ResEdit is a trademark and Macintosh, Mac, & the Apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Neither Icons ’R’ Us™ nor MBJ Productions are affiliated in any way with Apple Computer, Inc.
Icons ’R’ Us™ is, has been, and always will be smile-and-be-happy-ware; however, if you intend to distribute Icons ’R’ Us™ with any commercial product (CD-ROM shareware collections, Educorp, etc.), please let me know. Although I charge no fees for I.R.U. besides the cost of mailing a disk, and although some of my icons have elements created by other authors, Icons ’R’ Us™ is a copyrighted product, and as such I retain the rights to commercial distribution for it. I grant blanket rights for distribution by online services, provided that the only fees incurred by the downloader(s) are online connect charges and long distance phone bills. Now, if you like Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 and would like to GIVE it away, be my guest !!! If not, burn your hard drive for all I care, you ungrateful wretch !!
***NOTE: When uploading Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 to any bulletin board service, national or otherwise, or if distributing it by any other means, please include the following:
— “I.R.U. 2.0 Author’s Notes” Read Me file (TeachText)
— “The Icons…” (folder containing eight [8] icon folders, which contain various
icons and other folders)
If you believe that your copy of Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 is incomplete in any way, please
contact me by mail (postcard, etc.) at the following address:
Michael B. Johnson
P.O. Box 2503
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
I will make every effort to correct the problem as soon as possible. If you received your copy of Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 from a bulletin board service, in addition to your corres- pondence please include the BBS’s name, telephone number (with area code), baud, data bit/stop bit settings, and any other information you feel is pertinent. Also, if you are interested in sending a disk to me (either double- or high-density), I will return it with the latest version of Icons ’R’ Us™, along with any other goodies that I might have that I can squeeze onto the disk. Please include return postage on any diskettes you send through the mail ; however, I have no problem with a stamp every now and then…
Also, if you’d like to mail me suggestions, comments, radioactive waste, etc., the above address works fine for that, too.
***ONE MORE NOTE: If you’d rather just get to the info on the icons, rather than take the time to read my life story, I understand (sniffle). Just scroll down to the part that says “NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF”. (By the way, this document was designed to look best in 256 colors; if you’re running a color mode less than that, sorry...............).
I can’t sleep because I’m feeling old. Today is my 19th birthday, and I’ve been feeling particularly out of it lately. The other day, Jessica and I went into a day care center to gather information for a report in one of our college classes. I couldn’t help but notice the wary stares from the children when we first entered ; I remember doing the same thing to adults when they’d walk into my own day care. I’ve also noticed that my fiancée’s little brothers play with G.I. Joe’s that have the swivel-at-the-elbow arm joints. I played with the little buggers when I was a kid, and they didn’t do that. Have I finally become one of those serious, boring people that I used to laugh at ?
I’m sitting here in my chair, looking over at my sleeping fiancée and her ever- growing belly. So far, the doctors say that both Jessica and the baby are fine. But just yesterday, she noticed a very small spot of blood when she was in the bathroom.
I don’t think that I’ve ever been so worried about such a little thing in my whole life. Although this is a common occurrence during pregnancy, to be safe I called her doctor to see if there was anything that we could do. They just said what I knew that they’d say before I called, that “…everything’s probably fine, as long as there’s no cramping or other strong symptoms there’s nothing to worry about, blah blah blah…,” and yet the whole incident made me feel as if someone had dropped a small building on my head. Jessica is always telling me that I worry too much ; I don’t know, maybe she’s right.
Anyway, I should fill you in on what’s been happening in our lives lately. I ended up kicking my roommate out of my apartment, and having my fiancée move in ; although she didn’t really pay for any of the bills, at least she would have if she could have (besides, she’s a lot more fun to tickle than my ex-roommate). We moved out of that two-bedroom apartment into a one-bedroom in the same complex, but we were only able to stay there for two months. You see, the apartment management had forgotten to tell us that the building was infested with cockroaches, and since the baby wouldn’t take very well to strong pesticides right now, we decided to move. Thankfully, the management let us out of our lease without penalty, and we just moved into her mother’s house for the time being (hopefully, no more than a month or two ; that way we can have some time to find another place to live).
We’ve started taking classes at a local community college (American River, if anyone cares), and I’ve had several run-ins with the school’s administration over my policy of using my utility software to repair damaged computers when I’ve finished with my work. They think I’m some kind of hacker, and I don’t exactly feel…welcome in there anymore. Jessica and I are both taking classes in Early Childhood Education (I’m taking one, she’s taking two). They are certainly fun classes, but I can’t wait to try out what we’ve been learning on a real kid (we’re due February 27th, 1993).
The fish tank is gone. A month or so before we moved, the apartment management told us that we’d need to take out several hundred dollars worth of water damage insurance if we were going to keep the fish tank, so we ended up having to sell the little guys back to the pet store. I’ve still got the tank, though, and I’ll probably end up getting some more fish in the near future.
Lastly, I’ve decided not to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine. The baby has changed all of that. The best wages I could expect to earn in the field would be $14 or so an hour (after the two-year period required to become a Paramedic), and I want my family to have a better life than that could provide. So, I’ll keep trying to write. Although I’ll need to work at another job for the time being, I want to keep writing in the hopes that one day someone will be interested in buying one of my scripts. The next few years should prove interesting, to say the least…
******* NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF (yes, right here is where the goodies are) *******
If you suffered through the author’s notes, here are the goodies. The Arizona Macintosh Users’ Group (AMUG) puts out a CD with several hundred megabytes worth of public domain goodies and shareware several times a year, and wouldn’t you know that they’d end up wanting Icons ’R’ Us™ ? Anyhoo, I’m proud to announce that Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 will be on the December ’92 release of BBS in a Box (Volume VII). In fact, you could very well be reading this file straight from the CD ! Groovy, eh ?
If you had a copy of I.R.U. 1.1, you’ll probably notice some significant changes since then. I had originally released all of my icons inside a ResEdit resource file. Also, I had originally not included small versions of the icons (the type you’d see in the Applications menu, Apple menu, or when you’d view a folder using “View by Small Icon”. I’m still reeling from the deluge of hate E-mail I got from different people who all basically said one of two things:
“You idiot ! How could you make a bunch of cool icons and then demand that we use ResEdit to install them ? What about those of us that LIKE copy and paste ?”
or
“Imbecile ! How could you release icons without small versions of them ?”
So, first of all, both of these problems have been permanently fixed. My original goal with Icons ’R’ Us™ 1.1 was to turn people on to ResEdit, but I neglected to follow the Fourth Commandment of Macintosh, “Thou shalt not curse thy neighbor with unusable goodies.” Kind of like if you just bought a really cool tape, then found out that the one in the package was a DAT when all you have is an 8-track player. So, after much searching for a better way than pasting them onto empty folders, I happened upon a group of 3D color folder icons by Vernon Brown, which he based on an idea from Drew Hodgson (both can be found on America Online). Anyway, he had used an interesting premise: paste the icon resources into a ResEdit document, so that the System 7.x Finder would display the icon, while you could still open the resource file and edit the icons individually if need be. I took the idea a step farther.
First of all, I.R.U. no longer has a “Credits Read Me” file ; rather, I’ve stored credits for individual icons within a “TEXT” resource inside their respective files. After all, even though it would be a LOT less hassle to just not include them in the first place, many of my icons have bit and pieces that were designed by other people much more talented than myself ; I just like to put the pieces together in a new way, and I like to give credit where credit is due. Besides, this way I can avoid any legal mumbo-jumbo if there happens to be an overzealous company lawyer out there somewhere itching to make an example of some poor schmuck (like me).
In cases involving resources that should actually be INSTALLED inside a program (such as empty/full trash cans, color document icons, control panel replacements, etc.), I’ve also included icon resources that are properly numbered so that you can copy and paste the resources through ResEdit. Since this isn’t all you may need to do in some cases (say if a program doesn’t support icons for its own documents, etc.), I’ve also included any necessary “BNDL”, “FREF”, etc. resources. For all icon files that have icons you can install, you can just copy the icon resources from my files into the file you want to customize (I’ve tried my best to number the resources properly, so that you can just copy-and-past resources). However, if there are special instructions you should follow to install icons (such as if you’d be installing icons into a file that also had no BNDL’s, etc.), there will be a specific “How to…” TEXT resource within that specific file as well.
Basically, this means that if you don’t want to use ResEdit, you can just do a copy and paste through the Finder’s “Get Info” command. Remember, though, if you do this you can reverse the change at any time by choosing “Clear” while in the info box.
BUT, if you DO like ResEdit, you can actually copy the resources from the files into your programs and rebuild the desktop so that you have a permanent icon — one that can’t be removed through the Finder. Whatever you’re choice, I hope you like the new format ; barring any war parties storming my house, this is the way it will stay in future releases.
Also, I got my hands on a copy of System 7.1 to test that the System file’s icons resources (and associated “BNDL”’s, etc.) were still the same ; they are, so any icons that you try to install from the folder named “System icons and stuff…” should work just fine under System 7.1.
I’ve updated the disk icons, so now you can have disks for sounds, HyperCard stacks, classwork, games, fonts, etc., complete with appropriate icons. Also, I’ve included a bunch of Silverlining™ icons for those of you with multiple hard drives that would like to be able to tell at a glance how large the drive is (in the next release I will include icons for ALL of Silverlining™’s icons, but for now this is all there are). I’ve included many more folder icons, as well as a host of new application and document icons. There are control panel replacements for After Dark (as well as new document icons for it), SAM™ Intercept, Powerkey™, Pyro™, and ColorDesk™, and others, and I expect to make more in the future.
