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Copyright © AJ & Mac Plaza 1998 - 1999
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Simple hints and tips
for customizing enthusiasts
and beginners.
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Desktops
A desktop can have a thousand pictures is probably more true to the fact. Just look at the Desktop Gallery page here at Mac Plaza and more than likely you'll download every single desktop picture there is. I know because I have a huge collection myself with the intention of either using them or reviewing them for posting on Mac Plaza ... some day.
PRIOR TO 8
Prior to System 8.0, Apple only provided a way to display desktop patterns. [See future article on patterns]. If you wanted to display full pictures on your desktop you'll have to use Deskpicture or Decor. So, if you're still using low end Macs running System 7.x then this is the way to go.
8 IS GREAT
With System 8.x the Desktop Pictures control panel is included and playing around with your desktop's background is a breeze. With it you can customize both desktop patterns and/or desktop pictures.
After acquiring your favourite desktop pictures from the internet or other sources you should place them all into one folder somewhere on your hard disk. Call the folder whatever you want but keeping them in one place does help a lot later on.
Because the Desktop Pictures control panel handles both desktop pictures and desktop patterns, you need to tell it which kind of background files you want it to deal with. Open the Desktop Pictures control panel and select the "Picture" button. Now whatever you see in the large window will be the background on your desktop once you click the "Set Desktop" button. Note that you may have to click 'Remove Picture' first if you already have a picture in place!
To change the picture simply find the picture file from the Finder and drag it over control panel's window. Another way is to click "Select Desktop Picture" and a dialog box will appear thus allowing you to navigate your hard disk for the desired picture. Once you're happy with your selection, click on the "Set Desktop" button and you're done!
ITCHING TO CUSTOMIZE
Sometimes you see a desktop picture that you want to download no matter what only to find that its either not the right resolution or color bit depth. Well, you can either follow the advice given in the upcoming Monitors & Resolutions article (I promise!) or you can find a way around it.
See the drop down menu on the Desktop Pictures Control Panel? For pictures with resolutions lower than your that of your monitor setting (eg: picture is 640 x 480 and your monitor is set to 823 x 624) the best way is to choose "Center on Screen".
What if the resolution is bigger than that of your monitor? Well, the Control Panel can still handle this but more elegant solutions exist. For example, DeskPicture (Shareware $19.95 from Peirce Software) and Décor (Shareware $10 by Francois Pottier) let you scale and crop a picture to fit the screen. No hassles, just perfect eye-candy!
What about file types? Do you use GIFs, JPEGs or PICTs? Again, there's some hints on this in the upcoming Monitors & Resolutions (promises, promises!) article. However, if you use Décor handling StartupScreen, PICT, GIF and JPEG files is a snap and it works fine under MacOS 8 (you will have to disable the Desktop Pictures control panel).
Décor also offers you more features than DeskPicture or the Desktop Pictures Control Panel especially in random picking, automatic replacement and scriptability. Trust me, you won't miss disabling the Desktop Pictures Control Panel.
To top of next column. |
Before I forget, let's go back to image formats or file types. GIF89a is a popular format which allows you to make transparent GIFs. Did you know that if you have Quicktime 3.0 you can use this format as a desktop picture? Better still, after setting the desktop picture you are then able to set any desktop pattern you like behind it! There is a transparent desktop picture here which you can try out. Two more transparent desktop pictures can be found on Guy Davis's website.
On the issue of random picking or random display of desktop pictures, you can still do it using the Desktop Pictures Control Panel. Just drag your folder of pictures on the Control Panel, now every time you restart your Mac you get a random picture. Note that I said random and not different. This is because the Desktop Pictures Control Panel has no way of keeping track which picture has been displayed already.
If you want different ones every time, DP Autochanger or DPC Bundle are the solutions.
REALLY ITCHING TO CUSTOMIZE
Oh, now you want your desktop pictures to change while your Mac is on? Desktop Gallery (Shareware $15) will do this for you and it supports Desktop Pictures Control Panel hence respecting its settings. DP Autochanger ($5), DeskPicture and Décor can change the picture periodically too.
What if you want to display pictures of your family all from different files and all displayed simultaneously? There are two solutions that I can think of at present.
DeskPicture allows you to adjust the size and placement of desktop pictures or image files to create a montage of up to 16 pictures on one or more monitors. You can also use any picture as a tiling pattern, much like the standard Desktop Patterns control panel - except that pictures of any size can be used.
Then there is PandoFrame which allows you to place pictures on your desktop complete with different frames. It's like having stickies only for pictures so its not exactly a desktop picture background but these days its free!
The ultimate in desktop background customization would be to have a movie running. You can do this too with a cool new CMM Plug-in: PlayMovie (Shareware $12). Another option is commercial however I'm going to mention it anyway because its not much more expensive than other shareware offerings ($19.95).
Sundial replaces your desktop background with a 24-hr time-lapse QuickTime movie. The movie is synchronized to the actual sunrise and sunset at your location. The scenic movies are provided but the drawback is you can't yet make your own movie or scene.
So there, now go play with your desktop background and happy customizing BUT don't try all this on a PC!
| SUMMARY |
1. Unstuff the archive.
2. Open Desktop Pictures control panel.
3. Select the "Picture" button.
4. Drag the JPEG image from Finder onto the Desktop Pictures' control panel's window.
5. Click on the "Set Desktop" button to apply the displayed picture onto the desktop.
Want to get fancy?
Read the article again :)
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Desktop Pictures Control Panel
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Created : November 10, 1998
Last updated : February 15, 2000
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