February Mac Shareware

This month we look at some of the high-quality free software available for the Macintosh. Included are a text editor, a tool for road-warriors, a sound player/converter, an audio CD utility and the classic Mac resource editor.

By Steve Cooper

BBEdit Lite can extend such searches over multiple files, open or not, displaying the search results in a window from which they can be browsed and opened. This feature combines with a menu command to Open Several files from different folders simultaneously, and the Print and Save functions operate on all files at once. There is no set limit on the number of files that can be open at the one time.

Like many commercial applications, BBEdit Lite sports drag-and-drop editing for internal operations, for exchanging data with other applications, and for creating text clippings in the Finder. It also includes PowerPC native code for best performance, and it can use plug-in modules to perform a wide range of editing and transformation tasks. Plug-ins are available both from the publisher and from familiar shareware sources.

Since BBEdit Lite automatically takes advantage of the available system memory, its default partition can be set as low as 450K if co-residence with other large applications is required.

The user can exercise a significant degree of control over the synchronisation process, since the copying can be in either or both directions, and either folder may be designated as the master (in which case its older files overwrite newer versions in the other folder). A hierarchical synchronisation list may be reviewed before the operation commences, and it shows clearly the files to be copied, replaced or deleted. Specific warning is given if a file has changed in both locations since the last synchronisation. Individual files may be then excluded from the process if desired.

Use of Synchronize is free for folders of less than 400K, which will be sufficient for many road-warriors' daily requirements. This restriction may be removed and some additional features unleashed if you pay a modest fee. Still, the genuine usefulness of the free version warrants its inclusion here.

To add to its appeal, SoundApp supports play lists, whereby lists of sound files can be defined and saved. Files in such a play list can be played or converted as a group or individually. As with a regular CD player, lists can be played back in a random shuffle mode or circularly repeated.

If it is possible to get away with a single sound utility, SoundApp is likely to be the one.

FinderPop has since gained additional features such as the ability to see inside StuffIt archives with a Ctrl-command-click, and to display a list of active processes. FinderPop is highly configurable, with choices for fonts, icons and contextual menu items displayed, which can include the Desktop, Finder windows, and the contents of your custom FinderPop folder. This is only the beginning. A number of actions (for example, open, alias, get info, grab, move, copy) can be performed on an item selected in the hierarchical menu, simply by typing specified keys while the item is selected.

The range of features and configurations is such that the Preferences dialog has seven panes. If you haven't tried FinderPop, you haven't made the most of Mac OS 8.x, especially since this utility is famous for its stability and compatibility.

Setup is very simple. You just have to enter your email address, choose the server closest to you, and determine when and how you want your disks catalogued. Then, while your Internet connection is up, choose a menu command and wait a few seconds for your track list to be filled in. In 'catalog mode', the CD will be ejected automatically so that you can insert the next one. If you call for 'disk information' while a track list is onscreen, you may find NetCD presents other interesting information such as the track's composer/arranger information, or even the lyrics of the song.

If the CD is not recognised, you are invited to type in and transmit the track list, thereby adding to the database for the benefit of others. The Mac community is alive and well!

The fact that no other computer platform offers such an accessible and free tool to its users is reason enough to spend some time with ResEdit. Documentation can be hard to come by, but is unnecessary once you get a feel for things. You can't accidentally change anything unless you ignore a specific warning, and you can always work on the copy of a file if you do want to meddle. A basic understanding of ResEdit's operation is therefore not hard to acquire, and a lot of fun can be had in the process. Unfortunately, Apple is not keeping ResEdit up-to-date; it does not, and apparently will not, support new features such as the changes to icons in Mac OS 8.1.