Suppose that you just downloaded an exciting new control panel. You want to install it by dropping it into your System Folder, but the root folder of your hard disk is buried under several open windows. Are you going to waste minutes while looking for it?
Another example. You just got from your colleague that document you needed. You have it right on your desktop, but the application you want to open it with is many folders down in your hard disk. How many windows will you need to open before finding it?
In these and many other cases, you can rely on Send To CM. From now on, your preferred applications and folders are just a control-click away. Send To CM will add a "Send To" menu to the Finder's contextual menus, which will give you access to a list of applications, Applescripts, folders and disks that you can freely customize and organize. The illustration below explains what I mean better than my words:
Key features:
• "Sending" files is intuitive: your file "goes" where you send it, just as if you drag-and-drop it with your mouse.
• Files can be "sent" to (opened with) any running application.
• Files can be sent to applications of your choice -- that is, not only the one that created it.
• Files can be sent (moved) to folders of your choice. The Finder's routing mechanism will be honored: if you send a Control Panel to your System Folder, it will end up in the Control Panels folder -- exactly what you would expect.
• Files can be sent to Applescripts to perform useful or sophisticated tasks: printing, making aliases, and so on. You can write and add your own Applescripts and use them like powerful macros.
• Cool, Mac-like and Finder-friendly user interface. Only one item added to Finder's contextual menus, not a dozen!
• Easily customizable appearance. It's very easy to add applications and folders you like to the list, and you can also organize them in sub-folders.
Installation and system requirements
To install Send To CM, double-click the "Installer" application. When the installation is finished, restart your Mac.
Send To CM is a Contextual Menu Manager plug-in: it requires a PowerPC machine running Mac OS 8 or later. Also, make sure that the "SOMobjects™ for Mac OS" library in your Extensions folder is enabled.
Using Send To CM
Using Send To CM is straightforward. You can "send" documents and files to any item listed in the menu. "Sending" is exactly like dragging the document onto the icon of the item, and dropping it. "Sending" to an application means opening with that application. "Sending" to a folder means moving to that folder. "Sending" to printer means printing. You could figure it out by yourself, couldn't you?
Customizing Send To CM
After installing Send To CM, a folder named "Send To Items" will be added to your Preferences folder (and an alias to it will be put in Send To CM's folder). Any application, folder or alias you put in this folder will be displayed in the "Send To" menu. Period. this is the general rule.
At first, the "Send To" menu only contains your System Folder, an item named "Printer" and an item named "“Send To Items” folder". If you want to add an application to the menu, you can just "send" it to the item named “Send To Items folder”. Let's give an example: one of the first applications you'll want to add to the "Send To" menu is probably SimpleText. In order to add it to the list, simply open the folder where SimpleText resides, and control-click its icon. "Send" it to the “Send To Items” folder: in a few moments, an alias to SimpleText will be placed in the "Send To Items" folder. The next time you control-click a document, SimpleText will be ready to "receive" the document you want to "send".
• You can continue to add applications and folders to the "Send To" menu in this way, but sooner or later you will feel the need to better organize the menu. Luckily, this task is pretty easy. Open the "Send To Items" folder. You can create subfolders to put your items into, and they will show up like submenus (look at the "Graphic Apps" and "Text Apps" submenus in the figure above).
• If any application other than the Finder is running, Send To CM automatically adds an "Open Apps" submenu, listing all running applications.
• Items in the Send To Items folder are shown in the menu sorted in alphabetical order. You can modify the default sorting by adding numbers and non-alphabetical characters to the beginning of the names. That is, if you want "SimpleText" to appear above "ResEdit", you can rename the aliases to "1) SimpleText" and "2) ResEdit". If you want an item to appear near the top of the list, add a space before its name. If you want to put it near the bottom, add a "|" character.
• If you want to create a divider item, simply create an empty folder and rename it to "-" (exactly, a single minus sign). Then you can follow the trick explained in the previous point to put it where you like it.
Send To CM and Applescript (for advanced users)
Send To CM is a good friend of Applescript! In fact, Send To CM uses Applescript to implement the "Send to printer" and "Send to “Send To Items” folder" commands. You can add Applescripts to the menu to perform virtually any task you like: it's like have a very powerful macro engine that's just a control-click away.
If you are familiar with Applescript and you want to write you own scripts to perform actions on files you "send", you need to implement an "on open" handler, like this one:
on open theDocuments
repeat with x in theDocuments
... do some action...
end repeat
end open
If you write an Applescript for Send To CM and you want to share it with other people, e-mail me a copy of the script and I'll put it in my web pages.
Shareware notice
Send To CM is shareware: if you like it and you continue using it after a 15-day trial period, you must pay me a small fee ($9). Site and world-wide licenses are also available.
Payments are handled by Kagi Shareware. You can pay with cash, USD check or credit card by using the Register utility enclosed in the distribution package. Enter your name, your email address (if available), the number and kind of licenses you wish to purchase and choose your preferred payment method. Save, copy or print the data from the Register application and send it to Kagi along with your payment via email, fax or regular mail. Kagi will process your registration and forward your payment to me.
If you’re on the Internet, you can register online via Kagi's secure server (open the "Register online.html" document with your favorite web browser).
Send To CM is -intentionally- not protected by a code or time lock. That doesn't mean that you have a right to use my work without paying for it. Please support shareware, so that new utilities will see the light in the future!
Send To CM may be included in on-line collections, as well as in disk or CD-ROM collections: in these last two cases, I ask you to send me a free copy of the media, or at least to notify me via e-mail.
Disclaimer
No damage should come from using this software, but remember that you're using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can make no warranties whatsoever on it.
Contacting me
My email address is frames@kagi.com. If you want to stay in touch with my latest releases and developments, be sure to check out my web page at http://members.xoom.com/Frames.
Thanks to...
Federico Giacanelli, for support, beta-testing and his sci-fi (and legal) culture!
Version History
1.0.2 Fixed a minor problem with menu item naming.
1.0.1 Added "Apple Menu" script. Minor code rewriting.
