4/29/98
Resorcerer is a powerful commercial replacement to ResEdit. Stop by the Mathemaestetics web site and download a demo. It does a great job on mini-icons, menus, PICTS, and Dialog resources.
Checkout DefaultApp. A new feature of the beta version is the ability to use the default file mappings of Internet Config. This little piece of shareware is worth a look! Here's a description from the web page.
DefaultApp is a MacOS 8 utility that allows you to open documents matching certain file/creator types with the applications you specify, instead of the applications that created those documents. For instance, DefaultApp can be configured so that when you double-click a SimpleText document in the Finder, it gets opened in a more powerful text editor, like Style or Tex-Edit Plus. Or you can have Script Editor compiled scripts opened with Script Debugger. Or Internet Explorer documents opened with HTML Viewer. Well, you get the idea.
Add a Utility Pattern to Netscape under OS 8. Michael Peach sent in this excellent edit suggestion: In Netscape 4.0, you can check a box in the preferencess that will allow Netscape to use the Desktop Utility pattern for the background of all its windows, but in OS 8, there is no way to set a Desktop Utility pattern. So, if you want to add a pattern, but you have OS 8, do the following...(continued)
(Editors Note: The reason you can't add a utility pattern anymore, is because OS 8 doesn't install the old Desktop Pattern Control Panel. In this control panel, you could hold down the <option> key, and instead of setting the desktop pattern, you would set the Utility pattern. This pattern was used by very few programs. The Calculator was one.)
4/27/98
Several wealthy artists with lots of time on their hands, were kind enough to send in some new logo suggestions. Like Miss America, while they are all beautiful, only one can be the ResExcellence Logo. :) Their great looking submissions have made the choice very difficult, but a choice had been made, and it will be seen next Monday. While this was not a contest, I will post all of the submissions (with email addresses) on a page with the hope someone in need may commission them for some work. Hats off to the Artisits of the Macintosh Community!
Stefan Anthony, the author of Hand Pointer, explains why I'm having trouble with colored cursors and Photoshop:
On some PowerMac systems, there is an incompatibility between Hand Pointer and the "DirectCursors" plug-in included with Adobe Photoshop 3.0. Photoshop will sometimes crash when both Hand Pointer and DirectCursors are present on the same system.
This incompatibility is not present in Photoshop 4, or in the 68k versions of Photoshop.
What DirectCursors does is modify a few mouse cursors (lassos, crosshairs, etc.) in the Mac OS to make them easier to see when moved over certain shades of gray in a Photoshop window. DirectCursors also enlarges some painting tools to be greater than the normal 16 x 16 pixels.
DirectCursors is purely an "eye candy" plug-in for Photoshop and can be safely disabled without losing any significant functionality. To disable the plug-in, place a "¬" character (by typing option-L) at the very beginning of DirectCursors enclosing folder's name (for example, "¬DirectCursors"). The next time Photoshop is launched, DirectCursors will not be loaded.
David sent along another way to change the Finder's memory allocation:
Using ResEdit, change the file type of the Finder to 'APPL' and then getting info on it, you can then change the memory footprint in the normal manner and then change the file type back to 'FNDR.
Also regarding Finder allocation, Stephan Marraccini notes:
If you use Techtool (particularly the freeware version) and run the system analysis, you will get skull and crossbones damage warning about your "system file". It turns out that it is in fact, the mod to the SIZE resource in the finder. This might keep some people from doing some unneeded clean installs!
Robert Leatherwood took the multiple Note Pads idea one step further:
To followup on the notepad trick, the same applies to the scrapbook. Just copy or rename the scrapbook file located in system file. Opening up the scrapbook application will create a new scrapbook. To use the other scrapbooks either place them in a menu or double-click on them. Its a useful place to store custom folder icons.
This evening, I did something very interesting; I hooked a friend's old Mac LC to the internet. The computer was running System 7.1 and had no TCP/PPP software. Fortunately, I found an old Earthlink CD in the back of a drawer that not only had ConfigPPP and MacTCP, but also Netscape 2.0! While I had to dig for some deep memories to setup MacTCP, the installation went very well. Afterwards, I ran Norton on the 10 year old hard disk, and had nothing more than a few bad bundle bits!
How to Edit Mini-Icons with ResEdit.
How would you like to create some mini-icons to match the look of your favorite Kaleidoscope Scheme?
Mike Pearson sent in this suggestion for a great edit.
4/24/98
It's odd how requests for a particular edit seem to come in bunches. Several people have recently asked how to increase the memory partition of the Finder. The theory is that it increases speed and decreases Out of Memory errors. I would be interested in any benchmarks someone may want to send to me. On most applications increasing the memory is done in the "Get Info" window, but the Finder doesn't support this option. You need to do this:
Open a copy of the Finder in ResEdit and find the SIZE resource. Open ID-1 and scroll to the bottom to see the Max and Min memory settings. On my Powerbook running 8.1, the Max size is 939,008. If you are going to change it, try a number that is a multiple of 1024 (1k), for example, 1,572,864. If any programmers have any insight into this voodoo, drop me a line. BTW, I don't believe increasing the Max value will hurt anything, I'm just not sure it will do any good.
How to have multiple NotePads. Larry Neptune wondered if there was a way to change creator codes so he could have multiple copies of the NotePad. It didn't involve creator codes, but I did find a way to do it.
Rein Ciarfella let me know that he was visitor number 25,000 to the site! Congratulations Rein, you win..., my eternal gratitude. Thanks to all of you who have stopped by since ResExcellence reopened as ResExcellence just about a month ago.
4/22/98
The translation from English to Japanese of ResEdit by Oyakata is complete.
Gilles Durupt has a very nice web site that covers customizing Netscape.
Remember the little Quicktime 3.0 trick to stop the upgrade screen? Barry Diamond sent this tidbit about changing the date on the computer:
It seems that when you mess with the date, it confuses DiskExpress. I launched it, and the first thing that happened was I got a dialog box asking me (basically) what the hell date is it? : ) I told it, and the flashing icon disappeared.
It seems lots of people are running System 7! I've received several emails inquiring about Adding Command Keys to the System 7 Finder.
4/20/98
Dan Frankes has released his outstanding guide to System software, InformINIT 8.1. This document contains information on virtually every Control Panel and Extension you may find in your System Folder.
 Kineticons: Here's something I stumbled upon. If you create a Kine based on any System, application, or document icon, that icon will automatically animate without pasting it into a "Get Info" window. In the example shown, I copied my custom Trash Full icon from the Appearance Extension, and created an animated sequence for Kineticon. Once it's activated in the Kineticon Editor, the Trash animates every time it's full.
Steve sent along this additional info on the recent tip "Changing the MacOS progress startup screen":
"I use the desktop pattern of my choice for the background of the edited startupscreen in the PICT resource, and it merges perfectly at startup and make the progress bar appear outside the border of the logo. The pattern has to be very random, like a grain."
Here's more on Color Cursors from Jon Gotow of St. Clair Software, makers of Sleeper and Default Folder:
Substituting color cursors for the normal black and white ones is not a good idea. The Mac OS Toolbox call SetCursor() switches black & white cursors, and can be called by software at any time, even in the middle of a virtual memory operation, interrupt routine, or other times when the Memory Manager is not in a stable state (Sleeper does this when waking up a disk, for instance).
If an extension patches SetCursor() and calls SetCCursor() instead (which installs a color cursor), Bad Things can happen. This is because SetCCursor() relies on the Memory Manager being in a stable state. Any calls to SetCCursor() that are made when the Memory Manager isn't consistent can cause memory corruption, crashes, or just generally send your Mac off into the weeds. Granted, this depends on whether any of the software you're running happens to call SetCursor() at a time when the Memory Manager is in flux, but I certainly wouldn't risk stability by taking the gamble.
This may explain why I always have trouble with color cursors, especially with Photoshop, which has its own memory management scheme.
Add any bit mapped font to the Appearance Manager. In the past, I've show you how to trick the Appearance manager to use any font, not just Charcoal and Chicago. Unfortunately, you couldn't keep the original font name. But now, Stefan Kristjansson has sent along a great new way to add fonts, and they get to keep their original name!
4/17/98
I like the new 3D folder icons that made their debut with Copland, but when I'm in list view on a Finder window, the mini folder icon looks too jagged.
 I made this new icon pictured on the left, and it looks great with the generic document icon. Here is how to install it.
A recent edit featured trash can icons by ikthusian. He just released a new set called, "Electricons" and has a great web page.
Changing the System cursors has been a popular email topic. MacPlaza has a page dedicated to them. I know many of you want to add color cursors without adding an extension, and I'm working on it!
For those of you who asked, Scott Naness let me know of a program to convert TrueType fonts between Macs and Windows called TTConverter.
IMHO, the new layout is looking good, with one exception, the ResExcellence logo looks like it was made by a sound enginner instead of a graphics artist. If you're an artist with a little free time and too much money, drop me a line.
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Remember, they drive this page.
4/15/98
Today is the start of the new layout, and extra updates on Wednesday and Friday! Please send me your comments and suggestions on how to improve it.
Oyakata is translating ResEdit and some documentation from English to Japanese. He's requesting help from anyone fluent in both languages. There is a work in progress on his web site.
Here's a tip to get rid of the annoying upgrade screen that Quicktime 3.0 puts up everytime you launch MoviePlayer.
- Open the Date & Time control Panel
- Set the date forward to the year 2000. Close the program.
- Launch MoviePlayer and select "Later" when the update screen appears, then quit.
- Open Date & Time and reset the year to 1998.
- Relax until the New Millennium.
Replacement screen for MacOS during startup. A small System suitcase edit to replace the smiling Mac during startup, but still show the progress bar. |
