When you open Macintosh Explorer you will see some buttons at the top of the main window. These buttons help you navigate your hard drive and also give you easy access to many of Macintosh Explorer's features.
Back button: The back button goes back through the history list. When it gets to the last field in the history it becomes disabled.
Up Button: The Up button goes up a directory. It will select the parent directory of the file or folder Macintosh Explorer is currently pointing too in the left directory list, If you are pointing to a volume or the folder has no parent it will be disabled.
Forward Button: The Forward Button goes forward through the history list. When it reaches the last item in the history list it becomes disabled.
Reload Button: The Reload button refreshes the list of files. If you've made a change to the directory then you should hit reload. For most functions in Macintosh Explorer the files are reloaded automatically. But if you have made a change in the Finder (i.e renamed a file or folder) then you should reload the list.
Home Button: The Home button deletes all the listed files and folders anjd brings you back to the root of your desktop. The Home button is useful when you have many open folders or you need to quickly get back to the root of your desktop.
Cut/Copy/Paste Buttons: The Cut button lets you choose a file that will be moved. After you have selected the file you would like to move press the Cut Button. Then find the place you want to move it to and press the Paste Button. The Copy button lets you choose files that will be copied. After you have chosen the file you want to copy click the Copy Button. Then chose a folder to copy the files to and press the Paste Button. If the file/folder that you are trying to copy/move does not get copied/moved to the selected area than you will get an error. The Paste Button will be enabled only when you have chosen a file to cut or copy. Note: you can also use Command-Key shortcuts from the edit menu to perform the same tasks.
Delete Button: The Delete Button will delete the selected files/folders. When your press the delete button the selected files and folders will be listed in a new window. Deleting a file or folder from this method will permanently delete it. This button is disabled when it points to a volume.
Info Button: The info button brings up a new window displaying name, kind, size, creation/modification date, Maccreator, Mactype, visibility, extended finder flags and much more. it also lets you change the Mactype/Maccreator, name, visibility and lock/unlock files.
Favorites Button: The Favorites Button will show and hide the favorites list. You can also show and hide the favorites from the checkbox at the bottom of the main window.
Save List Button: The Save List Button takes the files/folders from the right file list and saves them as a text file so you can keep them as a record or print them.
Preferences Button: The Preferences Button opens the preference window and lets you modify Macintosh Explorers Behavior and appearance.
Shrink Button: The shrink button will shrink Macintosh Explorer into a small floating window. The floating window has all your favorites from your favorites folders listed. Double clicking a file will launch it, and double clicking a folder will open it in the Finder. CAUTION - do not use this feature in OS 8.1.
Browsing
Under The Buttons you will see a path field, an open button, a favorites folder icon, a black triangle (or links if the black triangle is pointing up) and two lists. You will use these items to browse your hard drives.
Path Field: The Path Field located at the top of the main window, shows the full path of the item you are pointing to. You can drag files/folders from the Finder and press return (or enter) to list the folder's contents or launch the file. A URL may be entered into the path field to open the URL in your default web browser. To open a URL you must begin it with http://, www, www1, www2, www3, or ftp:// . The path field can also be used to find files on your hard drives. You can find files by name, creator, type or find all invisible files. To do this, select the criteria you want to search by using the popup menu to the left of the path field. Then type the text in the path field and press the find button.
Links: The links are an easy way to store 33 of your favorite files and folders. A single click will launch the file or list the items in the folder. Links can not be deleted just changed. To change a link, just drag and drop a file or folder from Macintosh Explorer or from the Finder on top of one of the icons. You can drag already created links by holding option and dragging. Once you have started dragging the link you can release the option key. The links also support contextual menus. Control-click the link to display the contextual menus and perform various tasks on the specified link.
The File Lists: The file lists are where all your files and folders are displayed. The left list shows the folders on your desktop. From the file lists you can single click a folder to list its items or you can double click a file to open it. In the file lists you can drag and drop between each list or to the Finder and the Finder to the file lists (holding option to copy). When you view a folder its full path will be listed in the history. You can view the history by clicking the little arrows on the right side of the path field. At the top of the file lists, the number of items in the list are displayed and how many are selected. To select multiple files hold down the shift key or Command key as you select the files.
