This chapter assumes that MacLife—MouseSaver has been installed into your Control Panels Folder. (Installation instructions can be found under the Chapters menu.)
Configuring MacLife—MouseSaver:
To configure MacLife—MouseSaver, select Control Panels from the Apple Menu. Then, double-click on MacLife—MouseSaver. (You might want to view the Finder window by name to make it easier to find the MouseSaver Control Panel.)
To turn MacLife—MouseSaver on or off, click on the appropriate on or off radio button.
Assigning hot keys to functions:
Configuring the control panel is simple. Just click on one of the functions in the list box, and then click on the Select Hot Key… button. Then you can type the hot key of your choice, using the control, option, command, shift keys as well as any other key on your keyboard. Once you are satisfied with your choice, click on the OK button.
You can also use the keyboard instead of the mouse to change hot keys. The up and down arrow keys will move the selection up and down, and return will yield the Select Hot Key… dialog box. After you type in the key you’d like to use, you can type return to dismiss the dialog box.
Repeat the above process for each of the functions that you want to activate. You can also deactivate a function by hitting the Clear Key button after hitting the Select Hot Key… button.
To check the hot keys assigned to your functions, just click on them and view the hot key displayed underneath the Select Hot Key… button.
You can also test out the functions of the MouseSaver Control Panel by selecting a function and hitting the test function! Before you try them all though, remember that shutdown and restart will indeed do just that! :)
Adding hot keys to documents, applications, and control panels:
You can also add hot keys to documents, applications, and control panels on your Mac. Just hit the Add file... button and select the file you’d like to add a hot key to. Then, after clicking on “Open” to add the file, MouseSaver will add the file to its list of functions. To assign a hot key to the file, follow the instructions above on assigning hot keys to functions. To remove a file, simply select a file and click on the Remove file button.
Just hit the hot key that you assigned when configuring the Control Panel and the feature assigned will take effect. The shutdown, restart, and sleep features are all Finder-safe in that they use AppleEvents to tell the Finder to perform these options. So that hitting these hot keys is exactly the same operation as selecting them from the Finder. It’s particularly good for functions like shutting down and restarting, since they will ask you to save any unsaved documents before taking their actions. They won’t simply shut down or restart without giving you a chance to save your work!
The one downside to this approach is that it requires applications to be able to send AppleEvents. You will not be able to use the shutdown, restart, and sleep commands from within applications that aren’t able to use AppleEvents because the System ignores AppleEvent messages from these applications. The accelerated Empty Trash command also has the same requirement, as it also uses AppleEvents to let the Finder know that the trash has been emptied. If the application you are using is not AppleEvent aware, and you enact the accelerated Empty Trash hot key, it will leave one file and folders in the trash. You can erase these at any time by hitting the hot key inside an AppleEvent aware application such as the Finder.
Set Volume…:
The Set Volume… hot key lets you change the speaker volume on the fly. Just hit the hot key you assigned for it, and then click on one of the numbers to set the volume. You can also type a number from 0 to 7. It’s that simple.
Mac Task Manager…:
The Mac Task Manager… hot key brings the Windows Task Manager to the Macintosh. When you invoke the hot key, a dialog box will appear with a list of all open applications. You can then use the mouse, or the keyboard to move to the application of your choice. The up and down arrow keys move the selection, and the return key moves you to the selected application. I think you’ll agree that it’s a vast improvement over the Mac’s Application pull-down menu. Once you start using this feature, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!
Switch to Next Application…:
The switch to next application hot key is a simple hot key that lets you switch between applications. Just hit the switch to next application hot key to go to the next application. Then hit it again to go to the next one and so on.
File Sharing Toggle:
We’ve brought the functionality of our File Sharing Toggle product to MacLife—MouseSaver with this convenient hot key. File Sharing is one of the best features in System 7, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Running File Sharing slows down your machine some and uses up some of your memory. And there are always those times when you’d rather not be on the network. With the File Sharing Toggle hot key, you’ll be able to turn File Sharing on and off with the hot key of your choice—a big improvement over going to the Control Panels folder, finding and opening the Sharing Setup… Control Panel, and hitting the start/stop button.
Enacting hot keys for documents, applications, and control panels:
To open a file you set a hot key for, just type the hot key and MouseSaver will automatically open the file for you.
