Personalizing your Collections folders can make finding object-sets so much easier. Here I will give you what I think is a fairly simple method.

Part 1. Preparations

 I was inspired to write thistutorial about making icon replacements when one of our fellow TSR membersasked if I would make one for them. I have made them off and on for years, andto be perfectly honest, I do not remember where I got the initial information,but thank you whoever you are! 

I will try to formulate this assimply and clearly as possible.  So let’s get started.

You will need:

1)    SimPE,which you can download here: http://sims.ambertation.de/en/download/realdownload/

2)    Sims2CleanInstaller,which you will find here: http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/

3)    An Icon. You can choose one or make it yourself.  I use Corel Paint Shop Pro XI, but itdoesn’t really matter what you use as long as you have the option for sizereduction.  The icon should be 25 pixels x 25 pixels and in jpg format. This isVERY tiny, so choose your icon carefully or when reduced in size you will endup with a blob.  I guess even that doesn’t matter if it is your blob.  Afterall, you will know what it symbolizes. Mine usually look like blobs, heheheh <[:o) 

Note: In orderto find your icon easily you will want to save it to DocumentsandSettings/yourname/MyDocuments\EA Games\The Sims 2\Collections\Icon.

4)    This is theicon I want to replace which is for my new African Mahogany Office set.

Part 2. Finding the icons you want to replace

1)    This iswhere having Sims2CleanInstaller (SCI) comes in handily once again. Open theinstaller.

2)    In theupper right hand corner under Choose directory, you will see a drop downlist. Scroll down and click on Browse.

3)    Clickthrough the folders:  DocumentsandSettings/yourname/My Documents\EAGames\The Sims 2\Collections (left pic) then click OK and a listwill open in SCI (right pic).

4)    Right clickon the folder you wish to open and you will see a set of numbers. This are theactual “name” under which your icon resides. As you can see, the code for myAfrican Mahogany Office is 0x7343b910. Note: Unless you have a bettermemory than I, you will want to copy this number down.

Part 3. Replacing the icon.

1)    Now that weknow where the icon is we will get down to the business of replacing it. OpenSimPE.

2)    Click on File/Open and browse to the Collections folder again. This is where memory orhaving the number written down comes into effect.  Click on your set ofnumbers.

3)    Click onthe AllRes in the upper left hand column and then click on jpg/tga/npfImage.

4)    Right clickon jpg/tga/npf Image in the upper right hand column. Scroll down andclick on Replace.

5)    Open yoursaved icon by returning to DocumentsandSettings/yourname/My Documents\EAGames\The Sims 2\Collections and clicking on the desired icon.  Then click Open.

6)    A pop upscreen will appear asking if you wish to change the current icon (see originalicon in Picture Viewer in lower left hand column). Click Yes.

7)    Under PictureViewer you will see that your new icon has replaced the old one. Yes, that tinyimage is your icon. In my case it is a tiny, tiny picture (aka. Blob) of myAfrican Mahogany Office. :o)

8)    And here isthe finished icon in the game.

9)    You willalso find the new folder icon here should you want to use it again for a newfolder, to edit an existing folder or if for some obscure reason your icon didn’t replace properly, which happens from time to time.

That’s it! I hope you found thiseasy and useful. Happy icon replacing!!!