What's your X GUI config?

mrmistermrmister
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
When I first used X I tried to only use the default GUI, because I didn't want to be crippled when working on other people's machines. Naturally that didn't last--I loved tweaking my GUI in 9, so it stayed the same in X.



For me I love the Dock AND I love my hierarchical Apple menus, so I kept both--in OS X i religiously run:



FruitMenu (Look, there's a better Apple Menu than OS 9...and contextual menus.)



ASM (A better switcher than 9)



Windowshade (configured to give me a collapsed bar only when I click on the widget & removing all drop shadows.



Custom Theme (In my case it is Smooth Stripes with all the transparency turned off.)



I also make certain I am in Graphite mode constantly.



The Dock is non-floating, pinned at the left to the bottom, made more transparent, non-bouncing and non-magnifying.



What about everyone else?
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 47
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    pnally posted by mrmister:

    <strong>When I first used X I tried to only use the default GUI, because I didn't want to be crippled when working on other people's machines. Naturally that didn't last--I loved tweaking my GUI in 9, so it stayed the same in X.



    For me I love the Dock AND I love my hierarchical Apple menus, so I kept both--in OS X i religiously run:



    FruitMenu (Look, there's a better Apple Menu than OS 9...and contextual menus.)



    ASM (A better switcher than 9)



    Windowshade (configured to give me a collapsed bar only when I click on the widget & removing all drop shadows.



    Custom Theme (In my case it is Smooth Stripes with all the transparency turned off.)



    I also make certain I am in Graphite mode constantly.



    The Dock is non-floating, pinned at the left to the bottom, made more transparent, non-bouncing and non-magnifying.



    What about everyone else?</strong>[/QUOTE]





    can you point me in the direction of how to change the looks of things in 10.2?
  • Reply 2 of 47
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    I just use the dock pinned to the left, transparent grey. Graphite theme. Go me. I'm one of those who adapted. Really though, I never used the apple menu much.
  • Reply 3 of 47
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    Not much customization...always set to graphite (I can't stand blue.) Use ClearDock to make the arrows white. No dock bouncing, no magnification, icons are about 42x42.



    I keep iChat, PPP, Sound, Monitor, and Time up in the menu extras. Also have character palette turned on.



    Only one thing on the desktop: My single partition. I hate cluttered desktops. Only when I am working on a project for something do I ever put anything there, for quick access. After I'm done it gets filed away in my Documents folder.



    I also keep only a few, highly used apps in my Dock (okay, its 14 items, but less than most people shove in there. )



    Also a desktop that changes constantly when I find more cheap tricks in Photoshop.
  • Reply 4 of 47
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    [quote] can you point me in the direction of how to change the looks of things in 10.2? <hr></blockquote>



    yep--all the programs I named can be found at VersionTracker, which is <a href="http://versiontracker.com"; target="_blank">here.</a>



    That should get you started--a lot of the other things can be found by googling "customize OS X"
  • Reply 5 of 47
    simple rangersimple ranger Posts: 119member
    - Finder in Column View w/text only tool bar

    - Empty desktop

    - Hidden dock

    - Launch bar (best system utility ever).