A quick note: I’ve tweaked all of the icons in this group so that they look appropriate in any color setting (256, 16, 4, or 2 colors). This includes editing of the icon masks (the unseen part of an icon that grays it out when it’s selected). I’ve also included a special “hider” icon in the System icons folder. When you open this folder, you’ll see one file that appears to have a name only — no icon. There is an icon there, it’s just that the icon is 1024 pixels of white space. If you’ve got something on your hard drive that you don’t want others to see, copy and paste this icon onto whatever file you’re trying to hide and then change the file’s name to a single space (“ ”). Finally, drag the file (you’ll have to click directly on the one-space name) to some location with a lot of files in it, and put it somewhere unobtrusive in the set (remember to use an icon view, large or small — NOT a list view !!!). This may be a little more trouble than using ResEdit to make the file invisible, but it’s always available on a moment’s notice…if you know where to look. However, remember that anyone who REALLY wants to find it probably would be able to if they were so inclined, but this is at least better than nothing if you choose not to use ResEdit or another utility program to just make the whole file invisible. Also, the easiest way to find the file in the future while in icon mode is to drag a marquee across the whole window (if you don’t know how, just click in any empty space and drag ; the marquee is the dotted line you see attached to the cursor).
What would you say if I told you that there is a way to get around rebuilding the desktop to see your new icons when you create them yourself ? Before you beat a path down to my door, there is a catch: it only works if you’ve edited a Finder icon (resource #-16455). All you need to do is to select the file that has the newly created custom icon and choose “Duplicate” from the File menu. The computer will automatically make a new copy of the file, but since the copy is essentially a new file, there is no record of it in the desktop file before you’ve created it. SO, the Finder will access the file’s icon resources to put a placeholder for it in the desktop, and since you have a new icon, the new copy will display the new icon immediately — NO desktop rebuilding whatsoever !!! This works for ANY file on your computer than can receive a custom icon through the Finder (the trash can cannot, but you can use ResEdit to install my skull and crossbones icon inside the System file if you want to). Note that the copy will have the name “Blah Blah Blah copy” instead of just “Blah Blah Blah”, so you’ll need to chuck the original and change the name of the new file BACK to “Blah Blah Blah”. Also, remember that the more icons that you have installed on your computer,
the bigger the desktop file gets. My desktop file takes about three minutes to rebuild when that action becomes necessary (such as when I’ve installed color icons into a program that previously supported black and white icons only).
To copy and paste icons in the Finder, first select the icon you wish to copy and choose Get Info from the File menu, as shown:
Next, after the info window has appeared, click on the icon in the window to select it. Then choose Copy from the Edit menu.
Close the info window, then select the file whose icon you wish to replace with the new icon you just copied. Again, choose Get Info from the File menu.
Again, you’ll see another info window. Click on the icon in the window (the icon you’ll be replacing) in order to select it. This time, choose Paste from the File menu. After a second or two, you’ll see the icon in the window change to the new icon you just pasted. Close the window, and that’s it !
If you want to install any icons in any programs, the directions to do so are inside the resource files themselves (so you’ll have to use ResEdit or something similar to see them, and since you need to work with resources anyway, this all works out peachy in the end). One more thing: if you attempt to install an icon in an application, you may get an alert box saying something like “This resource is compressed ; if you replace it, the copy will not be compressed.” There won’t be any problem if you decide to replace it, but the file’s total size will increase by a few K for every compressed icon you replace. You decide ; IS IT WORTH IT ? There is a compression utility called More Disk Space that uses Apple’s resource compression technology, so if you have access to that there’s no problem.
Also, make sure that you check something after you’ve installed icons into a file (ESPECIALLY a file that didn’t have icons before, such as an extension). Use ResEdit’s “Get Info for xxxxx” command in the File menu, and you’ll see a series of checkboxes at the bottom of the info window. Make sure that the checkbox for “Inited” has been checked, that the box for “Has custom icon” is NOT checked (this box is only for Finder icons, NOT icons you install with ResEdit), and, depending on whether or not your file has a “BNDL” resource, check the box that says “Has BNDL” appropriately. Speaking of “BNDL” checkboxes (also known as bundle bits), if you run Norton Utilities or a similar program which is capable of checking an applications “BNDL” resources, you may get an error message along the lines of “The following files have invalid bundle resources. Do you wish for me to fix them ?” or something like that. NO !!!! If you do, you’ll lose the specially formatted “BNDL”'s I’ve included in some files. Make the changes to the applications first, THEN run Norton Utilities to fix the problems.
