Setting up your OS to your liking can be an art for some. What if you need to set up Snow Leopard to present every user with the same look and settings? By following these steps you can have every user who logs into the machine receive the same look, feel and preferences that you desire. What we’ll be doing is creating a new user, setting it up to look how we want, then copying the settings so every new user will get those preferences.

Setting Everything Up

1. Login under your admin account and open up Accounts pane in System Preferences.
2. Click the + to create a new Standard user.
3. As an example, we’ll use the name testuser.
   
   
4. Log off and log back in as testuser.
5. Set everything up the way you want. I customized the Dock, Safari’s home page and the Finder preferences.
6. When you are done customizing, log off the testuser account.

Copying the Files

1. Login under your admin account.
2. Navigate to the /System/Library folder in Finder.
3. Right-click on the User Template folder and choose Get info.
   
4. By default, you cannot browse this folder. Change the permissions so Everyone has Read & Write permissions.
   
5. Now we can open up the User Template folder & copy the English.lproj folder to your desktop. This will be our backup copy in case we want to restore it back.
6. Open up Terminal and navigate to the User Template folder.
   cd /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj
7. Copy the testuser folder over, which will replace the defaults. You may get errors about some files that can’t be replaced. I haven’t seen it cause any issues though.
   sudo cp -R ~testuser/* .
sudo cp -R ~testuser/.* .
8. Change the permissions for the User Template folder back so everyone has No Access again.
   

Test it Out

1. Create a new user to verify everything worked. I used the name testuser2.
   
2. Log off as admin and log back in as testuser2.
3. You will now see your customized settings. These will be used for all new users created on the system from this point on.

Conclusion

To put everything back the way it was, log in as admin and copy the English.lproj backup file on your desktop back to the /System/Library/User Template folder.

If you have a lab of Macs but aren’t using Open Directory, this is a nice solution to maintain some control over the OS presentation. This change will only affect new users. It has no effect on existing users, so keep that in mind. If you start getting constant requests for more customizations similar to this, setup a Snow Leopard Server and start using Workgroup Manager. The changes can be much easier to implement but the Server solution has a larger price-tag for that convenience.

When Apple introduced the Dock with OS X, people immediately either loved it or hated it. Over time, we all got used to it. Among some of the usability complaints about the Dock is the fact that, without hacking, you can’t simply get rid of it. Hiding the Dock will only get you so far — it still pops up at inopportune times. If you’re frustrated by the inability to completely hide the Dock, there is a simple solution.

I know what you’re going to say. “Just hide the Dock; it’s simple.” While that is true, it’s not a complete solution. Hiding the Dock doesn’t really get rid of it, rather it just moves it off the screen — barely. Moving your mouse, even slightly, to the edge of the screen brings the Dock back into full view, and launching a new app makes the icon bounce into view even when the Dock is hidden.

I love the convenience of the Dock, but there are times when I’m working in certain apps like iMovie, iPhoto, Photoshop and a few others in which application icons, windows and scroll bars go right to the edge of the screen. Trying to use certain elements in those apps which are close to the edge almost always invokes the Dock, causing a brief yet annoying interruption in my workflow. At the same time, I want access to the Dock without a trip to the Terminal or other convoluted method to bring it back on screen.

Dock Gone System Preference Pane

Enter Dock Gone, by Old Jewel Software. Dock Gone is an OS X System Preference Pane which allows you to turn off the Dock completely, not just hide it.

Like any great Mac application, Dock Gone offers more than one option to turn on and off your Dock: via the Preference Pane, a menubar icon, or a keyboard shortcut — which you can customize any way you like. You can even have it play a system sound when the Dock is turned on and off.

Dock Gone menubar options

Turning off the Dock using any method available with Dock Gone results in the Dock gently sliding off the screen, and playing the system sound if you have that setting turned on. Beyond the menubar icon, which you can hide if you so choose, you’ll not even notice it’s there — a great usability trait.

