William

Posts tagged with "dock"

Let's Pimp Our Docks

Friday, 9. November 2007, 07:53:54

A few days ago I wrote about a the importance of customizing the Leopard dock and then listed two sources for dock replacement themes, and it would seem that I spoke way too soon.

Released only yesterday, PimpMyDock is the application we have all been waiting for. It not only alleviates the need to manually edit the Dock application in order to replace the theme, but it also brings us a standardized format for the theme packages called “.docktheme.”

Being so new, however, limits the amount of themes available in the .docktheme format. As of the time I write this, only 12 are available on the web. However, there’s nothing bad about that as PimpMyDock makes it extremely easy to create your own dock theme files. Simply press command+N to create a new theme, select the picture you want to replace in the list of pictures in the left-hand side of the window and drag the picture you want to replace it with into the box located on the right-hand side of the window. It’s that simple! And when your done, having edited the theme you opened or not, simply press “Apply Theme,” enter your administrative password and watch your dock transform!

I decided to make a theme file out of the dock theme I prefer from LeopardDocks.com, and that theme is Jet Black. So also I decided to package it up for you guys and upload it onto the MacsVsPcs.com server:

-Jet Black (Created by Bryan Clodfelter & Mike Yaroshinsky, packaged by DMXell)

Finally something to make replacing dock themes as easy as four clicks, Well that finishes up the week, check back on Monday for yet another Apple-related article.

--DMXell

If you liked this post please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or, if you use the Opera web browser, using the widget button located in the address bar to make a widget out of this blog.

Like this article? Digg it!

3 comments

Hacking the Leopard Dock

Tuesday, 6. November 2007, 00:22:12

10.5, leopard, dock, theme ...

Well I forgot to organize myself over the weekend, so I’ll be winging my articles again this week. Hopefully next week I’ll remember (lol).

So as we all know, the dock in Leopard received a major upgrade. The dock was changed from the previous 2-dimensional look to a full on 3-dimensional form. The result is something that I consider classy and extremely modern, though as I found out others prefer the 2D look in which a hack has been found to revert the dock to that form.

And while the new look is a breath of fresh air, it can still stand for some improvements. As others have pointed out in various videos and blog posts about it, the new dock is counter-intuitive when it comes to the color scheme. In the world of the arts, one never puts blue on white as we see with the new dock and the dock indicators. So hackers went to work to find ways of fixing this and boy were we all shocked at how easy it is to change the docks entire theme.

With the old dock, Apple opted for the operating system to use vectors and transparency to render the dock. The result was something that not only made it hard to customize, but also very limiting when one chose to customize it. However, the new dock simply uses a set of pictures (five to be exact) to render the dock. Replace these pictures with custom ones and you have themed your dock.

So exactly how easy is it to make your own themes? Well, I was able to make a simple one (that has no reflections for some reason) using a snapshot of the Time Machine program in about six minutes (in reality only two, but my editing program ran into some problems along the way). Here is the result (click to enlarge):

As you can see, it is a true theme; I can use it as my primary theme if I so chose to. Now because of the fact that the new dock uses pictures to render its theme, this allows the end user to be extremely creative and have it match your personality. For my dock I may spend a day designing a theme to match my personality as a video editor. I have seen other themes such as guitar frets spanning the entire dock and even cheese (if you’re a dairy enthusiast). So I can see this becoming a very popular form of self expression.

Here are the two most extensive databases of user-made themes that I have found thus far (and remember, Leopard has been out less than two weeks at the time I am writing this, by the time you read this many more might exist):

- Leopard Docks
- James N. Rhodes

Well, that about finishes this blog, so check back with me tomorrow for another Apple-related article.

--DMXell

If you liked this post please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or, if you use the Opera web browser, using the widget button located in the address bar to make a widget out of this blog.

No comments