Icon munged, Refuses to change ONLY IN DOCK

[kbeartx]

Background:

Ever since I discovered how ['way back in the days of OS 8/9] I have been collecting custom icons and replacing the standard, same-old icons on apps, HDs, and folders as a way of personalizing my desktop and making it easy to distinguish between the fifteen of twenty or so permanent 'residents' on my desktop.

Along comes the 'new' Mac and Leo, and there are some glitches with this scheme, but only in the Dock - everywhere else in the OS where icons appear, the 'new' icons I set work and look just fine.  And this anomaly is limited to a few folders - many of the custom icons appear fine in the Dock and elsewhere.  At one point, my theory was that there were subtle differences between various sets of custom icons I've collected over the years [that made some sets work 100% and others less so - as if these bits o' bits, being 3rd-party creations, do not all fully adhere to Apple's Rules For Icons], but I have since discarded this explanation b/c I replaced a particularly problematical icon with one that works flawlessly elsewhere, and it misbehaves in exactly the same way when applied to a wonky folder.

Suspecting a corrupt prefs file, which plist is gonna have the Dock data in it?
And when I trash it, what personalizations should I expect to lose and need to re-do?

TIA for knowledge, advice, theories, relevant anecdotes, etc.

KBear

[Xairbusdriver]

I doubt that the actual icons are stored in the Dock's plist. Probably only links to where they actually are in the System files. You might look in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist or "...com.apple.dock.db" or something else all together!

But I suspect he real problem may be the size of the icons or their format. I think since Panther or Tiger, the OS prefers icons to be 64 by 64 pixels. They may actually be ".png" images, also. I've seen/used 'foreign' icons on some apps/folders but I really don't think I've ever tried to put them on the Dock. So I can't speak authoritatively about that use. Nor were they pre-X icons, anyway. Sorry.

I sit corrected, the plist does seem to contain the icons. There are listing for each app/folder and small data areas with ~225 ASCII characters each. I assume they are actually the icons/graphics. They are similar to what sometimes appears in an email instead of the image.

The db file looks more like a desktop database! There are things in there that are nowhere near my Dock! It's an SQL file should you want to examine it ( SQLite format 3 ).

Of course, none of the above actually answers your question, but I enjoyed doing a little searching...

[Gregg]

I was sure there was a discussion of this here not that long ago. I tried to search for it, but came up empty. Maybe someone who contributed useful information to it can find it, or just share it again...

[kbeartx]

GOT IT!

I upgraded to 10.5.4 hoping it might fix this prob, but no joy, so I did some more mucking about: it turned out to be the Dock setting Display as Stack.  Set this way, a folder containing a bunch o' apps will display as a pile of icons one atop another in the dock, regardless of the folder's icon and does not affect the way it looks elsewhere.

Sofar 10.5.4 does not seem at all different and is smooth sailing as far as I kin tell.

 - K

[Gregg]

Some things in my Dock display the "Stack effect" too, but I don't see that option in the Dock preference pane.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

I don't see that option in the Dock preference pane.

That might be because it ain't in there. It's a preference for each folder on the Dock, therefore, each folder has that capability in its menu. Just click and hold the mouse over any folder and you get a fairly large pop up menu of items. One is quaintly named, "Show as: Folder" or "Show as: Stack." it appears that most of yours have "Stack" checked.

[Gregg]

Ah ha! Strangely though, when I switch the Documents to "Folder" instead of "Stack" the contents (nested folders) still pop up on the screen in the same manner.

[Xairbusdriver]

You're right, but have you 'played' with the next group of settings? I have yet to find a "preference setting" destroy a file/document/etc. in any app/OS/etc. Explore the settings and you may discover all kinds of interesting things and even something you like better than the defaults. Personally, I still have very little use for the Dock and especially none for having a folder there. Since I am almost constantly running with a Finder Window open, I find it more accessible to use apps in the windows Toolbar area. However, with a small screen, like my wife's iBook, it seems easier for her to open apps in the Dock. To each his/her own. In any case, explore the OS just like you would any new program! As long as you don't use a "Delete" button, you'll probably be safe!