Ever had a bunch of programs open and all your screen covered with open documents and you need to go to the desktop quickly ? You'd have to go "Finder" menu item and then select "Hide Others" or option-click on the desktop, right?(BTW, option-clicking on the desktop only hides the frontmost app)
Not any more - enter QuikHide - a little extension that does all this for you. Click on the red dot(which may be changed to a cool icon in the future ) in the right corner of the menu bar and you're on the desktop instantly and all apps and their documents are hidden from view.
If you're in the Finder the dot turns green. If you click on it you'll be back in the app that was frontmost when you clicked the red dot. If you command - click on the dot (whether you're in the Finder or not) you'll see a dialog that lets you control the behavior of the extension. You can option- drag the dot around the menu bar to find the position that is best for you. The changes are effective immediately and are saved between restarts.
If you want to quit all apps just control -click on the dot. QuikHide will:
If you're in the Finder: All apps will quit; if you're in an app: All apps will quit except for the one you're in. There's a couple of things here you might want to be aware of:
1) QuikHide doesn't quit an app - it just sends it an Apple Event - it's entirelly up to the app to process that event, notify you that there are unsaved documents, etc. Most apps do a good job at this but there are some that don't - older versions of TeachText, for example.If you have an unsaved document in TeachText and you control-click the dot in the Finder your TeachText menus will be grayed out - the only way out is to force quit (cmd-opt-esc). This is the only quirk I've noticed so far.
2) Sometimes you'll see that control-click doesn't have any effect- all apps stay open. This is most likely because QuikHide didn't have enough memory to do its trick.Just quit one app manually "and the rest will follow"
For ye, technical types:
The code uses Extension Shell by Dair Grant (THANK YOU!!) to install a JGNE filter , then monitors mouseDown events for the click in the place of interest. Then it counts menu items of the Finder menu ID -16489 , finds the right name (Either "Finder" or "Hide Others") , stuffs the item ID and menu ID into a long and calls SystemMenu. That's all there is to it
This program is Whateverware - I'd appreciate some feedback on how it works and how it made your life easier (it did make mine a lot easier ) :-))
Drop it in your System folder, restart and enjoy!!
(not my ) BUG NOTE:
There's a conflict between Quark 3.31 and System Software update 2.0 : If you try to hide Quark even without my INIT, it freezes. So until there's a fix don't try to hide Quark either manually or through my extension.
I tried QuickHide with a variety of programs on both PPC and 68K Macs and it seems to be working fine.
Special Thanks:
<Dair Grant>
<Brady>
<Erik>
<Hal>
For questions, comments bugs and all write to
amarder@netmanage.com
CONFLICTS
WARNING!!! QuikHide conflicts with PopChar v 2.7.1. - a command click
on the dot will bomb your machine if PopChar 2.7.1 is installed.
You'd need to get v 2.7.2 of PopChar to correct the problem. It can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.soft.uni-linz.ac.at
REVISION HISTORY
6/18/96 v 2.1.3 Fixed a bug that crashed the machine if another utility (like FlashIt) put a
dialog when QH preferences dialog was running
6/14/96 v 2.1.2 Added option click that qiuts all apps if in Finder and all apps except foreground if in app
4/29/96 v 2.1.1
Added option dragging the dot. Changed the preferences behavior so there's no right and left corner radio buttons. The position of the dot is upper right corner by default and can be changed by option - dragging it anywhere in the menu bar. Fixed the bug that some users reported where the resource file of the INIT wasn't closed . Took out annoying Debugger statements that crashed machines without MacsBug . Fixed the bug that did not save the position of the dot correctly if the dialog was used but the dot was not dragged.
4/19/96 v 2.0.
Added a preferences dialog. The radio buttons control the position of the dot and INIT's behavior. Added code to save prefs. Added the green dot in the Finder
