voratta Media Systems

Tutorial Platforms:  Mac

Tutorial Time: 2 minutes.

Tutorial Requirements:

• An Apple computer running Mac OS-X.

Tutorial Overview:

This tutorial covers a the ability to change the aesthetics of your Mac; specifically, changing the desktop wallpaper. The wallpaper is an image, (usually a .JPEG, or .PNG) located somewhere on your computer (depending on default settings or prior customization.) We can easily change the look of your Mac experience by following these steps:

1. Click anywhere on your desktop to ensure that Finder is the current active application:
    
2. To interact with the desktop options, either right click, control click, or two-finger click with the Magic Trackpad on the desktop. Select “Change Desktop Background“:
   
   System Preferences will load, and display the Desktop & Screen Saver preferences pane:
   
3. On the left column, you can browse Apple-provided wallpapers via the default categories:
   
4. Alternatively, you can add a folder (as a source of wallpapers,) by locating one on your Mac. Click the “+” (plus) button near the lower left to browse for a folder.
5. Navigate to a folder containing images you’d like to use as wallpapers:
   
6. When found, click Choose.
   Note: Now the folder will appear in the left column of the wallpaper preferences, for easy recall in future.
7. Select one of the pictures in the folder for use as a wallpaper:
   

Adjusting How A Wallpaper is Displayed:

• Fill Screen: Zooms the image in or out, until it fills the entire contents of the desktop (preserves perspective, at the loss of cropping.)
• Fit to Screen: Zooms the image out until the entire image is displayed (albeit usually smaller.) Option for changing surrounding solid desktop colour.
• Stretch to Fill Screen: Stretches the image vertically and horizontally, so you can see the whole image (but often with distorted perspective.)
• Center: Zooms image to represent 1:1 pixel ratio, i.e. small images will simply appear in the middle of the desktop. Option for changing surrounding solid desktop colour.
• Tile: Fills the desktop beginning in the top-left corner, and repeats horizontally and vertically (great for use with patterns.)

Optional: Automatically change Wallpaper at Regular Interval or Event:

• Optionally, your Mac wallpaper can change on an interval or special events, such as every 5 minutes up to every 24 hours, and when logging in, opening the lid of your portable Mac, or logging in to your user account.

Conclusion:

Your desktop should now be refreshed and updated with your choice of image! When you’re satisfied with the desktop, close System Preferences.

As always, please post your feedback, questions, suggestions, etc in the comments section at the bottom of this blog post! Thanks.