How to Change the Background Picture on a Mac

Your Mac OS screen (OS 8.0 or higher) doesn't have to be boring. Your desktop background is limited only by your imagination and the graphics files you can find.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Mac OS 9.0
• Graphic Converter

1. Find a graphic file you want to use as the desktop picture, and drag the file to the desktop.

2. Click on the Apple menu, choose Control Panels, and select Appearance.

3. Your current desktop pattern or picture appears in that window. Click on Remove Picture. (Don't worry: You can always get it back.)

4. Click on Place Picture.

5. Drag your graphic file to the picture preview window.

6. Turn your picture into your desktop background by clicking Set Desktop.

Tips & Warnings

• The best pictures for the Mac OS are 640 x 480 pixels, or 1/3 wider than they are tall. But any picture, drawing or graphic will do - as long as the format is PICT, GIF, JPEG, TIFF or MacPaint (MacPaint supports two colors: black and white). If your picture is in another format, you'll need to convert it to a supported format first.

• Not all pictures are the same dimensions (aspect ratio) as your desktop, so the Appearance control panel gives you five choices: Tile On Screen (which gives you multiple copies that fill your screen); Center On Screen (which leaves a blank space around your picture); Scale On Screen (which may distort the image or make it grainy); Fill Screen (which may cut off the top and bottom or sides); and the default setting, Position Automatically.

• Place your pointer over the current desktop and Control-click to bring up a contextual menu; select Change Desktop Background. The Appearance control panel opens.