This month I have a special treat for Netscape Navigator users. I will show you how to change the pulsating, comet-rich N, add command-key equivalents to menus, and change some internal icons for better formatting on your screen.
The Pulsating/Comet N!
First, open a copy of your Netscape application in ResEdit and locate the CICN resource. Open this resource by double-clicking on it. You will then see a window showing a number of icons. From here, locate resource ID 700 (it should look like the big N). Open this resource. I use Netscape Navigator 4.0.4, but this hack will work in previous versions. Edit all of the "N" graphics to be some form of animation or another. I had found this friendly puppy art on the net somewhere, and decided I would use that.
 
As you can see, the art I used is actually just 5
different graphics that I repeated over and over
again until I had replaced all the original
Netscape animation. You may wish to close
and save your changes before continuing, but I
doubt you'll need to test this hack out. If you've
followed these simple instructions, it should work just fine.
Surfin' with Images Off
Now, this is something I normally don't do, but recently I tried it. I must say that there was considerable speed improvement! Unfortunately, there is also a downside to surfing with no images. When pictures are not drawn on web pages, Navigator uses a picture icon to represent the fact that a graphic should be there. The default icon that Navigator uses is a full-size icon (32 x 32). This is fine for normal art, but bulleted menus and tables get thrown all out of whack by the larger art. Here is how to fix this. In the CICN resource, locate ID 317 — this is what is used for unloaded graphics. I found a wonderful change for this from the web. All you need to do is alter the icon to be a lot smaller, like just the green circle pictured below, then set it off-center at the top left of the icon window. It should look like this:
 
Menus and Commands
 
I hate using my mouse to do
anything. I am a power user!
I prefer keyboard commands
for most things. However, the
newest release of Commun-
icator doesn't have some
important commands I'd been
using, namely Reload, and
more recently, Show Images. To change that, you first need to locate the MENU resource and open that. This is where the pull-down menus are located in Navigator resources. Locate resource ID 302 and open it. This is the view menu. You will now be able to add or change a keyboard command by placing a letter in the CMD-Key box. Be careful here; you do not want to use a letter that is already being used elsewhere. In Navigator, the letters I and R are used only in the Mail Reader. You can use these in the browser, since it's actually a separate application. I believe previous versions of Netscape include these already. Your finished product should look like the above.
ResEdit Info
ResEdit can be very useful, but it can also be very harmful. ALWAYS, and again, ALWAYS, use a back-up copy of the file you are hacking. One little mistake can wipe out the program and render it useless... sometimes along with your system. Be very careful, and be sure you know what you're doing at all times.
Apple Wizards isn't to blame for any problems caused by hacking into files. The hacks discussed here are always tested to be safe before posting, but bear in mind that these tests were only performed on a minimal number of systems, and may not include your specific system.