Whether or not you feel that such an app is worth having, I can say that Dock Gone performs as advertised, with perhaps the only ill side effect of using 9.2MB of my RAM to do nothing 99.9 percent of the time. Still, if the default behavior of the Dock is disruptive enough to you, it’s probably worth putting up with.

Dock Gone works on any Mac that can run OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or higher, and a single-user license is $14.95. A 15-day demo is available for download from the Dock Gone site.

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Apple’s iTunes application is perhaps the most popular app ever installed on the Mac. It’s also one of the least flexible, in terms of customization. There’s little you can do to “make it your own,” so to speak. However, all is not lost for habitual tweakers like myself; the iTunes Visualizer can satisfy your need to not leave well-enough alone.

If you display your iTunes window on a second monitor, or just like to look at the iTunes Visualizer full screen on your 30″ LCD, you should know that you have some really nice options available for customizing the appearance of the Visualizer.

iTunes default Visualizer

Invoking the Visualizer by hitting Command + T (hit Command + F to make it full screen if you wish) then hitting the ? key brings up an overlay on the Visualizer screen containing a few keyboard shortcuts to control various aspects of whichever Visualizer you’re running at the time. But these customizations only go so far. To move beyond minor tweaks to Apple’s built-in Visualizers, you can install a number of truly cool third-party Visualizers which really enhance the iTunes experience.

Download More Visualizers

I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite Visualizers to get you started. This is by no means a complete list, so if you’re looking for even more, I suggest a quick Google search to quench your thirst.

All the Visualizers listed below work perfectly with OS X Leopard, iTunes 8.2, and are free to download and use. Click the preview image to go directly to the download page of each Visualizer.

Punkt Visualizer

Punkt is a Quartz Composer Visualizer that is much cooler than it appears in this screenshot. Colors burst to the beat of your music.

Circle Visualizer

Circle places the track name, artist and album in a circular format, and floats in a 3D space.

Fountain Music Visualizer

Fountain Music is probably one of my favorite Visualizers. It reminds me of the drummers in The Blue Man Group, where water is blasting upwards from the drums, highlighted by bright neon lights as they play. Fountain Music also has a decent amount of customization options, such as particle size and color.

Dragon Visualizer

Dragon features a squishy, squirmy dragon dancing to your music. I almost feel like this one borders on being somewhat icky — but it’s truly awesome.

WhiteCap Visualizer

WhiteCap places dynamic wireframe mesh visuals on your screen, cycling through colors and traveling through space.

Figure Visualizer

Figure places the track title, album, artist and album art on a virtual wall, swiveling around in 3D space.

Bugaboo Visualizer

Bugaboo places colorful dancing lightning bugs on screen. This is another one of those that you have to see to appreciate.

Cubism Visualizer

Cubism brings a Tetris-like appearance to your Visualizer, bouncing blocks to the beat of your music. A 3D cube with the album art mingles among the blocks as well.

Gaslight Visualizer

Gaslight is a customizable frequency spectrum analyzer — kind of old-school, but still quite nice!

Snow Visualizer

Snow, another offering from WowLab, displays colorful snow blowing across your screen. This one is really nice for soothing music after a rough day at the office.

LED Flow Visualizer

LED Flow uses Apple’s Quartz technology to place a colorful level meter in 3D space.

G-Force Visualizer

G-Force, the original awesome third-party Visualizer for iTunes, still going strong with its fractal goodness!

Sing Visualizer

Sing places a friendly little creature in your iTunes window and sings. Sort of. Well, it’s cool to look at anyway.

Jumping Steve Visualizer

Jumping Steve pays homage to Steve Jobs with a cutout jumping jack that dances to the beat. Hit the P key for a special iPod commercial-like silhouette feature.

Don’t forget that different Visualizers will offer disparate customization options, the level of which (if any) varies between minor, and fairly major stuff — it just depends on the developer, and how much time they bothered to put in. Don’t forget to hit the ? key to find out what options are available to you.