Favorites: The favorites list can be opened by pressing the favorites button beside the path field in the Explorer window or by the favorites folder icon at the bottom of the Explorer Window. The favorites come from your favorites folder located in your System Folder. You can add items to the favorites by dragging and dropping them from Macintosh Explorer or from the Finder. When you drop an item onto the favorites list, an alias is made in the favorites folder. You can delete items from the favorites by selecting the items you want to delete (hold shift to select multiple files) and pressing the delete button on your keyboard. Deleting items from the favorites will only delete the item located in the favorites folder.b ccbn
Bottom Info
At the bottom of the main window you will see information about the selected file/folder (the file pointed to by the path field). It shows the icon, name, modification/creation date, size, and Maccreator/Mactype. From here you can change the file's name. To change the name, click the files name and you will be able to edit it. Press return when you are done to change the name. To change the Maccreator/type open the info window by going to the File Menu and Choosing get info. Also at the bottom there is a trash icon and a favorites folder icon. The heart icon will show/hide the favorites and the trash icon will show the items in the trash. Clicking on a folder's icon will open the folder in the Finder and clicking on a file will launch the file in the Finder. That way, if for some reason when you double click a file and it doesn’t open, you can click the file's icon here. If there is an error (i.e.. there is not enough memory or it can't find the creator) than the Finder will return an error. Note: If you are pointing to a volume, the trash can, the temporary files folder, the documents folder or an invisible file/folder you will not be able to change the name.
Info Window
The info window can be shown by pressing the info button in the main window, going to the File Menu and choosing get info, or pressing COMMAND-I. The info window brings up information about the selected file/folder. From the info window you can change the name, the visibility, the comment and for files the Maccreator/type and lock status. The info window provides a small popupmenu with popular types of files. Selecting one will change the creator and type of the file to the type selected. You can also press the Same As... button to change the creator and type to match a selected file. You can view but not change the extended finder flags (Changing maybe be implemented in later versions). In the Info Window you may chose to preview the file. Just select preview from the popupmenu at the top of the window. You can preview pictures and movies. If you have a newer version of QuickTime you can also preview files as text. Just press the Play Movie button and it will be read line by line. When you click the change button the file's properties will be changed to whatever you specify. If you do not want to change the file or folder's information then just close the window using the close button. Clicking the file/folder's icon will reveal it in the Finder.
New Folder Window
To create a new folder go to the folder you want to create the folder in and select File->New Folder. The New folder window will appear allowing you to enter the name for a new folder. When creating a new folder remember that you can not use colons(:) in the folder name and the name can only be 32 characters long. If you use a colon(:) it will be replaced by a hyphen(-). Click the Create Button to create the folder. If the folder name already exists a dialoge will appear and you will have to change the name.
Delete Window
The Delete Window comes up when you click the delete button in the Explorer window. To delete items, select the items you want to delete and press the delete button. Deleting a file/folder permanently deletes it, It wont move it to the trash. In the delete window you can drag and drop new items into the list or delete an item from the list by selecting the items and pressing the delete button. (To select multiple files hold down the shift key while you are selecting).
Open With Window
The Open with window allows you to open a file with another application. To do this, select the file you wish to open and press Command-Option-O or choose Open With from the File Menu. In the Open with window you will see four buttons. The button to the left will close the window. The next button labeled browse lets you find another application to open the file with. Click open and the file will be opened with that application. You can also use the get creator button, which will get the file's creator.
