Thank You!

Have you exposed an API so that applications running on the Mac will know that SS is installed and what the active theme is, and get notified of updates to the theme at run-time? This would be useful so that apps that have to "roll their own" widgets could adapt, just in the same way that they now can adapt to changes between Blue and Graphite.

So ... how do I go back to the Aqua interface?

Also, the "Apply Selected" is misleading... bullet select or highlight select.

Hadn't really thought about an API. ShapeShifter won't change themes within running apps, only in newly launched ones, so it's not really an issue at this point.

Oh, and you can revert to Aqua by disabling ShapeShifter in the leftmost tab pane. Newly launched apps will be Aqua.

Fabulous work. This looks like it may very well be the Kaleidoscope for OSX. I am eager to see how themers will use it to its full abilities.

ShapeShifter looks great. I'd really like to try it, but stability is *the* reason I "switched" last year.

How does SS work? I'd like to see a technical description of how you're managing to change the UI elements *without* screwing with System files. It seems pretty much impossible to me!

I'll see how people are liking it in a week, and maybe give it a crack. I've been desparate to change my Apple logo in the top-left to a Classic logo :D

"Your Mac's Gonna Get A Lot Prettier."

Oh, I don't know about that, given what I've seen of theme design. The designers you have on board are certainly top notch, but once the masses start doing themes, well, remember Kaleidoscope? ;)

Love the idea, and it may get me to run some themes again!

I'm nervous. How's it gonna screw up my computer?

Is there alist of themes that work with SS?
I see the URLS but the themes seem to say use only with ThemeChanger. Do the themes that work with ThemeChanger work with SS?

Request: Checking for updated themes via an online database a la Safaricon's feature.

It's kinda funny to see people's reaction. It proves that people don't read instructions. One person noted the inability to use aqua restore with SS. Uh, hello? It doesn't tamper with the .rsrc file of the Finder. The ability to use alternate text colours, differently-shaped windows and widgets. Kaleidoscope OS X has arrived.

I think Max's new theme was meant to show off the enhanced ability to change the items mentioned above. Not the prettiest (in some people's opinion), but get the image across that ANYTHING seems possible now.

why the hoopla? there have been a bunch of other theme changing apps available for X's entire lifespan - why should I care about this one? Especially since most unsanity hacks have only easten my system alive? What makes this different?

kcjones - You need to read more carefully - the poster asking about Aqua restore wants to remove EXISTING themes from his system BEFORE installing ShapeShifter (great name, BTW).

WOW. Jason, I demand that you get some sleep NOW. ;-) I can't wait to try it out (not at home @ the moment), it looks very impressive so far. Now, I know that you've currently torched the brushed texture (MacNN Forums), but in the future, how would such GUIkits be able to reskin certain hard-coded apps? Using something similar to Max's and the late Rene's iFix?

Another thing that someone mentioned: could APE mini-extensions be embedded in each GUIkit to do such things as replace the rasterized brushed metal buttons in iChat, for example? Or, going off of (collective Unsanity) your Silk APE, include custom font specifications? I really think that at this point, separation between the APEs that currently exist shouldn't have to be so. Example: A theme in the near future that contains "iFixes" for the iApps, replacement APE extensions for the "hard-coded" metal buttons (or, now that i think of it, maybe even the smileys and swirl buttons) in iChat and such, icons (as mentioned previously by someone on board ShapeShifter, maybe Swiz), custom font colors ALONG with custom fonts (a la Silk "Lite"), either built in or even embedded into the GUIkit, and finally, mouse cursors (a la Mighty Mouse "Lite"). That would blow me away, along with a bunch of other people, I'm sure. I mentioned the "Lite" because I think It'd be too much for both you guys, the developers, to just have Mighty Mouse and Silk "listen" to ShapeShifter (I hope I'm wrong), but I also think that the line needs to be drawn at some point...$20 is a lot of money for such an amazing haxie, but if you guys want to keep the theming evolution going, you will possibly have to make some sacrafices.

