ApplicationMenu is a simple INIT that provides a popup menu of the currently applications under MultiFinder™ or System 7. There are 3 ways to activate the popup menu:
(1) click in the menu bar to the left of the Apple menu,
(2) click in the menu bar to the right of the MultiFinder icon (or System 7 application menu),
(3) hold down one or more modifier keys (command, option, etc.) and click anywhere on screen.
Each of these hot spots can be turned on or off by clicking the appropriate checkbox in the Control Panel. This can be useful if some other utility use parts of the menu bar.
For option (3), the set of modifier keys that activate the menu can be customized in the Control Panel. Simply click in the square with the appropriate keys help down. Alternatively, you can hold down the desired modifiers and type any (non-modifier) key instead of clicking.
If ApplicationMenu is already installed then changes you make in the Control Panel will affect its operation immediately. Otherwise, the changes will take effect when you reboot. (ApplicationMenu will tell you if this is the case.)
One thing to watch out for is that HyperCard 1.x doesn't behave normally when you click while holding down Command & Option. This is true regardless of whether ApplicationMenu is installed or not. Therefore, when running HyperCard 1.x you won't be able to activate the popup menu while holding down Command and Option, even if ApplicationMenu is configured with other modifiers as well. If you use HyperCard 1.x, therefore, you should configure ApplicationMenu with a set of modifier keys that doesn't include both Command and Option (e.g., Command and Shift). (HyperCard 2.0 doesn’t seem to have this problem.)
Another thing to realize is that if you turn on the feature of popping up the menu anywhere on the screen, then it will pop up in the Control Panel also. This can be annoying if you are trying to set the modifier keys and the menu pops up instead. You can either turn off the popup anywhere feature temporarily, or hit a key instead of clicking in the box.
You can freely distribute ApplicationMenu, but please include this documentation with it. There is no shareware fee for using ApplicationMenu, but I do appreciate getting comments, bug reports, interesting buttons/postcards, ...
Send them to:
Larry Rosenstein
182 Muir Ave
Santa Clara, CA 95051
or electronically:
AppleLink: Rosenstein1
Internet: lsr@Apple.COM
CHANGE HISTORY
1/88 Version 1
2/2/88 Version 2
Adds Desk Accessories item
Configurable in Control Panel
1/26/89 Version 3.3 (version 3.0 - 3.2 were distributed to some testers, but bugs were later found and I created this version to prevent confusion)
* Fixes problem with Suitcase when ApplicationMenu loaded first.
* You can activate them menu anywhere on the screen.
* Now works within FullWrite Professional.
* Fixed problem with showing the right icon on startup. Showing the icon is a configurable option. Also changed the icon to be more attractive.
* Works with MultiFinder 6.1 (with Set Aside). Old versions would show a list of DAs rather than a list of applications.
* The current application name is centered under mouse if possible.
* Only modifies the file when the settings change rather than at boot time and when opened from the Control Panel. This means the ApplicationMenu file won't be backed up continually.
* You can set the modifiers by hitting a key while holding the desired modifiers keys.
* ApplicationMenu uses the latest ShowINIT code that supports color icons. I haven't included a color icon, but if anyone makes an interesting one, send it to me.
3/13/89 Version 3.4
* Fixes a problem when ApplicationMenu is used at a time when no menus are in the menu bar. This occurs when you launch an application under MultiFinder but there isn't enough RAM for the application's desired size.
7/26/89 Version 3.5
* Fixes problems with some INITs (ScrollLimit, perhaps others) where the menu would not appear at all.
* Fixes problem when ApplicationMenu was used with heap scrambling turned on.
9/29/89 Version 3.6
* Fixes problems when popup menu wouldn't appear if the application didn't setup its Apple menu properly. It now looks at the first character of the menu title, and checks for $14 or $F0. Similarly, to locate separators, it looks for a dash as the first character. (The latter fixes a bug with MacProject II.)
06/29/91 Version 4.0
* Fixes compatibility problem with utilities that add separator lines to the Apple menu. Now ApplicationMenu locates the applications by scanning for the last section that contains an item with a small icon.
* You can now turn off the hot spots at the left or right edge of the menu bar. This should provide better compatibility with other utilities.
* Works with System 7. Loads the appropriate code at boot time depending on system version.
* Contains colored icons for System 7.
* Updated help information.
* Uses Gestalt for setting the options in the Control Panel. This means that you won't be able to preserve your settings after installing this version (as described above). Future versions will work properly, however.
* Handle positioning of popup menu a bit better.
* Handle hacks that add submenus to the application menu.
* Handle multiple copies of the same app running at the same time.
* Improve the way we switch to the DA Handler on System 6.
* Ignore the state of the caps lock key when testing modifiers.
