PC Icon Customization Tools Download
In Windows, all the shortcuts you create for a text document look the same ( like a small notebook); all the shortcuts you create for a folder look the same (like a yellow folder), and all the shortcuts you create for a drive look the same (like a gray box).
This evening I got sick of not being able to figure out what folder, drive, or text document is represented by a shortcut in my quicklaunch bar (Windows XP), until I had hovered over the shortcut, with the mouse (the hovering produces a popup window showing the title of the shortcut). I felt tired of hovering the mouse over the wrong shortcut, and then hovering it over the correct shortcut before clicking the shortcut.
I got sick of the fatigue generated in my eyes and in my hand, as a result of not being able to quickly find the needed shortcut.
I got sick of, having to endure delay and fatigue of mind, eye and hand at times when I was feeling inspired and in a rush.
Irrational as it may seem, I (and also I assume millions of others) are prone to avoid a task simply because searching for the correct icon requires a few seconds of boring tiring work with the mind, eye, and hand.
I felt the customized icons for folders had to look like the default folder icons, and same for the drive and text icons. Because my mind has become used to the default icons and things can get to weird.
So I created templates (.png format) to use for creating icons representing shortcuts (see links below to download).
These templates are composed of an image of a default Windows icon for text files, folders, or drives on the left, and a blank space on the right.
If I simply: open the template in MS Paint (ubiquitous free software...it's not what you got it's how you use it); type two letters in the empty space at the right; move the two letters to the left to super-impose them on the image of the icon, and then using Image-attributes reduce the width of the image to be the same as the height-- Presto, I have a .png format customized image of an icon, featuring the customised text superimposed on the default icon.
All that remains is to transform the .png format image into a .ico format image. This is accomplished easily by simply going to:
ConvertICO.org - Create Windows Icons From Images In PNG, JPG, GIF & BMP Format, Favicon.ico Generator , uploading the image and downloading the conversion to .ICO format.
Now that I have the .ico format image, by right-clicking on a shortcut and then clicking properties it becomes easy for me to replace the default icon with my custom-built .ico format icon, which I made from my .png format icon, by changing the format using convertico.org.
As I worked on this, I was wondering: is it really worth it?
Supposing: I waste 3 seconds every time I search for a shortcut icon; and, this searching for the correct shortcut occurs 7 times a day.
Then I'm wasting 128 minutes a year, 2.1 hours a year, just trying to find the right icon. Over the course of 10 years, that comes to 21 hours of such eye, mind, and hand-fatiguing fumbling around.
On the debit side it took me only 3 hours to learn about and produce and apply 7 icons.
Global Implications
There are now 1.3 billion PC users world-wide http://gamesauce.org/news/2013/02/26/jessica-sachs-of-big-fish-1-4-billion-pc-users-worldwide-makes-viable-market-casual-connect-video/ . If they were all to save 21 hours of mind-numbing searching for the right icon over the next 10 years, they would save 27.3 billion hours of time. Valuing their time at $15 an hour, that's 409 billion dollars.
This would be balanced out by them having to invest an hour in icon production and application. If they worked with what I am providing here, they would not have to invest 3 hours to produce 7 icons like I had to, because most of the work would already be done for them, by me.
Download the templates:
Text File Icon Template (png format)
Folder Icon Template (png format)
Drive Icon Template (png format)
Then after you have customized the template go to the following link to convert the .png file into an .ico file:
ConvertICO.org - Create Windows Icons From Images In PNG, JPG, GIF & BMP Format, Favicon.ico Generator
Investing in Icons more than a Time Input/Output Equation
Seems like me having invested 3 hours of time to save 2 hours of fumbling around, has not been worth it if my life were to end in a year. But now when I look at my PC screen, I feel more competent, relaxed, and happy compared to the way I used to feel when looking at it, because I know exactly where the important icons are going to send me.
I feel like even looking at just the coming year alone, even if I save just 2 hours of time having invested 3 hours in creating the icons and applying them, I've come out ahead.
Because it's not simply a matter of wasted time. Its also a matter of fatigue avoided. Fatigue that comes at moments when such fatigue slows down the momentum of the accomplishment of the task.
The simple time-invested time-saved formula fails to account for the fact that now that I know exactly which text-file, folder, or drive an icon represents, my behaviour when I use the PC will change, as I will be more likely to, at certain moments, look for and click on a given icon-- which could result in productivity increases per hour, and improved quality of work.
I find myself at the PC at hours when feeling especially inspired motivated and energetic, compared to how I usually feel. The last thing I need at such times, is to waste time and become fatigued, trying to find the shortcut I want to click on.
It's a downer, it would not be as bad if I were feeling simply humdrum.
