MenuChoice is a control panel device which enables hierarchical menus under the Apple menu.  With it, you can open applications, control panel devices, and documents of all kinds quickly and easily using your Apple menu.

INSTALLING MenuChoice

Just drop the MenuChoice file in your System 7 control panels folder.  (This version of MenuChoice is not compatible with system 6.)  You can immediately use the control panel device to set your preferences for how MenuChoice will behave, but hierarchical menus will not show up under your Apple Menu until you reboot.

USING MenuChoice

With MenuChoice installed, every folder stored in your "Apple Menu Items" folder will show up as a sub-menu under the Apple menu.  You can easily launch applications and open documents anywhere in the folders you create.  You can also use aliases to point to folders that already exist elsewhere on your hard disk.

MenuChoice has some additional features to make your Apple menu even more powerful.  

Opening folders and mounting volumes
You can open folders as well as applications and documents.  Even though every folder shows up with a sub-menu beside it, you can release the mouse while it is above the folder's name and the folder will open.

If a volume is offline, a sub-menu will show beside it with a single disabled item "Volume Off-Line".  Releasing the mouse above the name of the volume will cause it to auto-mount.

Recent
When you select an item from a sub-menu, it is added to a list of the 10 most recent items used.  This list is always available at the top of the Apple menu, as a sub-menu called "Recent."

Deeper Menus 
It is convenient to put an alias of your hard disk in the Apple Menu.  With it you can access any item on your disk from the Apple Menu.  As you can imagine, dealing with sub-menus that go as deep as your folders can be unwieldy.  For this reason, and because the Macinosh operating system is limited to 5 simultaneous menus, MenuChoice has a feature called "Deeper Menus" which lets you access menus as deep as you care to go.

It works like this:  Select the Apple Menu with the mouse and move through the menu structure as though you were going to select a folder deep in the hierarchy.  Instead of releasing the mouse, move immediately up to the "Recent" item at the top of the Apple Menu.  The folder you highlited is now displayed, with any subfolders it may have, under the Recent menu.  When you release the mouse, the Recent menu is reset to its normal operation for the next time you use the Apple Menu.

Separate Folders
The "Separate Folders" feature, when enabled in the MenuChoice control panel, will cause the folders listed in a menu to appear below all other items.  This makes it faster to navigate through many levels of menus.

Caveat

Since any item in the top level of the Apple menu is readily accessed, MenuChoice's Recent feature remembers only items chosen from sub-menus of the Apple menu.  The "Recent" feature does not remember the recently used items after a Mac is restarted.

The Deeper Menus feature works only with folders that are at least two levels deep in the hierarchy.  The "Recent" submenu is set to the last sub-menu displayed at that level or deeper.

If MenuChoice is disabled or removed from a system, a file called " Recent" will need to be removed from the Apple Menu Items folder.  MenuChoice creates and uses this file as a routine part of its operation.

From time to time, you may see MenuChoice fail to display a submenu or display the wrong submenu.  When this happens, move off the selected item and back.  The proper menu should appear.  I will fix this bug as soon as possible.

The icon that appears in the Apple menu beside the "Recent" item may vary.  This is normal.  You can assign a custom icon to the file called " Recent" in the Apple Menu Items folder to give the item a specific icon.

The "Recent" submenu displayed by the "Deeper Menus" feature may be unusually narrow or wide.  I will attempt to fix this problem in a later release.

Version History

Version 1.0 - initial release
Version 1.1 - fixes compatibility with Mac Plus and SE, deals with removable storage and Appleshare volumes better than previous version.

REGISTERING MenuChoice

MenuChoice is shareware and costs $15.00.  Send a US check or money order to the address below.  Please indicate the product and version number you are registering, and specify your name and return address.  Once you have registered, select the "I have paid" button in the help screen to disable the "Not Registered" message on the MenuChoice startup icon.

Kerry Clendinning
PO Box 26061
Austin, TX  78755

CIS:  76424,2214
ALink:  KerryC