Check out the ReadMe file for quick operation instructions and general information on TypesChange CM Plugin. This is a more complete manual describing every bit of TypesChange CM Plugin's operation.
Type and Creator Codes
Type and creator codes. What are they? Type code, like file name extensions on other platforms, determines the type of the file. Creator code associates the file with the application that created the file.
By changing the type code, you only fool Finder and other applications to think the file is something else.
Changing a file's type doesn't change the file's data. By changing file's type from "PICT" to "GIFf" doesn't make it a GIF file. It's merely a PICT file with the wrong type.
Changing the creator code changes the file's association to another application. For example, normal text file created with SimpleText is of type 'TEXT' and creator 'ttxt'. If you change "ttxt" to "R*ch" Finder thinks that the file is made with BBEdit. The icon is changes respectively and when you double click the file, BBEdit opens instead of SimpleText.
Misuse of TypesChange CM Plugin cannot destroy your documents, but it can make them harder to open or even unopenable from the Finder and applications. But that situation can always be fixed. Some applications can behave weird or plain wrong when dealing with files that have wrong type codes. You probably shouldn't use TypesChange CM Plugin if you don't really understand what it does.
Great use for TypesChange CM Plugin are files downloaded from the Internet and files copied from PCs. These files might have wrong type and creator codes, and therefore cannot be opened from the Finder. But TypesChange comes to rescue: you can manually give files' the correct codes.
Main Window
The main window (or dialog more accurately) is shown when you activate TypesChange CM Plugin from the contextual menu. If you chose several files the settings dialog will be shown first (check Settings Dialog).
There are a number of items to note in the main window:
• 1: At the top of the window is a text showing what you're doing
• 2: This editable text item shows your file's type code, type new code here, or use the pop-up menu.
• 3: This shows the file's creator code, you can type new code here or select it from the menu.
• 4: This shows the type code the file has now, click here to restore text item number 2 to this
• 5: Shows original creator code, click here to restore item number 3 to this code
• 6: Type pop-up menu, select type from this menu. Customizable.
• 7: Creator pop-up menu. You can select preset creator codes from here. Also customizable.
• 8: Brings up a standard open dialog. The type and creator codes in the window change to the codes from the file you select.
Settings Dialog
The settings dialog (shown below) comes up when you've selected more than one file. Select the way you want to change files' type and/or creator and click OK. You can also use the arrow keys (up and down) to move between items, or alternatively you can use keyboard shortcuts. Here's the shortcut list:
• Individually i or 1
• Same type and creator b or 2
• Same creator c or 3
• Same type t or 4
Customizing Popup Menus
As said before, you can add and remove type and creator codes from the popup menus. Adding is easy, just type a code that is not in the menu (type or creator, depending which you're adding), and select Add item from the menu. Removing items is even easier: just hold down the control and option (alt) keys when selecting an item in the menu and it's removed.
When adding a type code, TypesChange CM Plugin presents you with a dialog prompting you to enter the document type. This type or name is shown in the menu with the type code. For example, for type 'rsrc' you would probably want to enter "Resource file", and that would show as "Resource file: rsrc" in the type menu.
When you add a creator code, TypesChange CM Plugin searches through your hard disks (or actually their Desktop Databases) for the creator code you're adding. If it finds the code, it takes that application's name and puts it as the default answer to the dialog.
For example, if you're adding the code 'POV3', which is POV-Ray's (http://www.povray.org) creator code, and you happen to have POV-Ray on your hard disk, TypesChange CM Plugin would enter "POV-Ray PPC" as the default answer to the dialog, as shown below.
To edit an item in one of the popup menus, hold the Command key down when selecting the menu item. This brings up the Edit item dialog in which you can edit the item's description and code. Press OK to save changes or Cancel not to save anything.
Preferences File
TypesChange CM Plugin stores custom menus in the Preferences Folder in a file named "TypesChange CM Plugin Prefs". This way you won't lose your custom menus every time you update TypesChange CM Plugin, and you can easily share your custom menus with other people. Or whatever. The plugin automatically creates new preferences file if the old is deleted, so no worry.
Known Bugs
There is one known bug in TypesChange CM Plugin. Windows of background applications don't get updated while in Finder when TypesChange is active. And Finder's windows don't get updated at all when in TypesChange. And some windows don't get updated even after exiting TypesChange if those windows we're covered by other windows when the user switched to other applications while using TypesChange. I currently don't have any solution to this, and it's the price to pay from the fact that TypesChange's dialogs are movable and you are able to switch to other applications while using TypesChange.
