Ultimate Leopard Customization Guide
Leopard is cool. There’s no doubt about it. But there’s always that one thing that’s missing from something you buy, whether it be from your new iPod, your new toaster, or your new operating system. We’ve covered many of the customizations that can be made to Leopard in the past, but we’ve decided to compile them all in one place, ready to be downloaded and tried out, (almost) all for free.
Wanna bring back the rounded corners? 2D-ify that dock? Kill that transparent menu? Whatever it is, you can likely find it here. Do let us know if we missed some.
The Dock
Hate it? Love it? Make you dizzy?
2D-ify It!
DockDoctor Dashboard Widget
Probably the biggest complaint about Leopard is the new dock. Personally, I think it’s just dandy. But, if simplicity is your thing, you can easily change the default glossy dock look and change it into a sleek darker shade of the original OS X dock. You know, the one that appears by default when the dock is on the left- or right-hand side of the screen. And, if you like, you can change it right back. Quick and simple.
Color It!
with DockColor
Do you like the shiny dock, but does it just not go well with your wallpaper? No more! Easily change the color of the dock from the color palette and get the dock just right to match your wallpaper. This may require some creativity. I mean, colors are just colors, but I suggest the use of subtlety. Perhaps a slightly pink dock to go with the space-time Leopard wallpaper, or a dark navy with the original OS X one.
Theme it!
with Dockulicious
Don’t like the shiny, glossy look of the dock, no matter what color? Change it! Choose from dozens of themes made by users on the website and easily give your dock a whole new look by simply dragging the downloaded .zip file to the Dockulicious icon. And, if you want to change your dock back to it’s original look, it’s easy to revert to the original.
Triangulize it!
with a quick customization
Get rid of those glowing blue indicators at the bottom of your dock, and replace them with the classic Mac OS X triangle. Fairly simple tutorial.
Hide it!
with MacPilot
Make hidden application icons translucent with this neat feature of the shareware product MacPilot. Feat not, however. You have 15 days to make the changes until you have to start paying. This can also be achieved through a simple terminal command.
Stacks
Do they increase or decrease clutter?
Overlay it!
with “Drawer” icons
One of the biggest complaints about stacks in Leopard is how the icons are displayed on the dock. They’re just, well, stacked. And if the folder changes constantly, the front-most icon will also constantly change. These drawer icons fix that. Just drag one of these beautiful icons to the stack you want, and poof it’s there. It sits in the folder as an image with a last modified date of 2010, so you’re folders and files look like they’re in a shiny little translucent drawer.
Recent-ize it!
in the terminal
Make a stack with only your recent items, with some quick terminal commands. Great for if you’re working on a project where you constantly have to access the same files, or accessing recent downloads without finding it in the clutter of the download stack. Or, you can even have it show your favorite items instead.
App-ify it!
with a quick tip
Make a stack with a collection of apps in it for easy access. Quick and easy tip, no coding required. This is a very useful way to keep your dock tidy, but still provide easy access to groups of similar applications. Perhaps put all school-related apps in an app stack, or all web browsers that you use every-so-often.
Hierarchical-ize it!
with Quay
Remember the old way to view a folder from the dock? Right clicking would bring up a menu with all of the items inside that folder, and allow you to browse all of the subfolders in it with a hierarchical structure. Now you can do it again with Quay. If you make more than one hierarchical folder, you have to pay $10 for Quay. Watch the video tutorial for more info.
Menu Bar
Don’t you hate when this gets cluttered?
Round it!
with Displaperture
OK, they’re only rounded corners, but still! In previous version of OS X, the menu bar had rounded corners, a couple of dark pixels on the corners of the screen that gave it a nice effect, kind of a way to blend in with the thin dark border around the screen. And Leopard took them away. It’s a small thing, but surprisingly important for many people. Now you can bring them back with Displaperture, even choose how round you want for the corners to be.
Opaque-ify it!
with OpaqueMenuBar
Hate the new transparent menu bar in Leopard? OpaqueMenuBar changes your wallpaper so that the menu bar appears to be non-transparent. Not the most conventional way to do this, but it gets it done quickly and easily – as long as you don’t use another app to rotate your desktop wallpapers. Also, it’s to contrasted for my eyes after looking at it for a while. But that’s just me.
