A colleague of mine who recently bought an iMac felt that sooner or later he would get bored with the plain folders, standard application icons and the background Mac logo.

But you don’t really have to see the same old icons everyday. Here’s how to give your Macintosh a new look.

You can start by keeping it simple and only change a few icons.

There are thousands of Mac icons online from www.iconfactory.com that you can download.

To change a plain-looking folder’s icon, select the icon you want to change by clicking it once so that the folder appears shaded.

Next, select the apple and I keys together.

From the pop-up information window, click the picture once (it’s on the left) and copy (apple and C keys together).

Then, close this window and select your plain-looking folder — remember you have to click it once.

Press apple and I keys together. This time click on the plain folder picture and press apple and V keys together to paste the new picture.

Finally, close the window and take a look at your new folder. Once you get started, you’ll be doing this to all your folders — it’s so much fun.

Now let’s add some real personality to your Mac. Go to the Apple menu and select Control Panels and then Appearance.

You have six customisation options to choose from. First select Themes and experiment a little.

A number of amazingly colourful backgrounds and graphic designs are available to you.

For further customisation, choose Desktop and select any of the patterns that are available.

If you want a personalised picture set as your desktop background, simply select Place Picture.

Any Jpeg image such as your cat, baby and holiday photo can then be set as a new background for your desktop. To diminish any distortion try to use pictures of approximately 1,024 by 768 in size.

Cool effects
Once you see the image in the display window, click Set Desktop. For royalty-free images check out www. macdesktops.com

Even highlighting text can be fun and Apple allows you to change the colour of its menus and controls. Select the Appearance tab and simply choose your colour.

You can change the fonts and font size that appears on your desktop and also incorporate sound when you click and scroll.

This not only makes you look professional, but sound cool too. Simply select the Fonts and Sound options to further customise your Mac.

And finally, Options.

Have you ever used a PC application where in order to go to the top of a document you have to click the up arrow button at the top of the right scroll bar and to scroll down you have to move the cursor all the way down to the bottom of the scroll bar just in order to click the down arrow?

This is a sure way to get RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) and it’s just sounproductive too.

But Macs are not only friendly, but efficient too.

In Options, select Smart Scrolling. You will then find that for all your applications the up and down arrows are right next to each other.

If this is not enough, then a radical overhaul of your Mac’s appearance can be constructed with Kaleidoscope at www. kaleidoscope.net

Once you have downloaded Kaleidoscope, select a Scheme ranging from Cutie Bears to Star Trek Borg and OS X. There are hundreds of these to choose from.
Lastly, Kineticons at www.kineticcreations.com/kineticon/ has animated icons for downloading.

If you fancy a desktop that is constantly "alive", then these are for you. Very cool and certainly grabs attention at a presentation if you have these on your iBook or PowerBook.

You’ll need to pay US$14.95 (S$26) as a shareware fee, so try before you buy.
By customising your desktop’s look and feel, in no time at all you will have a Mac that is a true reflection of your personality. Or it wll just be a better-looking machine.

Go on, customise. It’s so much fun.

Michael Vallance is from the Mac Users Group of Singapore.
Its website is at www.macuser.org.sg

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