Custom Menus is a control panel that lets you tailor the menus on your Macintosh to suit your own preferences:
Ñ Tear-off any menu and float it on top of your windows for quick, easy access at any time.
Ñ Add your own menus that list only those items that you use, all in one place, with names that You choose.
Ñ Choose your own Font, Size and colors for the menus and the menu bar.
Ñ Pop-up the menu bar under the mouse: no more reaching for the top of the screen!
System 7 or later is required.
Installation
1 Put Custom Menus in your Control Panels folder, by dragging its icon and releasing it over your System Folder.
2 You may also drag the Espy Sans Bold 9 & 10 screen fonts to the System Folder so they are installed in your Fonts folder. These Apple fonts are not required for Custom Menus, but they do look good!
3 Custom Menus will be active after you Restart. Before you do that, please see Loading Order below for an important notice.
Loading Order
To ensure compatibility with the following software, make sure they are loaded in the right order at startup (you may change the order by renaming the files, as they're loaded alphabetically).
ÑThese must load before Custom Menus:
MagicMenu, MenuChoice and PopUpFolder 1.5
ÑThese must load after Custom Menus:
Apple Menu Options, NowMenus, NowCompress and PopUpFolder 2.0.
Settings
After restarting, use the control panel to enter your preferences. They're saved both in the control panel itself and in a "Custom Menus prefs" file in the Preferences Folder.
Tear-Off Menus
To tear-off a menu, drag the mouse through either bottom corner of the menu. Some menus cannot be torn (mostly menus that exist only temporarily), and these won't have the dotted bottom corners.
Torn menus float above the desktop. Move them around by dragging their title bar. Hide and Show them with the chosen key-combination. Select an item by clicking on it (on slower Macs, you may need to hold down the mouse button until the item is hilited).
Torn menus are updated regularly. They are hidden/shown automatically, in sync with the state of the Menu Bar. If a menu is not in the menu bar, its torn copy will be hidden too. When the menu is back in the menu bar (ex: after a dialog), the torn copy is shown too. In some applications, torn menus will settle and update OK after a few uses, as Custom Menus sets its timing to match the application's.
To save screen space, you may keep only the title of a torn menu floating on the desktop. The rest of the menu pops-up when you click and hold the pop-up symbol beneath the title. Check the 'Enable mini-tearoffs' box in the control panel, then set normal/mini for a torn menu by clicking the arrow on its title bar.
Adding New Menus
1 Drag the mouse SLOWLY from a blank area of the Menu Bar (someplace where there is no menu title) onto the desktop. The cursor will change to a small menu and when you let go, a small editor window appears.
2 Add items to the new menu by selecting any item* from any menu. You can add disabled items and dividing lines too. Drag your items to change their order. Double-click on an item to change its name, double-click on the title at the top of the editor's window to change the menu title.
*(menus are 'disconnected' inside the editor so no action takes place. ex: you can add the Restart item without restarting your Macintosh.)
3 Click OK to quit the editor.
New menus are listed alphabetically in the Menu Bar. The editor's red Trash button will delete this menu. The gray button between Trash and Cancel controls whether the new menu is shown both on the menu bar and as a torn menu, or if it exists as only one at a time. If it's displayed as a torn menu only, you can drag it back to the menu bar if needed.
To edit a menu that you created, tear it off then click the small + box on its title bar. This will bring up the editor, where you can change or delete it.
Non-Standard Applications
Custom Menus works with all normal applications. Applications that have special menu-handling code are recognized and their menus are not made to display with your preferred Font and Size, until they're tested for compatibility. Then they're added to a list inside Custom Menus. Please let me know if you have an application you want tested and added to the list.
For now, applications with special menu handling that are compatible with Custom Menus are:
Word 5.1 (1,2) Word 6.0 (1,3) Excel 4.0 Excel 5.0 (1,3)
(1 ) no custom font (2) no custom colors (3) do use mini-tearoffs instead of normal tearoffs for those menus with items that change. These non-standard Microsoft appls don't update their menus until they're drawn.
Known Problems
Custom Menus has been in development for over 2 years and is pretty solid. But it has not been tested with all latest Macintosh models, nor all utilities or applications. Please send me a short e-mail if you have a problem and I'll try to fix it.
ÑThe title bar of torn menus is not high enough to display the complete icon that some menus use for title. This trade-off was made to save screen space.
ÑWith OtherMenu installed, switching custom menu font on/off requires two tries so the spacing of titles in the menu bar is correct.
ÑPopupfolder 2.01 freezes if Hierarchical Apple Menu or PopupFolder Menu is checked in the PF control panel.
Shareware Notice
Custom Menus is shareware. You may evaluate it freely for up to 12 days, then to continue using it you are expected to pay a $12 registration fee. Registration is handled by the Kagi Shareware service. The attached Register application makes it very easy to register: you can register on-line or by fax with a credit card, or through postal mail. Please run the application for more information (and turn on Balloon Help!).
After you register, you will be sent a code to disable the registration reminders. Please remember to include an e-mail address or check the Paper Receipt box ($1 extra) so I know where to send the code!
An individual with several computers need only pay for one copy. Site licenses are available. The Kagi Shareware address and fax number are for registrations only, please.
Please distribute Custom Menus unmodified, with the Espy 9&10 font files, this document and the Register application.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Marc Menschenfreund, Bill Goodman, Alessandro Levi Montalcini and Mark Nagata for their precious help!
Disclaimer
The author makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the fitness of Custom Menus for any particular purpose. Use Custom Menus at your own risk. The author claims no liability for data loss or any other problems caused directly or indirectly by Custom Menus.
