MasterFinder™ is a Finder enhancement utility that adds several features not found in the Finder. It's main attribute is, and has always been, speed. MasterFinder boasts the fastest file find capability on any Mac. It's also extremely fast in navigating drives, folders, and catalogs. MasterFinder employs several views in one window to display information about your file system and network. By use of the View menu, a command key equivalent, or a view Command Icon, views can be quickly and easily switched and navigated.
This version of MasterFinder is Fat - it will run native on PowerMacs as well as 68k Macs. MasterFinder requires System 7.0 or later, and will run on any Macintosh.
MasterFinder 1.3 is being distributed electronically. The startup window will display registration information. Users who wish to register can call Trilobyte Software at:
513-777-6641, and receive a registration number that will disable the registration window.
The price is $25. Visa or MasterCard accepted.
MasterFinder can also be found at Trilobyte's ftp site on the Internet at:
ftp://ftp.one.net//trilobyte
The MasterFinder View
The main view at startup is a file browser view with folder contents displayed in panes. Users have the option (through Preferences) of displaying hierarchical information horizontally (across panes) or vertically (within a single pane) or a combination of both.
A multitude of file operations are possible in panes.
Drags
• Dragging a selection of files and folders will move or copy them to their destination. Dragging documents over an application will launch them.
• Files can be dragged to any level of the hierarchy by dragging to folder title areas.
• Dragging a folder or a folder title to an open pane will open it in that pane.
• Option - drag will always perform a copy, as in the Finder.
• Cmd - drag will compress files to their destination folder if you have some version of the Stuffit Engine™ in your extensions folder.
• Control - drag will create aliases of files and place them in their destination folder.
Clicks
• A simple double-click will open a folder, or launch a selection of files or file aliases.
• Option - double-click on a folder will instruct the Finder to open the folder in the Finder.
• Option double-click on an alias will open the folder that the target resides in, into a free pane, and select the target.
Return Key
• Hitting the return key will launch a file or alias, or open a folder.
The Folder View
The Folder View displays a list of files and folders in a directory along with many of the file attributes, such as size, created and modified dates, type and creator, and data fork and resource fork size. It is similar to the Finder's view-by-name window, with added information
The list can be quickly sorted by attribute, by clicking on the attribute title.
Files selected in this view will remain selected when returning to the browser view.
The Info View
Choosing the Info View with a group of selected files will display GetInfo information on this list of files. You can use the down-arrow or up-arrow keys to navigate up and down the list. Each item's info is, in turn, displayed in the view.
• File type and creator, locked and visibility status, and application partition size can be modified.
• The Selected Files menu will display programmer information on each file, such as bundle, name locked, inited, etc., and allow changes in these attributes.
• Application bits, such as Get Front Clicks and High Level Event Aware, can also be viewed and changed from the Selected Files menu.
The Find View
A file find can be invoked by the traditional Cmd-F key combination, or by clicking on the Find View Command Icon. A dialog is presented allowing the user to find files by a variety of criteria, including wildcards. The results of the find are displayed in a found files list.
• The find criteria can be named and saved for later reuse. The name will appear in the Find menu.
• Found files can be renamed, moved, copied, and added to the Launch menu from this list.
• Hierarchical, as well as file attribute information, on each file is displayed in the center of the view.
• A convenient right-side browser pane is present for file moves and copies from the found files list, as well as for dragging files to the list from the right-side pane.
• A double-click or carriage return on a found file will open it's directory into the right-side browser pane, and select the target file. Another carriage return will launch the file or open the folder. (Thus, hitting a carriage return twice will automatically launch the found file.)
• An Option double-click on a found folder will open that folder in the Finder.
• A Found Files menu is also present to allow addition and removal of files in the found list.
• Further searches can also add to the found files list.
The Catalog View
MasterFinder makes catalogs of any drive or folder. These catalogs, called "offline volumes" are saved in a special folder and can be viewed and searched at any time.
The Drive View
This view shows a list of each mounted/online volume, as well as each offline, or cataloged, volume.
• Volumes can be cataloged from this view by double-clicking on an online volume.
• Offline volumes can be viewed by double-clicking on their respective icons
• Drives can be renamed from this view.
The Network Views
These two views will allow a user to get a glimpse of what's out their on their AppleTalk Network.
• The Zone View will display the names of network entities in each zone.
• The Internet View will show a hierarchical list of information within the zone, such as name, type, node number, socket number, and net number.
• These views can both be printed to serve as a snapshot view of the AppleTalk zone at any given time.
Power Trips
There are many features that make MasterFinder an indispensable tool. Some of these are documented below
• Launch OverRide
Documents can be launched by applications other than the ones that created them. Each type of document can have several alternate launchers that can be toggled on or off in the Launch OverRide dialog.
• Memory OverRide
Application memory partitions can be modified on the fly. If an application does not have enough memory to be launched, a dialog will show the user how much memory is available, and enable the user to override the memory partition with a new one.
• Total Sizes
Any selection of files can be queried for the total size of the selection at any time via the Total Sizes menu or the Cmd-T key combination.
• Wild Selection
A Selection dialog allows users to select files in a directory that match a subset of name characters. WildCard characters can also be used. This function is invoked quickly by hitting the Cmd-S key combination, or by using the Select by Name menu.
This is a very powerful function. A user can, for example, hit Cmd-S, type in ".c", hit return, and all files ending in ".c" will be selected. Then the user can hit Cmd-T to find the total size of the selection, and then proceed to drag them into other panes for purposes such as file backup or replacement.
• Launch Menu
MasterFinder has a very simple Launch Menu. Any document or application, or alias of a document or application can be added to the Launch Menu. However, it can be used very powerfully. Holding the option key down while files are selected in a pane, and using the Launch Menu, will result in the menu item attempting to launch the selection of files.
• Recent Folders
Recently used folders in MasterFinder are kept track of and are placed in an Open Folder menu. Users can also explicitly add a folder to the list permanently. If a folder is added while holding the option key down, the folder will be assigned a function key number to allow quick keyboard openings of that directory.
• Apple Events
MasterFinder can send the "quit". "run" "open", and "print" Apple Event to any open application. It will enable a user to, for example, take a selection of files and send an Apple Event to an application to open that selection.
• Quit and/or Launch the Finder
MasterFinder will allow you to quit the Finder by sending a "quit" Apple Event to the Finder. You can relaunch the Finder by double-clicking on it in MasterFinder.
• Keyboard Equivalents
There exist keyboard equivalents for almost all of MasterFinder's functions, enabling very fast navigation of views, directories, catalogs, and networks.
• Fast Scrolling
By moving the cursor outside of the scroll arrows while the mouse button is held down, scrolling in either direction greatly speeds up.
The Future
MasterFinder major future enhancements include the following
• More Panes
• Macintosh Drag and Drop support to and from the Finder
• Better (real) documentation
We'd like to fill out this list to include more of your ideas. This will depend entirely on MasterFinder's reception in the marketplace. If users register, we'll keep the features coming.
MasterFinder 1.3 may be distributed via any online medium provided this document accompanies the program AND the program is non-registered at the time of distribution. Permission to redistribute MasterFinder 1.3 on all other media must be obtained in writing.
All products mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective holders.
