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04.02.07
Tweaking Mac OS X
 By
Sean Corfield
What's the first thing any self-respecting Mac-head does when they get a new computer?
Customize it so it's your very own "personal" computer! I've been relying on a work-provided computer for quite a while (since I joined Macromedia nearly seven years ago) so I haven't paid much attention to what's available for OS X - my last personally owned Mac run System 7!
Unsanity seem to be the company with the best tweaks so I just bought:
• ShapeShifter ($20) which applies new themes to your system.
I'm currently running Cold 1.2 which I think gives the system a very clean but dramatic look to everything.
• FruitMenu ($10) which adds customizable cascading menus under your Apple menu and to your contextual menus in a number of applications.
A very useful way to speed up navigation and access to commonly used files and programs.
• WindowShade X ($10) which introduces a number of different behaviors for double-clicking on the menu bar in a window.
The classic WindowShade extension used to just roll the window up into the menu bar but this new version adds options to make windows transparent or minimize them to a series of "live" icons arranged around the screen.
If you buy more than one product, you get a dollar off each additional product which is a nice touch.
I also downloaded ClearDock which removes the background from the dock so your icons just float on the screen.
I've always been bothered by that semi-transparent white background so it's good to get rid of it!
Comments
About the Author:
Sean is currently Senior Computer Scientist and Team Lead in the
Hosted Services group at Adobe Systems Incorporated. He has worked in
the IT industry for nearly twenty-five years, first in database
systems and compilers (serving eight years on the ANSI C++ Standards
Committee), then in mobile telecoms, and finally in web development.
Sean is a staunch advocate of software standards and best practices,
and is a well-known and respected speaker on these subjects. Sean has
championed and contributed to a number of ColdFusion frameworks, and
is a frequent publisher on his blog, http://corfield.org/
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