A few questions about display customization...

[KidVicious]

I have a MacBook Pro, and would like to have my hard drive's icon to be a picture of the computer like I have seen on many people's desktops. Also, I'd like to have the details (size, available space) of the drive displayed along with the name.

Another thing I have seen that I like is that some people have an invisible dock, with only the icons showing. As of yet, I have been unable to do any of these.

Any help?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

To answer the first of your questions, once you've downloaded the icon you want...

1. Select the icon.
2. Choose "Get Info" from the File Menu, or click command-I.
3. Click the icon in the upper left of the info window.
4. Choose "Copy" from the Edit menu (or type command-C).
5. Select your hard drive and "Get Info" for it.
6. Click the icon in the upper left of the info window.
7. Select "Paste" (command-V) from the Edit Menu.

And that should do the trick. To display the info under the icons on your desktop, go under View in your menu bar, select 'View Options' and tick the 'Show item info' option.

For the transparent Dock, you need to download a hack like ClearDock.

 

[panoz7]

I'd like to have the details (size, available space) of the drive displayed along with the name.

Click on the desktop (to make sure the active application is finder), click view, show view options (apple-J) and then check off show item info.

Another thing I have seen that I like is that some people have an invisible dock, with only the icons showing. As of yet, I have been unable to do any of these.

This depends on what kind of system you have. If its ppc based then my favorite solution is transparentdock. It won't work on intels though, so if you've got one of those, my favorite program is cleardock which if I recall from my macbook days was intel native.

EDIT: Jaffa Cake beat me... I shouldn't walk away from threads and not refresh when I come back...

 

[KidVicious]

Hey, thanks alot guys. I now have a clear dock, and my hard drive info showing.

Is there a certain place where everyone goes to get, say, a picture of the computer you have to use as an icon?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

The IconFactory is a good place to start – they've hundreds of sets in varying styles and themes, so you're sure to be able to find something that suits your tastes.

 

[KidVicious]

Thanks for the help.

 

[KidVicious]

Oh, I almost forgot...

I see a lot of people with a customized upper right-hand corner of the screen, with their name next to the time and such. How would I go about customizing that area (I want to call it the taskbar, or the system tray, but that's probably not right).

 

[apfhex]

I see a lot of people with a customized upper right-hand corner of the screen, with their name next to the time and such. How would I go about customizing that area (I want to call it the taskbar, or the system tray, but that's probably not right).

It's called the menubar and the icons are called menu extras (I think...).

To get your name up there you need to turn on Fast User Switching under Accounts in the System Preferences.

 

[AppleIntelRock]

you may also want to try creating your own icons and folders, many applications such as this can be found (for free) by logging onto:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/