 Subject: Re: How can application icons be customized? In article <1391@cod.NOSC.MIL> you write: >We would really appreciate suggestions for icon editors that will allow >us to substitute our own design for the default icon. Supposedly, >changing an application icon (on the DeskTop) is not a straightforward >affair. I've been able to edit an application's icon by using ResEdit- I believe that it's available in the archives at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, and should definitely be avalable from you local users group. If you are going to copy the application to other disks after you modify it, you don't have to make any changes in the desktop file on that disk. All that will happen is that the old icon will still show up on the old disk, with the new icon on any disks you copy the application to in the future. The reason this happens is because the Finder automatically updates the desktop file with the applications icon(s) when you copy it to a new disk, but doesn't check to see if the program's icons are changed otherwise. To edit the program's icon, run ResEdit and edit the ICON resource of the program- there should be icons for any document files as well as the application itself. Once you have saved the changes, you should be all set. Hope this helps! Lucien Van Elsen Internet:lwvanels@athena.mit.edu or lve@wheaties.ai.mit.edu UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!mit-athena!lwvanels ---------------- From ames!arizona.edu!rrw%naucse.UUCP@ucsd.edu Wed Feb 8 21:33:48 1989 From: ames!arizona.edu!rrw%naucse.UUCP@ucsd.edu (Robert Wier) Subject: icons Bill - Caught your message about designing ICONS for the Mac. There are a bunch of ICON designer software packages available (I tend to use ICON HACKER a lot). What IS difficult is to get them installed once you design 'em. For this there is a super program called BIND ICON. Suprisingly enough, it hasn't seen very widespread distribution (it's shareware). Works great, though. If you can't find it some place where you can FTP it (or find it locally) let me know and I will STUFFIT and send it to you. Happy Iconing! -Bob Wier at Flagstaff, Arizona Northern Arizona University ...arizona!naucse!rrw | BITNET: WIER@NAUVAX | *usual disclaimers*
lsr@Apple.com (Larry Rosenstein) (02/10/89)
In article <1400@cod.NOSC.MIL> rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp) writes: > The trick is getting the Finder to use the new icon. I do this by using I have had pretty good success with the most recent Finder versions if I put the application on a scratch floppy, force the Finder to rebuild the Desktop file on that floppy (which forces it to use the new icon), and copying the file to my hard disk. The Finder seems to do a better job about updating its Desktop information when a new version of a file is copied to a disk. Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc. Internet: lsr@Apple.com UUCP: {nsc, sun}!apple!lsr AppleLink: Rosenstein1