Customize the Mac Finder Window Background

mac window background color













Did you know that you can customize the backgrounds of any Finder windows in Mac OS X? In the screenshot above, the Finder windows are set to match the color of the Finder window sidebar. Changing the window background color is a somewhat unknown feature even to frequent Mac users, as reader Karim S reminded us when he wrote in asking: “I was wondering if you have any tips to change the background color of the finder’s windows. I would like to see the white turned into a light grey.” Setting the Finder window background to something is easy once you learn how, and here’s how to do it:


How to customize the Finder window background in Mac OS X

  • To customize the background of a Finder window, open any window
  • Once inside a Finder window, hit Command+J or navigate from the ‘View’ menu to ‘Show View Options’
  • From the View Options, select ‘Color’ or ‘Picture’ under the Background submenu
  • Using the color picker, select the color you want to use for window backgrounds. If you are setting a picture, navigate to the picture you want to set as the background
  • If you want ALL Finder windows to have this custom background, click on ‘Set as Default’
  • Changes take effect immediately, and you’ll see the new color or background picture in all windows
  • Close View Options
That’s all there is to it. In Karim’s case he would want to set a grey background and then click on “Set as Default” so that all Finder windows have the same background.
You can easily remove the background customization and reverse whatever changes you made by just opening View Options again and selecting the ‘White’ background, which is the Mac OS default setting.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CD/DVD -R +R RW – what does it all mean ?

Unfortunately, a full description of the differences between all of the CD and DVD formats would fill an entire book. There are many, many different types of physical media, methods for storing the data, methods for writing the data and media formats (MPEG-2, MP3, AVI, MP4, etc.) But… since most people use just a few of the CD/DVD formats, we’ll cover just those. The most common formats are generically known as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, CD-Audio, DVD-Video, and the newer HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Vocabulary First off we need to define a few expressions and words. Burning – This is the process used to store data on the media. Which means we burn “holes” in the writable layer inside the disk. Session - ”Period of time in which something occurs”. Which translated means a file or files added in the same operation. Single Session – All files on disk are added in one operation. Multi Session – Several sessions on one disk. What is burned on disk,...
Read more

Open folders in the Dock immediately in Finder - Mac OS X

I have some folders in the Dock that I want to always 'Open in Finder.' Usually this takes two clicks, one on the dock icon, and another on the 'Open in Finder' button. (Or 'Open' in Snow Leopard.) If you make an alias of a folder and then drag the alias to the Dock, clicking on it immediately opens the folder in a regular Finder window rather than in a folder or stack popup.
Read more

Top 5 Word Processors [2010 Edition]

Image
Most of us use a word processor on a daily basis. In this article, I share five of the best word processors available and why you should consider each one for use. There are so many word processing programs out there that it would be ridiculous to say these are the only five you should consider; however, these are five of the best. Which ones did I miss? OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org is an open-source office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and more. Writer, the word-processing application that comes with the suite, is the result of user feedback and constant improvements over the years. I really like OpenOffice.org and would switch to it if I didn’t already have a Microsoft Office license. Download OpenOffice.org Google Docs Google Docs is an online suite that comes with all the features you’d expect from an office suite. I use Google Docs mainly for online web forms to collect survey responses etc. Here’s a video  that does a gre...
Read more