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Make Control Panels Theme Compliant

If you use a theme other than Apple's Platinum, you may have noticed some of your control panels are not theme savvy, even if you are running Apple's most recent release - MacOS 9.

These instructions, submitted by Jean-Jacques Cortes, allow you to modify most of your control panels to pick up the colors and controls of your favorite theme.

As an example, we will modify Apple's new Monitor control panel.

The picture on the right shows what it looks like before it is theme savvy. Not bad, but it can get better.

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Open a copy of the control panel in ResEdit.

Find the DLOG resources and open them with a double-click.

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If there is more than one ID, the toughest part of the whole process may be finding the correct one.

Look for an ID named "Main", or "App" as in this case. Feel free to open them up to find the correct ID.

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In this example, the main control panel window is ID #1550. Open it with a double-click. By the Color buttons, switch from Custom to Default. (note the picture below). Also make a mental note of the ID number. We will need it in a second. You can now close the DLOG windows.

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OK! One second is up.

From the Resource menu, select Create New Resource (Command-K).

In the dialog window that appears, type dlgx and hit OK.

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Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, and check the last four radio buttons as shown below.

From the Resource menu, select Get Resource Info. Change the ID number to match the DLOG ID you edited earlier.

To recap:

You opened the DLOG and changed the main window from Custom to Default.

You created a dlgx resource, checked the last four radio buttons, and gave it the same ID as the DLOG.

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Once you are finished, save your work and quit ResEdit.

The new control panel is ready to use right away.

Doesn't that look much better!

To find more Appearance Themes, visit the Allegro Themes Project.