Change the Dock icon and Message Flag in AOL Instant Messenger.

AOL's Instant Messenger for MacOS X is a great little program. While the default icon and isn't bad, I prefer Rick Roe's AIM icon from his first set of Spiffy Apps. You can download them from icons.cx. As with most things in MacOS X, changing the icon on an application that interacts with the dock requires a little work, but when we are finished, you'll be able to change the icon and the dock flag.

My tool of choice for icon editing is Iconographer 2.2. Unfortunately in AIM, there is one corrupt icon resource that prevents Iconographer from opening the file, so first we need to delete the offending resource.

AOL Instant Messenger for MacOS X is a .app. It may look like a regular Classic application, but it's really a special folder containing not just the application, but a bunch of support files. To gain access to the package, Control-Click on the icon to bring up the contextual menu. Select "Show Package Contents".

Once the Contents folder is open, click your way into the MacOS folder where you will see the "AOL Instant Messenger (SM)" application and the "Libraries" folder.

Open the "AOL Instant Messenger (SM)" application in ResEdit and scroll to the icns resources.

Open them with a double-click. Scroll to ID number 245 and after clicking once to highlight it, delete the ID. Save your work and quit ResEdit.

Open this same "AOL Instant Messenger (SM)" application in Iconographer and let's look at the icons on which we will be working.

Once you receive a message, AIM displays the 128x128 icon number 230 in the dock.

The flashing balloon that reads "IM" is stored as a series of icons in ID numbers 240-244. In the image below, I have already pasted in my replacements which you can download if you wish.

In my example, I am replacing the original AIM icon with an icon.cx Spiffy App. Open the Spiffy AIM icon in Iconographer and from the ICON menu select INFO. Change the icon's ID number to 230.

From the FILE menu select SAVE INTO FILE and navigate the dialog window until you can save into the "AOL Instant Messenger (SM)" application. When prompted, select YES to replace the existing icon.

For some reason, icon 230 is used by AIM only after you have received an IM. In order to change the regular AIM icon, we need to save our Spiffy AIM icon into one more location.

Once again open the Spiffy AIM icon in Iconographer and from the ICON menu select INFO. This time change the icon's ID number to -16455 and be certain the icon format is MacOS X (.icns file).

From the FILE menu select SAVE AS and navigate to the AOL Instant Messenger (SM)--> Contents--> Resources folder and save the icon with the name app.icns. Click YES to replace the original. Save your work and quit Iconographer.

At his point, you have given AIM the new icon which will display whether or not the application is running in the dock or folder.

If you wish to install my dock message flag, download the icons and after unstuffing them, open the file in ResEdit. Click once on the icns icon and copy the resources to the Clipboard. Open the "AOL Instant Messenger (SM)" application in ResEdit and past the icons from the Clipboard. Answer YES to replace existing resources. Remember to open the AIM application that is inside the AIM Package. Save you work and quit ResEdit.

Launch AIM to see your new bouncing, flashing icon in the dock!