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- Greg's Buttons v3.1 (21 July 1993) ©1991-93 Gregory D. Landweber
- REGISTRATION FEE: UK £10 or US $15 Internet: gdl1000@cus.cam.ac.uk
- ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
-
- Greg's Buttons is a control panel that lets you customize the user interface
- of a Macintosh running System 7™. Greg's Buttons requires that your Mac
- support colour, so it won't work on the Plus, SE, Classic, or PowerBook 100.
- It works fine with both colour and gray-scale monitors, and although it will
- still work on a black and white screen, the effect won't be as impressive.
-
- LIST OF FEATURES
- =================
- • Replaces the standard flat black and white push buttons, check boxes, and
- radio buttons with tasteful 3-D colour ones. These buttons are designed to
- complement the windows and scroll bars in the System 7 interface, and in
- particular they use the colour tints that you can select in the "Colour"
- control panel. You can choose from two styles of push buttons and three
- styles each of radio buttons and check boxes. There is also an option to
- draw the text of push buttons using an "embossed" style.
-
- • Substitutes a font of your choice (chosen from Palatino and two versions
- of Helvetica) for Chicago as your system font. The system font is used in
- menus, window titles, dialog boxes, and several other places throughout
- the Mac interface. Note that this feature does more than just changing
- the menu font. Also note that this feature has nothing to do with the
- "Views" control panel, which changes the font in Finder™ windows.
-
- • Lets you select the background colour of dialog boxes, menus (both the
- text and background colours), and Finder™ windows. Since the dialog box
- colourization feature is known to cause some unavoidable aesthetic
- conflicts, there is an "Exclude Applications…" button which lets you
- specify applications in which the dialog boxes should not be colourized.
-
- • Colourizes the mini icons (the smallest size that you can select in the
- "Views" control panel) in Finder™ list views (View by Name, Date, Size,
- Kind, Label, Version, Comment, Favourite Melon, Astrological Sign, Sexual
- Preference, etc.).
-
- • Colourizes the stop sign, caution, and note alert icons.
-
- • Changes to "Greg's Buttons" setting will take effect as soon as you close
- the control panel.
-
- CHANGES (since v3.0)
- ====================
- • The buttons now look much nicer in 4-bit grayscale (16 shades of gray).
- • The "New Folder" button in some "Save as..." dialog boxes is now coloured.
- • Fixed the conflict with Now Compress.
- • Fixed conflict with Spaceward Ho!.
- • Fixed conflict with MasterJuggler.
- Note that Greg's Buttons requires MasterJuggler v1.58 or higher.
- • Fixed the conflict with Timbuktu.
- • Fixed conflict with MacMoney that caused button titles to be garbled.
- • Improved the appearance of push buttons in the ResEdit DLOG editor.
- • The dialog box colourization feature is now more robust in its choice
- of dialog boxes. In particular, it will colourize movable modal dialog
- boxes and the standard file boxes even when Dialog View is installed.
- • The exclusion list for the dialog box colourization feature now supports
- desk accessories as well as applications, and the list has been put in
- the prefs file (so you will not have to reconstruct it when you install
- a future version of Greg's Buttons).
- • The documentation file contains updated contact information.
-
- WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
- ========================
- "They don't look like buttons unless they're Greg's Buttons."
- "Apple should have included it in the Macintosh system software."
- "I can't imagine my Macintosh without Greg's Buttons."
- — Shiny Happy Registered-Users Holding Mice
- "Without your [buttons] our success would not have been possible
- during the past year." — Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.
- "I won the MacTutor Programming Challenge" — My newest t-shirt
-
- KNOWN PROBLEMS
- =================
- Greg's Buttons does some serious fiddling with the Macintosh user interface.
- While everything that Greg's Buttons does adheres to the various guidelines
- set up by Apple, applications often make invalid assumptions about their
- operating environment which no longer hold when you customize your Mac.
