This is an update to two previous posts (1 and 2). Things have been changed a bit in Panther and I thought it warranted an update.
Constantly, I was changing desktop picture collections I keep on my computer that I compile from places like Pixelgirl Presents and Mandolux. I wanted to hack the collections that showed up in the list to the left hand side when in the Desktop PrefPane. This is how I did it.
Navigate to -> System -> Library -> PreferencePanes -> DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane -> Contents -> Resources -> DesktopPictures.prefPane -> Contents -> Resources. Open Collections.plist in your favorite text editor (root privileges will be required). You'll see something that looks a lot like any other .plist file...
<dict>
<key>identifier</key>
<string>nature</string>
<key>path</key>
<string>/Library/Desktop Pictures/Nature</string>
<key>showScalingPopUp</key>
<string>NO</string>
</dict>
You can pretty much guess how to hack this. The identifier command (or is it class?) is used to name the collection. The path is literally the path of the folder (it can be placed anywhere). The showScalingPopUp enables you to stretch a picture to fit your desktop (among other things). My addition looked like this:
<dict>
<key>identifier</key>
<string>Mandolux</string>
<key>path</key>
<string>~/Pictures/My Desktops/Mandolux</string>
<key>showScalingPopUp</key>
<string>YES</string>
</dict>
It should be noted that the order in which you place the new entries is the same order in which they will appear in the PrefPane, so you can rearrange the collections if you like.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040731195122419