System 7 Goodies

Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 14:26:36 EDT 
From: Clare Durst <[email protected]>
Subject: System 7 goodies 


Thanks to everyone who contributed their information on System7 special
goodies: to Murph Seawall (of course!), George Wittenberg, Jonathan Helton,
Dan Goldman, John Morgan, Nathan Gasser, Jill Williams. Hope I haven't
fogotten anyone.

Forgive me for taking so long to report on them - a lot of things can come
up at this time of year in a university, as we all know.  In submitting
these, I can only vouch that a) they all work together for me on my IIcx
and portrait monitor; b) they all seem to work together on a small screen
SE with 4 meg of memory and c) almost all are almost free.  Almost the
only other thing I have in memory besides these apps is Suitcase.
  Several (marked with an *) do much the same thing. Take your pick.

Someone suggested the NOW utilities but since they're not shareware I
didn't check them out. Popover and ViewPaint both were recommended,
and I can't find them on the archives. Post, someone? Everything else IS on
Sumex. I've tried to stick to the "serious" things - no sounds or pictures,
although I did include CursorAnimator! Although I've crashed occasionally,
I only would recommend against one item: Trash Chute, until it's fixed - it
deletes the original of an aliased item, rather than the alias. And the one
thing I STILL haven't found is a way to make a command key move
something to the trash (not instantly delete it).

                             STARTUP APPLICATIONS
DARKSIDE free
Tiny screen-saver app. Many different options. Be careful: Some may have
screen-draw problems. If you haven't bought 60 copies of After Dark for
your network, get this and have a clear conscience!
APPLICON free *
Tiny app. that shows icons of all open apps so you can switch between
them easily. VERY useful in its 2.1 incarnation, and the most popular of
apps recommended.
TRASHMAN $5
Empties trash on schedule; VERY useful

                            SYS7 SPECIFIC APPS
ALIAS ASSASSIN     free
Finds aliases so you can delete old ones
ALIASMAKER         app free
Makes alias to anything dropped on it

                               Other VERY USEFUL APPS
COMPACT PRO        $25
invaluable file-compressor
DISINFECTANT       free
"all you need for virus protection!"
DOWNLINE Free
unstuffs files as they are being downloaded. Doesn't work with stuffit
classic, deluxe, or compactor files
TASK-IT  free
shows what your mac is doing and how. understudy free
Lets you open files for which you don't have the app with a similar app
Documentation a bit obscure!
FILELIST PLUS      free
catalogs any size disk you want, saves out into tab-delimited files, etc.,
etc. A necessity.

                                     CHOOSER APP
BROADCAST 2        $25 a zone or $100 for all
Send/receive 3-line msg to anyone on your network; Allows background
sending now.

                               CONTROL PANEL DEVICES
ALTCDEF  free
Nice double-triangles at either end of scroll bars. Sorry, but I can't fathom
the "ghost thumb" concept so maybe this DOESN'T work very well.
APPMENU or APPSWITCHER free  *  *
Invokes app. menu anywhere on screen when you hold down modifier
I haven't found much difference between the two. Handy.
CLOCKADJUST or NETWORK TIME free
Set your internal clock using your modem or your tcip/ip connection
CURSORANIMATOR     free (postcard to Europe)
Changes watch, arrow, etc. to more interesting items. Fun. Not essential.
DFAULTD  $20
Goes back to earlier folders used or default directories for specific apps
Not quite Boomerang, but better than nothing.
DROPCHECKfree
Tells you when things have been dropped into your folders.
BUT it's stored in Sumex with no doc - how do you turn it off when you've
looked at an item?
ESCAPADE free
lets you select buttons in dialog box by typing 1st letter of its name.
Useful.
 EXTENSION MGR     free
Manage inits (extensions & CPs) Seems to work well. Necessity.
FINDER COMMANDS    $5
Lets you make command key equivs of all finder menu items I can't make
it work on the VIEWS menu, but otherwise it's VERY useful.
FINDER MENUS       $10
works like finder commands BUT until you pay up you only can use 1st
part of alphabet in cmds.
FLASHIT  $15
Great screen-capture. No mac should be without it!
MICN     free
Makes menu items into mini-icons. Might be good for new users; old hands
don't need it and crambar also saves space on small screens.
POPCHAR  free
Lets you find all those strange symbols in a font and plug into a doc. Old
reliable.
POWERSWITCHER      free   *
Uses the "triangle key" (power key) to switch between apps. Seems to
work more reliably for me than proswitch or Switch.
PROSWITCH
Another application switcher.
SAVOMATIC$20
Auto-saves files at specified intervals.
SCSITOOLSfree
Mounts newly turned on scsis, etc.
SUPERCLOCK         free
Best clock around. Familiarity should not breed contempt.
WINDOWSHADE/ ZOOMBAR free (or $500000)
compress windows to get to other apps. I found zoombar buggy but many
people swear by it. I swear by Windowshade!

                          EXTENSIONS
CRAM BAR free
displays menus in compressed type. Great for 9" screens.
HELIUM/NOBALLOON   free, free
Helium turns off balloons with keyboard combo. Noballoon gets rid of them
altogether but they come back with the keyboard combo.

                            DAs
MCSINK   $45
text editor that does a lot of file clean-up chores
Add/strip is another possibility here if you do a lot of file conversions
REMEMBER $20
Keeps track of your life. Very useful calendar/reminder prog
ADDRESS BOOK       $20
You must have something like this as a "rolodex" sub. Doesn't print from
within program but imports and exports to text files.

*Yet another way to switch applications

Again, thanks to everyone. I'm sure, given the ingenuity out there these
days, the list will be obsolete in six months. But then I'll let someone
ELSE come up with a replacement!

See Also

• System 7.0