- Since the programmers did not forsee these changes, and since they never
- had the opportunity to test their products with Greg's Buttons, there are
- bound to be some conflicts. In most cases, these are not the fault of Greg's
- Buttons, but if I find out about them, I will try my best to work around such
- problems. Here are some of the most common examples:
-
- MasterJuggler
- -------------
- • The "Substitute System Font" feature will not function properly with
- MasterJuggler version 1.57c or earlier, but it should work fine with
- version 1.58. Contact ALSoft for the upgrade.
-
- Directory Assistance II
- ----------------------
- • I am told that Directory Assistance II prevents Greg's Buttons from
- colourizing the "New Folder..." button in the "Save as..." dialog box.
-
- theTypeBook
- ------------
- • When Greg's Buttons is installed, theTypeBook will generate a font
- error message, reporting "System Heap bit set: Font not loaded" for
- the ".Cambridge" FOND. This is nothing to be concerned about, and
- you can disable theTypeBook's font error checking using its "Other
- Options" dialog box (obtained by holding down the option key and
- selecting the "File" menu).
-
- MacWrite II
- -----------
- • When the "Substitute System Font" feature is enabled, the "File", "Edit",
- "Size", "Style", and "Format" menus in MacWrite II may freeze closed,
- refuse to pull down when you click on them. To fix this problem, switch
- to one of the "(Chicago Spacing)" versions of the substitute system font.
- This is a bug in the menu drawing routines in MacWrite II.
-
- • If the "Font" menu in MacWrite II freezes closed, you should remove the
- "Claris Fonts" file in your system folder (possibly in a subfolder named
- "Claris") to force MacWrite II to reconstruct its 'Font" menu the next
- time you launch it. This is also a bug in MacWrite II.
-
- Canvas
- -------
- • When the "Substitute System Font" feature is enabled, some of the menu
- items in Canvas may be "blurred" when you drag the mouse over them. To
- fix this problem, either turn off the "Substitute System Font" feature or
- selct the "Helvetica 12 (Chicago Spacing)" font. This is a bug in Canvas.
-
- Alarm Clock DA
- ---------------
- • The Alarm Clock DA does not work properly with the "(Normal Spacing)"
- substitute system fonts. Use the "(Chicago Spacing)" fonts instead.
-
- WriteNow
- ----------
- • If you try to use the Balloon Help for the Greg's Buttons control panel
- while WriteNow 3.0 is running, you may encounter spurious help balloons
- flashing on and off while you drag the mouse over Greg's Buttons. This
- happens with any control panel, and it appears to be a bug in WriteNow.
-
- Microsoft Graph
- ---------------
- • The Microsoft Graph module seems to override the System 7 colour Buttons
- feature. As far as I can tell, MSGraph bypasses the standard button
- drawing (and window dragging) routines in favor of its own, which look
- and behave just like the standard ones. It also uses non-standard
- windows without a close box, and it akes over a strip at the bottom of
- the screen for astatus bar. Why can't Microsoft do things the Apple way
- like everybody else?
-
- Finder 7.1.1
- ------------
- • The Finder mini-icon colourization feature will not work with Finder 7.1.1.
- Nothing bad will happen; your mini-icons will revert to black and white.
- If and when Finder 7.1.1 is actually released, I will release a new version
- of Greg's Buttons fixing this problem. All the rest of the features should
- work with Finder 7.1.1 without requiring any modification.
-
- COMMENTS, and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
- ==============================================
- If Greg's Buttons causes problems on your Mac, try disabling its features
- one-by-one until the problem goes away. Most likely, the problem is caused
- by only one of the many features, and the rest of the features will work
- fine for you. In particular, any problem relating to dialog boxes is probably
- caused by the dialog box colourization feature, while a problem involving
- menus is most likely due to either the substitute system font or the menu
- colourization feature. The buttons themselves are exremely stable.
