╥Wait a minute!╙ you protest. ╥My menu already wipes! Why do I need a new version of MenuWiper when I just got version 2.0 three months ago?╙
We knew you╒d ask that, and so we asked your mother (Mother╒s Day is, after all, coming up soon). Your mom told us that you should use the new MenuWiper because it╒s good for you ╤╤ because it promotes good posture and proper etiquette, and because she said so, that╒s why! She also pointed out that there╒s a bug in the old MenuWiper that could crash your system, and if Jimmy jumped off the Empire State Building and crashed his computer, does that mean you╒d do the same thing? Of course not, because if you kept making faces like that, they might stick that way!
Really, Mom, the bug didn╒t happen all that often ╤╤ MenuWiper just forgot that you could choose Quit to Previous Application from the Shutdown menu, so your computer might not shut down or restart in that case, and MenuWiper would get confused ╤╤
Mom says not to talk back, or you can just wait until your father comes home.
Mom also said that even if we hadn╒t found that nasty bug, we would have made a new version of MenuWiper for you because we also wanted it to work with other programs, not just Finder. And, we had to go to extra trouble to get MenuWiper to work with the new Softdisk Shell (premiering this issue!), and Mom says we should stay out of trouble, and after all, why can╒t you be more like your sister? So future versions of Softdisk will require the new MenuWiper to get neat wiping effects, and Mom likes us to be neat, and to wipe up after we make a mess or get our shoes muddy (Mom hates that).
Mom wants you to know that she still loves you, even though you keep forgetting to make your bed in the morning and you ran over her prize begonias with the lawnmower last Saturday, so she insisted we give you something really nice to show off the new MenuWiper. So we wrote WiperControl, a Control Panel to turn menu-wiping and text-sliding on and off. Since Mom didn╒t want to show favoritism to the people who have modems, we also threw in a Freeware program that we╒ve been giving away online: MenuWiper Blanker for Twilight II (of course, people have to have MenuWiper to use it... wasn╒t that clever of us? Mom thinks so). Mom says, if you haven╒t bought Twilight II yet, march out that door right this minute and buy it, or there╒ll be no dinner for you! (Mom supports her Apple IIGS!)
Mom says we╒re not going to try to tell you everything we did to make MenuWiper better, because it╒s complicated and does she have to do everything for you? Besides, you╒ll understand when you╒re older, and you╒ll thank her for this someday. It hurts her more than it╒s hurting you.
Last but not least, Mom says ╥Do you have anything to say for yourself, young man?╙
No, Mom... I think you covered just about everything.
I missed the first version. What does it do?
When Finder shuts down or launches another application, the menu bar slides down all the way off the bottom of the screen, erasing the desktop and icons below, then slides back down from the top (without the menu titles). Then, instead of just appearing in the center of the screen, the name of the application being launched slides in from the right edge of the screen.
The boot-time icon is animated, too (and simulates somewhat the menu-wiping effect). Try it -- we think you╒ll find it an interesting addition to your system.
Don╒t want it to Wipe/Slide?
If you don╒t want MenuWiper to wipe your screen, you can hold down the Shift key while you launch a program or shut down your system. Likewise, if you want it to wipe, but not to slide the name across, hold down the Shift key after it wipes.
If you don╒t ever want it to wipe (or slide), you can use WiperControl to turn off wiping and sliding, or to just turn off sliding.
How come you keep spelling the author╒s name differently?
Well, the text for these items is usually written by an editor, not by the original programmer. So we goofed on the name last time; it╒s actually spelled ╥Shepherd╙, not ╥Shephard╙ or ╥Sheppard╙. But now that we╒ve reorganized everything, we have new people writing text who goof in more unusual and creative ways. This is called Progress.
For example, this little article was revised by Greg Templeman, who╒s now Technical Editor for Softdisk G-S, as well as programmer, midnight-oil burner, Dr. Pepper drinker, classical-music listener, and sleep-in-╘til-noon╒er (we think he╒s earned it... don╒t you?).
Installation
MenuWiper has two parts to install. Menu Wiper must be placed in your system folder inside the System.Setup folder. Wiper Control is a control panel and must be placed in the CDevs folder on your boot disk.
