Working with Icons

    File Buddy offers several options for working with icons of files and folders whose information is being viewed in the info window.

Copying Icons

    The easiest way to copy the icon from one item to another is to drag an icon in the Finder to the icon in a File Buddy Info window to copy the icon to the item in the window. Icons copied in File Buddy will display the copied icon in all versions of the Macintosh operating system from 7.0 forward if the "Create icons for System 7 and later" option is on in the Icons pane of the Preferences window.

Custom Icon Formats

    Use the Icons pane of the Preferences window to control which icon formats are included when creating custom icons. The default behavior is to create small and large icons for use in Mac OS 8.6 and later, and thumbnail icons for use in Mac OS X. If you wish to create custom icons which can be viewed in System 7 - Mac OS 8.6, turn on the option to "Create icons for System 7 and later" in the Icons pane of the Preferences window.

The Icon Pop-up Menu

When the pointer is over the icon in the info window, it becomes the menu cursor. Click the icon to open a menu with the following commands for editing the current icon.

    Cut
    Place the current icon on the clipboard, and if it is a custom icon, remove it from the current item.
    Copy
    Copy the current icon to the clipboard. File Buddy copies all available icons to the clipboard and uses them all if the icon is pasted onto another item. When an icon is copied from a Get Info window in the Finder, the Finder only copies the large icons, and creates small icons from them if the icon is subsequently pasted onto another item. As a result, the small icons might not be the same after copying and pasting in the Finder. File Buddy copies all sizes and all available color depths.
    Paste
    If the clipboard contains an icon or a PICT, use it to create a custom icon for the current item.
    Clear
    If the item has a custom icon, remove it so the item's default icon will be used instead. If the item does not have a custom icon, this command has no effect.
    Paste Blank Icon
    Give the item a blank icon. An item with a blank icon will display no icon in the Finder. Only its name will be visible. This is useful for conserving space on the desktop, or for giving the appearance of a short text message in a folder.
    Same As...
    This command displays a file directory dialog from which you can choose a file or folder whose icon will be copied to the current item.
    Use Small Icon
    Creates a custom icon where the large icon consists of the item's small icon. This is another technique for saving space on the desktop.
    Create Icon From Image
    Create Icon From Movie
    If the current item is a graphics or movie file whose format is recognized by QuickTime, this command can be used to create a custom icon using data contained in the file.
    If the current item is a graphics file, the icon is created from the image in the file. Image formats that can be used to create an icon include JPEG, TIFF (the format of screenshots in Mac OS X), PICT (the format of screenshots in Mac OS 9), GIF, and .psd. In Mac OS X, icons can be created with PDF files as well.
    If the current item is a movie file, the icon is created from the movie's poster frame. The poster frame can be any frame in the movie. By default the poster frame is the first frame of the movie, but many movies have a poster frame that is more interesting, which in turn produces a more desirable icon.
    Tip: You can use Apple's QuickTime Player to set a movie's poster frame prior to creating a icon for it.
    Create Folder Icon
    Use this submenu to pick a folder icon template and open the Create Folder Icon window. This submenu is built from items in the Folder Icon Templates folder that resides inside the File Buddy Support folder.
    Use Label Color
    If checked, the current item's label color is used when drawing its icon in the info window.
    View Icon Family
    View all available icons in the current item's icon family.

Editing Icons Manually

    File Buddy does not provide tools for manually creating or editing custom icons. Creating and editing high quality Macintosh icons – especially thumbnail icons for Mac OS X – requires sophisticated image editing tools such as those provided by graphics-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop™, or software specifically written to create and edit icons such as Iconographer. Photoshop users can use The Iconfactory’s IconBuilder™ plug-in to convert images created in Photoshop into custom icons.

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