That wraps up our list of Leopard customizations. Do you have any more? Post them in the comments and we’ll check them out, and add them to the list.
I use Leopaque to change the transparency of the menu bar…
http://www.macparc.ch/mirror/Leopaque/
Candybar 3! Change the flat Leo icons, modify your dock most easy.
Also worth mentioning. Pimp-my-dock App, allows dock theming of course, and additionally creating your own themes. For free!
I dont know how you missed CandyBar 3 – it raocks!
Yeah, candybar 3 is THE ultimate Leopard customization app.
I like the new dock and menu bar. I guess that I am in the minority? I do miss the rounded corners, but I am not hacking my system just to have rounded corners. I will be checking out Candy Bar though.
I use HierarchicalDock instead of Quay. I had trouble getting Quay to work properly but HierarchicalDock just worked as expected, and it’s FREE!
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Great article! Really useful apps.
Nice article.
Anthony: Displaperture doesn’t involve any hacking; it just shows a few pictures of corners that float above the menubar. They’re as harmless as contextual menus or Dashboard widgets.
Opaque menu bar with an app? Now way. Do one of these, then reboot:
Gray Menu Bar
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer ‘EnvironmentVariables’ -dict ‘CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE’ 0
White Menu Bar
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer ‘EnvironmentVariables’ -dict ‘CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE’ 1
Translucent Menu Bar
sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer ‘EnvironmentVariables’
These and more goodies at http://www.usingmac.com/2007/11/18/leopard-tweaking-terminal-codes
I second HierarchicalDock. I like the QuickLook feature it has. And it seems a little more responsive – but that’s just my perception.
Awesome list!
[...] ha da poco rilasciato una piccola guida alla personalizzazione di Leopard, ovvero una rassegna di alcuni dei moltissimi tool che permettono modificare la veste grafica del [...]
[...] Ultimate Leopard Customization GuideBy Austen SaltzLeopard is cool. There’s no doubt about it. But there’s always that one thing that’s missing from something you buy, whether it be from your new iPod, your new toaster, or your new operating system. We’ve covered many of the …MacApper – http://macapper.com [...]
yea you can do lots more stuff to the dock… instead of changing the color, you can customize it by using a template, with designs and cool stuff. right now mine is the Matrix. http://www.leoparddocks.net lets you change it for free
[...] sul sito MacApper un ottimo articolo (in inglese) che tratta come tema la customizzazione di Mac OS X [...]
And for some have not translucid bar by default, and wanna activate it, how ?
[...] covered Leopard modifications and mods many times before, (culminating in the Ultimate Leopard Customization Guide) but LeopardMOD is worth posting about, even almost 3 months after Leopard’s [...]
CandyBar is not free …
Ok… I must be the only person alive who HATES the black apple on the menu bar!!! It’s just DULL!!! I wanted to put the old Rainbow colored Icon, but I would settle for tiger’s Blue Icon… can ANYONE tell me how to do that!!!
I tried using ThemePark but for some reason, changing the icons didn’t work!
please HELP!!!!
Thank you!!!
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Hi. i don’t know how to change the black apple in the Menu bar to either panther blue or tiger blue. I really don’t like the black as many people have said the same to me.
can you help?
Mark:
If you’re semicompetent with UNIX (Terminal), try this:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=103567
If not, you’ll have to wait for a graphical client.
Did u realise that in leopard u can change the menu bar to opaque using system preferences?
Just open System Preferences, go into Desktop and Screensaver, and uncheck the box saying ‘Translucent Menu Bar’
DONE
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The easiest way to fix that appearance issue with the apps stack is to right click on the stack and “Display as Folder”. Much cleaner, especially with a custom folder icon.
I’m not sure why you’d need to use OpaqueMenuBar when you can set it to non-translucent in Desktop & Screen Saver setting in your pref panel.
at least i know i can with Leopard.
Tom, It’s because this article was written before that feature was added in the 10.5.2 update.
OnyX will also change alot of stuff in your interface. Including the menubar transparency. And it’s free.
If you want to make your menu bar opaque just go to system preferences then desktop and at the botton turn it off! your guys are really dumb using those programs when there is a simpler way
not an ultimate list at all