Mac 101: Change your desktop picture
Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of posts aimed at novice Mac users and veterans who like the occasional refresher.
Many new Mac owners want to customize their Mac's look and feel. A simple place to begin is the desktop picture. It's easy to change and there are several options, from the images that come with the OS to freebies from the Internet and your own photos. Here's what to do (this post assumes you're using Mac OS X 10.5.x).
Open System Preferences from either the Apple Menu or the Dock and click Desktop & Screen Saver and then the Desktop tab. If you're in a hurry, you can also get there by right-clicking on an unoccupied area of the desktop, and choosing "Change Desktop Background." On the left you'll see several options. Click Apple Images to browse some of the images that shipped with your Mac. To set any as your Desktop picture, simply click it. The Nature, Plants, Black & White and Abstract folders also hold options from Apple. Personally, I like some of the black & whites.
If you've got iPhoto installed, you can browse your albums just as easily. Select the album on the left and click any image on the right to select it. Some of you may maintain your own folder of images. To access it from the Preference Pane, click the "+" and navigate to the photo that contains your images. Finally, you can simply drop an image into the well at the top of the Preference Pane window.
There are additional options at the bottom of the window, like changing the picture at regular intervals and disable the translucent menu bar (my personal favorite). Finally, if your image is too small, you can opt to tile or stretch it.
Now that you know how, go and grab some images. The Iconfactory, Pixlegirl Presents and Mac Desktops are good places to start looking.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
iGO said 1:28PM on 8-06-2009
And one of the slickest Screen Saver's, that is always met with "Wow, that is really cool!", is the iTunes screen saver.
Try it.
Disclaimer: Yes, we know screen savers serve no purpose on modern iMac screens, since they will never suffer from any screen burn in.
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Heimbachae said 2:10PM on 8-06-2009
yea, i changed to that after having the standard aura (or whatever it is) SS for a while. it's bitchin.
seconds said 12:46PM on 8-22-2009
hello i saw your comment i know that is cool right hey you can write me at seconds@gamezonemail.com on yahoo just go toyahoo or anything else and write me
jonvdveen said 1:45PM on 8-06-2009
MacDesktops.com = Meh.
Surely there are less antiquated options out there.
Check out:
http://interfacelift.com
http://mandolux.com
http://jonathanv.com/node/40
(the last link is to my site, where I link to more great wallpaper options)
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Paul is A Chapel said 11:45PM on 8-06-2009
+1 to interfacelift.com
Thomas Maier said 2:20PM on 8-06-2009
wow... changing the desktop wallpaper. what’s next? a switch-on-computer-how-to? #scnr
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gib said 3:02PM on 8-06-2009
"Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of posts aimed at novice Mac users and veterans who like the occasional refresher."
This is a Mac 101 article, jerk.
Anuttam said 2:23PM on 8-06-2009
My problem is that my pic is too big and the desktop is automatically centered. Is there any way I can pick which part of a picture I want to put on my desktop?
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Heimbachae said 3:23PM on 8-06-2009
you don't need to cut it off, just go to your System Prefereces -> Display (settings) and see exactly what resolution your screen is. plug that into a search engine and look for the same picture with the correct resolution. badda bing badda boom, problem solved.
Dave said 11:05PM on 8-13-2009
You should do a post informing the readers on how to click the mouse button.
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Le Big Mac said 3:31PM on 8-06-2009
How do I right-click?
Le Big Mac said 2:40PM on 8-06-2009
Or remind people that "___ 101" is introductory material for people unfamiliar with the Mac.
(what about a "turn off 101 lessons" as you have for iPhone?)
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Tom said 3:22PM on 8-06-2009
This article is very, very basic to say the least. But I guess it's useful for fresh mac users who just bought their mac... 50 seconds ago.
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gib said 3:34PM on 8-06-2009
you mean the Mac users who have yet to discover TÚAW and will never read the "Mac 101" articles?
Greg Coogan said 3:52PM on 8-06-2009
Here is my problem. I love the ability to rotate my iphoto pictures through my desktop. It's like a time machine to see things from the past every few minutes. I have many thousands of pictures on my hard drive. But how does the mac handle this? Well it seems to rebuild the photo file every time I start up, and takes many minutes to do so before my machine boots. That seems unnecessary to me, and is almost bad enough to have me not use the feature. Anybody know how to fix that?
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jsw said 6:42PM on 8-06-2009
I actually subscribe to the InterfaceLIFT RSS feed for appropriately sized desktop images, which is where most of mine are from now.
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Aelver said 8:56AM on 8-07-2009
ElectricSheep ... hands down best screensaver for the Mac.
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scot said 9:03AM on 8-07-2009
And for our flickr-loving friends out there, I recommend installing a sweet little piece of software called Desklickr http://desklickr.isnot.tv/
It turns your desktop into a constantly changing window into your favorite photos from flickr.
Whether through your own photostream, another user's photostream (thomashawk comes to mind), your favorites, or a specific group, all are available to display as your desktop wallpaper.
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AndyJ said 9:22AM on 8-07-2009
I would like a way to take one big wallpaper and span it over two monitors.
There was a Google App project called MultiScape but it appears to have fallen off the planet.
Any ideas folks?
Cheers.
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Chad said 10:30AM on 8-10-2009
I am a big fan of Spacesuit. It allows you to have different background images in each of your spaces.
http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/29876/spacesuit
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