I read the Internet mail every day, and will reply immediately (allow a couple of days for net.delay), but only call CI$ once a fortnight, or less.
Shareware, only US$9.95 or $14.95 to also receive the next version. An AutoUpgrade option is also available for $50: see the “Registration & Support” document for more information. I can accept cash, cheques, international money orders, VISA, MasterCard, Bankcard, Diners Club and American Express, (credit cards even via e-mail), so registering or subscribing to the AutoUpgrade option is really easy!
Note: you should have received SndCataloguer as an archive file, containing the application, balloon help file (which should be kept in the same folder as the application) and 8 documentation files. Any other form of distribution is illegal. Please inform Dejal Userware if you did not receive all of the files.
——— USAGE ———
SndCataloguer™ is an application which allows you to catalogue sounds, wherever they may be stored. It collects information including sound name, sound size, sound format, folder / suitcase name, and disk name, though you can choose what information to include. The info is written to a TEXT file you name, or an existing file. It is System 7-friendly, and has balloon help, Apple events (for file, folder and disk dropping), etc. The formats currently supported are:
• SoundEdit™ data files (Hint: you can also play PC sounds, thanks to this format)
• System 7 sounds
• System 7 suitcases
• Sound Mover™ suitcases — this category includes applications containing sounds and HyperCard™ stacks: basically, you can catalogue ‘snd ’ resources hidden in any file.
The first thing you should do before cataloguing some sounds is launch the application and choose “Preferences…” from the File menu, and configure how you would like to write out the information. See the Preferences section below for details of each option. (I’ve also put a button in the Save and Open dialogs for the TEXT file for your convenience.)
To catalogue some sounds, you have a few options. You can use the Open… command from the File menu. This will present you with a standard file dialog, with three extra items: “Current Folder” and “Hilited Folder” buttons, which open all of the sounds in the current or hilighted folder, and a “Show only files containing sounds” checkbox which does just that. If you check this box, only files which contain sounds that SndCataloguer can read will be listed. This makes finding sounds very easy — but you don’t need to use this checkbox to find sounds: simply press “Current Folder” or “Hilited Folder” and SndCataloguer will find and catalogue all available sounds in that folder, and ignore any other files.
Another option is to open the files to be catalogued from the Finder™. If under System 7, simply select the files to be catalogued and drag them to the SndCataloguer icon (i.e. “drop the icons on the application”). I find that leaving the application on the desktop makes instant access a breeze — or you could put an alias to it there. You can even drop a folder of sounds on SndCataloguer, and it will catalogue every sound within, no matter how many folders deep they are. The same goes for disks: plop a floppy into the drive, drop it on the application, and all its sounds will be catalogued. If under System 6, make sure all of the files to be converted are in the same folder as SndCataloguer (putting them all on the desktop is the easiest way) and select them all including the application, and double-click on one of the icons.
Once you have opened the first batch of files, you will be asked to name a new file to write the information to. If you prefer, you can append the info to an existing TEXT file by clicking the “Open…” button in the save file dialog. The resulting open file dialog has a corresponding “New…” button. You can choose which of these dialogs comes up by default in the Preferences.
When you have named a new file or opened an existing one, the sound details will quickly be written to the file, then you can open a new file / folder / disk of sounds to catalogue. By default, the open sound dialog will automatically re-appear, unless you dropped the sounds on the application. This can be changed in the Preferences dialog.
——— PREFERENCES ———
The preferences dialog lets you customise SndCataloguer to your individual tastes. I believe that the user should always be in control, hence the “Userware” in the name Dejal Userware — short for “user-friendly software”. Below is a brief description of each of the preference options (each item also has balloon help for your convenience):
• “Auto-Open if Nothing from the Finder™”: if this box is checked, you will be automatically asked for a file via the standard file dialog if you launch the application by double-clicking on the application (instead of dropping files on it or whatever). This feature defaults to off.
• “Auto-Quit When Done”: if this is checked, SndCataloguer will automatically quit when there is nothing left to do, provided you have done something. E.g. if you double-click on the application, it will wait for you to open a file or files, then once that is finished it will automatically quit. If you drop some files on the application from the Finder with this option on, it will catalogue them then return you to the Finder once finished. This is off by default.
• “Auto-Open Sounds Until Cancel”: if this is checked, you will automatically be asked for another sound file or files to open once the prior ones have been catalogued, until you click Cancel. This option defaults to on.
• “Open Existing TEXT File”: if this option is checked, you will be asked to open a TEXT file instead of creating a new one. You can still swap between the two file dialogs if you wish: this preference just determines which one will be presented first. This is off by default.
• “Sound Names”: if this is checked, the names of each sound will be included in the catalogue. Note that changing any of these options while in the middle of cataloguing is allowed, but not recommended, since it will make the catalogue inconsistent. This defaults to on (and doesn’t make much sense to turn off).
