Nice icons for Leopard, especially for folders in the dock
I've been really frustrated about how difficult it is to find my applications, using the new Leopard feature that lets you spring up the contents of a folder from the dock. My applications folder is too full, and includes applications that are inside of folders, so I can't launch them with one click off the dock.
I decided to make a separate "Apps" folder within my user folder, and to put aliases of all of almost all of my applications into that folder. That meant that with two clicks, I could get to any application, even to Grab, which lives in the Applications:Utilities folder. One click on the Apps folder on the dock, and one click to the application. After that, I pulled my "real" Applications folder off the dock.
Then I got frustrated that I couldn't easily pick out my new Apps folder on the dock, because the icon was indistinguishable from all others. After some surfing, I found a great tip. Folders on the dock display the icon of the first item in the folder itself. So if you put an image in your folder, and name it, for example "1st item," or, better yet, " 1st item" (note the space in the title), it'll come up first.
I needed some icons. First I found some at the icon factory, where I've been before. I found some cute free ones, like of a little fly catcher plant with an open jaw (a nice one for a folder looking to eat things up). But I wanted one for my applications folder that really cried out "APPLICATIONS."
That led me tonight to a really interesting blog post on IndieHIG, which disparages Apple for doing a bad job on Leopard icons. That, in turn, led me to two awesome icon makers who are distributing their work through the Creative Commons license (Laurent Baumann, use it for free, distribute it as is, credit the creator) or, as best I can tell as an English-only reader, for free (Susumu Yoshida).
Now I have Baumann's AquaBlend Aqua Smooth Folder Applications icon on my dock for my Apps folder. And Yoshida's Stack_mac Box green Downloads for my Downloads folder. I'm also using Yoshida's Safari icon. For more info about changing your icons, see Mac 101: Change Your Icons.
The really cool thing about the Stack_mac boxes is that Yoshida has designed them to work perfectly in the dock.
So, here's how that section of my dock looks now. The little ghost isn't a great dock icon--I'm still hunting for a good icon to serve as my shortcut to MM to iCal (a bit of a ghostly/scary syncing process I follow for my iPhone and Meeting Maker).
Look how much easier it is to distinguish among folders!
Never one to leave well enough alone, especially when I'm really tired, I found another site, that includes some better Adobe CS3 icons (but I still can't find one for Acrobat that fits nicely in my new folder icon). DeviantART. Poor looking URL, so the link may not work.
Posted: December 20, 2007 10:44 pm by Kimberly Brookes | 0 comments
Tags: Apple Dock, Mac Leopard OS