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Grex Micros Item 72: INITS INITS INITS INITS INITIS
Entered by rcurl on Mon Jan 17 07:08:18 UTC 1994:

Do you have any useful or at least entertaining INITS? Share your
favorites with other Mac users (and help save everyone time of
browsing through mac.archive.umich.edu.)

11 responses total.

#1 of 11 by rcurl on Mon Jan 17 07:14:33 1994:

I've been through my INIT feeding frenzy, and things have calmed down.
However I recently added two, which I would recommend to anyone running
Sys 7. They are DropMenus (OK on Sys 6) and MenuChoice. The former
keeps Menus open by just clicking on the menu bar (no need to hold down
the mouse button). The latter is a hierarchic menu opener. Once you
open the Apple menu (one click) you move the cursor down to "Desktop",
and then follow it to open *any folders up to four levels* to the file
or app you want, and click on it to open/launch it (second click). None
of the intermediate folders stay open, so you don't have to close them
later.  Its a keeper!

#2 of 11 by srw on Mon Jan 17 07:26:45 1994:

I like Menuchoice too. I gave it to a friend and he complained it caused 
crashes. There may be a compatibility issue. It has not affected me
as far as I can tell, though.

I like ApplWindows. It is free and gives you the ability from the keyboard
to cycle through appplications, as well as through windows of a 
single app. Very cool - and solid. By Hiro Yamamoto, the Boomerang guy.

I also like "Daylight" by Gregory Smith, with springs my clock forward,
and falls it back every year.

I have many others, but I'm too tired. Prod me for more another day, and
I'll be happy to elucidate.                             zzzz

#3 of 11 by rcurl on Mon Jan 17 13:44:13 1994:

I cycle through applications with PwrSwitcher, which uses the keyboard
power button. This can be mapped, so on this Powerbook, I've set it to
use ctrl-esc. This sounds like AppleWindows.

WindowPicker complements PwrSwitcher - a pull-down menu that shows all
folders and applications that are open. Even the ones that you aren't
"open" because you used MenuChoice! (i.e., the path).

#4 of 11 by srw on Mon Jan 17 15:42:32 1994:

I tried powerswitcher once, and it wasn't configurable.
Since my 3rd party keyboard's power key didn't work it, I went
to something else.

#5 of 11 by hawkeye on Mon Jan 17 17:14:08 1994:

PowerSwitcher is configurable for only the Power and Esc keys.  Since I
got a new 840AV -- which uses the Power key to turn the mac *OFF* -- I
should take a look at appwindows...

#6 of 11 by tsty on Tue Feb 8 02:03:57 1994:

I have this little thing called AutoMenus which does away with 
all but the last click on the Mac Menu bar. There are settings for
time-in-field so that a stray pass through the menu bar doesn't
trigger the menu selection. But even an extra look at a menu isn't al that
sidturbing, you just swish the mouse away. It's runningon both
sys 6.x and 7.x machines right now. Wish I owned one of those darn things.
 
Also, the PopChar is the ultiamte answer to the braindead Key Caps.
  
If you are typing something and wnt a special character, just point to
the "hot" corner (you select), click, and the ENTIRE chracter set
for that font is shown! Mouse over to the char you wnat, click and
presto, that char is typed into your document right where you needed
it. 
  
If you are in a font that doesn't have the particular character you seek, 
change fonts and try again. Marvelous, simply Marvelous.
  
Of course there is Init CDEV for turning all them thingies on and
off as you choose.

#7 of 11 by srw on Tue Feb 8 04:15:55 1994:

I also love PopChar, even though I use it rarely.
I can't get use to AutoMenus - I like Menus the way they are.
Once you're on sys 7, pitch Init CDEV and get the Extension Manager.

#8 of 11 by tsty on Fri Feb 25 19:19:09 1994:

Ummm, VERY right about pitching Init CDEV whesn in Sys 7. (oh, boy does
it screw up, phew!)
  
Is the Extention Manager different or the same as the Estention's Folder?

#9 of 11 by srw on Sat Feb 26 01:26:24 1994:

It is very different.

The extensions folder is created in your system folder when you install
system 7, as you know. Inits are loaded from it, and also from the
control panels and system folders as well.

The extension manager creates 4 new folders in your system folder
(as needed) - they are disabled extensions, disabled control panels,
disabled system folder, and disabled startup items.

Any file that has an init and any startup item can be enabled or disabled
from the extension manager's control panel. This just moves said file
back and forth between the enabled and disabled versions of its folder.
It also manages "sets" of enabled stuff, so you can have different 
combinations of inits/startups for different purposes.

It is very easy to use and very stable. I love it.
It is free. It was written by an apple employee but is not supported by 
Apple. (Although, IMO they should adopt it.)

I can put a copy of it on grex to download if you like. Let me know.

#10 of 11 by omni on Thu Oct 19 05:21:48 1995:

  Steve, would you upload "daylight". Sounds like something that I could use.
thanks

#11 of 11 by srw on Sat Oct 21 06:28:59 1995:

I did, and omni sent mail to say he got it.

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