Changing my Dock image

I've been playing around with the appearance on my Mac and I found a great looking dock called Huddy, and I downloaded it.

It's a .zip file, so I opened it and it has 1 folder:

1. Huddy_Dock

Both of which have 2 folders in them:

1. icontainer's
2. Resources

In the icontainer's folder there's 2 files:

1. Huddy_DocOpaque
2. Huddy_DockShine

In the Resources folder there's 5 different .png images:

1. DockH_Opaque.png
2. DockH_Shine.png
3. Frontline.png
4. Indicator_Color.png
5. Indicator_White.png

Now that I'm this far, what do I need to do in order to use the Huddy Dock?

Without software to change the Dock, all you have are Dock images. You need to use something like SuperDocker. It should still work with Lion although it was originally for Snow Leopard. It's free.

The iContainers in particular are intended for use with CandyBar, which can replace not only the Dock's graphics but your icons as well. But it's not free.

Panic - CandyBar 3 - Change and Organize Your Mac OS X Icons and Dock

Oh boy! You might be back here soon if you try to use CandyBar. Be careful with it. Make sure you fully understand it. Many people report problems after installing and using it. I'm sure we don't hear from those who figure out how to use it properly. Be one of those.

I usually don't recommend CandyBar because it seems we've had more problems with users trying to undo what it did. Whereas "SuperDocker" is fairly benign and can be removed easily.

Okay, so I now have SuperDocker. I clicked on dock, clicked on customize dock and named my new theme "Huddy".

At the top it says "Drag and drop the different dock items".

Do I drag and drop the "icontainers" or the ".png" images?

toMACsh said:

Oh boy! You might be back here soon if you try to use CandyBar. Be careful with it. Make sure you fully understand it. Many people report problems after installing and using it. I'm sure we don't hear from those who figure out how to use it properly. Be one of those.

Click to expand...

Seriously? I've been using it on and off for years and not only have never had an issue, but don't see why anyone would. There's nothing difficult to understand in using it. Literally, the sole idiotic thing that one could do is to use it on a version of OS X that it hasn't been verified as being tested against, and you have to ignore a very specific warning against doing that. Replacing icons should not affect the system's operation or stability. SuperDocker doesn't even do anything different, except it only changes the Dock's graphics.

lifeisabeach said:

Seriously?

Click to expand...

Yeah, seriously. You're obviously one of the "smart" users. See other comments above too.

toMACsh said:

Yeah, seriously. You're obviously one of the "smart" users. See other comments above too.

Click to expand...

I saw the comments and I quite frankly think you are both dead wrong, and believe me… I don't say something that strong unless I am highly confident in it. All CandyBar does is replace the icon resources. Worst case scenario? You have no icons. This is absolutely no different than what SuperDocker is doing with the Dock… replace the graphics resources. I'd be curious to see exactly what you guys are talking about in regards to problems. I did a brief forum search and while I saw CandyBar mentioned a bit, I didn't see anything pinning it as a problem.

EDIT: Worth pointing out… SuperDocker was discontinued in 2008. CandyBar is actively maintained and developed by one of the more prominent and reputable Mac developers.

I'm glad you've had a good experience with CandyBar. I once dated a girl named Kandi Barr, and she was a nice girl, but I've never used that software myself. I'm surprised that your search didn't turn up several threads in which people met with disaster after using it. I'll take your word for it, but my memory banks tell me that I've seen several. Maybe most were on another Mac forum that I frequent.

toMACsh said:

I'm glad you've had a good experience with CandyBar. I once dated a girl named Kandi Barr, and she was a nice girl, but I've never used that software myself. I'm surprised that your search didn't turn up several threads in which people met with disaster after using it. I'll take your word for it, but my memory banks tell me that I've seen several. Maybe most were on another Mac forum that I frequent.

Click to expand...

Mis-using CandyBar is pretty much impossible. You pick your icons, hit apply, and enter your password. The software simply replaces the icon resources after making backups of the originals, then tells you to log out and back in. There is nothing for a non-expert to mis-use. Even if one ignored the warning against using it on an unsupported version of OS X, the only way even that would cause a problem is if Apple changed the location of the icons, and even then CandyBar would say "Hey wait! They aren't there!" and even if it didn't do that check, if they aren't there, then there's nothing to replace.

I'd bet good money that the problems attributed to CandyBar were anomalies, or simply had nothing to do with it and the user had other issues at hand with their system. Actually, I'd be willing to wager that they were simultaneously installing a theme that tinkers with a lot more system GUI elements using the standalone self-installing packages distributed via places like MacThemes. Those can and will hose your system if not built for your version of OS X and have few, if any safeguards to prevent that from happening. The kind of person highly inclined to try installing one of those themes is also going to be inclined to use CandyBar to apply icons themes to complete the looks. Applying the icons wouldn't have caused the problem, but applying a companion theme that, as an example, was intended for 10.5.1 on a 10.6.8 installation probably would.

BryGuy said:

Okay, so I now have SuperDocker. I clicked on dock, clicked on customize dock and named my new theme "Huddy".

At the top it says "Drag and drop the different dock items".

Do I drag and drop the "icontainers" or the ".png" images?

Click to expand...

Sorry… we forgot to address your questions. Ideally, you should use CandyBar. To use the containers, just double-click them to load them up in CandyBar. CB will add them to its library of icons and dock graphics. When you select Huddy_Dock from the list, you'll get a preview in the bottom right pane. If you want to keep it, click on the Use this Dock button. Then up top, select Apply Dock. You'll enter your admin password, then be prompted to relaunch the Dock. If you change your mind, click on Restore Dock up top.

I was about to elaborate on how to manually replace the graphics with the provided PNG graphics in the Resources folder, but after double checking on this, I simply can't advise it. They would have to be renamed to match the corresponding files inside Dock.app, and there aren't the variety of sizes of the icons that are supposed to be there. I don't know why the designer included them… probably so others can use them and modify to make variations, but anyway, I really can't recommend trying it.

I did use CandyBar to test out that option myself, and it works. Just stick with the iContainers and ignore the PNG graphics. Your call on how to proceed here. I understand the others have reservations with it, but I respectfully disagree with them.