Modding Mac OS X

Preface

In the beginning, there was the Macintosh. And it was good and happy and verily a Happy Mac, some might say. And the Mac enthusiast looked upon it and said, “Let there be hack!” And there was hack—and everything got even better.

If you’re a Mac enthusiast, you’ll certainly benefit from customizing your system, and this book will lead the way. It will show you how to modify, tweak, customize, and indulge your Macintosh with some good old-fashioned hacking. And who, pray tell, does not need some good old-fashioned hacking these days? Yes, I’m talking about you. You hold the key to hack in your hands.

Here are just a few of the incentives for Mac OS X users to change the looks and behaviors of their operating system. With the techniques in this book you can:

Achieve consistency

Many applications work inconsistently. Keyboard shortcuts that work for some programs may not work for others. The Hiding shortcut is one of the worst offenders; it’s ⌘-H in most—but not all—applications. By changing the way your applications respond to the mouse and keyboard, you can create consistent responses across your system.

Create a personalized style

If you have a personal style, why shouldn’t your system? You can transform the way your Macintosh system and applications look to match your own aesthetic sense. Use this book to change the appearance of application icons, splash screens, About boxes, and windows.

Increase efficiency

Customizing allows you to change the way you interact with your computer ...