Please visit the website listed above for more information and to make sure you have the latest version!
These are MacOS 8 Contextual Menu Manager plug-ins. When you control-click on Finder files and folders, these plug-ins add new commands to the contextual popup menu that appears. The plug-ins do things like move and copy files, launch applications, convert text files, set types and creators, etc.
A localized French version is available on the web site listed above. Please let me know if you would be willing to localize into your language! It's easy; you just need to translate a series of strings, and you can test them as you go.
Changes in This Version
Version 2.2 fixes a couple of general bugs and improves the Lock/Unlock plug-in.
The noticeable bug fix change is that the plug-ins no longer "time-out" when the contextual menu is being built. In prior versions, it was common on certain machines to have the plug-ins fail to appear on the menu. Now the plug-ins will always appear when appropriate.
In prior versions, the Lock/Unlock plug-in always displayed Lock and Unlock if any item was selected. Now it actually looks at the selected items file attributes to see if any are locked or unlocked. If any item is locked, the Unlock command will be available. If any item is unlocked, the Lock command will be available.
Installation
You must be using MacOS 8 or later. To install any plug-in, simply drag it to the System Folder icon. The Finder will place it in the Contextual Menu Items subfolder. Next time you reboot, it will be loaded.
[ If you drag to install over an earlier version of a plug-in, the Finder may tell you that the file is in use. If this happens, simply drag the old one out of the Contextual Menu Items subfolder (and into the Trash, presumably), so that the new one can be dragged in. ]
To remove a plug-in, just drag it out of the Contextual Menu Items folder. Next time you reboot, it will not be loaded.
If your Extensions folder doesn't already contain the file "SOMobjects™ for Mac OS" (it should be there, but you may have done a custom install of MacOS 8 that omitted it), drag the this file to your system folder. This shared library is required for all CMM plug-ins. The CMM only supports plug-ins on PowerPC machines (there is no programming interface for 68K plug-ins yet).
If you installed an earlier version of the plug-ins, drag them to the trash. All of them are superseded by the new version of the plug-ins.
Setup
A couple of the plug-ins let you configure how they work. You configure these by placing files or aliases in the settings folders. After you install the plug-ins and reboot, you will see a folder called "CMM Plug-In Settings" inside the "Contextual Menu Items" folder inside the System Folder. This "CMM Plug-In Settings" contains subfolders for the various plug-in settings. Here is what to put in these subfolders:
- Destinations. Place here aliases to folders or disks. These will appear as destinations for the "Move To", "Copy To", and "Make Alias In" commands. This lets you quickly move, copy, or alias the selected files and folders to these destinations, without having to keep the actual destination folders open on the desktop.
- Launch. Place here aliases to applications. These will appear on the "Launch" submenu. This lets you launch any of these applications from wherever you are, as long as you can click to display the contextual menu.
- Open With. Place here aliases to applications. These will appear as options for the "Open With" command. This lets you open the selected files with the chosen application, regardless of the file's creator.
- Set Creator, Set Type, Set Type & Creator. Place here files or aliases to files. These will appear as options for the "Set Creator", "Set Type", and "Set Type & Creator" commands, respectively. This lets you set the selected files' types and/or creators.
List of Plug-Ins
- Convert Text - Converts the selected text files' line endings to Mac, DOS, or Unix format.
- Cut / Copy / Paste File - Lets you treat files and folders as objects that can be cut, copied, and pasted.
- Hide / Undo Hide / Show - Hides the selected files. The previous Hide can be undone. Also lets you show all hidden items in a folder.
- Launch - Launches any application you've made an alias of in the launch settings folder.
- Lift and Set File Info - Lets you set files' creators and/or types to the those of other files.
- Lock / Unlock - Locks or unlocks the selected files. Depending on your access privileges and particular file server capabilities, you can also lock and unlock folders on a file server.
- Move / Copy / Alias - Lets you move or copy the selected files and folders to the chosen destination folder or disk. Also lets you make an alias of the selected items in the destination folder or disk.
- Open With - Lets you open the selected files with the chosen application.
