Application settings

Sometimes when you run an application, you would like it to run in a particular environment. For example, you might like the sound level increased for a good game, or you might like to run Photoshop in glorious 32-bit colour rather than the 8-bit colour you normally use. Apollo allows you to give each application in its menus a collection of settings which are activated whenever that application is started (activated, in fact, whether or not you started the application with Apollo).

In addition to the settings you specify for particular applications, Apollo keeps a collection of settings, called the default settings, which it applies to any application which doesn’t have its own settings. If, for example, you use your main monitor in 8-bit colour for most applications but you like to use your word processor in 1-bit black and white for speed, you could specify default settings which included instructions to set the screen depth to 8 bits, colour and settings for your word processor which specified a depth of 1 bit, black and white. Then, whenever your word processor was active, your monitor would be set to black and white, but as soon as you switched to an application without its own settings, whatever it was, whether known to Apollo or not, the monitor would revert to 8 bit colour.

To define settings for an application, either click the Settings… button in the Applications page of the configuration dialog, or choose “Application settings…” from the Apollo submenu. The application settings dialog has a scrolling list on the left which contains all applications from Apollo’s main menu and groups (except the recent applications group).

As in the configuration dialog, the application’s group is shown in small letters underneath its name. Instead of the group popup, however, a small document-like icon, if present, indicates that that application has its own settings.

At the bottom are four buttons:

Click Done when you have finished making changes, or Configure… to go to the configuration dialog. If you click “Use default”, any settings for the selected application are thrown away and the default settings are used. In contrast, if you click “Make default”, the default settings are replaced by the selected application’s settings.

You can control five aspects of the application’s environment with Apollo.

If ““Hide others” automatically” is checked, background applications will be hidden whenever this application is active (this is available only under system 7). Hiding the windows of background applications can save a lot of time which would otherwise be spent keeping them up to date.

If you normally use an application with one particular document (for example, if your comms program is normally used with a script which connects you to a particular service), you can make that document the default document for the application. When you start up the application with Apollo, the default document will be supplied to it, unless of course you specify different document. To give an application a default document, check the box: to change the default document, click Set and choose a document from the standard dialog which will appear.

When you start an application and select Open… from its File menu, the folder whose contents are displayed in the dialog which appears is the folder containing the application—its home folder. It may be convenient for a different folder to be used—for example, you may keep StuffIt in your utilities folder but usually want to open items which you have just downloaded from a bulletin board to a different folder. Apollo allows you to choose which folder will be used as the default folder. To leave the folder unchanged, uncheck the box. To choose a folder, check the box and click Set, then select a folder from the dialog which appears. Most programs will respect the chosen folder: a notable exception is Microsoft Word.

If you would like the system sound level to be set to a particular value for the selected application, check the “Set sound level to:” box and pick a level (0 to 7, or default) from the popup menu. If you don’t check the box, the sound level will be left unchanged. If you choose “default” from the popup, the sound level will be set to whatever value you last set in the Sound control panel. If you choose default settings with a level of “default”, any application which doesn’t have its own settings will have a sound level equal to that which you set in the Sound control panel.

If you would like the screen depth set to a particular value for the selected application, check the “Set screen depth to:” box and pick a depth (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or default) from the popup menu. If you don’t check the box, the screen depth will be left unchanged. If you choose “default” from the popup, the depth will be set to whatever value you last set in the Monitors control panel. If you choose default settings with a level of “default”, any application which doesn’t have its own settings will have a sound level equal to that which you set in the Monitors control panel. If you have a colour monitor which you occasionally like to use in greyscale, use the Screen radio buttons to arrange this.

Few features of Apollo have caused as much confusion in earier versions of the program as the application settings. Probably the simplest way to arrange things is to make default settings to set sound level and screen depth to default (boxes checked, “default” chosen from the menus). If you then run an application which has its own settings for sound level and screen depth, those settings will apply only when that application is running: when you switch to another application, the settings will revert to those you chose from the control panel. If your default settings have the sound level or screen depth boxes unchecked and you run an application with its own settings, switching to another application which does not have its own settings will have no effect on the depth or sound level.