Changing the wallpaper in OSX

August 4, 2008 6:29 AM

On Mac OS X Leopard, what's the most painless way to change my wallpaper?

I have a suspicion that even my grandma could teach me this one, but this recent Mac "switcher" finds this one of the small annoyances of OSX. In Windows, with any picture brought up in the viewer, I can right click and "set as wallpaper", boom, done. I don't see this option with OSX's Preview, and it seems the only way to change it is through the System Preferences, which is kind of an annoying process.

So tell me, how can I change the wallpaper in the fastest possible time? And Grandma, if you answer first, I'll mow your lawn this weekend.

posted by zardoz to computers & internet (9 comments total)

This may not apply depending upon what you're trying to get to be your desktop, but you can set a photo in iPhoto to be your desktop image. Select/highlight the photo you want, then go to the top menu bar: Share > Set Desktop

So at least if you're trying to choose among photos, you can switch through them quickly.
posted by Wink Ricketts at 6:41 AM on August 4, 2008

Right-click the desktop, select "Change Desktop Background…" Drag and drop a picture into the little box.

You can also right-click images in Safari and Firefox and send them to the desktop background.
posted by Plug Dub In at 6:43 AM on August 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

You can right-click or control-click the desktop and select "Change Desktop Background...", but that's just a quick shortcut to get you to the Desktop & Screen Saver system preference panel.

You can add a "Set as Desktop Wallpaper" option to the Finder context menu. This will allow you to select most any image or image-like file and set it as your desktop wallpaper from the finder.

* Open Automator (it's in your Applications folder)
* search for "Set the Desktop Picture", and double-click its entry under the heading "Action" -- this should cause "Set the Desktop Picture" to appear on the right hand side of the window.
* From the File menu, select "Save As Plug-in...", call it something like "Set as Desktop Picture", and make it a plug in for "Finder".

Now, you can find an image in the finder, right-click or control-click it, and choose Set as Desktop Picture from the Automator menu.

There are many many other ways of setting the desktop picture -- using iPhoto as Wink Ricketts suggested, etc.
posted by ffej at 6:52 AM on August 4, 2008

You can also go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver and change it there.
posted by spilon at 6:52 AM on August 4, 2008

You could just apply images from Firefox like a PC. Find a desktop image online, then right click it and say "set as desktop background"
posted by mathowie at 7:26 AM on August 4, 2008

When in Safari and using 10.5 you can right click an image and select "Use Image as Desktop Picture"
posted by OwlBoy at 7:27 AM on August 4, 2008

It's worth mentioning that if you don't have a two-button mouse, a control-click will make a right click.
posted by tjenks at 8:02 AM on August 4, 2008

It's worth mentioning that if you don't have a two-button mouse, a control-click will make a right click.

It's also worth mentioning that if you don't have a two-button mouse, you should get one. :)
posted by Mikey-San at 10:19 AM on August 4, 2008

Thanks, all for the responses. I knew you can do it from FF, but setting it from a file already on my 'puter is what I was looking for. I guess right-clicking on the desktop itself is the best way for now. I'll have to look into Automator--never used it before. Thanks again.
posted by zardoz at 9:19 PM on August 4, 2008