TABLE OF CONTENTS
You may no longer download this month's FREE Sample Shareware, Stickies Color Editor. Read more below. See the Sample Shareware for the current month.
by Louis Bookbinder
I want to welcome Larry Hutnick back to the shareware team.
November DOM 1995 was assembled by Henry Polard. It contains:
CalConvert 2.1 FAT:
CalConvert is a small shareware utility that does integer arithmetic
calculations and converts integer values to different bases (decimal,
hexadecimal, binary, octal or any custom base between 2 and 32) or to
an OSType (a sequence of four ASCII characters). A bit field
representation is available to inspect and set each bit separately.
The conversion may be signed or unsigned - you can always enter a
signed value, it gets converted to unsigned if needed; the result may
be interpreted either as a word (2 bytes) or as a long word (4
bytes).
FAT VERSION - CONTAINS BOTH 680x0 AND NATIVE POWERPC CODE
DragAnyWindow 3.2 FAT:
DragAnyWindow is a control panel that allows you to easily move any
kind of window, including dialogs, alerts, standard "Open" and "Save"
dialogs, game windows and other non-movable windows. It also lets you
bring back to the desktop any window that has gone out of sight, or
center the front window on the main screen with a single keystroke.
It is very useful for old applications designed for the 9" screen
(which often use fixed windows) and for moving modal dialogs and
windows behind them.
Julia-O-Matic FAT:
Julia-O-Matic - Draws cool fractals. Click the Mandelbrot to draw
Julia sets. Magnify them both, save to clipboard. Fast PPC native
drawing. Should run OK on any Mac with color Quickdraw.
List Files 2.5.2:
List Files is a great utility that creates a text catalog of any
disk, folder or document you drop on it. It has file filters, lots of
formatting options, easy-to-use worksets, automatic catalog saving,
text file searching for fast file retrieval, and much more. Can dig
into Stuffit or CompactPro archives.
MandelBrowser 1.0 (PPC
ONLY):
MandelBrowser is a fractal program for PowerMacs. Fractals are
infinitely complex and colorful graphical objects. This file includes
MandelBrowser 1.0, an MS-Word manual, and 43 sample images.
MandelBrowser's features include:
SideMinder:
SideMinder! is a challenging game played against the computer. Your
mission is to place 3D game pieces on the board, matching as many
sides as you can. The more sides you match, the higher the score!
Many different options are available, such as various playing boards,
tournament mode, rotating pieces, number of colors (or patterns for
B&W), and level of difficulty! Try it, you won't be disappointed!
The author takes no responsibility for time or sleep lost due to the
habit forming effects of this game! (shareware $10)
SoundVision 1.0:
Have you ever seen a sound? Why don't you try it on your Mac? If your
Mac has a microphone or CD-input or something like that, you can see
it with SoundVision. SoundVision is probably the fastest sound
analyzer for Mac. SoundVision shows the waveform and spectrum of
sound at REAL TIME on most of Macs. You don't need fast Macs like AV
series to do real time analysis, you only need a Mac IIsi (normal
one, 68030 20MHz). Have a try. It's fun!
SoundVision requires a Mac with 68030, 68LC040, 68040 or PowerPC for the CPU. A monitor set to 256-color mode is also required, because the fast-drawing routine of SoundVision only works on this mode of monitor.
Stickies Color Editor
1.0:
Stickies Color Editor lets you change the colors of the little notes
in the "Stickies" program that Apple provides with System 7.5.
Each note has three colors, and you can change them independently using the standard color wheel. You can also drag and drop colors from one note to another (does not require the Macintosh Drag & Drop extension). You can also type a new name for each color scheme, and these names will appear on the Color menu within Stickies.
If you ever get tired of your custom colors, Stickies Color Editor can also re-install the original colors and names that came with Stickies.
When I put together this newsletter column I like to put the application icons in the text. Makes it look pretty spiffy, don't you think?
It isn't trivial to do this. I actually put out 2 documents and modify a third. The DOM creator, Henry Polard for November, gives me a disk with a ReadMe on it in Simpletext. For the newsletter, I convert this into Word and add the icons. Then, for the Web page, I convert it into HTML and add the icons. Then I go back to the ReadMe, itself,and add the icons. The icons do not carry across the conversions.
To get an icon:
Click once on the actual shareware item (select it) then command-I to
Get Info. Click on the icon in Get Info. Command-C to copy the icon.
Close the Get Info window. Switch to the Scrapbook and command-V to
paste. Note that I have to add the LAST icon to the scrapbook FIRST,
because every icon after the first will go in BEFORE the last one. I
just add them in reverse order (alphabetically).
For adding to a Word document, just copy from the scrapbook and paste in the document.
For adding to the Web page, I have to put the icon in GIF format and put it on my WWW directory at Stanford. I could use JPEG format, but GIF is better for icons.
To convert an icon to a GIF, I open Graphic Converter in the smallest possible window, and copy from the scrapbook, then save as GIF. This is where I label each one something like swnm.GIF. sw means shareware, n means November (I use 1-9 for months before October), and m is a letter I hope tells me which shareware item it goes with. When 5 items all begin with the same letter, it gets a little crazy.
