If you are happy to do a little code editing, you can modify the labels in the sidebar of your Finder (Leopard only). You can change the labels to the lower case, e.g. from PLACES to Places, or you can completely rename them.

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You need to log in as an administrator (root) then navigate this way:

/Macintoch HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app

Right-click on Finder.app icon and select Show Package Contents the select Resources/English.Iproj

Once in this folder, locate the file LocalizableCore.Strings and copy it somewhere else, (e.g. Option-Click and drag it to the Desktop) just in case things go wrong.

Now, back to your Finder and edit the file LocalizableCore.Strings (double-click)

Scroll down to lines 50-53 where you can modify the following values:

“SD5″ = “DEVICES”;
“SD6” = “SHARES”;
“SD7” = “SEARCH FOR”;
“SD8” = “PLACES”;

and change them any way you like. I have changed mine to

“SD5″ = “Devices”;
“SD6” = “Network”;
“SD7” = “Search for”;
“SD8” = “Places”;

Once you have saved the file you need to either log out and log in, or simply restart the Finder. Open Terminal and type killall Finder and press return.

You can do the same with the iTunes, however the path is slightly different:

/Macintosh HD/Applications/iTunes then right-click and Show Package Contents, then select Resources/English.Iproj and edit the file called Localizable.strings. (You have already backed it up, haven’t you?)

Find the lines 162 – 165

“135.011″ = “LIBRARY”;
“135.012″ = “DEVICES”;
“135.013″ = “STORE”;
“135.014″ = “PLAYLISTS”;

and make the changes any way you like.