The Custom Mac » Custom

What are Your Favorite Terminal Commands?

Caleb Pike — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:59:02 +0000

Terminal commands are a great way to customize endless parts of OS X. We’ve shared a few here and there, but we would like to create a library of them for your convenience. This would make looking for a specific command much simpler.

So which commands do you use? Which are you favorite? You can tell us in the comments below OR click here to tell us on twitter.

What are Your Favorite Terminal Commands? is a post from: The Custom Mac

How to Change Finder Window Backgrounds

Caleb Pike — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:12:28 +0000

A lot of people I’ve talked to don’t know about customizing the Finder window background. This is very easy and requires no special software. So lets get started.

Open a Finder window and in the menubar navigate to View > Show View Options. (or ⌘ + J) From there you can choose a color or image for your finder backgrounds.

There are 3 options for backgrounds. A plane white background, colored or adding your own image as the background.

Here is a Finder window with a simple light blue color:

You can also tell Finder to use an image for the window background. I would suggest you use a large dimension like 1024×800 so when you enlarge the finder window you always see the image. But try to keep the files size down so load times are faster.

Here is a Finder window with a wood background:

This option can be used to create a transparent window look:

Send us your Custom windows!

I we would love to see your custom finder windows. Send us a link or images to caleb@thecustommac.com.

How to Change Finder Window Backgrounds is a post from: The Custom Mac

How to Stop the Bouncing Dock Icons Forever

Caleb Pike — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:02:39 +0000

The one thing that can completely distract me and make me to lose train of thought and sanity is the evil bouncing dock icon effect. But here is a terminal command that will put an end to your misery.

Just fire up Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type in the following and hit enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE

And then type in the following to restart your dock:

killall Dock

From now on you will not be plauged by the bouncing icons!!! And for whatever reason you want to turn it back on you can enter the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool FALSE

and then

killall Dock

How to Stop the Bouncing Dock Icons Forever is a post from: The Custom Mac

Pink Apple Docks and Icons

Caleb Pike — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:58:42 +0000

We have found our Dock and Icon collections have become quite popular lately. So here are some resources for those who have a thing for pink. Enjoy!

For those new to customizing Icons & the Dock we recommend these posts:

Pink Leopard System icons | By alfonsohuby | Download

Pink Icon Collection | By Pinkie75 | Download

Pink Dock | By JaviGlez | Download

Disco Dock | By aculas | Download

Pink Apple Docks and Icons is a post from: The Custom Mac

2 Tools For Customizing Leopard’s Login Window

Caleb Pike — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:32:11 +0000

1. Loginox: Custom Login Wallpaper

If all you want to do is change the login wallpaper than Loginox is the app for you. Rather than using a manual hack just drag and drop your new image into a well and you are done.

2. Visage Login: Login Icon, Name, Text and more

If changing the login wallpaper is not enough than Visage Login should float your boat. As you can see from the image below Visage Login gives you multiple options to modify you login page such as custom text and the date and time etc.

2 Tools For Customizing Leopard’s Login Window is a post from: The Custom Mac

Themes for Leopard Are Here!

Caleb Pike — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:56:49 +0000

UPDATE: The following was posted by the creators of Magnifique:

“WARNING: DO NOT use Magnifique on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It’s almost certain that it will mess up your system beyond repair. We are planning a complete rewrite of Magnifique once Snow Leopard is released. Thanks for everyone’s support”

Since ShapeShifter never made its appearance on Leopard many of us have let our Macs remain themeless. But no more. Thanks to this application we can now easily change and customize theme once again. Here is a quick video I made showing off Magnifique.

Find Themes Here

Find the Application Here (ITS FREE)

Themes for Leopard Are Here! is a post from: The Custom Mac

Customizing the 3D Leopard Dock

Caleb Pike — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:52:43 +0000

The Apple dock is probably one of the most recognized, known and loved parts of Apples OS X. The dock has come a long way since its debut in the first version of OS X. Yet it comes across a little bland. The purpose of this guide is tohelp you take your dock and customize it for productivity and tailored appearance.

Get Docks

The first thing you need to do is go out and find some 3D docks you like. Get as many as you want. Make sure to keep them in some orderly fashion as this will be helpful latter on.

Here are some great places to find 3D docks:

Changing 3D Docks

There are several dock changers out there such as Panics CandyBar ($30 but shiny) Dock library (free and simple) But I am going to recommend you use Super Docker (Free and awesome) Especially since we will be using many of this applications features later. You can download SuperDocker here

Here is a quick screen cast on how to use Superdocker:

So there you have it! A customized dock, Be sure to check out the other dock post for more custom dock tips!

Add Spaces to the Dock

If your a dock junkie and have a lot of applications in your dock, things can get a little crazy. So instead of seeing your shrink once a week you can create dock spacers like the ones in the image above. Start by opening up terminal and pasting in the following command line:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{tile-data={}; tile-type=”spacer-tile”;}’

Do this for as many spacers as you would like. Then open Activity Monitor and and quit the dock. Once the dock restarts you will see a spacer in your dock.

You can reposition/remove these spacers just like any other dock item. If you would like to put a spacer in the stacks use this command line:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{tile-data={}; tile-type=”spacer-tile”;}

Remember, to remove spacers all you need to do is drag them out of the dock.

Turning off the 3D Dock

There are many reasons to turn off the 3d dock, reasons I will leave up to you to decide. But here are two ways to turn off the 3D dock so that your dock is always 2D. The first is using the terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES killall Dock

And this command to restore it:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO killall Dock

The second way to disable the 3D dock is using Super Docker. In the Dock tab of SuperDocker just change the setting from a 3D dock to 2D (see image below) and your done.

Dock Position

You are probably familiar with the three current dock positions, left, right and bottom. But there are ways to customize your dock position further. Such as putting your dock at the top left of your screen or at the bottom all the way to the right using Super Docker.

Do this in the “Dock” tab and setting the Alignment and Position on screen to desired position.

So play around with it until you find a position that is best for your work/play flow. I like having the dock on the top left so its out of the way and gives me more room for windows. Where do you like to have you dock?

There you have it. Your new awesome Dock! Be sure to check out this post on how to have multiple docks

Customizing the 3D Leopard Dock is a post from: The Custom Mac