To add the icon to the Simpletext ReadMe, I have to be clever. Apple gave SimpleText this capability back when it was TeachText, but they do not talk about it a lot. I need ResEdit to do it; here is how:
In the ReadMe I go in with SimpleText and put a non-breaking space (option-space) where I want each icon. Then I get out of SimpleText. I open the ReadMe with ResEdit. I create a new resource called PICT. Then I paste in icons from my scrapbook in order and renumber them from the default (something like 34, I do not know why) to 1000, 1001, 1002,..... 1000 will be the first icon in my document, 1001 the second, and so forth. When they are all nicely installed and numbered, I close the document and quit ResEdit. Now, when I open the ReadMe with SimpleText, all the icons are where I put them. I think you have to go through the scrapbook for some reason, I do not think you can just cut and paste in ResEdit.
It sounds like a bunch of work, and it is not really trivial, but
it all takes but an hour or two. Writing the column itself takes
longer.
-------------------------------------------------
Saw a request for a method to list all items in a whole bunch of
folders regularly. Well, we have shareware to do that such as
Filelist+ or ListFiles (this DOM), but there is another
way: get all those folders in one bigger folder (like the Hard Drive
folder). Set list view. Click on all the triangles to expand the
sub-lists (do it from the bottom up so your triangles do not keep
getting scrolled off the bottom of the window). Now just select all
(command-A). Cut (command-C). The complete list is now in your
clipboard. You can paste to a document, or whatever.
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After installing QuickTime 2.1, PhotoFlash 2.0 may display blank
white images instead of pictures. To correct this you must reinstall
PhotoFlash 2.0, then install the PhotoFlash patcher, then re-start
your computer. (From InfoAlley)
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"It's OBVIOUS": Want to keep drag and drop icons on the
desktop for easy access, but not clutter the desktop? Push the icons
up under the menu bar so only the name shows. Or for items you need
even with big windows open (they tend to appear smack under the menu
bar), put the icons in the lower right - if you recognize them
easily, you do not need the names showing - just push them off the
bottom edge.
(from Info Alley)
The following Apple software updates have recently been released and posted on AppleLink, Compuserve, eWorld and Apple's Internet sites:
* QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh -> Macintosh -> SSW
-> OSS -
QuickTime 2.1 includes support for smoother video, sprite animation,
CD-ROM AutoStart, 16-bit audio compression, and MPEG. It also
includes the capabilities of the Apple Multimedia Tuner.
* QuickTime for Windows 2.0.3 -> DOS/Windows -
There are two files: A Macintosh self-extracting archive of a Disk
Copy 1440k DOS disk image and a DOS executable file. Note that
QuickTime for Windows 2.0.3 must be licensed for distribution. If you
have received QuickTime for Windows as part of an Apple or
third-party product, you are licensed to install and use QuickTime
for Windows on your computer. You MAY NOT redistribute QuickTime for
Windows in any form without a distribution license from Apple
Computer.
* MoviePlayer 2.1 -> Macintosh -> Utilities -
MoviePlayer is an application you use to play and edit QuickTime
movies. It requires QuickTime 2.1 or later.
* Intelligent Battery Update 1.0.3 -> Macintosh ->
SSW -> OSS -
The Intelligent Battery Recondition software consists of two parts: a
system extension (Intelligent Battery, version 1.0.1) an application
(Intelligent Battery Recondition, version 1.0.3). It fixes a problem
with charging certain batteries in PowerBook 500 series computers.
* Apple Telecom 2.3 -> Macintosh -> N&C ->
Apple Telecom -
This software replaces Apple Telecom 2.2. Version 2.3 and adds
support for PowerBook 190 and 5300 series computers.
* 52xx/62xx Diagnostic Utility -> Macintosh ->
Utilities -
This self extracting archive (SEA) file contains a diagnostic
utility, ReadMe file, and a Q & A document which provides
information on an issue with the PowerPC 603 microprocessor used in a
limited number of Macintosh 5200 and 6200 series computers.
* Apple Telecom/PC Card Modem -> Macintosh -> N&C
-> Apple Telecom -
This software replaces Apple Telecom 2.2. Version 2.3 adds support
for PC Card Modem. Apple Telecom 2.3/PC Card Modem consists of 2
disks: Apple Telecom/PC Card Modem.sea and Apple Telecom Disk 1 and
Apple Telecom 2.3 Disk 2of2.sea Fax Software.
* System Enabler 403 1.0.2 -> Macintosh -> SSW ->
System Enablers -
This version of the enabler adds support for the Macintosh LC 550.
* Battery Tools 2.0 - Macintosh -> SSW -> OSS -
This software is specifically for users of PowerBook 200 series (Duo)
computers 210, 230, 250, or 270c who are running System Software
prior to System 7.5 and are using Type III batteries. PowerBook 200
series computers running System 7.5 or later do not need this
software to use Type III batteries.
* Desktop Printing Software 1.0.3 -> Macintosh ->
Printing SW -> OPS -
Fixes a problem on Power Macintosh computers with Open Transport
installed and includes support for the Extensions Manager.