    I really don't understand people's complaints about eye-candy in X. It's much easier to run a minimalist system in X than it ever was in 9. For those of you who don't like the big colorful icons, get rid of them. It's very easy.
  • Reply 6 of 47
    kelibkelib Posts: 740member
    Before I give Themes another try I'm making full back-up of my Os X partition Just got Retrospect 5 so on Monday I'll buy some DVD disks to store the backup on. Can't wait for Elvis really, will make backing up a much less painful process. I have transparent dock (Mid screen bottom) with auto hide turned on. Then I have different sets of icons as well as desk picks. That's about it really. Just downloaded TinkerTools but haven't had a serious look at it as yet
  • Reply 7 of 47
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    An understandable precaution. Luckily, I haven't issues with themes, though I certainly know they exist.
  • Reply 8 of 47
    hotboxdhotboxd Posts: 125member
    Well I've got it setup with nothing on the desktop. I manipulate all my files and directories through the finder window in column view. I access files through right-clicking my HD icon in the Dock. I have Fruitmenu, but only because I wanted to reduce clutter in my Apple menu. I have the unlined aqua theme installed which I think really cleans everything up visually. I used to have WindowshadeX installed because I wanted to be able to Hide apps easily through the Minus button in the window bar, but since then I've discovered Autohide which is an app that allows me to work in single app mode by automatically hiding the first app when i switch to another app. I find this program extremely useful in reducing clutter and it's free too! All of these programs can be found at Versiontracker.com in the search thing. Heres an image of my desktop: <a href="http://www.imagemagician.com/images/wdegroot/desktop.jpg"; target="_blank">http://www.imagemagician.com/images/wdegroot/desktop.jpg</a>;



    [ 10-26-2002: Message edited by: hotboxd ]</p>
  • Reply 9 of 47
    jasocojasoco Posts: 75member
    Well.. Here's my slightly out of date desktop config...

    <a href="http://www.deskmod.com/?show=showskin&skin_id=17955"; target="_blank">http://www.deskmod.com/?show=showskin&skin_id=17955</a>;
  • Reply 10 of 47
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    how do you make a login screen where the buttons are at different places?
  • Reply 11 of 47
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    [quote]Originally posted by mrmister:

    <strong>

    For me I love the Dock AND I love my hierarchical Apple menus, so I kept both--in OS X i religiously run:



    FruitMenu (Look, there's a better Apple Menu than OS 9...and contextual menus.)

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    I love hierarchical menus, but an Apple menu isn't enough....so I use the dock for my hierarchical menus. You do know that this is possible, right? Just drop in a folder, right click, and you get a nice hierarchical menu of the contents. If you want a menu for apps, either drop in your applications folder, or even better, fill a folder with aliases and organize them hierarchically, then drop the folder into the dock.



    I have the following hierarchical menus ("Apple Menus") in my dock:



    "Apple Menu": Filled with aliases to EVERY application and utility on my HD. They are all arranged in a hierarchy 2-3 folders deep.



    Internet menu: Filled with aliases to internet apps.



    Piracy menu: Aliases to things like Limewire, Carracho, etc. Of course, I never use this menu!



    Audio menu: Filled with recording and editing apps.



    Video menu: Video editors.



    Games: Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, others.



    Utilities: Aliases to every utility on my HD.



    System preferences: Aliases to every preference pane, so I can open a pane directly without first opening system preferences. Plus, they are in alphabetical order so it's easy to find them.



    Home: I put my home folder in the dock, so that I have quick access to every document on my HD.



    Downloads: My downloads folder.





    Of course, I've pasted custom icons onto every "Apple Menu" folder in my dock, so they are easy to recognize. With so many menus, I can quickly find and open any application or document on my HD with only a single right-click and release. I find this system far superior to the Apple menu, because by using multiple Apple menus, I don't have to burrow as deep into hierarchical menus. This makes navigating the menus easier and faster.



    This illustrates yet another reason why the dock is such a powerful GUI tool. I was initially skeptical of the dock's usefulness, but after using it a month or so, I became totally enamored by it. Now I couldn't live without it--I consider the dock true innovation, Apple-style. It takes a while to discover the true power of the dock, which is why I suspect that many reviewers and new OS X users don't "get it". It also explains the popularity of things like "Fruit Menu" among OS X users that don't understand how to use the dock. many users don't realize that they can make an unlimited number of custom Apple menus in the dock.



