FinderPop Submenus

   The additional submenus added by FinderPop are as follows:

The FinderPop submenu: 

   Much like the Apple menu displays the contents of the “Apple Menu Items” folder, so too does FinderPop display the contents of its own special folder, the “FinderPop Items Folder”. Again, like the Apple menu, you can extend the FinderPop submenu by adding items (documents, applications, folders, or aliases to anything) to the FinderPop Items folder. The big difference between the FinderPop menu and the Apple menu is that by control-clicking an icon in the Finder and selecting an item from the FinderPop submenu, you achieve the same effect as if you’d dropped the Finder icon on the item you chose from the FinderPop menu! So, by having appropriate aliases in your FinderPop items folder, you can quickly and easily open a Finder icon using a particular application, or move it to another folder, or copy it, or make an alias of it…

   For example, if you add an alias of Aladdin’s popular DropStuff compression program to your FinderPop Items folder, you can instantly compress a bunch of files in the Finder by selecting them, bringing up the contextual menu, and choosing “DropStuff” from the FinderPop menu.

   Or say you’d like quick access to a selection of your favourite applications or file servers: simply place aliases to them into the FinderPop Items Folder; they’re then instantly available in the FinderPop menu for the price of a control-click! If you have documents selected in the Finder and you choose one of your apps, it’ll be launched and asked to open the Finder selection. If there’s nothing selected in the Finder, the app will just be launched. Similarly, should you choose a server, it will be mounted and the appropriate action will occur.

  TIP #1: Want a quick way to add an alias of something to the “FinderPop Items” folder?  Control-click the item you want to add, select the item named “FinderPop” in the ensuing contextual menu (despite the fact that it may have a submenu hanging off it, you can select it.) Leave the mouse button go while the pointer is on the “FinderPop” item, and viola, an alias of the item you’ve control-clicked gets added to the “FinderPop Items” folder. If you have “inlined” your FinderPop items in the main contextual menu, the “Finder Windows” submenu always contains the “FinderPop Items” folder (even if it isn’t currently an open window) for your convenience.  You should notice the cursor changing to… 

  TIP #2: Want a quick way to open the “FinderPop Items” folder?  Just control-click on a blank area in the Finder (so that there are no icons selected), and choose the “FinderPop” item as in TIP #1 above.

   TIP #3: If you use “Apple Menu Options”, it can be a good idea to place an alias of the “Recent Apps/Docs/Servers” folders inside the “FinderPop Items Folder,” giving you relatively instant access to them.

Note: If you’ve “inlined” the FinderPop items into the main contextual menu popup, there will not be a “FinderPop” submenu, so tips #1 and #2 above won’t work as advertised.  However, FinderPop will place a pseudo-window called “FinderPop Items Folder” in the Windows submenu; you can use that instead.

The Processes Submenu: 

   This lists the currently running processes; choosing one without anything selected in the Finder switches you to that process. If you’ve got documents selected in the Finder, then the chosen process is asked to open the documents.
The Processes submenu also displays the largest block available for application launches, and offers a “Show All/Hide Others” facility which duplicates that offered in the Mac’s normal Process menu at the right of the menubar.


The Contents submenu: 

   This is only available if you have selected one  folder or disk in the Finder. It displays the hierarchical content of the item you’ve selected, so you can zoom down the hierarchy and select an item of your choice (including folders), which will be opened.


The Finder Windows submenu: 

   This lists the currently opened Finder windows. By control-clicking an item in the Finder, it is now possible to move/copy/alias it to a completely obscured Finder window! (I dunno about you, but I find that happening to me all the time with my teeny Powerbook screen.) Choosing an item from this menu without any Finder selection will simply cause that window to move to the front.


The Desktop submenu:

   This lists all mounted volumes (disks); again, you can traverse the hierarchy in any way you please.  It optionally lists all items on the desktop.