Version 4.0 has been enhanced by the addition of several major new features. In addition, it is the first version of The Tilery to carry a price tag: The Tilery is now shareware.
Version 4.0.1 corrects two bugs:
窶｢ Always Hide Others now behaves the same way it did in previous (version 3.x) releases of The Tilery. This restores the old hiding behavior (which users explained they preferred to the more 窶彗ggressive窶 hiding introduced in version 4.0) and also prevents crashes in Desktop Printing caused by a conflict with the 4.0 hiding mechanism.
窶｢ Attempting to repair a damaged folder tile (that is, a folder tile displaying a red X) caused a crash in version 4.0; that is now fixed.
Here is an overview of the major new features in 4.0:
Tile Menus
Each tile now has its own popup menu. The menus offer easy access to a number of new and old features including Find Original, Get Info, Remember and Forget Tile, Hide Tile, individual tile coloring, tile text editing, and hot keys.
In addition, the menus offer special features depending on the tile窶冱 item. Application tile menus can hide the application, display its memory usage, and quit the application. Folder and volume tile menus list the contents of the folder or volume in hierarchical submenus; you can open anything inside the folder or volume by selecting it from the menu. The Finder窶冱 tile menu offers Restart, Shut Down, Sleep, and lists of all desktop items including all mounted volumes.
To use a tile menu, click on a tile and keep holding the mouse button down. After a brief delay, the menu will appear. Or you can 竚-click a tile to see the menu immediately. Control-click will produce a contextual menu, where the special menu items are replaced by items for any Contextual Menu Plug-ins you may have added to your system.
Hot Keys
Each tile can optionally be assigned a 窶徂ot key.窶 Pressing a hot key is the same as clicking the tile. Hot keys work at all times, no matter what application is frontmost. Because hot keys can be assigned to any tile, you can use them to switch or launch applications, open documents and folders, and even trigger AppleScripts that you窶况e made tiles for.
Two special hot keys (available from the Hot Keys menu item in the Tiles menu in the menu bar) can be set to switch between currently running applications. One of them swaps between the two topmost applications and the other rotates through all open applications.
Working Sets
The Tilery now allows you to create multiple preference files, and to switch preference files while running. Tilery preference files include your list of remembered tiles along with your choice of tile styles, tile placement, and other settings. This collection of tiles and settings is called a 窶忤orking set.窶
When you change working sets by opening a different preference file, all your current tiles disappear and are replaced by tiles from the new working set. You can create separate working sets for the different kinds of work you do. For example, you could create a set for managing your finances, with tiles for your checkbook manager program, your spreadsheets, and your databases. You could create another set for publishing a newsletter, with tiles for word processor, page layout, and graphics programs along with tiles for your commonly used documents and folders. Other ideas include sets for internet access, programming tools (hey, some of us are programmers!), genealogical tools and information, games窶背hatever you use your computer for.
Some people who travel carry a Zip drive and a disk of their important programs and documents with them, so they can hook up to other people窶冱 Macs and get their own work done. Put a working set and a copy of The Tilery on that Zip disk, and you can have your own tiles wherever you go!
Create a new working set (that is, a new Tilery preference file) by choosing New from the File menu. You can give the file any name you like and put it anywhere, even on a floppy or Zip or Jaz disk. Your preference settings will automatically be copied to the new file, and you can choose whether your current collection of tiles is also copied窶琶f not, your new file will start out with no remembered tiles. The Tilery will immediately switch to the new working set, and you can begin customizing it right away.
Open an existing working set in any of several ways. One way is to use the Open command in the File menu. Another is to double-click a working set in the Finder. And a third (maybe the best!) is to make tiles for your working sets: then you can switch working sets by just clicking a tile for the one you want!
Other New Features
窶｢ Online Help窶韮e sure to try the new online help that窶冱 available from The Tilery窶冱 Help menu. It窶冱 fast and complete, and includes pictures and hyperlinks for easy browsing. It窶冱 the 窶徨eal窶 manual on how to use The Tilery; the document you窶决e reading now is mostly meant to get you started.
窶｢ Keyboarding窶埜hen The Tilery is frontmost, you can select any tile by typing the first few characters of its name, or by using the arrow keys or the Tab key to move the selection around in the grid of tiles. Once a tile is selected, pressing the Return key will open it as if you had clicked it. Unlike hot keys which work all the time, this style of keyboarding works only when The Tilery is frontmost. (So assign a hot key to The Tilery窶冱 tile, and then you can access any tile from the keyboard!)
窶｢ A 窶弋ilery Tips窶 window will give you helpful tips on how to get the most out of The Tilery. You can open it by selecting Tilery Tips in the Preferences menu, or have it appear automatically whenever you start up The Tilery.
窶｢ A tiny yellow label (often call a 窶彜creen Tips窶 window, but don窶冲 confuse it with the Tilery Tips window) will appear whenever your mouse pauses over a tile. The little window will show the full name of the tile. This is useful when you窶况e chosen a textless tile style, or when the tile窶冱 name is too long to fit into the tile. You can turn this feature on and off in the Tile Styles window.
窶｢ Dim Icons for Hidden Applications窶乃his checkbox in the Tile Styles window dims the icon on tiles whose applications are currently hidden. Warning: This feature can drastically slow down your Macintosh. We included it because some users really wanted it, but it窶冱 off by default. If you try it, remember to turn it off if your Mac suddenly seems to run more slowly, or 窶彷reezes窶 for a couple of seconds at frequent intervals.