New Browser Window
The new browser window looks almost like a list view from the Finder. You can take files or folder from it and drop it in Macintosh Explorer. If you hold option-drag than it will be copied into Macintosh Explorer. You can not drag from Macintosh Explorer to the New Browser Window. You can open as many new browser windows as you like but the more that are opened the more memory they take up. When you open a New Browser Window it will start from the same folder that Macintosh Explorer is at. (To select multiple files hold down shift as you select the files)
Backing Up Files and Folders
Macintosh Explorer lets you easily back up your files and folders. Just select the files/folders you want to back up and go to the Special -> Back Up Files/Folders. A new dialog will appear with the list of the selected files/folders. You can add more by drag and dropping files and folders from the Finder or from Macintosh Explorer. When you have all the files and folders you want to back up press the select folder button to select the folder to back up the files in. Once you have done that click the back up button and all the files/folders will be backed up. It is best to back them up on a different hard drive or upload them to a server. You can also choose to stuff the backed up files/folders by selecting "stuff folder that files are backed up too" checkbox. Macintosh Explorer also allows you to save the backed up files to a text file which can be later opened again so that you can back up your files regularly. You should always create a new folder when backing up files/folders so that files that you don't want to be stuffed do not get stuffed. When Macintosh Explorer backs up your files and stuff folder that files are backed up too is checked the parent directory is stuffed.
Note: To use the stuff option you must have the stuffit engine installed which you can get from http://www.aladdinsys.com/.
Deleting Unused Files
Macintosh Explorer lets you easily delete unused files and folder from your hard drives. To do this go into the folder you want to search for unused files and folders and go to Special ->Find Unused files/folders. A new window will come up asking what files you want to delete. You can either chose files/folders with no creator, that take up no space, have no creator AND take up no space, or files/folders that either take up no space OR have no creator. After choosing what you want and selecting the OK button the files/folders that match the criteria will be listed. You can either delete all the files/folders or move them to the trash. You can also save a list of all their names to keep track of them. If you want to add more files to the list you can drag and drop them from Macintosh Explorer or from the Finder. To delete items from this list select the items you want to delete and press the delete key on your keyboard. (Hold shift to select multiple files). Deleting unused files will permanently delete the listed files. It will not move them to the trash.
Preferences
The preference window lets you modify Macintosh Explorer's behavior and appearance. Here is a description of the preferences options.
Browsing
Use Real icons: If selected, this option will show the real icons of the files and folders in the Explorer window. If this isn't selected Macintosh Explorer will use a set of icons for different creator types. Deselecting this option will speed up browsing by over 75%.
Hide Invisible Files: This option will hide invisible files. It is better to hide them so that you don't delete an invisible file or folder by mistake. This option is enabled by default.
Protect Invisible Files: Protecting Invisible Files will not let you change invisible file's info, delete them, or change their visibility.
Display Extended Info: Displaying Extended info will show more info for the files/folders in the file lists.
Show Creation Date: This will show the creation date instead of the modification date in the file lists. This requires Display Extended Info to selected.
Always open files using Finder: This option will always open files using the Finder instead of Macintosh Explorer. Opening files in the Finder will return errors if the file can't be opened and always bring the application to the front when it is launched.
Select Expanded Row: If this option is selected, whenever you expand a row in the Folder List it will be selected.
Options
Auto Open Picture Viewer: Auto open picture viewer will open the built in picture viewer of Macintosh Explorer hwne a picture file is selected to allow picture previews while you browse.
Confirm Copy/Move: If this option is selected a dialog will pop up telling you where the files or folders were moved to when the were dragged on top of a folder in the Explorer Window.
Live Window Drag: This option will update the window while its moving not only once it is moved. Also it lets you move the main window from anywhere inside it.
Disable File Path: Disabling the file path disables the text field at the top of the main window. When you disable the file path it lets you easily tab between the two listboxes. although this feature does make file browsing more convenient, you can not type anything in the file path but you can still drop items into it.
Protect all files: This fetaure will not allow users to manipulate any file or folder. It is best used with the new security feature. (See Below for more details.)
Appearance
Colours
The Colour preferences lets you select any color to match your iMac or iBook. It includes the colours from the new and old iMacs. It will also allow you to chose any other colour of your choice
Font & Themes
In the fonts & themes preferences you can change the default font used by the lists in Macintosh Explorer and you can give Macintosh Explorer an Aqua look.
Interface
Show Bottom Info: This option will let you show or hide the info for files/ folders at the bottom of the main window.
Calculate folder Size: Calculate folder size will show the size of the selected folder at the bottom of the main window. This makes browsing slower when Macintosh Explorer has to calculate folder size.
Hide Extended Buttons: If this option is selected only the five basic buttons required for file navigation are shown.
