On a mac, is there some way I can change the default Icon for a program's files?
Asked by
jtvoar16 (
2176
)
October 21st, 2008
I’m board and feeling uninspired, so I downloaded CandyBar and A LOT of icons, fixed up my dock all pretty and all my system icons all pretty, even changed my desktop background (that rarely happens.) Then I realized something:
In my Dock I have a “fly-out folder short cut thingie” to one of my folders I goto all the time with a bunch of Pages files and Word files.
Anyway, long story short, the default icons for those saved files are totally throwing off my Fung Sway and messing with my realities.
Thus I wish to know if there is a way of changing the default icons for those Apps saved files?
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8 Answers
If there’s not an option to change them in CandyBar, I can’t think of another way to change every file of a type.
You can change individual files’ icons by going to “Properties”, then clicking the icon, and pasting an image over it.
another way i do is, opening up the app package (show content), and then change the icon in the resources folder, works quite easy, just don’t forget to back up !
This might help. It is a little clunky but it should work.
@johnpowell: I love that idea, but it still drives me nuts that i can see the other files behind it and they don’t fit into my perfect world.
@iwamoto: I’m going to go try that now. if you hear explosions, it worked correctly, if you hear cursing, then a smashing noise, it did not work, if you hear a 24 year old man weeping, it failed catastrophically and the only option left is to eat a bucket of ice-cream then pass out from the impending brain freeze.
OH BLAST!
I’m an idiot! I just realized I can’t change the default icon for pages or word because they are thumbnails of the actual document.
/thumps head on table, then retrieves bucket of ice-cream.
The first three icons in the stack are displayed. I found that using three folders I get it to display only the first icon. So the first folder Is the Icon I want and the other two are transparent. I zipped up the three empty folders here.
If you want you can toss those three folders into your stack and change the icon to one you like. You might need to change the names so they are displayed first.
And I know that is a really crappy solution, but it is the only one I could think of.
true. it didn’t ocure to me until I was looking at the icons that they were thumbnails, hence not being changed with CandyBar. But thank you for the zip!
The Mac Finder actually has a built in feature specially for this and works with any file type. It even says on the Apple website. Sorry I lost the link. What you have to do is open your desired new icon for the file with Preview then select it all and copy. Then close the Preview window. Next right click on the App and press “Get Info.” Then scroll up and you should see the original icon of the app at the top. Click on it then hit Ctrl + V.
Hope I helped! Now you don’t need Candybar.
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