• “Sound Sizes”: if this is checked, the sizes of each sound is included in the catalogue. The sizes are expressed in K (kilobytes). This is on by default.
• “Sound Formats”: if this is checked, the format of the sound (i.e. “SoundEdit™”, “Sys 7 sound”, “Sys 7 suitcase” or “snd suitcase” is included in the catalogue. This defaults to off, since most people are pretty consistent with which formats they have (if not, they should use SndConverter Pro or Lite <plug plug>).
• “Folder / Suitcase Names”: if this is checked, sounds contained within a folder which was dropped on the application have the first 4 characters of the folder name added to the catalogue; and files contained within suitcases (or applications or HyperCard stacks, etc) have the first 4 characters of the suitcase’s name added. Other sounds have no entry (blank space). This is useful if you have several folders of sounds on a disk, and want to be able to find which folder the sounds are in. This defaults to on.
• “Disk Name”: if this is checked, the name of the disk that each sound is on is included in the catalogue. This option is also on by default.
• “Include Column Header”: if this is checked, a header will be added at the top of the catalogue giving the names of each column, followed by a blank line. This is on by default.
• “Separate Fields with Tabs”: if this radio button is selected, each field (or piece of information) is separated from the following one (if any) by a tab character. If you wanted to view the catalogue in a word processor or import it into a database, this would be the best option. This option is off by default.
• “Separate Fields with Commas”: if this radio button is selected, the fields are instead separated by commas (“,”). Some database packages might require this format. This option defaults to off also.
• “Pad Fields with Spaces”: if this radio button is selected, each field is separated by just the right amount of spaces to make the columns line up properly when viewed with a mono-spaced font, such as Monaco or Courier. This format is best if you are going to view the catalogue in a text editor or upload it to a BBS. It is my preferred format, and defaults to on.
• “Except Last Field”: this corresponds to the above option. If this is checked, the last field on the line will not be padded with spaces. This is useful in most cases, since those extra spaces can’t be seen and serve no useful purpose. You might want to uncheck this box if you are importing the catalogue into a database that requires a fixed number of characters for each field. This option defaults to on, and is only available when the “Pad Fields with Spaces” radio button is selected.
• “TEXT Creator”: this entry item lets you specify what the creator type of the TEXT file will be, from the next time you create a New one until you change this preference again. An associated pop-up menu (for System 7 users) lets you choose from many popular (and not so popular) text editors and word processors. If the application you want isn’t listed in the menu, type its creator into the box (and tell me what it is, both name and signature, and I’ll add it to the menu). The default is TeachText, simply because everyone has it. Note however that TeachText cannot open large files (> 32K), so if you are going to catalogue a lot of sounds, you should select an application that can handle larger documents (almost all of the others can). For example, my Dejal Sound Catalogue came to 74K!! Not everyone has over a thousand sounds though. <grin>
I suggest you leave the defaults as they are initially, and try out the various options, then customise things to your personal tastes.
——— COMPATIBILITY ———
SndCataloguer will work under System 6.0 and above, though it works best under System 7.0 and above. It should work on every machine from the Macintosh 512KE upwards, and has been tested on almost all the Macs presently available. It is 32-bit compatible. Please let me know if you have any problems.
The usual disclaimers apply: David Lambert and Dejal Userware accept no responsibility for any incidental or consequential damage of any sort as a direct or indirect result of using this software. The software is provided “as-is”, and no warranties are made as to its fitness for a particular purpose or whatever. I would be very interested to hear of any problems, though. <grin>
——— FUTURE FEATURES ———
Unlike some software authors, I have a list of features that I intend to add to SndCataloguer but didn’t have time to for this release. I WILL add these features in future versions. If you have any ideas for more features to add, please let me know. If I do something a way you don’t like, tell me. All suggestions, no matter how trivial they might seem, will be carefully considered. These are some of the features from my list:
• AIFF and AIFF-C format support
• Finish implementing an Extend Technology: plug-in modules for each playable format.
• Open Any… command (to open non-snd resources as sounds)
——— CREDITS ———
I would like to thank all those people who have made this product what it is today. Thanks especially to Michael Dunlop, Simon Aspden, Steve Moseley, Nick Warburton, Richard Knuckey, Julian Harris, Allan Marshall, David Lilienthal, Francis Martin and Craig O’Donnell for their invaluable assistance during the Beta testing stage of development, and all the other users of the Deep Thought and JAB BBSs for their comments. Thanks also to Riccardo Ettore for his wonderful Sound Manager Package and helpful comments over the years; to Apple for System sHeaven; and Symantec for THINK Pascal. Most of all, a big “thank you” to the huge number of people who have sent in their registrations, and offered kind words of encouragement.
