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ShapeShifter 1.0.1
a haxie by unsanity and geekspiff

What is ShapeShifter?

ShapeShifter is a revolutionary new product that lets you change the overall appearance of your Mac using 'themes'.  We're not talking about just desktop backgrounds and icons here, we're talking about everything - the look of windows, menus, buttons, absolutely everything.  You don't wear the same clothes everyday, your house doesn't look exactly like your neighbor's - why should the computing interface you use everyday be any different.  You personalize your physical workspace to suit your tastes and whims, so why not your Mac?

ShapeShifter makes themes fun, safe and easy

While you may have heard horror stories about themes kludging user's systems, ShapeShifter makes this a thing of the past. Installing themes in MacOS X used to require some dangerous methods (and more than a little bravery on the part of the end user).  Not so with ShapeShifter - now changing the overall appearance of your system is every bit as safe as switching desktops or screensavers.  ShapeShifter is safe because it never touches the actual files and resources residing deep within your system.  

ShapeShifter is also very simple to use - just grab any guiKit or dlta theme and double-click it ... ShapeShifter will instantly become aware of its presence and pop open the ShapeShifter preference pane.  To apply a theme, click the radio button next to the theme and hit the Apply Selected button.  That's it!

With ShapeShifter, you can:

• Change the overall appearance of your operating system safely, quickly, and reliably
• Experience things that haven't been possible with Mac themes before
• Quickly preview themes without actually applying them
• Use Jaguar themes in Panther effortlessly
• Install different themes for different users
• Keep your themes wherever you please on your hard drive
• Add and remove themes effortlessly

By using the ShapeShifter guiKit format, the theme designer can:

• Do things you never dreamed possible - we're making new discoveries all the time
• Change text colors, funkify metal windows, mask widgets - all things impossible until now
• Ignore problems with Panther themes like shadows and metals - ShapeShifter fixes them!
• Distribute your themes in a non-editable format

All of this functionality is provided in a single, easy-to-use Preference Pane.  Best of all, ShapeShifter is priced at only US $20.

Installing ShapeShifter

To install, double-click the "ShapeShifter Installer" icon and follow the on-screen instructions.

To uninstall, either:
1)  Double-click the "ShapeShifter Installer" icon and click on the "Uninstall" button (the installer will move all ShapeShifter files to the Trash - it will never actually delete any files on your system).
2)  Remove the file named "ShapeShifter.prefPane" from the Library/PreferencePanes folder in your home directory and the file "ShapeShifter.ape"  from the Library/Application Enhancers folder in your home directory.

Using ShapeShifter

ShapeShifter is simple to use. All aspects of the haxie are controlled through its Preference Pane. To access the ShapeShifter Preference Pane, choose "System Preferences" from the Apple menu and then select the ShapeShifter icon. Below is a description of all of the options in the Preference Pane:

• ShapeShifter Section

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• ShapeShifter Enabled: If this checkbox is selected, ShapeShifter is active.
• Restart Finder/Dock after applying: If this checkbox is selected, your Finder and Dock will be relaunched after you apply themes.

• Help Button: This button will display the help document you are reading now.
• Register Button: This button invokes the dialog where you can enter your registration information, go to the secure online purchase page, or retrieve lost registration code.
• About Button: This button shows the about box containing credits and contact information for the haxie.

• Themes Section

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This section lets you control how your operating system looks.  You use this section to select which theme you'd like applied, to add and remove themes, to see information about your themes, and to see in-depth previews of your themes.

• Themes Area: This area displays the themes that ShapeShifter knows about.  For themes that contain more than a single variants, you can access the individual variant by using the disclosure area.  ShapeShifter remembers your favorite variant once you've selected it, so unless you wish to change variants, you generally don't need to view individual variants.  

You can also add new themes to ShapeShifter by dragging them into this area.  ShapeShifter recognizes themes that have either a guiKit or dlta filename extension.

• Preview Image: This area displays a small preview of the currently highlighted theme in the Themes Area. You can see a more in-depth preview by highlighting a theme and pressing the Preview Highlighted button.
• Descriptive Text: This area displays a textual description of the currently highlighted theme in the Themes Area.  This text often contains a link to the theme artist's homepage.

• "+" Button: Pressing this button presents a standard file navigation sheet you can use to add themes to your list.  
• "-" Button: Pressing this button removes the currently highlighted theme from your list.  If the theme is stored in the Library/Themes folder, it will be restored the next time you launch ShapeShifter.  The theme is never delete, ShapeShifter simply forgets that it exists. 

• Preview Highlighted: Pressing this button will display a more in-depth preview of the currently highlighted theme.  
• Apply Selected: Pressing this button will set the theme used by all subsequently launched applications to whichever theme is selected.  Select a theme by selecting the small radio button to the left of the theme name in the Themes Area.

• Exclude List Section

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This section allows you to exclude certain applications from being affected by ShapeShifter. The newly added or removed applications will be affected only when they will be relaunched.

Where To Find More Themes

In addition to the themes that are included with ShapeShifter, many others are available on the internet.  Websites where themes can be found include:

- Max Themes, by Max Rudberg -
http://www.maxthemes.com/

- Swizcore Studios, by Kevin Husted -
http://www.swizcore.com/

- MacUpdate ShapeShifter Section -
http://www.macupdate.com/utilities.php?sub=10

- ResExcellence -
http://www.resexcellence.com/

- DeskTopper -
http://www.desktopper.net/

Active discussions about themes, oftentimes including new release announcements, can be found at:

- MacNN GUI Forums -
http://forums.macnn.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=94

- FunMac -
http://www.funmac.com

There are many other locations on the web with ShapeShifter themes.

Creating Your Own Themes

You can use Geekspiff's ThemePark to create your own themes for use with ShapeShifter.  ThemePark can be found at

http://www.geekspiff.com/software/themepark/

Distribution & License Agreement

ShapeShifter is not free. Until you purchase it, it runs in demo mode. The demo version has no features removed, but will function only 15 days after installation. In order to enable the full version, you will need to purchase ShapeShifter. To do so, go to this URL:
http://www.unsanity.com/goto/buy-shapeshifter/

ShapeShifter is priced at $20 US. Volume discounts, phone and fax ordering are all available in our online store.

SHAPESHIFTER ("THE SOFTWARE") IS PROVIDED AS IS. USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK. UNSANITY LLC ("THE AUTHOR") MAKES NO WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION FROM OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE, MISUSE, OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THESE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY IN ALL JURISDICTIONS. YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS AND SOME OF THESE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE REGISTRATION INFORMATION FOR THE PRODUCT IS CONSIDERED A VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT AND THE AUTHOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DISABLE THE REGISTRATION CODE AND/OR TAKE APPROPRIATE LEGAL ACTION.

Version History

• Version 1.0.1 (December 3, 2003)
- Resolved an issue that could prevent systems using non-English and multi-byte localizations (Japenese, for example) from being able to use ShapeShifter.
- Resolved issues that could cause application instability in Panther when using themes created for earlier operating systems.
- Resolved an issue that caused fuzzy Menu Extras, slow window resizing performance, redrawing issues in Safari, and incorrect window transparency in some applications for users running Panther.
- Added a "Default Aqua Theme" item to the theme list.  
- Added compatibility for "dlta" themes created for OS X versions earlier than 10.2.
- ShapeShifter now has the ability to download simple updating instructions from Unsanity's servers when new OS versions are released.
- General performance improvements.
- Now uses a larger font in the theme selection view.
- Added useful error messages to the prefpane indicating why ShapeShifter can't be used on a particular machine.
- Fixed a large memory leak related to drawing metal windows.  This leak could have resulted in reduced system preformance.
- Resolved issues that could prevent removing themes from the ShapeShifter preference pane from succeeding.
- Added Japanese localization courtesy of Akira Ikeda.
- The preference pane now displays the notice that the demo version has expired in red text to avoid confusion.
- Pieces of the currently-installed theme are no longer mixed in with a theme preview.
- Metal windows are no longer modified when ShapeShifter is active but there is no installed theme.
- The preference pane no longer allows themes to be installed after the demo has expired.  This should reduce confusion.
- Added ShapeShifterCacheManager to the APE's exclude list.  This should reduce spurious error messages to Console and may fix the occasional issue that results in the Cache Manager getting hosed.

• Version 1.0 (November 18, 2003)
- Initial release

Contact Information

You can always get the latest versions of our products, news, FAQ, and updates at Unsanity's Web Site:

http://www.unsanity.com/

To jump directly to the Haxies page, you can use this simple address:

http://www.haxies.com/

To get support on ShapeShifter, either visit the on-line support database at:

http://www.unsanity.com/support/
or email us at:
mailto:support@unsanity.com

To submit an idea or suggestion for this or future haxie, use this address:

mailto:feedback@unsanity.com

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ShapeShifter  is Copyright ©2003, Unsanity LLC & Geekspiff
Haxie and Unsanity are  trademarks of Unsanity LLC. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
http://www.unsanity.com/