Program Switcher is a useful control that allows you to switch between the running programs on your System 7 or greater Mac via simple two-key keystroke. This feature was inspired by the same Windows functionality, but I have improved on it and made an unique and fully configurable control panel which makes switching applications on the Macintosh as simple as pressing some keys.
Instructions
Program Switcher requires System 7 or greater. To install it, just drag the control panel to your system folder icon and "drop." Restart your computer. To use, hold down the activating key (by default, the option key) and then tap the switching key (tab key). A window will appear displaying the next program running on your Macintosh. While still holding the activating key (option key) down, tapping the switching key (tab key) again shows the program after that. When the program you want to switch to is currently being displayed by Program Switcher, let go of the activating key (option key) and that program will be brought to the front. During the switching process, you may see the previous application displayed by tapping the shift key while still holding down the activating key. If you would like to cancel out of the switching process and immediately return to the original application you were in, release the activating key while still holding down the switching key.
To customize your settings, open the Program Switcher control panel itself. You will see that there are several options that you may use to customize Program SwitcherΓÇÖs performance with. They are:
Control Keys: Under this option are two pop-up menus, one titled ΓÇ£ActivatorΓÇ¥ and the other ΓÇ£Switcher.ΓÇ¥ With these menus, you can set the activating and switching keys (respectively).
Hide Other Applications: Checking this check box causes Program Switcher to hide all other applications after an application switch has been performed. Checking the Always checkbox causes this feature to be active whenever you switch applications, even if you performed the switch with out Program Switcher (i.e., you used the application menu). You may also toggle this feature on or off for a particular switch by holding down the space bar when letting go of the activator key.
Exclude Certain Applications: Checking this check box allows Program Switcher to exclude certain applications from being displayed during the switching process. You must specify the applications you wish Program Switcher to exclude. This option is useful if you have some applications that always run but you may not want to switch to that often (for example, Before Dark). Leave this option unchecked to make Program Switcher display all running applications always.
Set Applications…: Clicking this button brings up a dialog in which you may specify the applications for Program Switcher to exclude if the Exclude Certain Applications option is checked.
Set Display Window Attributes…: Clicking this button brings up a dialog in which you may customize the appearance of the window that Program Switcher displays when the switching process is taking place. You may set the font and font size that Program Switcher uses to write the application name with, the specific type of window that Program Switcher displays, the background color of the window, whether Program Switcher displays the applications’ icons or not, and the size of the application icon cache that Program Switcher uses. The application icon cache saves an application’s icon in RAM in order to speed up the display of the switching window. This cache requires about 3K of RAM for each application icon. The required RAM is allocated in your system software’s memory block. If your RAM situation is tight, just shut off this cache and all of it’s memory will be freed. When the cache is shut off, Program Switcher will get an application’s icon from the hard drive each time it is displayed.
I have paid my shareware fee!: Check this checkbox only after you have paid your shareware fee.
Program Switcher always displays the last program that you were working in first when starting the switching process. If that application is no longer running, then Program Switcher displays the first application in the SystemΓÇÖs applications menu.
Program Switcher has a feature which allows you to tell a program to quit during the switching process. To do this, when the program you want to quit is displayed in the switching window, press the key for the letter 'Q' while you are still holding down the activator key. Program Switcher will then draw an X over the program's icon indicating that it will send the program a Quit Apple Event when the switching process is over. If you later decide during the switching process that you do not want to quit that application, when it's icon (with the X) is currently being displayed by Program Switcher, press 'Q' again. This will then remove the X from the icon and Program Switcher will not quit the program ('Q' is essentially a toggle for the X). Once you quit the switching process (either by releasing the activator key or by canceling out), Program Switcher will send every application you marked with an X a Quit Apple Event. Please note that is you disable the displaying of the application icon in the switching window, Program Switcher will indicate the programs to be quitted from by underlining the name.
Program Switcher is ΓÇ£fat.ΓÇ¥ The patches it makes to the MacOS are made in either 68000 or Power PC code, depending on the machine it is running on. If Program Switcher is running on a Power PC, itΓÇÖs start up icon will be modified with small red triangles.
Shareware Information
Program Switcher is not free. If you use Program Switcher for more than one week, you must pay the US$10 registration fee. You may do this by using the enclosed Register application. Be sure to follow RegisterΓÇÖs instructions carefully. If you are using this program to pay by check, be sure to make your checks out to ΓÇ£Kagi Shareware.ΓÇ¥ Also, please be sure to send your payments to the address listed on the form that the Register program produces -- please do not send payments to be processed by Kagi Shareware directly to me.
If you are on CompuServe, you can register Program Switcher online. Type GO SWREG for more information. Program Switcher's registration code is 6209. CompuServe only allows single user license registrations.
Contacting the Author
You may contact me through e-mail at:
mailto:kamprath@kagi.com
Since I move often (I'm in the military), I do not list my postal address here. If want to mail me something, please contact me by e-mail first to obtain my postal address.
WARRANTY
USE OF THIS PRODUCT, PROGRAM SWITCHER, IMPLIES THAT YOU WILL HOLD MICHAEL F. KAMPRATH HARMLESS TO ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS PRODUCT. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT MICHAEL F. KAMPRATH CAN NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY OTHER DAMAGES YOU MAY INCUR BY THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT. MICHAEL F. KAMPRATH PROVIDES NO WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, OF THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING ITΓÇÖS MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
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