Dear MacFormat, please include this (and my mock CD) in your letters folder
(even if you don't like my idea, it will give others a chance to suggest [protest?] other alternatives.....)
I enjoy the wide coverage your CD-Rom has, with a folder for just about everything and neatly iconised too. But opening windows adorned with pretty icons takes time (even with my double speed CD-Rom drive), and then opening more and more folders from within slows screen updates to a slow (Has it crashed!? er, no....) crawl!
OK folks! So here is my alternative:
Have a look at the enclosed mock CD folder....
Yes, I have used boring custom icons with those extinct[?] apple-menu 'Labels' that you'd all forgotten about, and why not? The speed at which they are displayed is much faster, and the small icon display is much more modest for people with 12"/14" monitors. Labels Do have a use don't they?
But there are also some tricks I've used....
By creating an icon of a small arrow (and a small folder for the larger icon view) and pasting this onto an alias of the mock CD, I can rename this to create 'instant titles'. Also by using the apple Labels the arrows are coloured to match what they are pointing to. These titles are all alias' of the mock CD to which they belong, so that if you double click them - nothing happens! (-they are just informative titles-see!)
You may also view the CD window by Label from the View menu. The titles have been labelled, and named beginning with a blank space -so that they are listed before the folders of each colour. The colours keep each group of folders together, you can reduce the window size and scroll up and down the list if you want to make more space on your desktop. (This other view would be impractical if you had 'calculate folder sizes' turned on in the 'General Controls' control panel. But it's just an idea...)
It is actually a rather simple design, but is tidy and effective. I can only try it from slow floppies (locked) to simulate how it would work on a CD Rom, but I'm confident it will be just as simple and fast in practice. (If you put this mock CD on the actual CD it can be tested by the readers. OR, If you can spare the time putting aliases of everything on your latest CD, colour Labelled and arranged like mine.... it could Really be put to the test!!!
Notice I have tried to include as much of the main folders as I can to make full use of the small and faster display. This allows you to see more of the contents at once and means less 'folder opening'. (and a greater insight?)
I am confident that my proposal is an intuitive one, yet more productive.(It's not that I hate picture icons, my hard disk is full of em....). Could I see it in use on your next CD and receive feedback from other readers, who I'm sure includes people who would like to see an improvement in the access times of your CD files. [I hope]
IMPORTANT
This method if liked by some and not by others can always be included on the CD in a separate folder using Aliases. Thereby allowing readers to choose which main window they would rather explore from....
I would like to see an improvement, and this is the most intuitive way of using those blank looking folders in yet, an exiting[?] way.
Question: can CD-Rom disks be partitioned like Hard Drives so that multiple icons appear on the desktop. I don't expect so, otherwise you would already be using this method to categorise different sections (nice thought though!)?
ANOTHER IDEA....
(Which is far more simpler, but less exiting, but still welcomed)....would be to create a folder containing aliases of all your picture icon folders, and their aliases within (in the case of the Shareware City folder). This folder can then be copied to the user's hard disk if desired to enable a faster screen update in the main 'menu' windows. (Simple eh?)
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Thankyou for reading this letter -a little complicated I know, but it's not an easy topic to write about.
Do any other readers out there have a better solution to the arrangement of files on the CD, whilst keeping an intuitive interface for using and enjoying this 'Exceptional' CD-Rom?