    I think Apple needs to make a system utility to manage "Apple Menus" in the dock, so more people would be able to use them. It would help those who don't understand how to use aliases to make hierarchical menus for their docks, and it would also have an tool to add custom icons to the menu folders. That is the one limitation of OS X IMO: it doesn't come with an easy way to give dock-folders custom icons. For me it's easy to download a few sets and paste the custom icons onto folders I'm going to use in the dock, but for over 90% of OS X users, this would be a difficult if not impossible task. Apple needs to promote the power of the dock and the rest of the Aqua GUI much more strongly, and to support this power with utilities and configuration tools.
  • Reply 12 of 47
    t'hain esh kelcht'hain esh kelch Posts: 1,274member
    [quote]Originally posted by mrmister:

    <strong>

    The Dock is non-floating, pinned at the left to the bottom, made more transparent, non-bouncing and non-magnifying.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    How did you make the dock pinned to one side?



    Jasoco: Nice homepage U got.. -How did you make the dock-mod with Natalie Portman?? Im very interested in that one...



    [ 10-28-2002: Message edited by: T'hain Esh Kelch ]</p>
  • Reply 13 of 47
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    Go to versiontracker.com and search for "Tinkertool". It's a preference pane that will enable dock-pinning, among many other Aqua GUI options.
  • Reply 14 of 47
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch:

    <strong>How did you make the dock-mod with Natalie Portman??</strong><hr></blockquote>Oh, that's easy. Just scale an image to 128 by any number, split it into 128x128 sized pieces, and paste them onto the app icons in the dock. It won't look right if you use magnification, though, because the icons will split as they scale.
  • Reply 15 of 47
    t'hain esh kelcht'hain esh kelch Posts: 1,274member
    [quote]Originally posted by Junkyard Dawg:

    <strong>Go to versiontracker.com and search for "Tinkertool". It's a preference pane that will enable dock-pinning, among many other Aqua GUI options.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    AhHH... Getting it now then...

    [quote]Originally posted by Brad:

    <strong>Oh, that's easy. Just scale an image to 128 by any number, split it into 128x128 sized pieces, and paste them onto the app icons in the dock. It won't look right if you use magnification, though, because the icons will split as they scale.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    I tried that with folders, but it didnt work!? Is it diffrent with apps, meaning no spaces between them?

    I'll look into it...! <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
  • Reply 16 of 47
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch:

    <strong>I tried that with folders, but it didnt work!? Is it diffrent with apps, meaning no spaces between them?</strong><hr></blockquote>No, folders and apps both work the same in the dock; their icons have no spaces between each other. Remember, though, that the icons *must* take the full 128x128 area. Here are two quickie examples I just made, one with apps and one with folders:







  • Reply 17 of 47
    t'hain esh kelcht'hain esh kelch Posts: 1,274member
    [quote]Originally posted by Brad:

    <strong>No, folders and apps both work the same in the dock; their icons have no spaces between each other. Remember, though, that the icons *must* take the full 128x128 area. Here are two quickie examples I just made, one with apps and one with folders:







    </strong><hr></blockquote>

    Veeery weird.. As soon as I get home I'll post a screenie of my dock, 'cause om having spaces between my two pictures...!

    Maybe its because my dock is vertical? Even though I dont think that, that should make any diffrence..

    Also think I'll doublecheck on the pictures being 128 px. in height...
  • Reply 18 of 47
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    JD~



    No, I know of the power of the Dock. But until Apple or somebody gives me the power to turn off icons, I can't accept the unnaturally long delays when I click (or even control-click) on dock folders.



    For now, i actually use both--a bunch of customized folders in the dock, and a fully configured Fruit Menu.
  • Reply 19 of 47
    xaqtlyxaqtly Posts: 450member
    Unnaturally long? When I right-click on a folder in the dock, the contents show up *immediately*. As in, it doesn't get any more instant than that. And all my folders have custom icons. And this is on an 800 Mhz iMac.
  • Reply 20 of 47
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    i'll have to test down on a 733 QS g4, but on a 400 G3 B&W, it takes no longer then a second for almost everything, my mp3 folder takes alittle longer but under 2 sec still and after that its in the ram so it load instantly...i would imagine ti would take almost 4 secs though to list my mp3 folder if itunes hadn't sorted them...but the finder would take just as long...lot of files
Sign In or Register to comment.