Modify family file icon?

[Paul Reitz]

I keep a couple family files in the dock; I can differentiate between two, but no more.

I'd like to change the icon of either the R12 or the R13 files. Can this be done easily without compromising anything?

(And if so, anyone have a favorite icon?)

[SGilbert]

Don't know about icon changing without attempting it, which I do not need. All I need to do is highlight the names and change to whatever I like--the original files, not aliases.
I have 4 aliased family files in my dock, and all I need to do is hold the curser over a file to see the name.

[Paul Reitz]

Thank you for the suggestion. Yes, that works; I'm just too impatient!

But your method is probably the best way; the dock is so crowded with icons that I now must study them intently to determine which one I want to open.

I used to watch engineers work in LabView, similar to the Mac in that it was the first with a graphical user interface using drag and drop to build design diagrams. But as the application increased functionality, its icons became so numerous and so minutely differentiated that they reached a point where the graphics hurt as much as they helped.

[bmohr]

You can easily change the icon of any file in the Finder:

Apple has brief support article about it (here), but to give a little more detail:

* Find an image you would like to use as the new icon. I've taken the liberty of creating a few "badged" versions of the standard Reunion Family File icon and attached them to this post. The original icon is obviously Leister Production's intellectual property, so I hope they don't mind this little "remix."

* Open the new image in Preview. Select the entire image (Edit -> Select All) and copy to the clipboard (Edit -> Copy). Close the file and/or quit Preview. Alternately, you can just copy an image from elsewhere, like directly from this page.

* Locate the Reunion file whose icon you want to change in the Finder. Single-click on it and choose "Get Info" from the File menu.

* Single-click on the little icon in the upper left of the Get Info window. It should highlight to show it's selected.

* Paste the new image you copied earlier (Edit -> Paste).

* Close the Get Info window and enjoy! Note that any files in the dock won't show the new icon until the next time you click on that icon in the dock.

If you ever want to remove the custom icon, "Get Info" on the file again, click on the icon in the upper left, and hit the "delete" key.

-Brad

[Chris Simpson]

Many thanks - these little changes make life a little easier

p.s. My signature data is way out of date but can't change it in settings!

[Paul Reitz]

Thanks, Brad. I'll try to also add a key-name somehow...

[bmohr]

Thanks, Brad. I'll try to also add a key-name somehow...

You can use the same "Get Info" technique in reverse to get the default icon so you can add your own "badge" to it: Get Info, click the icon, and Copy. Then paste into you favorite graphics app (Preview, PhotoShop, etc.) and edit as needed. When you're done, you can either select-all and copy or save as PNG or JPEG first, then follow the steps in my earlier post.