In any case, that’s about all that there is for Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0. I honestly hope that you enjoy the new icons, and the new format, and I make a sincere apology to those of you who were inconvenienced by the old format. I’ll be taking a little break from icons for a while (at least a month or two). Translating ALL of the icons I had made from a single resource file to individual files has taken several weeks, and I’m sure that my fiancée is ready to commit murder by now. SO, although I will be releasing another Icons ’R’ Us™ in the future, I don’t expect to have another release ready until at LEAST February or March of ’93, and by then we’ll have our my new baby, so I don’t expect that my interest in the Mac will be as high a priority anymore. Also, I’ll be making the next release when I’ve doubled the number of icons I have now, but knowing me that won’t take very long. However, from now on when I make a new icon I will INSTANTLY put it into a resource file, so I don’t have another fiasco like I did this time.
I have an idea that I’d like some input on. I’ve seen one or two icon collections that were distributed as a Scrapbook file. I thought about putting a Scrapbook for 2.0 in the collection, but I assumed that most of you wouldn’t be interested in having to replace your entire Scrapbook file with mine, then switch back-and-forth with yours, etc. (not to mention the extra file size would translate to more downloading time…) I know that there are several Scrapbook replacements (such as NOW™ Scrapbook), that let you keep multiple Scrapbooks ; if this idea gets a large response from people then I will include as many Scrapbook files as are necessary in the next release (remember that an Apple Scrapbook file can hold no more than 256 items per file). I’d also like any input I can get from the public, so if you have any other ideas for I.R.U. then, by all means, feel free to let me know about them. Remember this, though: if don’t leave me E-mail or write I won’t know and therefore won’t do it.
Finally, I’ve made contact with several organizations that have access to a host of different applications, and I’ll be able to get access to the icon resources for many more programs in the near future. However, I can never get access to every resource out there, due to the limited number of hours in the day that we all have to live with. Therefore, if you have a program that you’d like a custom folder icon or custom application/document icons for, or anything you’d like to see as an icon, send it to me on disk and I’ll have it back to you within a week of receiving it. Just make sure to include the return postage on the disk, and everything will be hunky-dory. If you’re not sure as to how to get icon resources, you could always learn a little ResEdit (but of course, if you knew that you’d probably end up figuring out how to make your OWN installable icons). In addition, if anyone out there is involved with sales for a software company (Symantec, Radius, PIXAR, etc.) and you’d like me to design some icons for your products (folders or otherwise), I’d be happy to talk with you about it. Last but not least, I’ve just found out that BMUG will also be carrying Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 in their software libraries (just thought I’d puff up my ego a little there)...............don’t forget to smile and be happy :) !!!!
Michael B. Johnson
P.O. Box 2503
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
AOL: IconsRUs
Internet: iconsrus@aol.com
P.S. I’ve been unable to figure out how to change a file’s resources so that an INIT or cdev will display a color icon during startup when there had only been black and white (or none at all) icons before. I would also like to know how to install the appropriate resources in a desk accessory so that they, too would display installed icons. If anyone out there knows how to do this, please write me as soon as possible. I can include that information in the next release of Icons ’R’ Us™, and anyone that helps will get a nifty little credit in the Read Me (and if no one helps, curses to you all..........).
I’d like to thank my fiancée, Jessica, without whom I would be the ultimate lonely guy ; she’s the one who really keeps me going. Special thanks for Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0 should go out to Chris Del Grande with Apple Customer Support, and my good friend Bryan Bautista, without either of whom I.R.U. 2.0 would have been a lot less classy (and probably a lot less useful, too). Most of all, though, I’d like to thank the individual authors of the icons I altered to include with Icons ’R’ Us™ 2.0. These are the REAL artists — not some pinhead like me who likes to play around a lot.
America Online is my on-line service of choice, for many reasons (not the least of which are the chat features, large freeware/shareware libraries, true Mac interface, and mail features). If you'd like to get a free starter kit (including the necessary software and free on-line time), call (800) 827-6364. As of this writing, version 2.0.1 is out, complete with multi-file downloading and Internet access. The service has a $5.95 monthly fee, with connect fees ranging from $5.00 per hour (6 PM-6 AM) to $10.00 per hour (6 AM-6 PM) Monday through Friday (weekend access is always $5.00 per hour); you dial a local number to gain access to the system, and remember that a cross-country hour of long distance late-nite would probably run anywhere from $6.00-$8.00 an hour for voice-only, so this service is a pretty good bargain !!!
Recommended reading:
“Zen and the Art of Resource Editing: The BMUG Guide to ResEdit, Third Edition”
Artwork in this Read Me was captured as PICT files with Apple’s screenshot FKEY (Command-Shift-3) in System 7.1, and was subsequently edited with Adobe Photo- shop® 2.0.1.