-
- "Substitute System Font" Feature
- -------------------------------
- • Several programs, such as Canvas, MacWrite II, and the Alarm Clock DAm
- do not bother to check the system font spacing, assuming the spacing for
- Chicago. As a result, they do not work properly with the "Normal Spacing"
- versions of the substitute system fonts. In order to maintain
- compatibility with such programs, I have included a "Chicago Spacing"
- version which uses spacing similar to Chicago. You may notice, however,
- that the numbers will appear oddly spaced in this version of the font.
-
- • No, it is not possible to substitute an arbitrary font for the system font.
- The font has to be tweaked rather significantly in order for it to work
- reliably. If you have a pet font that you'd like to see added to the list of
- alternate system fonts in Greg's Buttons, let me know via e-mail.
-
- • When you switch system fonts, the menus may not adjust to the new font
- spacing immediately. This will be fixed when the menu bar is redrawn.
-
- • Note that thin fonts, such as "Helvetica 12" and "Palatino 12" will be
- illegible when dimmed or grayed-out on a black and white monitor.
-
- "Alerts and Dialog Boxes" Background Colour Feature
- -----------------------------------------------
- • Some applications assume that they are dealing with a black and white
- dialog box while Greg's Buttons substitutes a colour one. The difference is
- enough to cause some odd behavior. There is no way to fix such conflicts
- without rewriting parts of the offending applications. However, you can
- specify applications to be excluded from this feature by clicking the
- "Exclude Applications..." button and adding the application to the exclusion
- list. The list includes Microsoft Word, Canvas, Help!, Disk First Aid, and.
- Master Juggler. You might also want to add Tax Cut, Spaceward Ho!, or
- Battleship to the list if you use any of these programs.
-
- • For some choices of the dialog box background colour, the text insertion
- cursor may be drawn in a just barely visible colour. This is the result of
- the brain-dead routines the Mac uses to figure out a "suitable" inverse
- (it thinks light yellow shows up well against a light gray, for instance).
- To get around this, try changing the dialog box background colour very
- slightly, and the inverse routine may arbitrarily pick a better colour.
-
- "Menu Bar and Menus" Colour Feature
- --------------------------------
- • If you are using another control panel (such as "Aurora" or "Kolor 2.0") to
- colour your menu bar, your previous menu colour settings will override the
- settings in the Greg's Buttons control panel. If you want to use the menu
- colourization feature in Greg's Buttons instead, use the other control panel
- to set the menu colours back to black and white. Greg's Buttons will then
- remove the colour information from the system file and substitute its own.
-
- "Finder Window Colour" Feature
- ----------------------------
- • When you quit from an application that modifies the system colour palette,
- some Finder windows may be left with sploches of random colours in them.
- This will go away as soon as the offending windows are re-drawn. There
- is nothing that I can do about this problem. The Finder is responsible for
- updating its windows; I just tell it what colour to use.
-
- "System 7 Colour Buttons" Feature
- -------------------------------
- • The third radio button dot style uses the highlight colour that you can
- select in the "Colour" control panel.
-
- • Occasionally, you may find that push button titles are "fuzzy", "blocky"
- or "blurred". This has been known to happen in Word, the HP DeskWriter
- dialog box and Alias Director. This problem will go away if you turn
- off the "Embossed Push Button Text".
-
- Customing Greg's Buttons using ResEdit
- -------------------------------------
- • If you don't know what a CICN is, then I won't tell you, but if you do know
- and have ResEdit, then you can design your own radio buttons and check
- boxes. To add the colour tinges, you use the corresponding SICN resources.
- The first SICN in each 2-SICN list gives the pixels that are drawn with
- the dark tinge. The second SICN in the list (the mask) gives all the pixels
- that are drawn with either the light or dark tinge. So, the pixels drawn
- with the light tinge are those in the mask but not in the first SICN.
- If you do not want any colour tinges, just delete the SICN.
-
- • Do not use ResEdit on the active Greg's Buttons file! In addition to the
- standard warnings, this could crash your Mac. Make a copy first, and use
- ResEdit on that copy. After you have made your changes, drag the original
- file out of the system folder, put the copy in its place, and restart.
