Aliassistant is a program help you make the best use of aliases under the Apple menu. I keep it on my desktop, just above the Trash. When I decide I'm going to be using something (anything, an application or a document) often enough to make it worthwhile, I drag its icon onto Aliassistant. The standard Save dialog box appears, ready to save an alias into the Apple Menu Items folder.
Aliassistant is especially useful when used in conjunction with the hierarchical Apple Menu introduced with System 7.5. I create categories, such as Letters or Drawings, as folders in the Apple Menu Items folder. I then use Aliassistant to place the things I'm currently working on in its appropriate folder, and I can get back to it quickly. I usually put an alias to the application that works with a particular item into the same folder, and call it ﾒ Application Onlyﾓ, for the times I want to open the application to create a new document. (There's a space at the front of that name, so that it appears at the top of the sub-menu.)
You can drag several things onto Aliassistant at once, and it presents you with a separate dialog for each item. Or click on the ﾒSave Allﾓ button to drop them all into the same location under their original names.
For the times when you want to clean up old aliases (finished projects, letters that have already been sent, and the like), just double-click on Aliassistant and it will open your Apple Menu Items folder for you. No more rummaging in the System Folder for it! (This feature requires that the Finder handle the ﾒOpen Selectionﾓ AppleEvent. Iﾕm not quite sure which version of the Finder first recognized that.)
Version 2.0 has the following changes:
･ The Save All button.
･ The code that sets the initial save location to the Apple Menu Items folder has been changed to match that recommended in Inside Macintosh: Files.
･ Double-clicking on the Aliassistant icon opens the Apple Menu Items folder, provided that the Finder is scriptable. Because of this, the Aboutﾉ box is now accessed by a button in the main dialog.
･ Balloon help.
･ The author's E-mail address has been updated.
The only known problems are:
･ If you try to drag the Trash onto Aliassistant, you will be told that ﾒthe Trash cannot be moved off the desktop.ﾓ
･ Because the Finder automatically resolves aliases to files dragged onto applications, if you drag an alias onto Aliassistant you will end up with an alias to the original item, not to the alias you dragged.
･ There may be a conflict with some versions of Macintosh Easy Open. However, version 1.1.2, the version that ships with the 7.5.3 Update, works.
Aliassistant is ﾒACKwareﾓ: no money involved, but send me an electronic mail message or a postcard to let me know youﾕve downloaded it, and what you think about it (that part is optional). Aliassistant is not public domain. You may freely redistribute this program, provided all of the following conditions are met: (a) No changes are made to the program or any of its resources; (b) this Readme file is distributed with the program; and (c) no fee is charged (except that an on-line service may collect its usual download charges from people downloading it from that service).
Credit to Jeff Shaevel for the name and the inspiration for the icon, and to Pete Roberts for the suggestion for the Save All button.
If you have any problems, questions, comments, or whatever, send E-mail to:
