Is there a way to rename "Remaining" to "Apple Juice Remaining"?

Question

On a MacBook Pro, is there a way to change the text in the battery life drop down?

Specifically, where it says "X:XX Remaining" I want it to say "X:XX of Apple Juice Remaining"

Why? Because a good pun is its own reword.

Yes, this is a serious question. Yes, I tried googling first.

I'm currently running Mavericks, though an upgrade to Yosemite is probably in my near future.

You forgot to modify "Power Source" from "Battery" to "300mL Apple Juice Box". You could also change "charger" for "refilling machine". — Kroltan, Nov 05 '14 at 00:40
I actually went back in and made some additional modifications after I posted that picture, though I didn't think of "Apple Juice Box/Apple Juice Dispenser" as power sources. haha — StormeHawke, Nov 05 '14 at 14:23
I signed up just to point out that this is the exact reason us non-Apple users hate you all. — Jonathon Reinhart, Nov 06 '14 at 05:34
@JonathonReinhart You mean because Apple-users think this is funny, or because Apple-users can actually do this? — GreenAsJade, Nov 06 '14 at 14:31

grg · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-06T21:07:38.350

85

You want to change line 92 of the xml version of /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings:

Make a copy of the strings file:

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings ~/Desktop

Convert the binary strings file to xml:

plutil -convert xml1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Edit line 92 (Yosemite) of the file now on the desktop with your favourite text editor:

Convert the xml strings file back to binary:

plutil -convert binary1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Back up your existing file! If you mess up, this will let you reverse your changes by removing -bak from the file name.

sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings-bak

Overwrite the old file with the new:

sudo mv ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/

Result:

Apple Juice Remaining

edited Nov 06 '14 at 21:07

answered Nov 04 '14 at 19:15

grg

201,078

11

You sir are a genius. – StormeHawke Nov 04 '14 at 19:52
7

I was wondering how you'd be pulling this off, but of course - locales! Nice. – Joost Nov 04 '14 at 20:27
1

Very nice solution. Note that for me the line numbers weren't the same, but it being a simple xml file it wasn't exactly difficult to track down the keys that needed to be changed. I took it further and changed other parts of the dialog text as well. Thanks for indulging my sense of humor :) – StormeHawke Nov 04 '14 at 22:36
6

Also: +1 for inserting the backup step, though it should probably be spelled out that you did so (users that stumble across this via google might not pick up on it) – StormeHawke Nov 04 '14 at 22:44
7

Something's missing from your instructions--I don't see anything in there about backing up your System file before you open ResEdit. – dodgethesteamroller Nov 05 '14 at 21:10
1

Does this procedure work in El Capitan? – user24601 Jul 10 '15 at 03:50
3

@user24601 Yes, if you disable System Integrity Protection. – grg Jul 10 '15 at 07:01

Is there a way to rename "Remaining" to "Apple Juice Remaining"?

1 Answers1