MaxFiles version 1.1 — docs (unofficial) in English.
Written by Mike Arst, Seattle, wa, May 8, 1991
MaxFiles is a DA file manager—copyrighted freeware by Keisuke Hara, a programmer who lives in Japan. The version 1.1 documentation is entirely in Japanese. Even if I had a Mac that could display Japanese characters, I wouldn’t be able to read the docs. This file (the programmer had nothing to do with it, by the way) is an attempt to create at-least-marginally-useful documentation.
What It Does
• Provides you with a list of files in whatever folder you’re logged onto.
• Allows you to sort the files rapidly by icon, name, size, modification date, type, or creator; display file sizes in bytes or “K”.
• The list of files can be displayed with either the size or the modification date or the type/creator information in the column to the immediate right of the file names.
• Copy, move, delete, rename files — uses a (very fast) cmd-c/cmd-v or cmd-x/cmd-v method for copying and moving files.
• Eject a disk from the MaxFiles display (doesn’t appear to be able to unmount a networked drive or folder, however)
• Fast location of files on any disk or folder on your Mac
• Incorporates a quick-launch system for applications or data files (note: launch capability not available under MultiFinder) and a fast way of navigating a hierarchical file system.
Installing MaxFiles
When you remove the da from the archive, remove also at least its basic preferences file, called “Maxfiles.Prefs.” leave an unaltered copy of maxfiles.prefs in the archive. Move the da to any place you want and open it via Suitcase, or whatever. The first time you open it, MaxFiles will ask for the location of its “.Prefs” file. Tell it what it wants to know, and thereafter it will find the file again. Other files in the archive include preferences files for sounds and color. As far as I know neither is required.
(Note: if you create a MaxFiles “navigation list” or list of applications or data files to be launched, the program will create a file called “MaxFiles.Data”. I am not sure if it will default to placing that in the System Folder, or on the other hand in the folder where you installed the “.Prefs” file.
Main Screen Commands
MaxFiles opens with a display that looks a little like the Mac’s own desktop, including icons of all disks and networked/mounted folders your Mac knows about at the moment. The icon for the currently logged disk will be highlighted. The name of the currently logged disk is shown in the file window’s own title bar. If you log onto a folder its name will appear instead. The “field” containing this name now becomes a pop-up menu similar to those in standard Mac file dialogues. “Press” on it with the mouse and you will see the parent directories of the presently logged one and will be able to move to them by selecting them from the list in the pop-up.
You can also move from the presently logged directory to its parent by clicking on the little box at the upper right of the display — the one with an upward-pointing arrow. (It’s a fairly small gizmo to aim for with the mouse pointer, but note that pressing anywhere in the title bar from the right of the name of the logged disk or folder to the “move upward” box will have the same effect.) The keystrokes cmd plus “up-arrow” (cursor movement key) will do the same thing.
When the menu bar highlights the name of a folder, pressing cmd plus “down-arrow” will log onto that folder. Or highlight the folder name and press return (or enter on an extended keyboard). The tab key moves you from one disk to another. Each time you press tab, a different icon in the MaxFiles “desktop” is highlighted. You can also log onto another disk by double-clicking its icon on the “desktop”.
Sort files: Right below the line showing the number of bytes used on the currently logged disk (and the number of bytes free), you’ll see a line beginning with a tiny file icon, and then “Name” “Size” “Modified” “Type” “Creator”. One of them will be underlined — meaning it’s the present sorting method for the file display. If you click on the small file-icon, the files will be sorted by their icon types. If you click on “Name,” the files will be displayed in alphabetical order. If you click on “Modified” they’ll be sorted by modification date. You can also click on “Type” and “Creator” to sort by those data. Any time you open MaxFiles it will default to the last-used sorting method.
note: If you have MaxFiles set up to sort files by name, you can move rapidly to specific file names in the display by typing the first character or two of their names. Sorting by any of the other methods appears to disable this function. You can be select more than one file at a time by holding down either shift or cmd as you click on each file (or folder) name; or hold down either of those keys and “drag” though the list of files. When there are a number of files selected, clicking on any un-selected file name will de-select all others and highlight only that one. Holding down shift and clicking on a file now selected will toggle its highlighting on and off without affecting any others now highlighted. Clicking entirely outside the list of files (i.e., in the white space at the bottom of the list — if there’s any white space available on your screen . . . so get a full-page display, already) — will usually de-select all files. If that doesn’t work, click on a presently unselected file in the file list, then de-select it. All highlighting will be removed.
