This document briefly summarises SpeedyFinder7. It describes the features and most important information you should know about SpeedyFinder7 to get you using it quickly. For those who do not like reading manuals, I suggest you quickly browse through this document.
SpeedyFinder7 is a Control Panel that offers many useful improvements to the System 7 Finder™ in one inexpensive package. It won the 1993 US MacUser award for Shareware utilities.
It can speed up copying, remove the delay when renaming files, empty the Trash fast, automatically resolve Aliases for Get Info, opening documents of one application with a different application, and much more. See “SpeedyFinder7.doc” for more details. New users, please take the time to read that document.
To start using SpeedyFinder7, drag it to your System Folder and restart. When your Mac has restarted, open SpeedyFinder7 (it will be placed in your Control Panels folder) and start setting it to your preferences. Close the Control Panel and start using your Mac. It’s that simple. Try copying files. Try opening a MacWrite document even though you don’t have MacWrite: you will be asked what you want to open it with! Try inserting a floppy disk: SpeedyFinder7 will tell you its size and if it’s locked (if you configured it to do so). Try experimenting on the features and see for yourself whether your Mac works faster.
One of the safety features of this Control Panel is that the “Finder” file in your System Folder is not modified in any way. This means that if you don’t want to use SpeedyFinder7 then you can remove it without any damage or change to your System setup whatsoever.
Note that the “Copying Options…” button is disabled on purpose. You must register to enable this button. It allows you to configure the backgrounder. See below for more information.
SpeedyFinder7 is released as Shareware. This is a system of software distribution that lets you try software for a period of time (4 weeks in SpeedyFinder7’s case) and if you decide to keep on using it then you are obliged to register the software.
Upon registration, I will send to you (preferably via e-mail* if you have it) instructions on how to convert your SpeedyFinder7 into a registered version which activates the SpeedyFinder7 backgrounder. The backgrounder performs fast background copying and fast emptying of the trash. It is much faster than the Finder™ and allows you to continue to use the Finder™ while it does its job in the background. COPYright™ v1.0 does a similar thing but SpeedyFinder7 is much faster than COPYright™. * I can send e-mail to the following services: Internet, AppleLink, CompuServe, America Online, NiftyServe, FidoNet, MCI mail, Genie, Calvacom (France) and to those BBSes that have an internet connection.
Registration also entitles you to a discount to Aladdin’s Desktop Tools utilities. As of this writing, I do not have any details and you should contact Aladdin Systems, Inc. for information and not me. Their addresses are in the Control Panel and the Release Notes.
To register, please fill out the information in the ‘Registration Form…’ dialog in the control panel. Please include your current version and if available, an electronic mail address for fast delivery of the registration instructions.
I can also fax the registration instructions to you if you are in North America and only if the number you nominate is a *dedicated* fax number.
The registration fee for international users is US$25 cash or US$30 bank/personal cheque/check drawn through a US bank. Canadian residents note that the fee is in US$ and that you cannot write “US$” on your personal checks - they *must* be drawn through a US bank. Australian residents *only* can pay Aus$25 cash or cheque. Underpayment is not accepted.
All other forms of payment including travellers cheques, EuroCheques, MasterCard, Visa, etc are not acceptable. Sorry.
Site licenses at very competitive rates are available. Contact me for more information.
Send your registration and letters to:
Victor Tan
42 Waratah Avenue
Randwick NSW 2031
Australia
Here’s a “final check list”:
• don’t forget the Registration Form
• double check your payment details - especially that you have *signed* the cheque and that its details are correct
• ensure your e-mail address is *exactly* correct ( and legible! )
• be aware that air mail from Europe or the USA takes about 2 weeks to get to Australia (and just as long to get back).
I welcome feedback (bug reports), suggestions for enhancements, or just plain chat. Write to the above address or the following E-mail address:
from InterNet: victort@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU
from AppleLink: victort@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU@INTERNET#
from CompuServe: >INTERNET:victort@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU
from AOL: victort@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU
There are still some incompatibilities that remain with this release of SpeedyFinder7.
Those confirmed by me are: NoBalloonMenu, Get More Info, Now Compress, Microsoft Excel v3.0 and v4.0, AutoDoubler Internal Compressor, Snitch, Find File (by Bill Monk with System 7.5).
Those unconfirmed but reported are: WordPerfect 3.0, Freehand 4.0, SAM 3.0 and 3.5, and Datebook/TouchBase PRO 4.0.
For further details you will need to see the main document. A couple of tips with incompatibilities: if an application that you run has crashed, try disabling the “Hide Balloon Help” option and if the crash goes away, this is the problem. Please let me know about these. The other tip is not to use the “optimal” options if you encounter some “there is not enough memory” messages. Switch to 50% or 75% of available memory instead (or whatever you prefer).
At the time of this release, System 7.5 has not been finalised. Nevertheless, SpeedyFinder7 does work with the 7.5b2c2 version that I have tested it with. The main problems with 7.5 are with the Find Original of alias and Get Info of Original of alias. This is due to the Find File extension interfering. Also, the “hide balloon help menu” option will not hide the Apple Help menu. If you find any other problems with the final/release version of 7.5, let me know and I’ll try to fix it.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time this year as I am now working full-time. This release fixes the following bugs: the non-functioning tolerance feature, crashing on deleting a lot of files in the foreground, the NowReminder clock bouncing back and forth. If virtual memory or a form of virtual memory (e.g RAM Doubler) are installed then foreground memory allocation is halved.
All registered users are advised to upgrade to this version. Remember to turn off virus utilities before using the updater program otherwise you will corrupt the Control Panel!
The 1.5.9e release fixes minor bugs and some performance enhancing in conjunction with virtual memory. Floppy to floppy copies are now handled by the Finder™ to reduce disk swapping.
The 1.5.9d release was mainly for PowerMac compatibility and a general improvement in the size of the Control Panel (it’s now smaller but has no loss of function). Users with the French and Japanese Finder™ now have their menu items in their own language. There are also some improvements to the registration dialog and the following bug fixes: the conflict with Menuette 2.0, the conflict with FileTyper (you will need a version of FT that installs a gestalt selector so that SpeedyFinder7 and FileTyper can get along with each other), and the problem with the NowAlarms clock.
The 1.5.9c release fixes conflicts with WünderBar, Apollo, and Nisus’ macros. It also fixes the 68000 registration crashing, the backgrounder’s occasional crashing when duplicating, and the non-functional cmd-` for Sleep. It now prints registration forms.
The 1.5.9b release fixes the Hand-Off II incompatibility, a problem with code modification on 68000 Macs, the problem with copying AppleMail™ enclosures, the conflict with MenuDropper, the missing ‘quit’ command on non-US systems, and a few problems with the Japanese Finder™.
The 1.5.9* updater and register programs have a problem where they corrupted the target Control Panel. This has been fixed in 1.5.9b and later. Registered users who have updated to 1.5.9* will need to use the updater program included in this release: it will update you and fix the corrupted Control Panel. You can identify a corrupted Control Panel by using ResEdit to verify it.
