ACTION Files is the fastest, easiest, most convenient way to manage and organize files. ACTION Files enhances the look and feel of both the standard Open and Save dialogs and the new Navigation Services open and save dialogs by adding features to make you more productive.
ACTION Files adds menus of commands at the top of every Open and Save window, regular and Navigation Services. These menus contain commands that help you to get more information, create new folders, make aliases, duplicate files and folders, rename items, or move any item to the trash. Its convenient Find command helps you find files quickly and easily. You can now find files by name, size, kind, label, creation date, modification date, file type, creator and more without ever leaving an Open or Save window.
ACTION Files also adds information to the file list*. With ACTION Files you can view information about each file, including a file's size, date, label, and kind using any font. What's more, you can sort the list by name, size, date, kind, and label in either ascending or descending order. You can move Open and Save windows when you need to see what is behind them, and you can resize them to take advantage of the largest monitor.
* Navigation Services only allows the Name and Date columns to be displayed. Regular Standard File dialogs will still have the additional columns with ACTION Files.
When you install ACTION Files, the installer will ask you for a serial number. If you have not purchased a serial number, you can still install ACTION Files on your computer for a 30 day free trial. The free trial is identical to the product except that it is only enabled for 30 days. At the end of that 30 day period, major portions of ACTION Files will be automatically disabled. You can purchase serial numbers by visiting our web site at 'http://www.poweronsoftware.com/', through dealers and catalogs, or by calling us directly at 800-344-9160 or 612-317-0344. Use the enclosed Purchase ACTION Utilities application for ordering over the internet or using encrypted email, or for printing orders you can FAX or mail. It's the quick and easy way to purchase our products.
You can download ACTION Files and other members of the ACTION Utilities product family from our web site at 'http://www.poweronsoftware.com'. Our site contains the latest versions of our products as well as comprehensive documentation and updates from previous versions, and is the definitive source of information about the ACTION Utilities product line.
For more information about our security, screen sharing, and network management products, please visit 'http://www.poweronsoftware.com'.
This version fixes a bug in the installer that could lead to data corruption in the Recent Items Datebase when upgrading to ACTION Files 1.5 from an earlier version. Version 1.5.1 creates a new Recent Items Database without importing the information from the previous Recent Items Database. Corruption to the Recent Items Database could result in crashes when using ACTION Files or ACTION Menus.
Version 1.5
Special thanks to our beta team for their suggestions and their efforts in helping us make this a better product.
New Functionality
• Added support for Navigation Services dialogs (Navigation Services are the new replacements for Open and Save dialogs). Some features of ACTION Files have had to change slightly to work with Navigation Services. In Standard File dialogs ACTION Files provides its own Find File feature. In Navigation Services dialogs selecting the find feature brings up Sherlock. Pointing to an item that is viable on the desktop has also changed. In Standard File dialogs ACTION Files pointing and clicking on an item points the list to it. In Navigation Services dialogs, since they are not modal, pointing and clicking on an item on the desktop makes finder the front application. To select the item in Navigation Services, hold the command key down while clicking on the item in the Finder.
• Modified Recent/Favorite items database so that it will share information with ACTION Menus. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of ACTION Files a new recent items database will be installed in the ACTION Utilities folder in the Power On Preferences folder in your main Preferences folder. This allows the recent items to be shared with both ACTION Files and ACTION Menus. The information contained in your older recent items database will not be transferred. The old database is not deleted so that if you choose to go back to the earlier version of ACTION Files your original recent items will reappear.
• Added Previous Drive, Next Drive and volumes free space to Navigation Services volumes popup menu.
• Implemented View menu in Navigation Services.
• Added a named separator to the Documents menu.
Bug Fixes
• Fixed bug where menu item commands would not be shown in menus.
• Improper items no longer added to Recent Items Database.
• Fixed bug that would cause files other than the current selection to be opened in a Navigation Services dialog.
• Fixed drawing glitches that could occur if there wasn't enough memory to save the contents of the screen behind a menu in Navigation Services
• Fixed bug where a recent item that was marked for deletion could be opened. This would likely result in having the item be added right back into the database.
• Fixed bug where Get Info and Find File dialogs were not being made movable.
Version 1.2
New Functionality
• Added ability to disable Navigation Services dialogs (Navigation Services are the new replacements for Open and Save dialogs).