To launch a file from the list, double-click its small icon (to the far left). Double-clicking somewhere on the file name itself will bring up the MaxFiles “get info” screen for that file. note: It is possible only under Finder to launch files or applications directly from the file list. Doesn’t work under MultiFinder. Let’s hope the author fixes that in the next version. Under MultiFinder, double-clicking a file name will bring up the “get info” screen for the file (same as highlighting it and pressing cmd-I). Under MultiFinder, highlighting a file name and pressing return will also bring up the “get info” dialogue. MaxFiles’ quick-launch menu can be called up under MulfiFinder, but in my experience it won’t allow you actually to open or launch anything until you’re working under Finder.
The Menu Selections
(In this section, if I don’t mention a menu selection at all it’s because I figure the function’s use is “intuitive” enough that it doesn’t require any explanation.) There is a little box with a right-facing caret mark in the title bar. “Pressing” on it gets you a pop-out menu (the “Navigation List”) whereby you can tell MaxFiles to store the names of frequently accessed files and folders. (You can bring up this set of menu selections by pressing anywhere in the menu bar between the right side of that little box and the box containing the name of the presently logged disk or folder.)
To add a file or folder to the list, you must first have its name highlighted via the menu bar. Then you will see, at the top of this pop-out menu, “Add [name of file or folder]” (there is also a keyboard equivalent for the “add” function). There are two different functions here: “Directory” and “File/Folder.” If you have a folder name added to the “Directory” menu, selecting it will result in MaxFiles’ logging you right into that folder. If a file or folder is selected from the “File/Folder” list instead, MaxFiles will jump to it and highlight its name but will not open it. The “Remove List” selection here is self-explanatory — a standard, Mac-ish way of removing stored file or folder names from the “Navigation List” (this kind of removal does not delete anything from disk, however).
MaxFiles’ “Apple” Menu
“About MaxFiles” brings up a series of small information screens that can take a while to sit through. It’s worth sitting through them at least once. One of the screens provides information on what MaxFiles functions do not work under MultiFinder. The author’s address is also in one of the screens.
“Control Panel” is where you set preferences for MaxFiles. The “Zoom Animation” check-box, if unchecked, disables the program’s “zooming” effect when you open it. This makes it and some of its windows open a little faster than they otherwise would.
The “Technical View” selection (for the get-info function) allows you to change a file’s Type Creator, and certain other attributes. “Normal View” gives you an info window that looks more like the Finder’s own get-info windows.
If you have more than one file selected at the time you do a get-info command, you’ll be able to go through the list one at a time via the “next” and “previous” buttons, which are greyed-out if only one file has been selected.
note: Under Finder, you can add file comments in these get-info windows. Under MultiFinder, you cannot. It is possible to add comments under Finder, then restart under MultiFinder; the comments will still be there, but you will not be able to edit or delete them — not from the MaxFiles get-info window itself. They are actually Finder-level file comments; that I know of they are not stored in any MaxFiles data file.
“Find File” is a full-featured (and fast!) file-location routine, offering a lot of search criteria. Here is an example of a wildcard search string: *max* That would search for 0 or more characters, followed by “max,” followed by 0 or more characters. It’s one way to search for file names that begin with a space. (MaxFiles seems to have a bit of a problem with those if you use the “Contains” search option and the file you want to find is named with a space at the beginning.) A search string like: max?? would search for “max” followed by two (and only two) characters. The meaning of the “search folder” check-box is unclear to me. It seems to me that MaxFiles searches within folders whether or not the box is checked.
The file Menu
Get Info will be available if any file or folder name, or disk icon, is highlighted.
Size Selection shows the total, in bytes, of all highlighted files and/or folders.
The edit Menu (Here is where MaxFiles really begins to get interesting):
Copying and Moving Files and Folders
Copying: after highlighting one or more file (and/or folder) names, press cmd-C. This temporarily stores all of the names in memory. Change to the destination disk or folder, then press cmd-V. Copying will begin immediately. (MaxFiles will not over-write files or folders without asking you for permission to do so.)
Moving (copy, then erase original): highlight the ones you want to move, then press cmd-X. Go to the destination, and press cmd-V again. Of course, you can use MaxFiles’ Edit menu selections for these functions rather than the keyboard equivalents, but why bother? cmd-C/cmd-X and cmd-V are a good deal faster.
If you have just copied a file, you do not have to highlight it and store its name via cmd-C again to make another copy. Just log onto the next destination and press cmd-V again. This is handy if you have to copy the same files from your hard disk to several different floppy disks. Obviously, if you have *moved* a file, cmd-V won’t work a second time with the same file.
