Copyright 1994 PrairieSoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome to the DiskTop 4.5.2 Read Me file.
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Item 1
Hold Down Command and Option Keys When Dragging to Remove Columns
Page 16 of the DiskTop manual fails to state that you must hold down the Command and Option keys to remove a column by dragging its heading up or down. When the outline of the column heading disappears, release the mouse button and the column will be removed.
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Item 2
Manual Is Misleading About Rearranging Columns
Page 17 of the DiskTop manual states that to insert a column between two other columns, you must place the left edge of the column heading (outline) between the two current headings. You do not need to be that precise. If you place the left edge of the column outline on any column heading and release the mouse button, the moved column will be inserted to the right of that column.
For example, if you want to place the Creator column immediately to the right of the Name column, simply (press the Command and Option keys and) drag the left edge the outline of the Creator column heading onto the Name column heading and release the mouse button.
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Item 3
Manual Does Not Mention That Using "Where" Causes Circle to Flash
Page 24 of the manual mentions that when searching a drive accessed over the network, the circle next to the "Find" button (in the Find Criteria dialog box) will display a flashing dot. This is true. Also, if you specify a certain portion of a drive to search using the "Where" button, the circle also will contain a flashing dot during the search.
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Item 4
Quick Reference Page Omitted Command-\ and Command-J for Refreshing DiskTop Window
Command-\ (backslash) or Command-J refreshes the information shown in the DiskTop window. The window refreshes each time it opens or Command-\ is pressed. Changes made using a different application may not appear until the window is refreshed. For example, you can use the Finder to change file or folder names while DiskTop is open in the background. When you refresh the DiskTop window the new names will appear.
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Item 5
MFS Disks No Longer Fully Supported
Earlier versions of DiskTop supported the early Macintosh File System (MFS) disks, as well as the Hierarchical File System (HFS) disks. The MFS disks stored 400K and were the first disks used by the earliest Macintosh models. When the Macintosh Plus was released, the HFS disks (allowing 800K, double-sided) quickly superseded the MFS disks.
DiskTop no longer fully supports MFS disks.
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Item 6
Alarming Events Users May Want to Change Hot Key
If you use Alarming Events, also from PrairieSoft, Inc. (and formerly from CE Software), you may want to change the default hot key used to open Alarming Events (Command-Option-T) to something else. DiskTop uses Command-T to delete selected items. DiskTop uses Command-Option-T to delete items without displaying the "are you sure..." dialog box.
To change the Alarming Events hot key, open Alarming Events, select "General Preferences..." from the Alarming Events menu and select the text inside the Calendar Window Hot Key box. Press the new keys you want to use. Click "OK."
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Item 7
Hold Down the Shift or Option Key When Inserting Diskette to Prevent Switching
Normally, if you are viewing the contents of a disk in the DiskTop window and you insert a diskette (or other ejectable media), DiskTop will switch the window to display the contents of the floppy disk. If you hold down the Shift key or the Option key when inserting the floppy disk, the window will not change.
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Item 8
File Sharing & Idle-time Compression Products Slow Down Find
System 7's File Sharing slows down many operations that require a program to generate a list of all files on the drive, including DiskTop's Find operations.
If you are not using File Sharing, make sure it is turned off in the Sharing Setup Control Panel. DiskTop's Find may operate three times slower if file sharing is turned on.
Idle-time compression programs such as Symantec's AutoDoubler (formerly from Salient / Fifth Generation Systems) may also cause a slow down in search speed. Such products may cause the system to open each compressed file on the disk as the disk is being searched, in order to obtain information about the file's normal (uncompressed) state. This causes far more disk activity than normal and thus slows down DiskTop's Find. Such products may make DiskTop's Find more than twice as slow as normal.
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Item 9
Changing the DiskTop Hot Keys
The hot keys (such as Command-Shift-D) used to open DiskTop, DT Launch, DiskTop Find and GOfer can be altered using a dialog box available through DT Launch. Open DT Launch and click the "Other..." button. Click on the hot key you wish to reassign and press the keys you want to use for the new hot key. Click "OK." Click the "Exit" button to close DT Launch.
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Item 10
Rebuild Your Desktop If Some Files Will Not Open
DiskTop may ask you to select a program to open certain documents when you double-click them in the DiskTop window. If you notice this happens only with documents created by certain applications, try rebuilding the desktop.
NOTE: Rebuilding the desktop will remove any remarks made in the Comments field of the Finder's Get Info box for all files. Remarks made as "DT Info" in DiskTop's Get Info box will remain.
To rebuild the desktop, restart your computer and press and hold the Command and Option keys before the Finder opens. After a few moments, a dialog box will ask if you wish to rebuild the desktop on your hard drive. Click "Yes." Keep holding the Command and Option keys down until you see a progress bar or thermometer that indicates the progress of the rebuild—then you can release the keys.
Desktop files contain information that match files to the programs that created them. Occasionally, these files become damaged. Rebuilding repairs the desktop file, allowing DiskTop to once again launch the files.
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Item 11
Error Code 25 in Copy/Move/Find Where/Make Alias Dialog Box Result of Incompatible Extension
Some third party extensions which modify the standard Open and Save dialog boxes are incompatible with DiskTop. Using these extensions often results in the machine "freezing" or generates an "Error ID=25" message when you open DiskTop's Copy, Move or Make Alias dialog box or use the "Where" button in the Find Criteria dialog box. Known examples are Norton Directory Assistance from Symantec's Norton Utilities and SuperBoomerang from Now Software.
