Folder Icon Colors

Is it possible to change to colors of the folder icons?

I can control the color of the group label/title attached to a folder, but not the folder icons themselves (my preference over the names).

Why are some yellow and some blue?

Thanks in advance.
Deb

Yellow groups have tagging enabled, blue groups do not. If you have not done so already, I’d recommend watching the DEVONthink Welcome video (Help Menu>Support Assistant, click on ‘Welcome’.

The video is about 7 minutes and covers a lot of topics very quickly, but it is a very nice overview. Tags and group colors are discussed about 4 minutes into the video.

Thanks, Greg.

So do I conclude the answer is no?

For the default folder icons, Greg’s answer is what happens. You can, however, change the folder icon colors by changing the icons. Over here, I use custom icons throughout my databases. To do this, select a group and open Tools > Show Info. Click the icon so that it’s highlighted, and paste whatever icon you want.

Where do you get the icons? There are numerous icons on most Macs, icon managers like Candy Bar, lots of free icons available for download on the Internet, etc. Just to test it out, open Applications on your computer in Finder, click on a application whose icon you like, and File > Get Info (in Finder). Click the icon there, copy it (cmd-C), go to the Info window for your group in DEVONthink, click the icon there, and paste (cmd-V). Voilà! The pasted icon is now the icon for your DEVONthink group.

Another use for this is to change the icon of a DEVONthink database in finder (the procedure is the same, except you are both copying and pasting from one Info panel to another), and that icon will now show up in DEVONthink in the database list. I distinguish between types of databases by changing their icons in Finder.

You can also apply labels to folders, which would give you a total of 7 additional color combinations. However, these folder labels will then show in your search results if you search or filter on labels.

Anyone know how to change the icons back to the default? I’ve changed a few I don’t like or accidentally but can’t seem to figure out how to either copy a default icon (command-C doesn’t seem to copy the default icon) or where the default icon lives in the finder so I can copy and paste it into the group icon I want to change. Thoughts?

Select the icon in Tools > Show Info and press the delete key. The custom icon is removed, and the default is revealed. (BTW, icons set using Get Info in Finder work the same way.)

Brilliant. Thanks.

I’m resurrecting this topic because I recently changed the default OS folder icon. Initially, and for the last couple of weeks, the change was reflected in all my DTPO databases. The default icon in my databases was changed from blue to aluminium. Now, having restarted my Macbook Pro for what I think is the first time since I made the change, the folder icons have all been replaced by a blank page icon, with the top right corner folded over.

Unfortunately, this has happened OS-wide, and I’m struggling to find a solution. My attempts to change the default folder icon in /System/Library/CoreServices have not bee successful. I know this is not strictly a DTPO problem, as it’s system wide, but thought I might be able to get some good advice here.

I’m using Mavericks, and the latest version of DTPO.

The basic question is what did you do to “change the default OS folder icon” – did you use some utility, or do it manually somehow, etc.?

Korm, thanks for the help. I changed the default folder icon manually after upgrading to Mavericks. I had never changed a default icon before and from what I understand Candybar and similar apps are not Mavericks compatible. While I now have no problem in changing individual folder icons, changing the default icon is not working for me.

What I did before was go to /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/GenericFolderIcon.icns, Show Info, selected the icon then copied and pasted the new icon over it. Worked absolutely fine up until today, and now just about every folder icon on my computer has been changed to the dog-eared blank page. Repeating the procedure outlined above has not worked as a solution.

Actually, IMO, you might do better at the OS X forum at support.apple.com, or a support ticket with Apple, or at the Genius Bar. Changing internals of OS X configuration is never advisable, different controls interact with one another in the OS, and the additional controlling factors for the change you are seeing might be in more than one location. As you pointed out, this is an OS X issue and the effect on DEVONthink is just a by product.

You’re right korm, I’ll seek a solution elsewhere. This will teach me to mess about needlessly! Thanks anyway.

Actually, problem solved by going into Time Machine and restoring CoreTypes.bundle to the CoreServices folder. I’ve reverted to the default Apple folder icon, but that’s fine by me.