Also, when one pays for ShapeShifter, oh, say, tomorrow (I'll try ;-) ), are the subsequent updates that have already been mentioned and planned going to be free? Will ShapeShifter be free for "life"? Some clarification would be good in this area.

Keep up the great work Jason, and everyone else at Unsanity.

I can't believe so many people here don't understand how to read.

This program rocks. It is stable. It fools programs into loading their resource file from a non-system location. No system file replacement. No Aqua restores. Just try it before you whine. Unbelievable.

Yeah. Gee, thanks for putting a nail in the coffin of open source theming. All the best designers are not building themes that only work with SS. Thanks a whole lot. I lost a lot of respect for unsanity today.

Okay - this kicks ass. I registered within about 10 minutes of downloading the thing (which is beginning to become a habit with you guys lol).

One slight bug - third party menulets (not menu extras, but apps like Synergy, Konfabulator and WeatherMenu) are showing up with their menu bar icons shadowed (exact same problem as in the recent beta of WSX).

Otherwise, however, Shapeshifter rocks :)

Abe - it's really this simple:

1. You can continue to use all the themes you used to use, via ThemeSwitcher (or the theme-app of your choice). Those themes didn't just suddenly up and disappear from your computer, nor did they disappear from the net

2. SS works with non-guikit themes as well.

3. A well-known, well-trusted company like Unsanity developing an easy-to-use, safe app for applying themes is JUST what OS X needed. The comparison has been made before, and it will be made again - this is the Kaleidoscope of the OS X-era. Kaleidoscope, lest you forget, was also a shareware app.

4. No one's making you switch over. Be happy about the new advance - or be quiet. It's quite simple.

Now, to Unsanity - what will happen when the trial period wears out? I think it'd be best if it just reverted to the inability to use GuiKit themes. As in - ThemeChanger emulation, if you will. This way, those who want to just apply the same old humdrum themes of yesterday can still do so (without harming anything), but those who want "something extra" can pay for it.

I remember sending you an e-mail about 6 months ago, suggesting this exact app. In my own self-important mind, I feel somewhat responsible, but I doubt I was anywhere NEAR the only one who sent a request similar to this. Still.. thanks for listening to the Mac community as a whole.

Well, that's my point exactly. The great Unsanity comes down scoops up the best theme designers, which kills Themechanger. These desigers are only making guikits, not dlta themes anymore. So, basically Unsanity, along with the theme designers, is forcing us to pay $20 if we want to continue theming.

For crying out loud... it's a measely $20, not $2000. Give it up - their software is top-notch, and they deserve the money! It's not like it's a must-have app either, so you can do without. And if you have to have it, then it must be worth something to you. If you can't afford the little $20, use the free alternatives and hope it continues to work until you get a freaking job!

; )

-mono

I am employed. And $20 is not the point. Its the principle of the matter. Another software company stifling open source development. I'm done with this. I own licenses for most Unsanity software, but no more will they get my money. Let me just hope SS goes South.

Abe, shove it where the sun don't shine....

Abe, stop being such a child in terms of what you think. If open source had made an APE modual to do this 2 years ago like was suggested, Unsanity would never have had to design this.

WOW! It seems Open Source is quickly becoming Open Sores. The premise of Open Source was to allow others to exponentially expand one another knowledge base and from there authors can decide what to do with their knowledge. Unsanity chose to band together a team and bring the Mac World software of benefit. They did not choose to do it for free, but instead continue to give us excellent software at very reasonable prices. Nowhere is it mandated that the utilization of Open Source and its offspring be completely free. My support remains with Unsanity and Shape Shifter works for me.

Abe - you just convinced me to register. Kill open source themes! Yes! Eliminate the chance that installing this theme will kill my computer. Yes! Make it safe to try out 4 or 5 themes in a day without worry. Yes!

