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AZhappyjack

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 3, 2011
9,634
22,764
Happy Jack, AZ
New month, time for a new desktop... I'm going with something "fall-ish":

202209.jpg
 

adamlbiscuit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2008
572
1,285
South Yorkshire, UK
Wanted a new wallpaper that would match the gold of my MacBook Air. Found this on unsplash then just played around with the colours a tad in Pixelmator Pro so I could get it to match my Mac.

https://unsplash.com/photos/IAgxWyD_TYk

Screenshot 2022-09-04 at 4.25.48 pm.png


I also decided to remove all my Dock icons, only showing the apps that're actually running. I've used the Shortcuts app to create a sort of 'mini Launchpad'. It's quite neat! (the actual Launchpad keeps rearranging all my icons and it's driving me nuts. I went back to using the generic Applications folder in the Dock, and it's more reliable but I only wanted a few of my most-used apps in there)

Screenshot 2022-09-04 at 4.25.28 pm.png
 

Attachments

  • macbook-air-gold-select-201810.jpeg
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allan.nyholm

macrumors 68020
Nov 22, 2007
2,283
2,508
Aalborg, Denmark
A bit of everything
macOS Monterey, MacForge w. Airbrush, Paintcan & meminime plugin. Airbrush is new and handles the buttons and titlebar image here.

Wallpaper is one of macOS Monterey's built in ones. I changed the accent color to that of one of the newer M1 24" iMacs to complement the wallpaper.

Dock Party app handles the bling on the Dock - showing the progress of the song playing in Spotify (handles Music app too) Doesn't need SIP to be off.

Icons are just stock for now.

Neptunes gives the corner text on the song playing. It's an extra download and I believe you have to pay a very small amount to either buy the access to extra skins outright or pay a small yearly subscription. I mean, it's about 17 DKK a year - around $2-3 dollars a year.

Theme is available on a new Discord server that we really would like to have people visit and join in on the fun.

There's some really engaging developers and themers on there.

The developer of the Airbrush plugin is on there and there's themes to try out.

There's help to be had, because to get started on this there's little things you would have to accept doing to your Mac. Such as disabling SIP and Disabling Library Validation.

I don't think I'm allowed to self promote on here? Is it tacky to share the Discord server invitation in this thread here?

Screen Shot 2022-09-06 at 11.51.57.png
 

allan.nyholm

macrumors 68020
Nov 22, 2007
2,283
2,508
Aalborg, Denmark
Wanted a new wallpaper that would match the gold of my MacBook Air. Found this on unsplash then just played around with the colours a tad in Pixelmator Pro so I could get it to match my Mac.

https://unsplash.com/photos/IAgxWyD_TYk

View attachment 2050918

I also decided to remove all my Dock icons, only showing the apps that're actually running. I've used the Shortcuts app to create a sort of 'mini Launchpad'. It's quite neat! (the actual Launchpad keeps rearranging all my icons and it's driving me nuts. I went back to using the generic Applications folder in the Dock, and it's more reliable but I only wanted a few of my most-used apps in there)

View attachment 2050919
How big a task is it to create such a Shortcuts app?
 

bhtwo

macrumors 65816
Dec 31, 2012
1,186
1,426
Oxford UK
A bit of everything
macOS Monterey, MacForge w. Airbrush, Paintcan & meminime plugin. Airbrush is new and handles the buttons and titlebar image here.

Wallpaper is one of macOS Monterey's built in ones. I changed the accent color to that of one of the newer M1 24" iMacs to complement the wallpaper.

Dock Party app handles the bling on the Dock - showing the progress of the song playing in Spotify (handles Music app too) Doesn't need SIP to be off.

Icons are just stock for now.

Neptunes gives the corner text on the song playing. It's an extra download and I believe you have to pay a very small amount to either buy the access to extra skins outright or pay a small yearly subscription. I mean, it's about 17 DKK a year - around $2-3 dollars a year.

Theme is available on a new Discord server that we really would like to have people visit and join in on the fun.

There's some really engaging developers and themers on there.

The developer of the Airbrush plugin is on there and there's themes to try out.

There's help to be had, because to get started on this there's little things you would have to accept doing to your Mac. Such as disabling SIP and Disabling Library Validation.

I don't think I'm allowed to self promote on here? Is it tacky to share the Discord server invitation in this thread here?

View attachment 2051624
Love the window buttons Allan... how?
 

adamlbiscuit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2008
572
1,285
South Yorkshire, UK
How big a task is it to create such a Shortcuts app?
It's not too much work. It's a bit fiddly and there's probably a much simpler way to do it, but doing it this way requires no additional downloads and can be done with stock macOS apps.

If you've got macOS Monterey, you can use the Shortcuts app to create simple shortcuts that only serve to open a single app. So for example, a Shortcut that's set to open Safari.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.23.29pm.png

Then once created you can add the shortcut to the Dock.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.23.52pm.png

You don't have to keep it there, (I drag it straight out) but by adding it to the Dock it creates a shell app for your shortcut that's available in home/applications.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.25.03pm.png

From there you can rename and change the icon of your shell app. I simply copied the standard icon from the app the shortcut is set to open, and I also gave them a blank name so it looked cleaner.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.29.46pm.png

Then, I create a folder in the home/Applications directory which is where I house all of my shell apps. You can give it a custom icon and name it however you wish.

For my example I gave it an icon reminiscent of the App Library on iPad OS and called the folder 'App Shortcuts'.

You then put it in the dock same as you would any other folder, and then set it to display as 'folder' if you want to see your custom folder icon.

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.33.53pm.png

As an additional tip; if you download TinkerTool you can set it so that stacks open with a scroll gesture rather than having to click them all the time. This means your app icons are still only one click away as they would be in the Dock normally.

I'm sure there's a terminal command to enable this too but I'm not sure what it is.
 
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