On Open
Hide links: This option will hide the links bar when Macintosh Explorer is opened.
Start At:
• Last Place Visited: If this option is selected, Macintosh Explorer will start from the last visited folder the last time you ran Macintosh Explorer.
• Start up Volume: If this option is selected, Macintosh Explorer will start from the start up volume when opened.
• Other: If this option is selected, You will be able to start from a folder that you chose. If no other folder is chosen then you will start from the Macintosh Explorer folder.
Security
Macintosh Explorer now includes a new security feature. This security feature allows you to quit the Finder but still use Macintosh Explorer to browse your hard drives. When the Finder is quit the user will not have access to the hard drives from the desktop. This feature is especially useful for schools who don't want students to mess around with the system. To set up Macintosh Explorer to not allow users to manipulate files or folders you must open the preferences and do the following:
1. Enter a password in the password field. (should be atleast 5 characters and contain letters and number)
2. Go to Browing and select Protect all files.
3. Go to Browsing and select hide invisible files
4. Go to security and press the Quit Finder button
5. close the preferences
Now the user will not have access to the hard drives from the desktop, only form Macintosh Explorer. Users also won't be able to edit the preferences without the password.
Macintosh Explorer does not allow viewing of it's own preferences so the user will never be able to see the password from within Macintosh Explorer.
To launch the Finder just go into the preferences-security and press the Launch Finder button.
You can also launch Macintosh Explorer before your hard drives mount for greater security. To do this, place the Macintosh Explorer CSM into your Control Strip Modules Folder located in the System Folder. Go to the Control Strip Control panel and select Show Control Strip. Restart your Mac holding Command Option to rebuild your desktop. when the dialog appears asking you if you want to rebuild your desktop do not click any buttons, Wait for the control strip to load and launch Macintosh Explorer using the control strip module. Once in Macintosh Explorer configure the security options stated above.
Important: The security feature is not 100% secure. Advanced users may be able to get by this feature by using other software programs. Rage Software recommends that it be used on top of other security programs.
Copying and Moving Files/Folders
With Macintosh Explorer copying and moving files has never been easier. There are many ways to do it.
Moving: There are three ways to move files/folders. To move files/folder you can press the Cut button and then press the paste button in the area you want to move the file/folder to. You can also drag and drop files/folders between file lists. If you drop a file from the right file list to the left file list than it will be automatically moved to the folder it is dropped on. When you want to move a file/folder from the left list to the right list don't click the item just drag it. If you single click the folder then contents will be displayed. The third way is to use the command keys. Press command -X to cut and Command-P to paste. To move multiple files and folders just press the shift key and click on all the files/folders you would like to move.
Copying: To copy files/folders is almost the same as moving. Instead of pressing the Cut button you press the Copy button and instead of pressing Command-X you press Command-C. When you drag between file lists you do the same thing as you do when you move files/folders but instead you hold option and drag.
Macintosh Explorer also accepts file drop to and from the Finder. You can drag and drop files/folders to Macintosh Explorer to move it or option-drag to copy it. Remember when copying files you have to start dragging the file/folder and then drop it or else if you are dragging from the Finder, the Finder will come to the front or if you are dragging from within Macintosh Explorer you won't be able to drag the item.
Note: To deselect a selected item, hold the command key and click on it. You can deselect them all by pressing the home or page down keys on your keyboard.
Background Tiles
Macintosh Explorer lets you tile background images over every window. To do this just take the pattern that you want to tile across the back and name it background. Then place it in the same folder as Macintosh Explorer. If you want to change the background while using Macintosh Explorer, just change the files with the new pattern, control click and press refresh background. If you do not see a background than you should increase the memory. You can find different backgrounds in the Backgrounds folder included with Macintosh Explorer or you can download more from our web site http://www.ragesw.com/explorer/. If you create your own patterns than you can submit them to us and they will be posted on our web site.
Quitting the Finder
When you quit the Finder you will not be able to: Move, Copy, Move To Trash, Shutdown, Restart, reveal in Finder, Open apps with other apps, Open files with the Finder, or put your computer to Sleep,
If you have any more questions please email support@macintoshexplorer.com or go to http://www.ragesw.com/explorer/