• Added ability to change permanent items in the Compatibility list where appropriate.
Bug Fixes
• Fixed drawing glitches with menu bar under Appearance Mgr 1.1.
• Zip disk icons are now displayed in the volume menu in ACTION Files enhanced Open and Save Dialogs.
• Recent files and folders are now tracked from the StuffIt Deluxe Open or Save dialog boxes.
• Made changes to make ACTION Files more compatible with Kaleidoscope. Special Thanks to Greg & Arlo, the publishers of Kaleidoscope, who will be releasing Kaleidoscope 2.1.2 which will make ACTION Files and Kaleidoscope even more compatible.
• Correctly display the available space on large volumes.
• Added Suitcase 3.0 to the Compatibility list set to not resize.
• Cursor updates correctly in save dialogs.
• Numerous other updates and additions.
Version 1.1
Once again we would like to thank our beta testers for their many suggestions and their tireless efforts in helping us find bugs in our software.
New Functionality
• Compatible with Mac OS 8.5
• Increased speed at which ACTION File's menus draw.
• You can now assign command keys to items in the Folders and Documents menus. To assign a command key, pull down the menu and hold down the desired keys when you are over that item. We support having multiple modifiers. If you try to assign one of ACTION Files' standard command keys to those items, it will beep and it will not let the key be assigned. If you try to assign a command/hot key that is already assigned to a recent/favorite item, the old item's hot key is erased and the new one is assigned the hot key. Hot keys are global. Hot keys must start with the Command Key to avoid clashing with the keys for ASCII characters.
• Changed the behavior of pressing the Delete key while a recent/favorite item is selected in a dropped down menu. If that item has a hot key, the hot key will be deleted, a second press of the Delete key will be needed to delete the item.
• Added menu of favorite and recently used items to the Open item in the Finder's File menu.
• Added the ability to set a default folder for an application. When that application Opens or Saves a file, it automatically takes you to that folder rather than the folder configured in the General control panel.
• When you click on an item in the Finder, ACTION Files will go to that item's folder and select that item. In the old version we would just go to that item's folder without selecting that item.
• Made clicking in the Finder more intuitive by changing the cursor when it is over a Finder window or the desktop (i.e. any window that you can go to by clicking on it).
• Added Empty Trash menu item to File menu.
• In a Save dialog, double clicking or option clicking on a disabled file will enter its name as the document name to save.
• Added a preference to make "Replace" the default button in the dialog which asks if you want to replace a preexisting file in the Save dialog. It is off by default.
• Added hierarchical recent item menus to all File menu items whose contents include both the word "Save" and the word "As".
• Added an icon for the volume popup.
• If a volume appears in a menu, the free space on that volume will be displayed beside the name of the volume.
• Added a General tab to the preferences. Use it to specify the Replace option mentioned above. There are some expert-mode settings you can make if you hold the option key when clicking the General tab. The first ACTION Files Easter Egg! (At least that we'll admit to. :-)
• Added the ability to operate on the selected items parent folder by holding the shift key. For example, to specify the enclosing folder as the default folder, you would hold the shift key when choosing the new Default Folder command in the menu.
• Replaced all control key (except temporary disabling ACTION Files) to use shift key instead. We used the control key in the previous versions which caused problems with contextual menus.
• Added divider line into menus if primary sort is by application used or by favorite.
• Added the saving/restoration of window positions. Window positions are saved per application and per DLOG ID within the applications.
• Added the ability to put duplicate items into the Compatibility preference panel.
• Changed centered resizing so that cursor will stay closer to the resize box.
• Enhanced the icons for volumes drawn in the Standard file dialog.
• Added caching of some icons in order to speed up the first click in a recent items menu.
• When the free trial period expires, the product continues to run but with greatly diminished functionality. In the previous version the software was automatically disabled at the end of the free trial period.
• Reduced RAM and disk space requirements for the ACTION Utilities control panel.
• Added compatibility for DragStrip and DragThing.
• Added international support for non-US versions of the Mac OS.
• Added "About" information for Extensions Manager and Conflict Catcher.
• Third Party Developer Note: Added a generic callback function whose address is stored in our Gestalt block. The function is known as AF_API. The function can perform many tasks in conjunction with third party software. Please contact us if you are writing an application that wants to tie into ACTION File's functionality.
