address: Jérome Foucher, 2 rue du moulin, 28800, France
What does “DeskTray” do?
DeskTray is a floating tray that displays all the items from the desktop or all your desktop printers, or the content of one of your 5 favorite folders, for easy access in every application.
DeskTray works like a drawer. When minimized, DeskTray only shows a small bar on one side of your screen that floats over all windows. Clicking on that bar will expand the drawer. Clicking back will collapse it.
The list works exactely like in the Finder. You can select multiple items, open them by double-clicking... It also fully supports drag&drop. You can drag&drop items onto DeskTray like if you were dragging them on Finder items : dragging an item will move it to the desired folder. Holding down the option key while dragging will copy the item, and holding down option and command keys will create a shortcut. You can of course drag&drop items from the palette.
The tray can be positionned everywhere on the sides of the screen. And it can be resized by clicking in one of the small dark arrows on the bottom of the tray.
When Navi iRae 1.7.1 (one of my freewares) or newer is also installed, control-clicking (or clicking&holding if FinderPop is also installed) on a folder in the tray will display the content of the folder in a popup menu from where you can launch items.
Requirements
• Mac OS 8.5 or better
Installing "DeskTray"
To install DeskTray, drag and drop both "DeskTray" and "DeskTray Control" over the active system folder icon. Answer yes when the Finder ask you if you want to put "DeskTray" in the Extensions Folder and "DeskTray Control" in the Control Panels Folder. Then restart your Mac.
Bugs and comments
Send me bugs reports, comments or suggestions by e-mail or mail to beastieit@yahoo.com
Shareware
"DeskTray" is $10 shareware. You can try it out for 30 days. After that period, if you decide to keep "DeskTray", please support shareware and pay the shareware fee. It enables you to use any future version of DeskTray and it helps me developing more cool stuff.
Registering
You have several choices to register :
• either you register online at http://order.kagi.com/?Q7R&S for secure connection or http://order.kagi.com/?Q7R for non-secure connection.
• or you send me $10 cash to my postal address. But this will be longer to process your registration.
Distribution
"DeskTray" may be freely distributed via electronic bulletin boards, user groups and person to person. When distributed, all accompanying files are to be distributed too.
"DeskTray" can be put on any other site or included on any CD-ROM, but please tell me if you do, so I can send updated versions when available.
Legal stuff
This software is provided "as is". Every effort has been made to ensure it will not cause any damage, but the author does not make any warranty. The author denies responsibility for any damage caused directly or indirectly by the software. Use it at your own risk. Some jurisdictions may not allow this limitation of the warranty, so it may not apply to you.
Version History
April, 2000: Version 1.4.1
• DeskTray was unable to resolve multiple aliases (alias of an alias.... of a folder) put in DeskTray Items folder. Fixed.
• On systems older than Mac OS 9, you may encounter the System Alert "Too many files opened". Fixed.
• Raised the maximum number of items that can be displayed in DT to 600. When this number is reached, an alert appear that ask you to choose another folder.
• Removed the option to collapse the drawer when double-clicking in an unsued part as too many bugs have been reported when using this option. It should reappear when/if I manage to find a solve the bug.
March, 2000: Version 1.4
• Due to problems with the system for choosing the alternate folder, I had to completely change the way of handling it. Now DeskTray can list up to 5 of your favorite folders. To simplify everything, DeskTray creates a folder named "DeskTray Items" in the Applications Support Folder inside your System Folder. In this folder, just put aliases (or directly folders) of up to 5 of the folders you want DeskTray to list. "DeskTray Items" folder can be opened automatically by using DeskTray Control.
• Added an option not to display aliases in italic.
• Added an option to remove the vertical space between 2 different volumes in the list.
• Small cosmetic changes.
• Several small bugs fixed.
• A small manual is now included with the archive.
March, 2000: Version 1.3.1
• Corrected a problem with DeskTray forgetting the registration on systems 8.5 and 8.6
• Fixed some cosmetic problems when collapsing the tray and when selecting multiple items that were larger than the tray.
March, 2000: Version 1.3
• The tray can now be positionned everywhere on each edge of the screen. Changing the position can now be done without opening the control panel. When the tray is minimized, press the command key and click on the small tab. The cursor will change in a closed hand. You can now drag the tray wherever you want on the edges of the screen. You'll notice that the tray will stick to the four corners of the screen. If you choose one of these sticky positions, the tray will keep its position when changing screen resolution. If you choose a position that is not a screen corner, the tray can move in order to be visible.
• The way to resize the tray has been changed to something better. When the tray is expanded, at its bottom there are now one or two (whether the tray is locked at a screen corner) grow "boxes".
• Added an option to display only small icons to save space.
• The tray can be expanded/contracted automatically when the mouse stays onto/outisde for a certain amount of time (this delay can be adjust in the control panel).
• When dragging an item from the tray, the tray now collapses automatically.
• When expanding/collapsing the tray, the animation should now be smooth all the time.
• Sounds are always on. It means that if you have chosen sounds to be played in the Appearance control panel, then DeskTray will play sounds like in the Finder. If sounds are disabled in the Appearance control panel, then DeskTray will not play any sound.
• When Navi iRae 1.7.1 (freeware) or newer is installed, control-clicking (or clicking and holding if FinderPop is also installed) on a folder will display the folder's content in a popup menu.
• The tray is still limited to the main screen, but multi-screen support should come in the next version.
February, 2000: Version 1.2.1
The preferences file could be damaged by version 1.2 resulting in a loss of the registration or a tray that takes all the screen. Fixed.
February, 2000: Version 1.2
The list now behaves like in the Finder. It allows multiple selection, and to open an item, you have to double-click on an item. I've added a feature to open items with a single click as it was the case in v1.0.x so users won't be lost.
The tray now holds a pane where you can choose which list you want to be displayed : desktop, a chosen folder, or the desktop printers. Once the tray is opened, you can easily switch from one list to another. For now it's not possible to change the list when drag&dropping.
Scrolling is supported during drag&drop.
Added support for drag&dropping items onto desktop printers.
Double clicking in an unused part of the tray to close it is now an option as some crashes have been reported when using it. Use this function with caution.
January, 2000: Version 1.1
The list can now scroll. Scrolling is not yet supported during drag&drop. This feature will be added in version 1.2
The Trash is now always at the bottom of the tray.
Volumes and Trash are displayed as big icons.
At the left of every volume, there's a disclosure triangle like in the Finder to choose if you want the content of its desktop to be displayed in the tray.
When minimized, the tray is always 150 pixels wide.
You can choose a specific folder to be displayed in the tray instead of the desktop.
You can choose which items will be displayed in the tray (files, folders, aliases).
You can set the position of the tray, when it's minimized, to one of the 4 corners of the screen.
Url clippings couldn't be dragged onto DeskTray. Fixed.
December, 1999: Version 1.0.2
DeskTray didn't load under Mac OS 8.6. Should be fixed.
Fixed a crash when too many items were on the desktop.
Fixed the flickering tray problem.
DeskTray now also lists items that belong to desktop folders from other volumes than the startup one.