-
- • Resources in the System file will override those in the Greg's Buttons
- file with the same ID number. If you want your ResEdit modifications to
- last between versions of Greg's Buttons, install them in your System file.
- This way, you won't have to reinstall these resources every time you get
- a new version of Greg's Buttons.
-
- REGISTRATION
- ==============
- "Greg's Buttons" is SHAREWARE. You may try it out for ten days. If after
- that time, you think it is a frivolous waste of processor time and disk
- space, just take a good look at your Mac without Greg's Buttons. It will
- look dull, Dull, DULL! If you want to keep it, you should register as follows:
-
- Shareware Fees
- ---------------
- • Single Machine License — UK£10 / US$15
- • 2 - 14 Machine License — UK£6 / US$10 per machine
- • Unlimited Site License — UK£100 / US$150
-
- Methods of Payment
- -------------------
- • UK Pounds Sterling, either by cheque (drawn on a UK bank), EuroCheque,
- or cash sent to one of the following addresses in ENGLAND (note the dates):
- Until 1 October 1993:
- G. D. Landweber, Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ
- From 1 October 1993 to 31 July 1994:
- G. D. Landweber, New College, Oxford OX1 3BN
-
- • US Dollars, either by check (drawn on a US bank), postal money order, or
- cash sent to my home address in the USA:
- Gregory D. Landweber
- 10 Wallingford Drive
- Princeton, NJ 08540
-
- • Please do not send any currencies other than UK£ or US$ .
-
- Please make the check payable to me, "Gregory D. Landweber", NOT to
- "Greg's Buttons". With your payment include me your e-mail address
- (preferably internet), the version number, and where you got your copy.
-
- After Registering
- -----------------
- • There are no passwords, enabling codes, or registration numbers. Once
- you have registered, you are entitled to feel good about yourself and to
- turn off the "Tiresome Shareware Message" check box. You will NOT get
- any feedback from me to acknowledge receipt of your shareware payment.
- Please do not worry whether I got your money. If you sent a check, you'll
- find out from your bank, and if you sent cash, well, it's the thought that
- counts, isn't it! Having paid once, you will never have to pay me anything
- again, even if I add zillions of features and raise the shareware fee.
-
- • If you obtained this version from an online service, BBS, or User's Group,
- then you should be able to obtain any and all new releases from the same
- souce. If you got this version from a CD-ROM or bundled with a book, and
- if you have no other way of acquiring the latest update, send me a politely
- worded letter explaining your predicament. If the version you are using is
- sufficiently out-of-date, I will eventually send you the most recent one.
- Please do NOT mail me floppy disks or extra money and then complain that
- I do not reply. I'm a mathematician, not a commercial software publisher.
-
- • I will gladly e-mail a binhex'd copy of the latest version of Greg's Buttons
- to anyone who e-mails me a request. I can only send the file to addresses
- on CompuServe or the Internet. The file is too large to cross the gateway
- to America Online or AppleLink. Sorry.
-
- DISTRIBUTION
- ==============
- This software is NOT in the public domain; rather it is Copyright ©1993 by
- Gregory D. Landweber (with parts Copyright ©1993 Symantec Corporation
- since it was written in Think C 6.0). You may freely copy and distribute
- this software, provided that it you do not charge for it. This software MAY
- be included in any disk or CD-ROM library of public domain and shareware
- software sold by a NON-PROFIT organization. This software MAY NOT be
- included in any commercial software collection sold for profit, nor may it
- be bundled with any commercial software, hardware, books, or other media
- without the prior written consent of the author. Whenever it is distributed,
- the "Greg's Buttons" control panel must be accompanied by this
- documentation file IN FULL.
-
- DISCLAIMER
- ============
- The author, Gregory D. Landweber, makes no warranties, either express or
- implied, regarding the fitness of the "Greg's Buttons" control panel for any
- particular purpose. Use the "Greg's Buttons" control panel at your own risk.
- The author claims no liability for data loss or any other problems caused
- directly or indirectly by the "Greg's Buttons" control panel.