Duplicating a file: highlight it, press cmd-C, then cmd-V without changing to another disk or folder. MaxFiles will ask if you want to duplicate the file in the same directory. Answer “yes”. It will name the file beginning with “Copy of” and then supply the original name. If you try this too often with the same file, eventually you’ll be asking MaxFiles to write a file with an illegally wrong name, and it will tell you so. In that case you’ll have to come up with a new name.
Delete Files provides a full deletion — like moving a file or folder to the trash and then selecting “Empty Trash”. MaxFiles will ask you to confirm the deletion, but if you have more than one file selected it won’t ask you to confirm the deletion of each one in turn.
Rename File is similar to other programs’ rename-file functions. Alas, this version of MaxFiles doesn’t allow you to rename more than one file at a time. Sigh . . . If you have a folder name highlighted, this selection changes to “Rename Folder”. If nothing in the file list is highlighted, but there is a disk icon (on the MaxFiles “desktop”) highlighted, the selection changes to “rename disk”.
Copy Names copies a highlighted file’s name to the Mac clipboard. If you have several files selected, all of the names will be copied to the clipboard — one file name per line. Copy Paths is the same idea as “Copy Names,” but complete path information will be added at the front of file(s) or folder(s) names. Example: highlight the file name “PopChar” in the Utils directory of a hard disk called “se Int Hard Disk”. Result in the clipboard: se Int Hard Disk:Utils:PopChar.
Go Back (cmd-b) is handy for jumping rapidly from folder to folder. Once you have run MaxFiles but before you have copied or moved or renamed a file, “Go Back” is not available. As soon as you do one of those things, then “Go Back” is enabled and you can jump from the present folder or disk to the one where you were when you began copying or moving files.
view Menu
Here you can use the menu to select how the main file list is sorted. It’s faster, however, to click on items in the “Name...Size...Modified [etc.]” line in the file display. Toggle View toggles the file display: You can have the files’ sizes, or their modification dates, or their Type/Creator information, displayed in the column to the right of the file names. The other menu selections are obvious; try ’em out.
special Menu
Zoom Window has the same effect as pressing cmd-z or as clicking in MaxFiles’ zoom-box (extreme upper right of MaxFiles’ window). The effect is not especially dramatic on a full-page display.
Set Window tells MaxFiles to put its window at the present location the next time you run it.
Switch Systems, Restart, Shutdown — none of these is available when you run under MultiFinder.
Erase Disk is highlighted only when you are logged onto a floppy disk. It is not available when you are logged onto a hard disk. The function doesn’t appear to work under Finder or MultiFinder, anyway — MaxFiles advises that you have Finder available and suggests you use it for erasing a disk. Caution: I have noticed that when I have a folder from someone else’s Mac mounted on my machine (via network), the “Erase Disk” selection is available. I don’t know if MaxFiles would actually erase someone else’s hard disk that way—but I wouldn’t take the chance.
memory Menu
Meaning the one to the immediate right of the Special menu — the one whose title might look like “2,159K”. There are several menu items that enable you to see how much memory is available, with the amount displayed dependent on whether you have selected “Unused Area,” “Active Application,” and so on. The top item is “Compact Memory.” Selecting it appears to free up memory, and in some situations that might help your computer run a bit faster than it otherwise would (i.e., if memory has become fragmented). I don’t know that I can generalize from my own example, but running MaxFiles from within QuarkXPress and Compact Pro, then using the “Compact Memory” function, has resulted in dramatic accelerations in screen redraw in the first case and speed of archiving in the second place. This might be something peculiar to my system alone (an SE 20 with an accelerator in it).
quick launch Menu
The icon for this one looks like a standard Mac “generic” application icon and appears to the right of the Memory-management menu. However, it is visible only when you are running under Finder — not under MultiFinder.
Adding applications and documents to the quick-launch menu is similar to the method used to add applications and documents to the “Navigation” menus. Check it out. There is also a “set substitution” routine that appears to give you the ability to open certain kinds of data files by first launching an application different from the one that originally created the data file (i.e., run your favorite word processor when you double-click a TeachText document). I haven’t been able to get this to work.
cmd-Q brings up the quick-launch menu (the menu for actually launching, not the one for configuration) — even under MultiFinder, when the quick-launch item isn’t even shown in the menu bar. However, as said, nothing can actually be launched under MultiFinder.
This is as much as I’ve learned about MaxFiles. If you find any errors in this file and/or know about other MaxFiles features not discussed here, by all means feel free to edit this file, add your name at the top of the file, and change the date to reflect when you edited it.
