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customize the iTunes sidebar labels

In iTunes the labels in the sidebar are shown in a capitals: LIBRARY, STORE, PLAYLISTS, etc. Enough with the shouting already! This tip will show you how to customize those labels. You can change them completely, or you can quite things down by changing them to not be in all caps.

1. To start you need to open a Finder window and go to Applications > iTunes.

2. Right click on the iTunes file and select Show Package Contents. This will open up a new Finder window with a directory called Contents.

3. In the new window, go to Contents > Resources > English.lproj (assuming you are using English).

4. Copy the file called Localizable.strings to your desktop.

5. Use your favorite editor to open up the copied version of the file and look for the following lines:

"135.011" = "LIBRARY";
"135.012" = "DEVICES";
"135.013" = "STORE";
"135.014" = "PLAYLISTS";

You can edit the text for the labels to be anything you want.

6. Once you are done editing, save your file and copy it back to the directory you copied it out of. You'll need to confirm that you want to replace the file.

7. You then need to quit iTunes and restart it.

The result:

iTunes with customized text in the side bar iTunes with customized text in the side bar
Rating: 100% positive, 3 total Votes
Categories: iTunes customization hack Mac
Added: on Sep 09, 2008 at 11:30 am
Added By: an anonymous user
Searches: itune file label mac hack

Comments on this Tip

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I did this and it worked as advertised. Only thing is, any time you update iTunes, this change gets blown away and you have to go through the process again.
– Added by an anonymous user on Sep 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm
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