Brought to you by Skidperfect Software, Inc. <skidperfect@kagi.com> http://www.shore.net/~chanson
Shareware Fee: equivalent of US$10 during the year 1995, $15 afterwards.
Contents:
Using Extensions Strip
Vocabulary
Startup
Using the modules
Adding, moving, and removing modules/strips
Using Extensions Strip Control
General Settings
Individual Strip Settings
Special Preferences
Registering - what happens
Troubleshooting questions & answers
･ Using Extensions Strip:
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Vocabulary:
･ control strip module: I guess you know what this is, by now. This is the name for any module that resides in a strip. Modules are small programs that do useful stuff.
･ Extensions Strip savvy: the status that a control strip module has if it supports Extensions Strip's extended module API. An Extensions Strip savvy module will at least support safe AppleEvent and new drag sending, as well as integrated drag and drop.
･ frontmost process: the application that you are currently interacting with. This application owns the menu bar and has its icon all the way at the left of the menu bar.
･ root module folder: the term given to the folder in your System Folder where Extensions Strip looks to load modules and other strips from. With Apple's Control Strip, this folder is always named "Control Strip Modules". To change the name of this folder, open up Extensions Strip Control look in the 'Special Preferences' section.
･ strip: (not underlined in the docs) refers to a window (floating or non-floating) containing control strip modules displayed by Extensions Strip or Control Strip. You should note, however, that the documentation of some modules, and the archive schemes of sites such as InfoMac, refer to control strip modules as "strips". Hence the module names "Control Panels Strip" and "Terminator Strip". In this documentation, only windows are refered to as strips.
Startup:
When Extensions Strip loads, it looks for the root module folder inside your System Folder. If the folder does not exist, ES creates a new one for you. ES then proceeds locate all the sub folders which will become strips. If a folder has no modules, then it will not be displayed as a strip.
ES loads the modules of each recognized strip in the previous order recorded by the strip's preferences. If there are no preferences, or unaccounted for modules, then they are loaded alphabetically at the end of the strip.
Tips:
･ Extensions Strip supports full, unrestricted use of aliases to modules and strip folders. Aliases can point to items on any volume, local and remote. You can even have ES load multiple aliases that point to the same strip folder. Be creative! ES does a great job of not limiting you in any way.
Using the modules:
Some modules just display information but most allow clicks to do certain actions. If a module has a small triangle picture to the right of its display then that module will display a popup menu when clicked upon. Besides these basic instructions, you should refer to the individual module's documentation for more information on usage.
Tips:
･ It has become a semi-standard for modules to display a preferences popup menu when clicked upon with the command key. You'd be surprised how many modules have "hidden" preferences.
･ Most modules have balloon help to give basic information on its usage, and/or the current status of its display. Look at the balloon help first to save time from scanning through documentation.
Adding, moving, and removing modules/strips:
Any changes made to the modules in a strip or to the folders in the root module folder take effect soon after the change occurred. For instance, to make a new strip, simply create a new folder inside the root module folder, and add whatever modules you like to it. The new strip will automatically appear and display modules as they are added.
Clicking and dragging a loaded module with the option key down acts just like dragging the actual file itself. If you drag the module to a different position in the same strip, then it will be moved to that spot. Dragging it to another folder, or to another strip, then will move the file there and remove it from the strip of origin. Note that if you keep holding down the option key when you release this drag, the module will be copied to the new location.
Tips:
･ When dragging a loaded module, you can move it into a position over drag-aware modules if the drag hasn't left the strip yet. In other words, once the drag leaves the area of the strip window, file data is added to it so programs like the Finder and Trash It! will recognize it as a public file drag, rather than a private drag that should be left alone.
･ To move a module to the beginning or end of a strip in one step, drop the file between the middle of the nearest module and the beginning/end of the strip (not including the strip's titlebar.) Although ES will not display a position line for you, the module will be moved there.
･ To force Extensions Strip to update a strip's display, click on the window's title bar with the option and command keys down. Any modified modules will then be removed and added again to the same position. You may need to do this because changes are only auto-sensed if the strip folder's modification date has changed. Editing a module in ResEdit, for instance, does not update the parent folder's mod date.
･ Using Extensions Strip Control:ﾊ
General Settings:
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These settings are for showing, hiding, launching, and quitting Extensions Strip. If you click the 'On' button and Extensions Strip, or an alias to it, cannot be found in the Startup Items folder, a dialog asking you to locate a copy will be displayed.
Individual Strip Settings:
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Changes to these settings affect the currently selected strip. To select a different strip for editing, click on the topmost popup menu.
･ New Strip: Clicking this button displays a dialog asking for the name of a folder to create. If you click OK, the folder will be created in the root module folder and then displayed as a new window.
･ Font: This popup menu allows you to change the font that the current strip's modules are drawn in. Note that some modules are resistant to font changes.
･ Size: Changing the value in this popup menu affects the size of the font that the modules are drawn in. Note that the outlined numbers are the sizes that are available without scaling from a different size. Choosing sizes that are not outlined will appear blocky.
