Since the days of copland, Apple has promised a future when we’ll be able to radically alter the Mac’s interface with the click of a button, through something called Appearance files. Using these files, you’ll be able to dramatically change the shape and coloring of title bars, scroll bars, windows, and so on. Fans of the shareware hit Kaleidoscope already know the joy of distorting the Mac’s look beyond recognition, but it wasn’t until now that Apple put that power into the Mac OS.
However, there’s a catch: Apple doesn’t want you to use this feature. Prerelease versions of Mac OS 8.5 came with two Appearance files (and related sound effects) in addition to the standard Apple Platinum: Gizmo and Hi-Tech. They worked beautifully. But at the eleventh hour, Apple decided neither to include these Appearance files with Mac OS 8.5 nor to post them online. Apple has "no plans" to make them available in any form and won’t even reveal how to create them.
The result of this last-minute swerve is a pair of pop-up menus in the Appearance control panel that don’t offer any choices—it’s sort of like finding a light switch that doesn’t seem to control anything. The Appearance pop-up menu lists only Apple Platinum, and the Sounds pop-up menu offers just Platinum Sounds or None.
So although Mac OS 8.5 is primed and ready for major interface mischief, you won’t be able to take advantage of this new feature. At least, not until the most clever members of the Mac programming community crack Apple’s code and start releasing their own OS 8.5 Appearance and sound files.