- Remove Custom Icon - Removes custom icons from the selected files and folders.
- Set File Info - Sets the selected files' creator and/or type from a list of choices that you configure by placing files and aliases in the settings folders.
- Simple Strip HTML - Removes all HTML tags from the selected HTML text files.
- Touch - Sets the selected files' and folders' modification date to "now".
Shareware License
Trygve's CMM Plug-Ins are shareware. Try them out for a few days. If you decide to keep them, you are required to pay the $10 license fee. This fee covers the entire package of plug-ins. Registration is done using the Kagi Shareware service. The easiest way is to use the secure online registration on the web at
<http://order.kagi.com/?TI>, or you can use the Register application provided in this package to register via e-mail or postal mail (details and instructions are at the bottom of this file).
This software is provided as-is, and is not warranted for suitability to any particular purpose. Use at your own risk.
About the Plug-Ins
Convert Text
This plug-in allows you to convert text files between Mac, DOS, and Unix formats, each of which uses different line ending codes. You can selected multiple files and then control-click to operate on all of them. These plug-ins recognize only 'TEXT' file types, so if no text files are selected, the commands will not appear on the menu, and if the selection contains non-text files when you invoke the command, the non-text files will be skipped.
Here are the rules these plug-ins use to convert a text file. (For non-geeks reading this, these are hexadecimal code points that represent end of line markers in text files.)
Mac: end of line is 0x0D
DOS: end of line is 0x0D0A
Unix: end of line is 0x0A
Convert to Mac:
If 0x0D0A (DOS line end) is found, replace with 0x0D.
Else if 0x0A (Unix line end) is found, replace with 0x0D.
Convert to DOS:
If 0x0D (Mac line end) is found without following 0x0A, add following 0x0A.
Else if 0x0A (Unix line end) is found without preceding 0x0D, replace with 0x0D0A.
Convert to Unix:
If 0x0D0A (DOS line end) is found, replace with 0x0A.
Else if 0x0D (Mac line end) is found, replace with 0x0A.
The file is not modified in any other way.
Cut / Copy / Paste File
This plug-in appears on the contextual menu with the name "File/Folder Edit" (someone please suggest something better!), and lets you treat files and folders as objects that can be cut, copied, and pasted. It is useful to know exactly how this works.
Cut moves the selected files and folders to the Trash, and remembers them in their location in the trash.
Copy leaves the selected items where they are, but remembers them in their existing location.
Paste takes the remembered items and performs a file copy operation into the selected folder. If there is already an item of the same name in the selected folder, you are asked to confirm before overwriting. If you select multiple folders, Paste is not available.
When you Cut files or folders, moving them to the Trash may require them to be renamed on the way there if there is already something in the Trash with the same name. The plug-in remembers the original name, so when you paste, the original name is used. Also note that if you move or delete the remembered items (including emptying the trash if you used Cut), then Paste won't find the files. And of course, when you Cut or Copy, the previous Cut or Copy's remembered files are forgotten.
Hide / Undo Hide / Show
This plug-in performs three functions.
If you select Hide, it hides the selected files and folders, and it remembers those items in an undo buffer.
If you select Undo Hide, the effects of the previous Hide command are reversed (the files and folders are un-hidden); Undo Hide appears on the menu no matter what is selected.
If you select Show All Hidden, any hidden items in the selected folder are un-hidden.
Launch
This plug-in allows you to launch applications from the contextual menu. If the application is already running, it is simply pulled to the front, just as if you had selected it from the process menu.
Lift and Set File Info
This plug-in allows you to set the creator and/or type of any file to that of any existing file. When a file is selected, you can "lift" its creator or type. Lifting the creator or type does not change the file; it just tells the plug-in to remember the value. So when you subsequently click on a file, the commands for setting the creator or type will apply the "lifted" values. The menu commands display the raw four-byte value that will be used, so you can always see exactly what is happening. (Non-printable characters are displayed as bullets in the four-byte string.)
