Navigate: | My Mac Online | The Archives | April 1997 | Shareware Reviews |

| PopUp Folder 2.0.1 | DiskTracker 1.1.1 | DiskSurveyor 1.2 | Clp Convert 1.0 |

This is one wild and crazy utility. I'm not sure yet if I can love it. One thing for sure, it will change the way I move around the computer forever. Windows are obsolete. Clicking is passe. Hierarchal menus are the wave of the future. It takes a little getting used to, having all that mobility.

Not only can your mouse navigate through the hierarchal Apple Menu to open a file or folder, but now it can go down into any folder, anywhere on any mounted volume just by holding the cursor down on the top folder or volume, even a window's title bar. It can also go back up, which is handy when you're looking for something that you almost know where it is. These methods of navigation require a finer degree of mouse control than just clicking, however.

Once you have an item selected with your mouse, you can drop it into a folder when you get to where you want to put it. You can likewise burrow down and "grab" an item, pulling it out, then putting it somewhere else (requires 7.5x). It's too much.

But that's not all. The final coup de grace is adding the above hierarchal capabilities to the venerable (and somewhat obsolete) Open and Save dialog boxes, even adding a small icon bar on its top for your favorite folders (adding the same to the main Menu Bar). These hierarchal menus open off to the side of not only the top folder title (that's new but still within reason), but also off of any folder in the list! Just in case you don't already have this, it can drop down your menus like StickyClick, and others.

This is too much. It's going to take a while to get used to. Perhaps by the time the demo expires I will have recovered enough to pay the fee so I can continue this almost obscene navigational power-trip.

The only problem I had was a slight overlap with MenuChoice, my main Apple Menu program for a long time. PopUp Folder was just a little slower opening some folders (ones with a lot of aliases rather than files), even with the "no icons" option; but it was just as fast on the others. Perhaps it would work better with BeHierarchal, or even the somewhat buggy Apple Menu Options. But I have to have those "extended features" that MenuChoice offers. So my solution was to turn off the Apple Menu option in PopUp Folder, while leaving all the others on.

I can mouse down through the hard drive or other icons on the desktop to get anywhere. The Save and Open dialog box enhancements alone are worth the price of admission.

Download PopUp Folder 2.0.1

If you use removable media much, like I do (having a small hard drive), you quickly tire of trying to remember where anything is. Fortunately, there are a few shareware programs that can automate this process.

My favorite is DiskTracker. It's not an extension, and it doesn't automatically track disks every time they're inserted. Personally, this would drive me crazy, as I pop them in and out fairly often. You have to launch it, but, once you do, it quickly and easily records everything. It takes about 15-20 seconds to buzz through an almost full Zip disk. I have four disks (including my hard drive) with 6,200 files, and the catalog only takes up 400k.

You can scan floppies in automatic mode, just sticking one in, waiting a few seconds until it's ejected, then sticking in the next. You can be warned if the names are the same (such as "untitled"), or it can assign a unique ID number to each. All you ever need to write on the floppy is its number.

The main window works just like List Views in the Finder, with all of the same shortcuts and viewing options, so it's instantly familiar. DiskTracker can read into stuffed archives. You can add an optional "notes" for each disk, with your own description.

Where it really pulls ahead of the competition is its search capabilities. It's amazingly fast, much faster than the Finder (since it's only searching a text list). It can quickly search for duplicates on a disk. You can do custom searches, like the 7.5 Find File, and you can create search filters. These are put together from built-in drop-down menus that offer every criteria you can imagine. The custom filters can be named and saved to use later. It has advanced label printing, for all different sizes. This would be useful for CD's or fixed archives. There is an extensive online manual, which, though it lacks many navigational features, is well laid out and comprehensive.

Download DiskTracker 1.1.1

I don't know if this is a serious computer application, but I found it useful. It allows you to visually see the folders and files in your computer, in an easily understandable graphical chart.

If you have Norton's SpeedDisk, you've already seen a graphical outlay of the types of files you have. But this one shows the actual files and their names displayed in alternating bands of color (customizable). It's vertically partitioned in sections across the screen to show the hierarchy, going down through the drive.

It's amazing to actually see, for the first time, what's taking up space. Somehow it allows you to more easily make decisions about what's got to be tossed or archived. There is also a function to create a "disk summary," in text format, to use in a text editor. But I use DiskTracker for that kind of cataloging. The beauty of this program is its ease of use and visual display of information, so that even the least technically inclined can see what's in there.

Download DiskSurveyor 1.2

A very simple application that quickly converts those text clippings into text, opening with SimpleText, so you can modify them. It's also useful if there's an URL in there, which you want to Command-click and launch, using ICeTEe. That doesn't work in text clippings. It will also change them back into text clippings, a simple toggle operation using drag and drop. It will do several at once, changing each into its opposite.

Download Clp Convert 1.0

Fenton Jones (manavesh@mymac.com)

Websites mentioned:
http://www.asdsoft.com
http://www.mymac.com/software

Top of Page

Find:
| Advanced | Site Map | Sherlock Plugin |

| Current Issue | The Archives | Online Exclusives | About My Mac | Search |