Opening and Saving Icons

The Mac OS lets you change, or customize, the icon of almost any file, folder, or disk. Normally you would have to create your custom icon in a graphics program and then paste it into the Finder's Get Info window, but Icon Machine lets you edit custom icons directly.

When Icon Machine opens an item, it reads the item's icon, whether it be a custom icon or the default icon for that type of item. You can see the item's default, or original, icon in the bottom right corner of the editing window.

When you save an icon, Icon Machine updates its custom icon (it may take a moment for the Finder to show the change). The Apply Icon To command lets you select any file, folder, or disk, and Icon Machine will save your icon as that item's custom icon.

The Edit Icon Plugin

The Edit Icon plugin is a contextual menu plugin for PowerPC computers with Mac OS 8 or later. Drag the plugin onto your System Folder to install it, and restart your computer. Once installed, the Edit Icon plugin will add an "Edit Icon" command to the Finder's contextual menus, which will open the selected item in Icon Machine.

A contextual menu is a pop-up menu that appears when you hold down the control key and click on something, giving you quick access to menu commands that apply to whatever you clicked on. Icon Machine's own windows also have contextual menus; try control-clicking in various parts of the window to see what they can do for you.