Virtual Desktop • Maybe • Help on Wheels • PictPocket • Menu Events • Menu Grabber
AWOL Utilities 1.1.2 is a group of six programs for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh, all of high quality, and all absolutely free. Each works independently, but they work better together, so if you don’t have all six, might I suggest that you explore your favorite Internet archive site (sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, rascal.ics.utexas.edu, or other) and pick up a copy.
Or, if you’d rather, you can send me a formatted DS/DD (800K) or larger diskette at this address, and I’ll send you a copy of the latest AWOL Utilities package. Please don’t forget to include a stamped self-addressed cardboard disk mailer, or other suitably large envelope, or I won’t be able to send it back to you. Full details of the AWOL Utilities distribution policy are near the top of the help file for each program.
Support for AWOL Utilities is through Internet mail at address ab026@freenet.carleton.ca. The software is not available by FTP from this site.
HOW TO GET HELP
All six programs have help files intended for use with the AWOL Utilities Help on Wheels help server. You can request help at any time while using an AWOL Utilities application by pressing the Help or Command-? key, or through the Help menu. For help on an AWOL Utilities system extension, hold down the Help or Command-? key at startup until you see the icon with a balloon.
If you have a copy of Help on Wheels on your Macintosh, you can read or print the help file from Finder before you even use the program, and when you do start to use the program, you have access to complete on-line help, with hypertext links and context-sensitivity.
If you don’t have Help on Wheels, and you ask for help, the help file is automatically converted to one or more TeachText files for you to read or print. (If you want to read the help for an AWOL Utilities system extension before using it, press Shift along with Help or Command-? at startup to prevent it from loading.)
CAPSULE SUMMARIES
Very briefly, here are the six programs which make up AWOL Utilities 1.1.2:
VIRTUAL DESKTOP 1.7
The first and only of its kind, a virtual desktop manager for the Macintosh that works on all types of Macs and all types of monitors. For 160K of memory, you can have a virtual desktop as big as you like, in full color. Excellent for PowerBooks and other Macs with the ability to run many programs at once, but nowhere to put the windows.
To get around, you have several options:
» use the scroll bars on the sides of the screen
» click a “door” to go to a preset location
» see the entire virtual desktop in miniature, and rearrange your windows and icons
» push a reference point on the virtual desktop from A to B using the mouse
» press a key combination to scroll by half a screenful in any direction
With its many helpful features and options for customization, Virtual Desktop is one exciting piece of freeware!
MAYBE 1.3
This application picks up where Finder left off in its implementation of aliases. Maybe converts a Finder alias file to give it an additional effect.
Converted aliases do more than just point to the original item. They can:
» play a sound
» open or print every item in the target folder
» open some other item (document, application, folder, or whatever) first
» send an Apple event to another program
» make a startup item optional, by questioning the user, or checking the state of a key
Maybe doesn’t solve your problems directly, but it gives you the power to do a lot of things you’ve been wanting to do.
HELP ON WHEELS 1.1
This generic help server, which springs from the help facility in the famous Disinfectant program, offers on-line, context-sensitive help service to all AWOL Utilities programs, and potentially others to come.
As a user, you see help for several client programs stacked in a single window, with each program’s menu commands and dialog items keyed to descriptive paragraphs in the help file. You can tell the help server to follow your actions in the background, so that you can read about the program while you use it. Hypertext links connect related sections and trigger demonstration actions by the client application.
The Help on Wheels developer’s kit includes a sample application, and everything a developer would need to add help service to an application, control panel, or extension. The client interface is designed to take the burden of display, printing, saving, and other common help functions away from the developer.
PICTPOCKET 1.1
Here’s a different kind of screen capture utility, great for people who need to build a lot of window pictures into their documents, but don’t want to waste a lot of storage.
PictPocket “picks the pocket” of applications as they draw their windows, not after they have been drawn. This difference allows it to place in the Clipboard a 'PICT' which represents the actual elements drawn, rather than a bitmap (raster) image. Not only is a PictPocket 'PICT' smaller than a bitmap 'PICT', and not proportional in size to the depth of color, but you retain the ability to edit the picture later, using an application such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. Change text, colors, position of elements, whatever! If you need a blow-up of the picture, just change the Page Setup scaling factor, and it will still print perfectly, with no bitmap “jaggies.”
MENU EVENTS 1.1.2
This system extension bridges the gap between scripting applications and the vast number of non-scriptable applications. It makes most, but not all, applications controllable through their menu commands, using program linking (Apple events).
Any script, or any program equipped to send Menu events, can query and execute the menu commands of any compatible application on any Macintosh on the network.
Version 1.1.1 added an AppleScript scripting addition ('osax') and a sample script that shows you how to control an application through its menus.
Version 1.1.2 adds support for script recording by making applications send Menu events to themselves. You can now record menu selection actions directly into scripts!
MENU GRABBER 1.1.2
A fascinating illustration of the power of Menu Events, Menu Grabber lets you pick an application from any Macintosh on the network, and presents an identical copy of its menu bar on your screen (but in bright red and white-on-black, just so you realize what you might be getting into). While grabbing an application, you can pull down a menu or use a keyboard equivalent to simulate the same action on the target application.
This application can be useful in network management, and to people like me who sometimes forget to close a needed document before leaving the office.
