Netscape History 3.0.1
Author: Claudio Potenza
Shareware: $8.00
http://www.kagi.com/authors/cpotenza
It’s not often that I find a piece of shareware that not only works great, but does something that I’ve been hoping something would do; something that seemed so obvious that you wondered what the big problem was, why hadn’t someone figured it out?
Well, Netscape History is one of those. It does what Netscape itself should be able to do: show you your cache files as Web pages offline, complete with links and graphics. In a way, I’m glad it can’t, because Claudio has done such a good job.
Apparently all the information is there on your hard disk. You can view the cache files offline with Netscape, by typing “about:cache” in the “Open Location” box. But the files are listed by their URL name, which can be long and weird, and the graphics can’t be viewed. There’s little point in viewing a Web page as such without any of the graphics; you might as well just save it as text. Netscape History, on the other hand, causes the list of pages to be displayed with the title names, and all the graphics in place just as they were online. You have the choice of reconnecting and following links or saving the page to your hard disk (as Netscape HTML files, with everything retained). The pages list can also be viewed “by site,” which makes it shorter and more organized.
Overall, it’s a painless way of viewing and saving Web pages offline. You do, however, have to load the pages, with the graphics, while you are online first, which you don’t have to do with Web Devil (see previous reviews). The other small problem is what to do with all those files afterwards. Though Netscape History uses Netscape to view the files, it creates the files separately from those in the cache folder, in its own folder (which it will create wherever you tell it to). This adds up to a lot of space; it’s like doubling your Netscape cache folder.
There is an option to have them automatically deleted after any number of days. This would work fine if you have a decently-sized hard drive (I don’t). You can also select them individually to delete immediately. I would like, however, a command to select them all for deletion (Select All just selects all text, since you are in actually in Netscape). I use my own method of just selecting all the files in Netscape History’s file storage folder while in the Finder and manually trashing them.
This version works with Netscape versions 1-3, and also with Internet Explorer 2, but not 3 yet. The next version will be named “Web History,” so it may include it.
Download Netscape History 3.0.1
One More Hack Please (more ResEdit)
(A long treatise for those who use icon views for their windows; list viewers can ignore.)
I finally found the long-sought-after trick to make my beloved small icon views work as efficiently as list views. I like small icon view. It shows more files per window space than list views, while still showing the colorful icons. If there aren’t too many files in each, I can have at least three unobscured horizontal windows open on the screen at once (and this is on a 14″ monitor).
This makes it less confusing to compare the files in the folders and drag between them without losing visual feedback. I’m a visual person. Often I’m not so much looking for something specific, but want to see everything at once. I use my hierarchal Apple Menu or Find File when I know exactly what I’m looking for.
Perhaps some day I’ll graduate to list views, but I believe many people begin with icon views. They can be made to work well if you know these tricks. Probably you already know that you can arrange all the icons in alphabetical order by holding down the Option key before choosing “Clean Up Window” from the Special Menu (it changes to “Clean Up By Name”). That also pulls all the icons together in the tightest possible space, while avoiding overlapping names. Sometimes you have to drag the window first, or click the zoom box (upper right) to make it the right size for the files.
Perhaps you didn’t know that you can change the type of order to “by Date,” or any of the others in the Special menu. The trick is to change the window to list view temporarily, by choosing your preferred order from the View Menu. Then switch back to your normal “by Small Icon” view. That order type will be remembered for that window, and the Clean Up command will change accordingly.
The problem with Small Icon View was that whenever I added or subtracted files from a window, things would no longer be very neat. I’d have to hold the Option key, then go up and “Clean Up By Name” again. Those trips to the Menu Bar became tedious after a short while. Then finally I came up with the solution, “Why not use ResEdit to add a command key to the “Clean Up” command?”
So that’s what I did. You can read my last month’s column for a few details on how to do this. Unfortunately, you’ll really need to find more explicit instructions, in a book, or perhaps online. If readers request it, I’ll try to find them for you.
I added the ” ‘ ” (single apostrophe) key for the command. I was pleased to see that Option-Command-‘ will now clean up the active window in one stroke. It’s so easy; it’s definitely worth the effort to do it. I read (here in My Mac) that the ability to automatically keep your icon-view windows in order is one of the improvements coming in System 8-but this hack will help for now.
Squeaky Toy 1.0
Author: Alex Metcalf
(free, “Would anyone pay for this?”)
“WOW, THAT’S ANNOYING!”
This little program is so unique, I think I’ll let the author speak for himself.
“Squeaky Toy is one of those extensions that makes you feel glad to be alive. Simply drop this on to your System Folder, restart, and your mouse turns into a squeaky toy. It’s fun for ten seconds, then acutely annoying.”
Fortunately, if you hold down the mouse at startup, it won’t load. It’s a great sound though – one that I’m sure your friends and office fellows would love to have you put on their machine. It’s time they learned about managing extensions anyway.
Download Squeaky Toy 1.0
*****
All of the programs reviewed here can be found at the My Mac Software Library at https://www.mymac.com/software
Fenton Jones
Fenton Jones is a FileMaker database designer and consultant, based in San Diego, CA. FileMaker is a cross-platform rapid-development tool for affordable relational databases. If you have need of a FileMaker Pro expert, please be sure to visit his home page at http://www.fentonjones.com
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