Lock / Unlock
This plug-in simply sets or clears the selected files' and folders' Locked bit. In Finder list views, locked items have a little padlock icon next to the file name. Locked files can't be modified, and if they're in the Trash, can't be emptied without the option key.
Folder locking only works on file servers where you have the appropriate access privileges. You can't lock folders on your own hard disk.
Move / Copy / Alias
This plug-in allows you move, copy, and alias the selected files and folders, into a destination folder. The list of destinations is built from the disk and folder aliases that you place in the "Destinations" subfolder of the settings folder. Aliases you place there are available immediately; you don't have to reboot.
Move To moves the selected items to the destination folder. If the destination and source are on the same disk, it is a simple move (no copying is involved). If the destination and source are on different disks, a copy is performed first, and if it succeeds, the original is deleted. In either case, if there is a name conflict, you are asked to confirm before overwriting.
Copy To copies the selected items to the destination folder. If there is a name conflict, you are asked to confirm before overwriting.
Make Alias In makes aliases of the selected items, and puts them in the destination folder. If there is a name conflict, a unique name is generated.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
- Make an alias of the "Destinations" folder inside itself. This will allow you to use Make Alias In to create new destination folders without having to open up the settings folder.
- Make similar destination aliases of the other plug-in settings folders, so that you can use Make Alias In to modify them, too.
- Make aliases to things like your public sharing folder, your to-do folder, your backups folder, etc. so that you can move or copy files to places you commonly want to store them.
- Make aliases to the Apple Menu Items folder, the Control Panels and Extensions folders, etc. This will let you move or alias files to these often-used locations.
Open With
This plug-in allows you to quickly open a file with an application that is not its creator. The list of applications is built from the application aliases that you place in the "Open With" subfolder of the settings folder. Aliases you place there are available immediately; you don't have to reboot.
If the application is not already running, the plug-in launches it and sends it an AppleEvent to open the selected files.
If the application is already running, the plug-in sends it the AppleEvent and brings the application to the front.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
- Make an alias to StuffIt Expander in the "Open With" folder. This will let you easily unstuff files without digging around.
- Make aliases to your word processor, text editor, code editor, web page editor, and web browser in the "Open With" folder. This will let you open a text file with whatever application is appropriate at the moment, regardless of who created it.
- Make aliases to your various graphics editor and viewer applications in the "Open With" folder. This will let you open a graphics file with whatever application is appropriate at the moment, regardless of who created it.
Remove Custom Icon
This plug-in removes any custom icons assigned to the selected files and folders, so that the Finder just displays their plain or application-assigned icons.
Set File Info
This plug-in allows you to set the creator or type of any file. The list of creators and types is built from the files and aliases that you place in the "Set Creator", "Set Type", and "Set Type & Creator" subfolders of the settings folder. Items you place there are available immediately; you don't have to reboot. It turns out that you can use files or aliases, and it's OK if the aliases lose track of their originals. You can change the file and alias names to be whatever you want the menu to say.
Simple Strip HTML
This plug-in allows you to strip all HTML tags from a text file, leaving just the text content. It also removes redundant whitespace. Because it modifies the selected files, if you still want the original HTML file around, make a copy of the HTML file first.
Note that the stripping process is really simple-minded, so don't expect anything fancy: it simply looks for '<' and then skips everything until it finds '>'. So if you have '<' characters outside tags, or '>' characters inside tags (such as server-side include output redirection) it won't know that those are special cases. Also note that many HTML editors generate HTML with unnecessary (but harmless in a browser) hard returns in the middle of your paragraphs, wherever they please. These hard returns will remain in the stripped text.
Touch
This plug-in allows you to "touch" the selected files and folders, meaning to set the their modification date and time to the current date and time. Touching a folder does not touch its contents, just the folder itself. The term "touch" is taken from the Unix system command "touch", which in its simple form does just this.
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Using the Register program
[ Below are the instructions from Kagi Shareware on using the shareware registration program. ]
Open the Register program. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. More specifics on the Register program to follow. Kagi handles the payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-TI
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical. If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment.
Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end. Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed. Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
