OtherMenu Basics

© 1992–1999 by James W. Walker.

OtherMenu is an extension that creates a system-wide hierarchical menu somewhat similar to the Apple menu.  You can use it to launch applications and documents, perform various utility functions, and execute FKEYs.  In standard directory dialogs (Open and Save dialogs) you can use it to select files and folders.  It requires System 7 or Mac OS 8, and is accelerated for PowerPC.

After installing OtherMenu, you will see a menu whose title is a round icon near the right hand side of the menu bar.  If you are running Mac OS 8, the menu will look something like the picture above; with earlier systems, there will be no icons on the menu.  In place of the “Boot8” and “Scratch” items, you will see an item for each disk on your desktop.  The last item has a submenu with four items, and is always present.

Operation

Release the mouse button over any menu item.  In most cases, the result is the same as if you had double-clicked the item in the Finder.  The exceptions are FKEYs, compiled AppleScript files, KeyQuencer macro files, and OtherMenu externals.  Finder doesn’t know how to run these items, but OtherMenu does.

If you hold the option key as you release the mouse button over a menu item representing a file, then the foreground application will open that file (assuming it knows how to open that type of file).  This is a good alternative to using the Open directory dialog.

As you are mousing through the menu, you can press and hold a certain key to get some information about an item.  I call this the “instant info” feature.  (Initially the key will be “i”, but you can change it using the Preferences dialog.)  A little window pops up, showing the icon, type, creator, size, modification date, and path.  If the item is an alias, the information window displays information about the target of the alias, unless the alias points to something on a disk that is not mounted, or the alias cannot be resolved for some other reason.

The Preferences Dialog

If you select “Preferences” from the “OtherMenu” submenu, you will see a dialog that controls several settings.  Radio buttons near the right-hand side select five groups of settings, called “General”, “Menu”, “Volumes”, “Recent”, and “Font”.  See the Advanced Usage chapter for more information.

OtherMenu Externals

OtherMenu comes with a set of small programs that can only be used with OtherMenu.  They use system memory and can be placed in the menu and executed with less overhead than applications.  Some of them produce their own submenus, while others simply run when you select them.  You need not install the full set of externals.  If you hold the shift key while selecting an external, it will display an About box, which can allow for adjustment of settings, or might just show the version number.  If you are a programmer, you can write your own externals.  Sample code is available as a separate “OtherMenu Developer Kit” from some of the same sources as OtherMenu, such as my web site.

See the Externals chapter for information on individual externals.

Modal Dialogs

Usually, you don't have much freedom of action when the front window is a modal dialog.  You know, the kind of window that has a border like this, if you use System 7,

or like one of these, if you run Mac OS 8:

You can’t switch to another application, and you can’t even switch to another window within the same application.  Yet, you can use OtherMenu to execute externals and FKEYs while a modal dialog is showing.  This freedom entails some risk, because the programmers who wrote your applications and other extensions probably didn’t anticipate that you could do such a thing.  There is a specific risk in opening a directory dialog while another directory dialog is on the screen; see “About the GC Patch” for more information.

Certain externals (currently QuickAlias, QuickTrash, and Specialize) take control of the Other menu, so that you can’t invoke other externals when they are running.

Directory Dialogs

Directory dialogs (Open and Save dialogs) are a special kind of modal dialog, and as such the previous section applies to them.  However, OtherMenu has another use within these dialogs:  You can use OtherMenu to select a folder to be displayed in the directory dialog, simply by pulling down the menu and releasing the mouse over the name of a folder.  In the case of Open dialogs, you can select a file (other than an external or FKEY) to make that file become selected in the Open dialog.  If OtherMenu fails to select the file you asked it to select, it will beep.  This can happen if you select a file that is not the right type for that Open dialog, or if the folder contains many files that start with the same letter.  The “rebound” feature in Super Boomerang or similar utilities may interfere with file selection, but not folder selection.

In Mac OS 8.5 and later, some applications support a new kind of directory dialog called a Navigation Services dialog.  Currently, OtherMenu is not able to affect the operation of these dialogs.

Shareware Fee

The shareware registration fee for OtherMenu is US$10 per user.  See the chapter “How to Register” for more information.

Distribution

OtherMenu may not be sold or offered for sale, or included with another software product offered for sale, except with the express written permission of the author.  The author’s failure to give permission promptly should not be taken as consent.   Companies that distribute public domain/freeware/shareware software for profit are expressly prohibited from distributing OtherMenu.  This restriction does not apply to bulletin boards, commercial on-line services such as America Online, CompuServe and NiftyServe, and nonprofit Macintosh user groups which hold regularly scheduled public meetings.  However, OtherMenu must be distributed in full, as I released it, with no documentation or software missing.

Warranty

This program should work as described in this document.  If it does not, you can simply stop using it.  If you pay me, and within a year find that it does not do what I have described here, or bugs or conflicts prevent you from using it, then you can notify me and I will refund your money and cancel your license.

I will attempt to fix any bug that I can duplicate on my own machines, but will not buy other people’s software for compatibility testing.

Author’s address

Internet: <mailto:jwwalker@kagi.com> (preferred)
CompuServe: 76367,2271
America Online: JWWalker

Also, drop by my Web site, <http://users.aol.com/jwwalker/>.  This will be the first place that new versions appear.

Hard mail (do not send Kagi forms to this address!):
3689 Martha Street
San Diego, CA 92117  USA

Other software by this author

Shareware:

• Dialog View, which enhances the appearance of directory dialogs (size, font, icons)
• Manual Maker, a low-overhead standalone document kit.
• Carpetbag, which opens fonts, sounds, FKEYs, etc.

Freeware:

• Text Capture FKEY, which lets you copy otherwise uncopyable text to the clipboard
• Text Editor Patches, which can add various features to applications
• MenuCapture, allows screen snapshots to include menus

Commercial:

• At this writing, I am the principal Mac programmer for ScriptThing, a screenwriting product of ScriptPerfection Enterprises, Inc.  See <http://www.scriptthing.com> for more information.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the dozens of people who beta-tested version 2.0, with special thanks to Mark Nagata.  Among those who deserve thanks for assisting my development of earlier versions are Bill Johnston, Susan Lesch, and Leonard Rosenthol.