The distraction of having to search for the shortcut can disrupt the train of thought, result being something in the mind is forgotten, or a thought that would come to the mind as a result of the continuation of the train of thought never enters the train of thought.
This evening I got sick of not being able to figure out what folder, drive, or text document is represented by a shortcut in my quicklaunch bar (Windows XP), until I had hovered over the shortcut, with the mouse (the hovering produces a popup window showing the title of the shortcut). I felt tired of hovering the mouse over the wrong shortcut, and then hovering it over the correct shortcut before clicking the shortcut.
I got sick of the fatigue generated in my eyes and in my hand, as a result of not being able to quickly find the needed shortcut.
I got sick of, having to endure delay and fatigue of mind, eye and hand at times when I was feeling inspired and in a rush.
Irrational as it may seem, I (and also I assume millions of others) are prone to avoid a task simply because searching for the correct icon requires a few seconds of boring tiring work with the mind, eye, and hand.
I felt the customized icons for folders had to look like the default folder icons, and same for the drive and text icons. Because my mind has become used to the default icons and things can get to weird.
So I created templates (.png format) to use for creating icons representing shortcuts (see links below to download).
These templates are composed of an image of a default Windows icon for text files, folders, or drives on the left, and a blank space on the right.
If I simply: open the template in MS Paint (ubiquitous free software...it's not what you got it's how you use it); type two letters in the empty space at the right; move the two letters to the left to super-impose them on the image of the icon, and then using Image-attributes reduce the width of the image to be the same as the height-- Presto, I have a .png format customized image of an icon, featuring the customised text superimposed on the default icon.
All that remains is to transform the .png format image into a .ico format image. This is accomplished easily by simply going to:
ConvertICO.org - Create Windows Icons From Images In PNG, JPG, GIF & BMP Format, Favicon.ico Generator , uploading the image and downloading the conversion to .ICO format.
Now that I have the .ico format image, by right-clicking on a shortcut and then clicking properties it becomes easy for me to replace the default icon with my custom-built .ico format icon, which I made from my .png format icon, by changing the format using convertico.org.
As I worked on this, I was wondering: is it really worth it?
Supposing: I waste 3 seconds every time I search for a shortcut icon; and, this searching for the correct shortcut occurs 7 times a day.
Then I'm wasting 128 minutes a year, 2.1 hours a year, just trying to find the right icon. Over the course of 10 years, that comes to 21 hours of such eye, mind, and hand-fatiguing fumbling around.
On the debit side it took me only 3 hours to learn about and produce and apply 7 icons.
Global Implications
There are now 1.3 billion PC users world-wide http://gamesauce.org/news/2013/02/26/jessica-sachs-of-big-fish-1-4-billion-pc-users-worldwide-makes-viable-market-casual-connect-video/ . If they were all to save 21 hours of mind-numbing searching for the right icon over the next 10 years, they would save 27.3 billion hours of time. Valuing their time at $15 an hour, that's 409 billion dollars.
This would be balanced out by them having to invest an hour in icon production and application. If they worked with what I am providing here, they would not have to invest 3 hours to produce 7 icons like I had to, because most of the work would already be done for them, by me.
Download the templates:
Text File Icon Template (png format)
Folder Icon Template (png format)
Drive Icon Template (png format)
Then after you have customized the template go to the following link to convert the .png file into an .ico file:
ConvertICO.org - Create Windows Icons From Images In PNG, JPG, GIF & BMP Format, Favicon.ico Generator
Investing in Icons more than a Time Input/Output Equation
Seems like me having invested 3 hours of time to save 2 hours of fumbling around, has not been worth it if my life were to end in a year. But now when I look at my PC screen, I feel more competent, relaxed, and happy compared to the way I used to feel when looking at it, because I know exactly where the important icons are going to send me.
I feel like even looking at just the coming year alone, even if I save just 2 hours of time having invested 3 hours in creating the icons and applying them, I've come out ahead.
Because it's not simply a matter of wasted time. Its also a matter of fatigue avoided. Fatigue that comes at moments when such fatigue slows down the momentum of the accomplishment of the task.
The simple time-invested time-saved formula fails to account for the fact that now that I know exactly which text-file, folder, or drive an icon represents, my behaviour when I use the PC will change, as I will be more likely to, at certain moments, look for and click on a given icon-- which could result in productivity increases per hour, and improved quality of work.
I find myself at the PC at hours when feeling especially inspired motivated and energetic, compared to how I usually feel. The last thing I need at such times, is to waste time and become fatigued, trying to find the shortcut I want to click on.
It's a downer, it would not be as bad if I were feeling simply humdrum.
The distraction of having to search for the shortcut can disrupt the train of thought, result being something in the mind is forgotten, or a thought that would come to the mind as a result of the continuation of the train of thought never enters the train of thought.
posted by David Virgil at 5:06 AM
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