Abe - you may be named for Lincoln but you sound a lot more like his nagging wife.

Abe is just another one of the slower ones who thinks that "open source" and "I don't have to pay for what I get" are the same thing. He *wants* ShapeShifter, but doesn't want to pay for it, hence the religious rant.

If a platform (read: ShapeShifter) is superior, then people will create for it. If it is not, then it will wither and die.

Personally, I couldn't care less about ideology... I want to do things the best way I can. If ShapeShifter is it, more power to Unsanity.

GOOD WORK! I've already registered it.

All the rants about it are silly, it's just people are too cheap. It's well worth $20.

Abe wrote "The great Unsanity comes down scoops up the best theme designers".

Umm, Unsanity is not Microsoft. They are not holding a virtual gun to any designer's head, coercing them into exclusive deals.

Are they?

Dope as hell. Pretty much flawless, best themer ever.

I wonder if Abe really understands what Open Source is?

Vendors can -use- Open Source in their apps, all they have to do is release the Source of what they used so that others can benefit from their bugfixes.

Parts of, or the whole of an application can be derived from Open Source. The fact of the matter is that vendors LIKE Unsanity give back to the community.

You lucky fools out there are bringing this page up on Safari, a browser that would not exist were it not for Open Source (KHTML). Apple uses KHTML in WebKit and checks fixes back into the project, and the community benefits as a whole. And, in order to get version 1.1, you -did- buy Panther, right?

Sheesh. There is no free lunch. If people don't make enough to eat, they -CAN'T- give back. If you graduated college, then you learned about Maslow and his 'Hierarchy of Needs'.

All I have to say is i worry about my friend who makes Duality. I just hope you help him out or something...

Just tripped over an application that doesn't get along with ShapeShifter *at all*... namely the port of FrozenBubble.

This is written with libSDL, which might have something to do with it, I dunno. The game does "interesting" transparency effects until you exclude it, but once you exclude it, you're fine.

I wish ShapeShifter would allow you to only apply *part* of a theming to an application. Having traffic-light buttons on one app and decent blue gumdrops on everything else is a little jarring. :)

I've noticed similar problems with semi-transparent widgets in Konfabulator with ShapeShifter enabled. Once I excluded Konfabulator, everything worked fine. ShapeShifter seemed to be displaying a "ghost" image of the original contents of the window as I changed the month in the Calendar widget.

I'd also like the option of turning off parts of a theme, for instance I'd like to have menus themed but not windows when I'm running Konfabulator. For other apps, I'd like the menubar and window dressing enabled, but not the controls in the application (this might solve some of the problems people have been having with Adobe & Macromedia applications, for example). Just a thought...

:)

YOU ARE THE BEST!

This is THE best Theme Changer I've seen! It's so much SAFER and you can finally have multiple users use different Themes! This is the app OS X was built for!

Wow.. I am gonna register this puppy ASAP! I was gonna wait till more Themers got on board, then I saw how many you already had and fell in love with Aluminum Alloy it is the coolest Theme and the one I've wanted forever.

Wow.. I love you guys. It's so many surprises. Wow..

First Windowshades, then Labels, now Theming the way it SHOULD be. This is the coolest.

Thank you guys so much!

This Aluminum looks so sweet! Safari looks especially good in it. If I could just get iTunes to look like that. Think you guys could get working on apps like iTunes and QuickTime to work with this?

Hi.. I tried Shapeshifter today. Nothing happens I select a theme ut the "Apply Theme" button is never highlighted.
What is wrong. I'm running 10.3.1 and I've repaired permissions. Any Ideas?

For some reason, all of my metal windows (except half of Safari) have lost their metal texture.

Is this a known bug?

Kymermosst, the metal window problem is fixed in ShapeShifter 1.0.1, available from the usual place

Man, $20 just to see pretty desktop themes? Dude, I'd rather spend another $20 and get a cool game to play on my Macbook Pro. Man, how sickening.