ACTION Menus is the easiest, most powerful and convenient way to organize, customize and control your menus. ACTION Menus enhances the look and feel of normal menus by giving you the ability to add your own custom menus and by adding features to make you more productive.
ACTION Menus allows you to take control of the contents and organization of your Apple and Applications menus, adds a default set of custom menus that give you access to your most recently used and or favorite documents and folders. The enhanced Applications menu allows you to see currently open windows as well as recent documents and folders in an hierarchical menu off the running applications. Additionally ACTION Menus adds a list of recently used applications making it easy to launch them. ACTION Menus' Multi-ACTION™ commands let you select multiple items to be launched, opened, quit or to get info on. Best of all, ACTION Menus allows you to assign the keyboard short cuts you want to items in your menus even allowing you to replace existing command keys.
ACTION Menus also allows you to rearrange the contents of its own custom menus, the Apple menu and the Applications menu and it adds Named Separators™ so you will never be lost in an ACTION Menu. Additionally ACTION Menus allows you to move items into the custom Apple and Application menus and position them where you would like without going to the control panel.
When you install ACTION Menus, the installer will ask you for a serial number. If you have not purchased a serial number, you can still install ACTION Menus 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, ACTION Menus 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 Menus 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 information about other Power On products, including Now Up-to-Date & Contact, On Guard, DiskLock, and other ACTION Utilities, please visit our web site at http://www.poweronsoftware.com.
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 Menus replaces the functionality of other products that enhance menus. ACTION Menus will offer you the choice of automatically disabling these products during the installation process. The products affected are BeHierarchic, AutoMenus Pro, Glidel, WApp Pro, Alias Menu and A La Carte
• ACTION Menus has been designed to be compatible with popular commercial software productivity and desktop publishing/graphics products. If you encounter a product that ACTION Menus does not work with add it to the compatibility area in the general tab in the ACTION Menus control panel and then please contact us using the information below and we will see what can be done to add support.
• Assigning Command Keys. In this version, ACTION Menus allows you to assign Command Keys in any menu that uses the Apple MDEF (Menu DEFinition) which includes the Finder™ and many other popular applications. Some applications use their own or a third party MDEF which means you will not be able to assign command keys in those applications. ACTION Menus adds a little red square to the menus in which it can add Command Keys.
• If you are running Mac OS 8 or earlier (back to 7.5.3) you will need to install the appearance manager control panel. We have posted an installer on our downloads page near the download for ACTION Menus. To get to the download page go to <http://www.poweronsoftware.com> and select the download button in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. The Appearance manager installer can also be downloaded directly at:
• If you are using Casady & Greene's (http://www.casadyg.com) SpellCatcher version 1.6.x or earlier there is an incompatibility with the sub-menus in the SpellCatcher menu and ACTION Menus. You should upgrade to SpellCatcher 8 (or the latest version) which is fully compatible.
• By default, ACTION Menus adds a custom menu containing a list of recent applications to the left of the Apple Menu. This custom menu may obscure or may be obscured by other utilities that place their own menus in this area. One example is TypeIt4Me. If you run into this problem you can go into the ACTION Menus control panel and delete the far left custom menu. Alternatively most other utilities that put menus into this area will also allow you to move or disable that menu.
• MPW (Macintosh Programers Workshop), when it is the current application, does not allow the launching of applications from the ACTION Menus custom menu to the left of the Apple Menu.
• QuicKeys™ (CE Software) duplicates some of the features of ACTION Menus. The two products can be used together but there are a few issues you should be aware of if you are a QuicKeys user.
- GENERAL PROBLEM
ACTION Menus will interfere with any QuicKey that tries to choose a
menu item from any menu that ACTION Menus "controls". This includes
the Apple Menu, Application Menu, and any other custom menus that you
have defined for ACTION Menus.
- GENERAL SOLUTION
If you are using a simple QuicKey to choose a menu item, then
instead, simply use ACTION Menus to assign the key to the menu item
instead of QuicKeys. To do this, press the desired key combination
while the mouse is over the menu item in question.
If you are using the key as part of a "sequence," then you need to do
the following.
1. Pick an unused key combination (say, shift-cmd-F1).
2. Change the "Select menu item" step in the sequence to a "type a
key" step. (select "Insert Keystroke" in the Sequence edit window
and type shift-cmd-F1).
3. Using ACTION Menus, assign shift-cmd-F1 to the menu item in
question by positioning the mouse over the menu item and pressing
shift-cmd-F1.
In addition to the general solution above, there are a couple of
easier solutions for more specific problems.
- PROBLEM
QuickKeys or Sequences that select an application from the application
menu do not work.
- SOLUTION
Use a "System Tools/App Switcher" type of key instead of a "System
Tools/Menu" key, or just use ACTION Menus to assign the key directly
to that application by pressing the desired key while the mouse is
over the application in the application menu.
- PROBLEM
QuicKeys or Sequences that select an application command (hide
others, show all) do not work.
- SOLUTION
Have the key select it by position instead of by name. Note that
this only works for the standard set application commands (Hide
(front), Hide Others, Show All). ACTION Menus's "Show Finder Only"
and "Quit All" will not work using this technique. You need to use
the "General Solution" to do this.
• ACTION Menus requires Macintosh compatible computers that support color and are running System 7.5.3 and later, including Mac OS 8.5.1, 8.6 and 9. ACTION Menus will not work with MacPlus, MacSE, Mac Classic or PowerBook 100 models.
• ACTION Menus uses SmartItems™ to give you lists of recently used applications, files, folders and servers. There are also SmartItems™ for active applications , the application controls usually found at the top of the application menu, divider lines, mounted volumes and open windows in the current application. You can configure the custom menus that ACTION Menus gives you by selecting these SmartItems™ from the 'Palette tab' in the 'Menus tab' in the ACTION Menus control panel and either dragging them into the actual menu or into the area in the control panel representing them menu you want to edit.
• In any of the recent items lists you can turn an item into a favorite by clicking on the menu positioning the cursor over the item you would like to mark as favorite and hitting the space bar on your keyboard. You are not limited to the number of favorite items you can have.
• The sort order of recent item lists can be set to by Date Used or by Name in the control panel.
• By default, ACTION Menus installs a menu that contains all of your mounted volumes that gives you access to these volumes by way of a sub-menu or hierarchical menu. You can also create another menu that contains an inline list of the contents of your primary drive(s) by holding the command key down while dragging the selected item into one of the custom menus.
Support: (612) 376-4427. Support can also be reached at support@poweronsoftware.com. If you find a bug in our software, please send email to bugs@poweronsoftware.com. Please include your phone number and email address so that a Customer Support or Quality Assurance representative can contact you.
