Wherever possible, I’ve tried to maintain an exact match between the name of the file containing icons and the name of the file into which those icons should be inserted. So, for example, “TeachText icons” contains icons that go in the TeachText program. Likewise, “Color icons” contain icons that go in the Color control panel. In these cases, installing the icons is very simple.
Step one:
Make a duplicate copy of the file(s) you’ll be adding icons to. NEVER ever edit a file with ResEdit which is running or for which you do not have a backup copy.
Step two:
Launch ResEdit. Open the source file (such as “TeachText icons”) from which you’ll be copying icons. Select ALL the resources within the file and choose “Copy” from ResEdit’s Edit menu. Close the source file.
Step three:
Open the destination file (such as TeachText), and choose “Paste” from ResEdit’s Edit menu. ResEdit will beep and display an alert warning you that you’re attempting to paste resources which have the same ID#s as resources already present in the destination file. Since you are indeed replacing icons that already exist in the destination file, click the “Yes” button, letting ResEdit know that that indeed is what you wish to do. If you’re unsure of the icons you copied, click the “No” button and start over.
Step four:
Save and close the destination file, and Quit ResEdit.
Step five:
If you’re using a version of ResEdit earlier than 2.1.1, you’ll need to rebuild the desktop file in order to have the icons you’ve pasted displayed by the Finder. (Version 2.1.1 and later do the update automatically). Since rebuilding usually takes a few minutes, it’s a good idea to do all your icon work and then rebuild the desktop only when you’re finished.
That’s all there is to it!
In a few circumstances, it was impossible for me to determine the name of the files and the resource ID#s of the icons for a certain program. These source files are set aside in a folder called “Name & ID Uncertain”. In these cases, you have to do a bit more work to install the color icons.
Step one:
Same as above:
Step two:
Launch ResEdit and open the destination file(s). Examine the destination file(s) to see what the resource ID#s of the enclosed icons are. Make notes of the icons and their ID#s, so that you can renumber the icons in the source file to match.
Step three:
Open the source file and determine which icons go in which destination file. Using the “Get resource info...” menu item, change the resource ID#s of the icons in the source file to match the icons they correspond to in the destination file. If you discover that more than one icon in the source file will end up with the same ID# in different destination files, copy that icon into a temporary “holding” file before renumbering it.
Step four:
Once you’ve renumbered the icons, select those that belong in the first destination file. Choose “Copy” from the Edit menu and then paste them into the destination file, clicking the “Yes” button when ResEdit asks if you wish to replace existing resources with the same ID. Repeat this step for each destination file.
Step five:
Save and close the destination files, and Quit ResEdit. If necessary, rebuild the desktop files.
I know this last procedure is complicated - that’s why we created iContraption. iContraption will make the above very simple, requiring no renumbering of IDs or copy/paste routines. Until early June, when iContraption will be available, use the above procedures.