If you’ve never installed a plugin or other add-on to iTunes, Visualizers are a great place to start. They’re simple, require little effort to get up and running, and typically they either work or they don’t, with no ill side-effects.

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This post will explore the different possibilities open to you, outline a variety of relevant websites and applications, along with providing a walkthrough of how to alter the style of your Dock.

Brief history of the Dock

As mentioned above, the Dock has been present since the very early days of OS X. Through the years, it has undergone a few major design changes.

OS X Puma and Cheetah

OS X Tiger and Panther

OS X Leopard

These changes haven’t always been met favorably, particularly the reflections and gloss featured in the new Leopard dock (personally, I’ve never been a major fan). Ars Technica, along with others, have raised interesting critical points.

In-Built OS X Options

With recent updates to Leopard, Apple ha re-enabled the level of customization found in previous versions of OS X. It is possible to move the Dock to the left or right of your monitor, and experience a slightly different design. Other options such as auto-hiding and using different minimize effects are still available.

Many Mac users prefer to align the Dock to the side of the screen, making the most of the widescreen real estate present on new machines. These limited in-built options don’t come close to justifying a whole post on customizing your Dock, however, and far more fun can be had when third party applications are used to change its appearance.

Other Software Options

The Dock, as with any OS item, is made up of a collection of different images. Shortly after the release of Leopard, people found where these image ‘resources’ were located, and experimented with swapping them for others. As this is a fairly technical operation, several different Dock manipulation tools have abounded which are able to swap the image resources automatically. I’m only going to focus on a couple, so it’s worth searching for others if the ones mentioned don’t fit your needs. Here is a quick run-down of the main tools available:

• Mirage – Clear all background material from your Dock
• CandyBar – Complete customization control over the Dock
• SuperDocker – Simple utility for making changes
• Dock Library – Another simple swapping utility

Obviously, in addition to any of these applications, you’ll need to find a set of Dock resources which suit the look you are aiming for. A site called (very appropriately) Leopard Docks catalogs a huge range of different themes which you’ll be able to apply through the above applications. Jack Rebel also has a few nice options.

CandyBar is arguably the most popular option for quickly customizing your dock, so here is a quick walkthrough of the process.

Step 1: Download and install CandyBar.

Step 2: Head over to Leopard Docks to choose and download a Dock that catches your eye.

Step 3: Open CandyBar and select the ‘Dock’ icon in the top left corner.

Step 4: Drag and drop your downloaded Dock resources into the appropriate location on the right hand side. The files in the zip you downloaded from Leopard Docks should be appropriately named to make it obvious which ones to drag where.

Step 5 & 6: You will then need to enter your password (CandyBar requires authorization in order to replace the system files making up your dock), and then agree to restart your Dock (to refresh the graphics). If all goes well, you should then be looking at a delightful updated Dock style:

It’s important to note that CandyBar makes it easy to revert your Dock back to the original style if you grow tired of the altered version. It’s as simple as clicking ‘Restore’ in the top right corner, so you don’t need to worry about experimenting with a questionable ‘grass’ dock…

A Few Examples

Here are a few examples of some truly lick-able Docks to boost your levels of inspiration:

A wooden theme:

A ‘slick retro’ dock, with a glossy silver feel:

For all you chocolate lovers out there:

And finally, a dock to complement the default Leopard wallpaper – Aurora:

Conclusion

No longer does the Dock need to be an untouchable part of your system look and feel. With the tools outlined you’re able to take control and change it for the better (or worse –some themes are truly awful). I hope you have fun experimenting, and please feel free to look at our earlier customizing articles relating to wallpapers and icon applications if you grow tired of applying different Dock themes.

I’m always interested to see new themes and effects, so please feel free to post a link to screenshot below and share the masterpiece you’ve managed to create!

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