What happened to my red pdf icon

R

ron45

Registered
Running 10.5.8 on the last motorola 2 gigahertz puter. The finder has stopped displaying the pdf file icon on the desktop. I have several pdf files on the desktop and a few days ago it displayed them the old way for about a half second then redrew the desk out the red color on those files. Can anyone help get my red back?

Ron
 
Can you be more specific about the appearance of icon you're seeing now for those files? Is there a magnifying glass?
 
earthsaver said:
Can you be more specific about the appearance of icon you're seeing now for those files? Is there a magnifying glass?
Click to expand...

most of the pages on the desktop appear like.... pages with some text on them. pdf files always had a red color showing the pdf or adobe icon.

Ron
 
That sounds like those pdf files are simply indicating that the default application is not an Adobe app, but is Preview (Apple's app)
You should be able to easily change the icon that is displayed by selecting one of those files, and Command-I (Get Info). Click the Open With drop down, which will show a list of available apps that can open a PDF file. It's probably set as Preview (or maybe something else, but preview shows a more generic icon.) Choose Adobe Reader, or something else Adobe that shows in that list, and the icon for that file will probably change within a second or two. If you want ALL PDF files to show that same icon, then click the Change All... button.
 
That is something I forgot about and I bet you are right. It's probably being opened by preview. Well I may need to restart. I changed to adobe reader and it opens as a .pdf file in the normal window but it still doesn't look like a pdf file on the desktop. Hoping the restart may set it right. Thanks very much for the help.

Ron
 
Last edited:
When I restarted the puter the icons looked like nomal pdf. files for about half a second then they reverted to black and white yuk-ness. Com. I still shows adobe as the default app to open the file. Did some disk maint. on permissions etc before shutting down. Anything else it might be?

Ron
 
Wait a minute. Do the icons look anything like the first page of the respective files? OS X previews files in their icons. If you Quick Look a file (select and press Spacebar), you can easily preview without opening and compare to the icon.
 
Hi earthsaver, like your username, it's a subject never far from my awareness.

What I am after is never seeing preview if that's what it is. I want the red pdf icon so I can spot the files easier. Sometimes right after booting the old icons are there then the desktop is redrawn w/the new improved version which I'd like to loose. Adobe is the default app. for opening this type of file but something is over riding that till I open the file.

Ron

36000 acres per day gone to desert tic toc tic toc
 
Click somewhere on your desktop (not to select any file, but just click on a clear area.
Right-click on that point, and choose Show View Options from the right-click menu.
Uncheck "Show Icon Preview"
That may get your usual red icons back.
 
In View Options (View menu), do you see a Show Icon Preview option? If so, and if you turn it off, does that solve the issue? Click Use as Default to set this globally.
 
Thanks earthsaver. That's the ticket. I have my icons back looking like they should.

We've been offgrid since 83 and I'm typing with solar/batter energy on my paleomac G5 motorola dualey, even tho it was cloudy all day and some of yesterday.

Ron
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top