14 DAY TRIAL // We all love the Mac and how it looks, but after a time you get bored or tired of the Aqua and Brushed Metal, and feel the need to do something mad and impetuous like making everything pink.
OS X is not much help when it comes to this, giving you the option between "blue" and "graphite" appearances. Here is where ShapeShifter comes in.
ShapeShifter allows you to do just this. It changes everything from menus to applications, buttons and windows... absolutely everything.
One stop theme solution After first installing ShapeShifter, it took me to its preference pane where I faced a huge disappointment. It comes with no pre-installed Themes. Past experiences with other similar programs have left me less than eager to try and browse theme sites and discern what the theme 'might' look like from 100x100 preview images.
I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked on the "Download" tab. The big, clear picture showing a very relevant window toolbar and finder menu, totally transfigured by the theme. And the way the Read-Me and download buttons were seamlessly integrated into that image made me realize that this not just another run-of-the-mill theme program.
Different system version? What different system version? The skins I was previewing looked very good and I immediately clicked on the download button. At this point I must say that some of these themes are huge.
After the first theme was downloaded I went back to the "Apply" tab. After selecting the theme and clicking "Apply Changes" I was presented with a warning message that the theme I wanted to install was not made for the version of Mac OS X I was using.
Guess in the excitement I had forgotten to read the ReadMe. Fortunately enough, ShapeShifter told me that it could try to make it work but that it would need to talk to the server. I let it talk to the server and, a few seconds later, it had done whatever it is it needed to do and I was enjoying my new theme.
I proceeded to hoard more themes, and this time I looked at the ReadMe. The actual ReadMe for each theme is actually situated somewhere on the web so I was constantly switching back and forth which was a bit annoying after ten or so themes. If it downloads those preview files, why not download a plain text ReadMe with them?
Add icons and the ability to tweak and then mix The next themes I grabbed contained both icons and desktop pictures and I played around with these as well. Some of the better themes have complete system icon replacements and they are simply gorgeous. At this point I noticed the tweak button which, due to its placement, had eluded me so far.
Pressing it launches another application called "guiTweak" with which you can play with to customize a theme even more. There are heaps of filters you can apply, and they behave differently than the filters you can find in image editing applications. Fiddling with them all and trying to figure out how they work would have taken me too much time, but they are there and can be used at your discretion.
A huge collection of themes, icons and desktop pics to choose from At this point i was curious to see how many themes there were out there so I went back to the "Download" tab and clicked on the button. The page it directed my browser to contained links to other sites, of which one caught my eye. Iconfactory is well known for their extensive collection of great icons. It said there that certain Candybar iContainers, the kind with the "red lid", are compatible with ShapeShifter. There are heaps of great iContainers out there, and being able to use them in ShapeShifter is great. Just download any iContainer, uncompress it and import it.
The only trouble I had with ShapeShifter was having to relaunch some programs for the themes to take full effect; however, I am sure there are programs out there that will not work with it.
In case you have such a program that conflicts with ShapeShifter, or one that you do not want to be themed, you can add it to the exclude list and it will stay the way it was. Nice and clean.
The Good ShapeShifter gives you access to mouth-watering themes, icons and desktop pictures with just a few easy clicks. It supports a wide range of other improvements such as cursors and iContainers, and it's quite cheap.
The Bad The theme browsing interface could use a little improving. If you browse the themes and then the icons and then decide you want to change the desktop pic, it will also change the theme and icons to the ones that were selected which can be a pain. Other than that, it's great.
The Truth A great program for changing the looks of your Mac. It has heaps of themes and icons, it's very easy to use and very affordable. If you ever feel the need for change, think ShapeShifter.
Here are some grabs of ShapeShifter, click to enlarge:
