Associating Application Icons with Files

Hi, Kirk -

One thing to try is to rebuild the desktop -

The Apple recommended way: Article #10182 - Rebuilding Desktop File and Icon Recovery

The way I do it: Restart - immediately hold down the Shift key until you get the "Extensions Off" message; then release Shift and hold down the Command and Option keys until you get the splash screen asking if you want to rebuild the desktop; click yes (or okay). Once that's done, restart to turn your extensions back on.

Hi, Kirk -

The KB wasn't clear about how to save the extensions - all I could see is an option to save as text.

If you are referring to this paragraph in KB Article #10182 -

"1. Before you rebuild the Desktop file, use the Extensions Manager to save a record of the extensions that are turned on. To do this, open the Extensions Manager control panel. Then choose Save Set from the Sets pop-up menu. When the Save Set dialog box opens, type a name for the selected extensions such as "My Extensions". When you close the dialog box, the name of your set is added to the Sets pop-up menu."

- that description is a bit incorrect when it comes to using Extensions Manager in at least OS 9.1 and later.

In OS 9.1 and later, extension sets are saved automatically whenever you close Extensions Manager. You can create a text file of what items are present, enabled, and disabled by selecting the Save Set as Text item in the File menu; this is just a record, a list that can be used for reference - it can be handy to have that, such as when solving for an extensions conflict.

The article is telling you to create a new extension set, one that can be saved just for rebulding the desktop file. To do that in OS 9.1 and later, in Extensions Manager click the Duplicate Set button; name the new set something appropriate, okay that window. Back in Extensions Manager, make sure the new set is shown in the Selected Set pulldown menu. Then turn all items off, and enable any specific items you want just for that set - such as the File Exchange control panel.

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Another trick that might work to get the icons on all the pdf files to be correct -

Put all of them into a single folder. Then duplicate that folder via Command-D (Duplicate in File menu), or by holding down the Option key and dragging the folder to a new location. With luck, the icons will be fixed in the new folder.

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By chance did you transport these files to your Mac using media that was not formatted as a Mac volume?

Hi, Kirk -

OS 9 uses embedded File Type and Creator codes in order for Finder to know how to handle a file when it is double-clicked, and to know what icon to use for it. OSX does not use those codes; it may be that they are not being added to the file until the file has been opened by the program.

There are some utilities available which can be used to change those codes, and may be able to fix those files. The one I'd recommend is FileBuddy.

With FileBuddy you can create a droplet, a small mini-app designed to change file characteristics in a specified way - you can then drop a folder full of files onto the droplet, and all files in the folder will be changed to match the settings in the droplet.

To use FileBuddy for that, you will first need to acquire the correct File Type and Creator codes. Drop a 'good' file, one with the correct icon, onto FileBuddy's icon. FB's Get Info window will open. At the bottom center of that window will be a couple of data blocks containing the File Type and Creator codes for that file. Write those codes down - note that all File Type and Creator codes are exactly four characters in length, and may contain numbers and special characters (such as a space) in addition to letters; and that the characters are case sensitive (upper and lower case are important). Close that window.

Now drop one of the generic files of the same kind onto FileBuddy. In FB's Get Info window, change the File Type and Creator codes to match the ones you copied previously. Once you have done so, the droplet button should become active - it's the leftmost of the row of samll icons near the top of the Get Info window. Click it, name the droplet something appropriate, and complete the creation of the droplet.

Then test it with a copy of one of the generic files. If it works okay, you can then drop an entire folder of such files onto the droplet for mass fixing.

Be sure you do not have a stray other-kind of file in that folder, because all files in the folder will be changed to match the settings in the droplet.

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For future importation of files, try adjusting the file/program linkages in the File Exchange control panel, particularly those in the PC Exchange section; and the similar settings in the Internet control panel (Advanced tab > File Mappings). I'm not sure which of those settings will be used by the OS when files are brought in by TCP/IP.

For what you're doing, FileBuddy should be invaluable. I migrate files to my OS9 PB3400 almost daily, and there seems to be little rhyme or reason to their arrival state. Some show w/ 'proper' icons, others as generics that open fine when double-clicked and pick up the appropriate icon when closed, others that evoke the "no translator available/pick an app" dialogue in spite of originating in the OS X version of an app on the PB. Supposedly similar files from a single folder may show a mix of the above. Clippings are particularly annoying as OS X assigns them a 'system-use-only' creator OS9 is 'forbidden' to open.

FileBuddy fixes them all. My Incoming Folder's full of FB droplets to do what the two Mac OSs can't seem to.