Menuette is a control panel that alters the appearance of menu titles in the menu bar (at the top of your screen). Instead of the words that normally appear (such as File and Edit), you’ll see small icons representing these concepts. Menuette comes with many built-in icons, and you can draw or import more if you wish. Menuette also lets you choose a custom font for any menu you haven’t replaced with an icon.
Menuette works with any Macintosh running System version 7.0 or higher.
If you have been using a trial copy version of Menuette, or you are upgrading from an earlier version, be sure to read the “Upgrading” section below before you install the software.
Installing Menuette is easy: you’ll simply copy two files to your hard disk. One of the files is a control panel and must be placed in the Control Panels folder. The other file can be placed anywhere on your startup disk.
So: first of all, drag the file named “Menuette” onto your CLOSED System Folder icon, then press “OK” when your Macintosh tells you that control panels need to be stored in the Control Panels folder. Next, drag the file named “Menuette Icon Library” onto your startup disk (the hard disk that contains your System Folder). You can put this file ANYWHERE on your startup disk. For example, you could keep it with Menuette in the “Control Panels” folder, or even leave it loose in your hard disk window — whatever you think best.
Now restart your Macintosh; Menuette will start displaying icons for you. For complete instructions on using Menuette, press the “About Menuette” button from within the Menuette control panel. By the way, if you wish to do so, you can open the control panel and view these instructions before installing Menuette.
If you’re already using Menuette 1.1.2 (or an older version), follow the instructions above to install the latest version of Menuette. You can then import any icon sets you wish to keep from your old “Menuette Sets” folder (see the Menuette control panel help topic “Import and Export” for more information). After importing these icon sets, you can throw away the “Menuette Sets” folder and files; they are not needed with this version of Menuette.
If you’re already using a copy of Menuette 2.0 that came with an icon library file, you may want to switch to the new icon library we’ve included (because it contains more pre-made icons). To use this new icon library:
1. If you’ve designed any custom program icons, use the “Import/Export” button to EXPORT the icons and menu titles before you continue.
2. Restart with Extensions Off (by holding down the shift key), follow the installation instructions above, and replace your existing icon library with the one included here. (You need to have extensions turned off because the Macintosh will not allow you to replace the icon library while Menuette is using it.)
3. If you exported any custom program icons, use the “Import/Export” button again to IMPORT them (adding them to the new icon library).
(By the way, if you want to try out the new icon library without deleting your old one first, the Menuette help topic for “The Preferences Window” describes how you can do exactly that. Press “About Menuette” in the control panel for more information.)
If you have paid for a previous version of Menuette, this upgrade is completely free — it’s our way of saying “thanks” for supporting us in the early days. However, you will need to reenter your serial number after installing the new software (click on the words "trial copy" in the control panel window to do so). Your serial number can be found in the letter you were sent when you paid for Menuette, or at the bottom of the control panel window of your current version.
If you use Aladdin Systems’ Magic Menu program (included with their StuffIt family of products), be sure that Menuette loads after the Magic Menu control panel. If Menuette loads first, it will not be able to substitute icons for the menu titles. You can force Menuette to load after Magic Menu by simply renaming Menuette to ~Menuette (note the funny tilde character at the beginning of the name).
We plan to continue to improve Menuette, and we welcome your suggestions. We can be reached at the following electronic mail addresses:
