Appearance (System Preferences)
From WikiMac, Everyone's Mac Knowledgebase
The Appearance panel of System Preferences appeared as of Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther". Before that, it was the General panel, which had a very long history (in terms of origin -- going back to the Control Panel settings of the 1984 System 1).
[edit] Mac OS X 10.3
In the version supplied with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther", the overall apperance (blue or graphite), as well as the highlight colour, can all be set.
Scroll arrows can be set to appear at the top and bottom of a scroll bar, or together. (TinkerTool allows you to set both scroll arrows at both ends of a scroll bar.) There is also a setting to indicate what a click in the scroll bar will mean to the system: a jump to the next page (or screenfull), or merely to scroll to here.
Settings on smooth scrolling and the option to minimise (into the Dock) any window which is given a double-click on the title bar are also available in this panel.
Descendants of the Classic Mac OS's Apple Menu Options control panel also form part of the panel: these, to be specific, are the options to set the number of Recent Items in the Apple Menu. Finally, anti-aliasing related options can be set.
| System Preferences panels | 
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.Mac |
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Appearance |
Bluetooth |
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CDs & DVDs |
ColorSync |
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Date & Time |
Desktop |
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QuickTime |
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Software Update |
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Startup Disk |
Universal Access |
Users |