Bug Fixes
• Fixed problem with our Recently Used and Favorite items database. We had problems with the databases becoming corrupted. That has been fixed.
• Fixed incompatibility with McAfee VirusScan.
• Made a change that will makes Adobe Type Reunion and ACTION Files more compatible. Please let us know if you encounter any problems between ATR and ACTION Files. The problem manifests itself by the Open/Save dialogs taking a long time to appear. If you experience this problem please increase the memory allocated to ATR in it’s control panel.
• Fixed crash that would occur when doing a drag and drop into the Compatibility preference panel.
• Fixed discrepancy between ACTION Files and the Finder when sorting by date. The Finder considers sorting dates in ascending order to be going from the most recent to the oldest. We now use the finder sort order.
• Fixed bug where data in rebounds file was incorrect. Rebounding would only work under certain conditions because of this. All old rebounding data will be deleted.
• Made Trash always sort to the bottom of the list.
Version 1.0
We would like to thank our beta testers for their many suggestions and their tireless efforts in helping us find bugs in our software. In future releases this section will contain information about improvements made since the previous version.
• ACTION Files cannot resize windows for the Debabelizer prior to 3.0.2, DeskScan II, QuarkXPress 4, and Timbuktu Pro products. The resizing feature has been automatically disabled for those products. Although window resizing is compatible with the overwhelming majority of programs, the developers of these products may have not anticipated that their windows would be resized. We are working with those developers to ensure that future versions of their products are compatible with ACTION Files. ACTION Files is compatible with all applications that use Navigation Services to open and save documents.
• ACTION Files is incompatible with Dialog View, and Now SuperBoomerang. These products add features to the Open and Save windows which conflict with ACTION Files. The installer for ACTION Files warns you about any incompatibilities when you install our software and gives you the opportunity to disable the conflicting extensions and control panels. The product is compatible with Default Folder if default folder is renamed to load before ACTION Files in the Extensions folder.
• We found during development that displaying a second Standard File Open or Save window while another Standard File Open or Save window was up could cause applications to unexpectedly quit. (Open and Save windows are collectively known as Standard File windows.) This circumstance most frequently happens when you are taking a screen shot of a Standard File window and your snapshot programs brings up a Save window so that you can save the snapshot. This, of course, was a frequent occurrence when we were taking snapshots of ACTION Files for our manual. We tried this with several popular screen capture programs which all occasionally crashed with or without ACTION Files installed. Because they crashed without ACTION Files installed, we determined this problem wasn't directly related to ACTION Files. When we asked Apple for clarification to include in this Read Me, this was their official reply:
Standard File was simply not designed to be re-entrant. You may find programs [like FlashIt or other screen capture programs] calling Standard File re-entrantly, but this means they have either reverse-engineered how to protect [Standard File's] global variables or they are getting lucky.
I'm not sure what you can tell your users in a READ ME file, except to say that Apple acknowledges this as a known limitation of Standard File.
Apple Macintosh Developer Technical Support
Since this is a known crashing problem in Apple's system software, ACTION Files disables itself in an Open or Save window while another Open or Save window is already displayed. Please note: if you ever crash while an Open or Save window is shown, you should restart immediately. Although restarting after an application unexpectedly quits is generally recommended, it is especially important when an Open or Save window is shown.
This problem does not occur with Navigation Services dialogs.
• ACTION Files requires Macintosh compatible computers which support color and are running System 7.5.3 and later, including Mac OS 8 and 8.1. ACTION Files will not work with MacPlus, MacSE, or PowerBook 100 models.
• Sorting the Documents and Folders menus by Modification Date or by Label is somewhat slower than our default sort order. This performance degradation only affects the speed of drawing menus; list drawing is not slowed down by sorting by Modification Date or by Label.
• Using the generic icons for list drawing can significantly improve drawing speed on slower machines or when displaying files on remote volumes.
• Holding the shift key down while making a menu selection in an ACTION Files dialog preforms the menu command on the selected items parent folder.
Support: (612) 376-4427. Support can also be reached at support@actionutilities.com. If you find a bug in our software, please send email to beta@actionutilities.com. Please include your phone number and email address so that a Customer Support or Quality Assurance representative can contact you.
