NOTE: This is a beta version of the software, and although it has undergone testing, it may contain bugs. Please check at www.actionutilities.com for the released version. ACTION Files is scheduled for release in February/March 1998.
This Read Me document is divided into four sections:
ACTION Files is the fastest, easiest, most convenient way to manage and organize files. ACTION Files enhances the look and feel of the standard Open and Save windows by adding features to make you more productive.
ACTION Files adds menus of commands at the top of every Open and Save window. These menus contain commands that help you to get more information, create new folders, make aliases, duplicate files and folders, rename items, or move any item to the trash. Its convenient Find command helps you find files quickly and easily. You can now find files by name, size, kind, label, creation date, modification date, file type, creator and more without ever leaving an Open or Save window.
ACTION Files also adds information to the file list. With ACTION Files you can view information about each file, including a file's size, date, label, and kind using any font. What's more, you can sort the list by name, size, date, kind, and label in either ascending or descending order. You can move Open and Save windows when you need to see what is behind them, and you can resize them to take advantage of the largest monitor.
Updates to ACTION Files can be downloaded from our Web site at 'http://www.actionutilities.com/'. The updates require a valid serial number for their use. Updates may include bug fixes, new features, or performance improvements. Demonstration versions of the software are also available at 'http://www.actionutilities.com/'.
We would like to thank our beta testers for their many suggestions and their tireless efforts in helping us find bugs in our software. In future releases this section will contain information about improvements made since the previous version.
• ACTION Files cannot resize windows for the Debabelizer, DeskScan II, QuarkXPress 4, and Timbuktu Pro products. The resizing feature has been automatically disabled for those products. Although window resizing is compatible with the overwhelming majority of programs, the developers of these products did not anticipate that their windows would be resized. We are working with those developers to ensure that future versions of their products are compatible with ACTION Files.
• ACTION Files is incompatible with Default Folder, Dialog View, and Now SuperBoomerang. All of these products add features to the Open and Save windows which conflict with ACTION Files. The installer for ACTION Files warns you about any incompatibilities when you install our software and gives you the opportunity to disable the conflicting extensions and control panels.
• We noticed during development that displaying an Open or Save window while another Open or Save window was up could cause applications to unexpectedly quit. (Open and Save windows are collectively known as Standard File windows.) This circumstance most frequently happens when you are taking a screenshot of a Standard File window and your snapshot programs brings up a Save window so that you can save the snapshot. This, of course, was a frequent occurrence when we were taking snapshots of ACTION Files for our manual. We tried this with several popular screen capture programs which all occasionally crashed with or without ACTION Files installed. Because they crashed without ACTION Files installed, we knew this problem wasn't directly related to ACTION Files. When we asked Apple for clarification to include in this Read Me, this was their official reply:
Standard File was simply not designed to be re-entrant. You may find programs [like FlashIt or other screencapture programs] calling Standard File re-entrantly, but this means they have either reverse-engineered how to protect [Standard File's] global variables or they are getting lucky.
I'm not sure what you can tell your users in a READ ME file, except to say that Apple acknowledges this as a known limitation of Standard File.
Apple Macintosh Developer Technical Support
Since this is a known crashing problem with the system software, ACTION Files disables itself in an Open or Save window while another Open or Save window is displayed. Please note: if you ever crash while an Open or Save window is shown, you should restart immediately. Although restarting after an application unexpectedly quits is generally recommended, it is especially important when an Open or Save window is shown.
• ACTION Files requires Macintosh compatible computers which support color and are running System 7.5 and later, including MacOS 8 and 8.1. ACTION Files will not work with MacPlus, MacSE, or PowerBook 100 models.
• Sorting the Documents and Folders menus by Modification Date or by Label is somewhat slower than our default sort order. This performance degradation only affects the speed of drawing menus; list drawing is not slowed down by sorting by Modification Date or by Label.
• Using the generic icons for list drawing can significantly improve drawing speed on slower machines or when displaying files on remote volumes.
Support: Please read the manual before calling for technical support. The telephone number for technical support is included in the manual. Support can also be reached at support@actionutilities.com. If you find a bug in our software, please send email to bugs@actionutilities.com. Please include your phone number and email address so that a Quality Assurance representative can contact you.