･ Style: Affects the way text is drawn on the selected strip.
･ Font info affects menus: When unselected, all module popup menus will be displayed in the Geneva 9 font. When selected, all module popup menus will be displayed in the chosen font/size. Note that custom text styles do not affect the popup menus. Tip: the menus are drawn fastest when the font is available in that size. For example, if the "Palatino 12" font is installed in your system, then it will be displayed as fast as possible.
･ Background color: Click on this box to change the color of the strip window's background.
･ Selected color: Click on this box to change the background color of when a module is clicked upon. Tip: Users with monochrome monitors can also benefit from this feature. If you set this to a non-gray color, then the modules will be inversed when clicked upon. For instance, the "Bluish Strip" example mentioned a few paragraphs down, has an inverted selection color.
･ Separate color drawing: You should play around with this option when using custom colors. After choosing some colors, try clicking on modules, and see which mode you like better with the color set. Note that with the default color set, this option has no visible effect.
If you want a technical explanation, here you go:
When this option is off, the selected color will be drawn as one of the shades of the unselected state of a module. Also, when a module is selected, then the regular background color will be drawn as one of the selected shades. With this option on, the colors are never mixed as shades.
The usual reason why you would have this option off is if the chosen colors are not very different, or if the calculated colors look bad in 256 color mode. To clarify the purpose of this feature, here are two examples of good color schemes (IMHO.) One looks good with the option on, and the other with it off.
Red Strip:
Background: R:56000, G:14000, B: 14000.
Selected: R:41000, G:3500, B: 3500.
Separate: OFF
Bluish Strip (as pictured in the strip windows section above):
Background: R:24300, G:35000, B: 65535.
Selected: R:1200, G:15000, B: 35000.
Separate: ON
･ Show name in title: With this option off, the strip folder's name is not displayed. Turning this option on draws the title bar with the strip folder's name displayed. Having this option on also forces the title bar to be horizontal, regardless of the strip mode.
･ Revert to defaults: Clicking this button will make all the settings of the current strip become that of a new strip's defaults, which also happen to be Control Strip's default settings.
Special Preferences:
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These settings are in the "everything else" category.
･ To change the current method of window-shading (toggle showing only the title bar) and mode changing (horizontal/vertical strip views) click on the appropriate radio buttons.
･ To change the name of the folder in your System Folder that Extensions Strip looks for modules and folder-strips in (the root module folder), click on name of the folder. A dialog will be shown allowing you to change this name. When you click OK, the current root module folder will be physically renamed to the new value, so you won't have to do anything extra to make the name change work right.
Why would someone want to change the root module folder's name? I thought that it would be nice for non-US users so that they could have System Folder names which reflected their native language, even though ES may not explicitly support this language. Also, if you want to rename the folder to "Extensions Strip Modules" or "Bob's rad modules", I'm not stopping you :-)
NB: the root folder name change is safe because it does not modify your System file. This provides maximum compatibility with future system software. It also means, however, that Control Strip will not recognize your customized name.
･ The disabled folder is a place to put modules that you don't use all the time. Since this is a new, and unique feature to Extensions Strip, not all programs will recognize the name. Currently, only my Control Panels Strip module supports this disabled naming convention.
Registering - what happens:
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This information is covered in the How to register part of the "Cost/fee of registration" section of "3. Other stuff".
Once you receive the registration info back from Kagi, click on the "Register this copy" button and enter your name and/or company info with the registration code. After you click ok, the registration buttons will hide and the information you entered will be displayed there.
･ Troubleshooting questions & answers:
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Q: After installing Extensions Strip, whenever I restart or shutdown, my computer crashes!
A: Looks like you have a module that is crashing when it is asked to close. With Extensions Strip running, remove each loaded module one by one, until your Mac crashes. The last module removed is the culprit so you should disable it and look for a newer version. Please inform me of any such problem causing modules so that I can add them to the documentation.
Q: How do I get the strips to hide during screensavors and games?
A: There is currently no built in method for this. It will be added to Extensions Strip in the future, but for now I recommend using my Terminator Strip module to similar functionality.
Q: Why does the Finder prevent me from copying a custom icon onto the current root module folder?
A: The root module folder has its name locked so the Finder does not allow the icon to be modified. A suitable workaround is to create a new folder on your desktop and paste the icon onto that folder. Then rename the folder to the name of your root module folder, and move the current root folder's items into this new folder. Finally, drag the new folder into your System Folder to replace the old root module folder. Note: you should only do this with Extensions Strip not launched.
Q: Why is the scrolling of the about box text "jerky"?
A: Because the about box allows other programs to run at the same time. The only way to fix this would be to not allow other programs to run at the same time, which would not be nice of me (your 3Mb download would take a lot longer to finish!). Tip: the about box has help balloons.
Q: Where do you want to go today?
A: I try not to be that myopic.
Q: I have a question/problem with ES that is not answered in this section, or in the rest of the documentation.
A: Some potential questions will be answered in the section Future version features of the third file. If you still cannot find the answer, don't hesitate to e-mail me about it and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
