Icon•Filer is a simple drag-and-drop utility that converts resource files full of icons into folders full of files or folders with the icons pasted on as custom icons. It was originally written for a friend who had recently come across a whole mess of icons stored in resource files. She could handle cutting and pasting in the “Get Info” window but dealing with ResEdit or another resource copying program was a little too much. That fateful day, Icon•Filer was born. An unintended bonus is that Icon•Filer can suck the icons out of most any file, including your favorite application!
Icon•Filer is a “fat binary” application, meaning that it runs native on both 68K-based Macs and PowerPC-based Macs. Since the program is fairly small to begin with, the added size of this approach is small, too. Unfortunately, running native on a Power Mac doesn’t gain much in speed, as most (all?) of the file system is still emulated.
How do I use Icon•Filer?
Just drag the file or files you want processed onto the Icon•Filer icon and let it do the rest. It will create a folder for each icon-containing file dropped on it and create a file or folder in the newly-created folder for each icon in the file. The folder will be created in the same directory as the original file, unless the original is on a locked disk, in which case the folder will be created on the desktop. The folder will have the same name as the original file with “ ƒ” appended to it.
If you prefer, you can also launch Icon•Filer by double-clicking it and use the File menu to select a file to process. Note that only files containing icons will show up in the file selection dialog. Files containing ‘cicn’ type icons will only show up if the “File cicns” option in the Preferences menu is checked.
Once the program has started processing files, you can cancel processing by typing command-period. You have the option of cancelling all files, or just the one currently being processed.
When Icon•Filer is done with its work, open the new folder to see the icons. If you’ve chosen to have Icon•Filer paste the icons on files, the icon files will be SimpleText (aka TeachText) files containing just a short tag line indicating that they were created by Icon•Filer (you can customize the tag line by choosing “Set tag text…” from the Preferences menu).
So What do I do now?
To use an icon on another file, select the new icon you’re interested in using, select “Get Info” from the File menu (or use Command-I), click on the icon in the “Get Info” window, and select “Copy” from the Edit menu. This places the icon on the clipboard. Select the file (or folder, or disk) on which you want to use the icon and “Get Info” on that file. Click on the icon in the window and select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu. Voila! The icon now graces your file (or folder, etc.).
Preferences
As mentioned above, you have several options in how Icon•Filer files icons. These are changed using the Preferences menu (surprise, surprise!).
You can choose whether the program pastes icons onto SimpleText files or onto folders. Pasting onto folders can be especially handy when you’re filing any of the many collections of folder icons. It can also cut down a bit on the disk space used by filed icons (see “Known problems and limitations”).
Processing ‘cicn’ type icons is optional, and can be disabled by unchecking “File cicns.”
The tag line added to the text files the program creates can be modified using the “Set tag text…” menu option. This menuitem is dimmed when “Paste on folders” is selected.
Changes Since 1.0b3
The biggest change is that Icon•Filer now handles ‘cicn’ type icons (such as those used by SunDesk and other pre-System 7 color icon utilities). See the next section for some comments on cicn handling limitations.
The preferences menu is new, as are all of the options therein.
Lots of bugs, some rather nasty, are gone. Among other things, the program can now process boatloads of files without crashing (1.0b3 would crash after a couple hundred). Icon•Filer can now process its own icons without problems.
The “open file” dialog box now displays only those files containing icons.
At the suggestion of a registered user, the About box now contains registration information for those who habitually throw away “Read Me!” files.
Known problems and limitations
Icon•Filer can chew up disk space at an alarming rate. This isn’t really a problem with Icon•Filer per se, but it’s important to keep in mind. Because the Mac file system has a lower limit on the size of files, a bunch of small files will almost always take more disk space that one large file containing the same total information. This effect gets worse with larger disks. There are two ways you can minimize this problem: have Icon•Filer paste the icons on folders instead of files, or change the “tag text” to an empty string. Either way, you stop the program from adding a data fork to the files it creates, potentially cutting its disk space use in half.
Handling of ‘cicn’ type icons is not really up to par yet. Any cicn larger than 32x32 will not be “filed”. Also, 16x16 pixel icons are not created from cicns yet, so if you typically view files “by small icon,” you’ll be disappointed by the results. Occasionally, Icon•Filer may choke on some strange cicns. I haven’t figured out why this is happening, but other programs (such as ResEdit and Resorcerer) choke on the same cicns. These problems will be addressed in a future release.
Icon families filed with Icon•Filer must contain the black and white version (ICN#) of the icon to be recognized. This is because the black and white icon contains the “mask” information used for icon highlighting in the Finder and elsewhere. This may or may not be addressed in the future.
Remember, this is a beta release. Please let me know if you find a problem. Although I’m unable to devote as much time as I’d like to this program, I do plan to make an effort to stomp out any bugs.
Future Directions
Improved interface for setting preferences.
Better support for odd-sized cicns, and creation of 16x16 pixel icons from cicns.
Creation of a full icon family (ICN#, icl4, icl8, ics#, ics4, ics8) from whatever is present.
“Filing” in the other direction (changing a folder full of icons into a single resource file).
Better feedback while processing files.
Random Information
Icon•Filer requires System 7.0 or higher (which is a good thing, after all, custom icons are only available in System 7 and higher).
Icon•Filer is built upon DropShell 1.0a by Leonard Rosenthol and Stephan Somogyi and was written in C using Metrowerks CodeWarrior (CW4).
Shareware?
Yes, shareware. If you try Icon•Filer and decide it’s something you want to keep using, you must pay the shareware fee. I’m not asking much, just $7.00 (US). If you don’t feel it’s worth it, that’s okay, too, provided you stop using it. If for some reason, you’d like to pay the $7, but just can’t afford it right now (eg, you’re a starving student), send me a postcard instead. As with most shareware, your payment entitles you to all future shareware versions free of charge.
Contacting the Author
I always enjoy getting comments about Icon•Filer, whether good or bad.