Some of these extensions include options that can be used to turn off the extension when DiskTop is active. Check the documentation that came with the extension.
NOTE: Updating to SuperBoomerang version 4.0.2 or Norton Directory Assistance version 2.0.6 seems to correct this problem.
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Item 12
Error Code -108 When Copying
DiskTop uses "temporary memory" (memory unused by other programs) when copying files and displaying large lists. Some applications withhold large amounts of temporary memory. If you get a "Not enough memory -108 Error" when copying files, quit some applications and try again.
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Item 13
Deneba Big Thesaurus 2.0 and Coach Professional 4.0 May Conflict With DiskTop
These versions of these programs do not allow the DiskTop desk accessory to open. They do not prevent DT Launch from operating.
Installing or updating to version 2.0.1 or later of Big Thesaurus or version 4.0.1 or later of Coach Professional fixes this problem.
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Item 14
Renaming DiskTop May Prevent DiskTop Find from Opening
If you select "DiskTop Find" from the Apple menu, and nothing happens, check that DiskTop has not been renamed. Users sometimes rename DiskTop to begin with a space, causing it to be listed at the top of the Apple menu. If it has been renamed, change the name to "DiskTop". Make sure there are no spaces before or after the name.
NOTE: System 7 users can create an alias for DiskTop and rename the alias, but "DiskTop" must remain in the Apple menu with its original name.
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Item 15
Compressed Files Type/Creator/Attributes May Not Change
Some background or automatic file compression programs will not allow DiskTop to alter the type, creator or attributes of compressed files (through DiskTop's Technical level Get Info dialog box). To alter these files, expand them to normal size, make the changes and compress them again.
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Item 16
Close and Open Folder to See Type/Creator/Attributes Changes in Finder
Changes made in DiskTop's Technical level Get Info box may not appear in the Finder until you force the Finder to refresh its information. A simple way to do that is to close and open the folder in the Finder.
If you are using System 6.x, you may need to turn off the INITed bit for the file, or turn on the Changed bit or rebuild the desktop to see the changes reflected in the Finder. Your DiskTop manual has details on the attribute check boxes.
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Item 17
When Looking on a File Server or in the Fonts Folder—Technical View is Faster
When you look at the contents of a folder or drive in Normal view, DiskTop must look up the creating application for each file it finds in order to determine the Kind. Fonts do not have a creating application.
When you use Technical view, DiskTop simply lists the four letter Type and Creator for the file. The difference in speed is not noticeable when examining a local drive, but if you have to reach the drive over the network, you will find that Technical view lists the files on the drive much faster than Normal view.
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Item 18
DiskTop on the New PowerPC Macintosh (Power Macintosh) Computers
DiskTop works well on the PowerPC Macs. Currently, we do not have a native PowerPC version of DiskTop available.
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Item 19
Change History-Version 4.5 to 4.5.1 to 4.5.2
DiskTop 4.5.2 fixes the following problem found in DiskTop 4.5 and 4.5.1:
- If you are using DiskTop 4.5 or 4.5.1 and System 7.5, then DiskTop 4.5 or 4.5.1 would "crash" when you try to run it, leaving a thin strip of window containing the column heading buttons. This crash has been traced to a problem in the new "Apple Menu Options" control panel in System 7.5. It is NOT a bug in DiskTop itself. The new "Apple Menu Options" control panel in System 7.5 provides the hierarchical Apple menu items and the "Recent" items on the Apple menu. The Apple Menu Options control panel is not required for normal system operation - it provides new "convenience" features. Apple is aware of this problem, but rather than make you wait for their fix to the Apple Menu Options control panel, we created DiskTop 4.5.2, which provides a safe "work around" for Apple's problem. You can use DiskTop 4.5.2 and the System 7.5 Apple Menu Options control panel together with no crashes. DiskTop 4.5.2 also works just fine with the previously supported versions of System 6 and System 7.
This is the only new problem corrected by DiskTop 4.5.2.
DiskTop 4.5.1 contained fixes for these minor problems found in DiskTop 4.5:
- System 7 Pro / PowerTalk users discovered that a new "disk" entitled Mail Enclosures now appears in the Find Criteria dialog box. Attempting to search this volume caused the Macintosh to crash.
- People printing the contents of the DiskTop window discovered that strange characters appeared where the column headings should be or that the computer would crash.
- If users added a type or creator to the bottom of the pop-up menus of types and creators found in the Find Criteria dialog box, the new type or creator was placed at the top of the menu instead of at the bottom or odd characters would appear.
- People using Adobe Type Manager on Macintosh computers that use the 68000 processor (Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, PowerBook 100) discovered that clicking the "Find" button or selecting "Path..." from the DiskTop menu would cause the computer to crash.
- People who had previously renamed CEToolbox to something that would place it later in the alphabet (so it would load later in the startup process) discovered that the Installer did not correctly install CEToolbox when DiskTop 4.5 was installed. This problem has been fixed the new DiskTop Installer.
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DiskTop and DT Launch are trademarks of PrairieSoft, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
