CursorAnimator is an INIT/CDEV combination that replaces the standard Macintosh cursors with an animated or static cursor of your choice. These animated cursors consist of ╘acur╒ resources (describing the animation sequence and speed) and a bunch of ╘CURS╒ resources (the actual cursor images). To install CursorAnimator, simply drag the ╥CursorAnimator 1.2╙ file into your System Folder and restart your Macintosh.
USAGE:
After opening 'Cursor Animator' in your 'Control Panel' you will see the following dialog:
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You can change the appearance of each of the 5 standard system cursors arrow, watch, plus, crosshair, and I-beam by selecting the corresponding radio button and choosing a replacement from the list. Please note, that the list will initally contain only a few animated cursors and an entry named ╥ÑdefaultÑ╙. This is the static cursor included in the system and you can use it if you choose not to animate or replace one particular system cursor.
You can add additional cursors to the list by using the ╥Load╔╙ button. Select any of the cursors included in the ╥Cursor Collection╙ folder to load them into CursorAnimator. Note that, no matter how many cursors you load, CursorAnimator will only keep the selected cursor replacement or cursor animation in memory.
In order to look at how a particular cursor replacement or cursor animation looks like, select the cursor you want to see and click on the ╥Preview╔╙ button. Alternatively you can also double-click any cursor in the list to get a short 5-second preview.
If you happen to not like the name of a particular cursor, you may at any time rename it by pressing selecting that cursor and using the ╥Rename╔╙ button. You can also remove cursors you don╒t like any more by selecting them and clicking on ╥Remove╙.
In order to design your own cursor animations or cursor replacements use ResEdit to create the appropriate 'acur' and 'CURS' resources. See the enclosed cursors in the ╥Cursor Collection╙ folder for examples on how to do this.
VERSION HISTORY:
V1.0: Original version. Animation of standart wait cursors ('Watch' and 'Beach Ball') only.
V1.1: Animation of all standard cursors in the 'System' file ('IBeam', 'Plus', 'Cross' and wait cursor)
V1.2: Animation and Replacement of all standard cursors (including the 'Arrow')
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT & DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION:
'Cursor Animator' V1.2 is copyright ⌐1989, 90 by Wilhelm Plotz. You may distribute the program and all accompanying files free of charge, provided that this document (╥Read me╙) with the copyright information is included. Any commercial distribution of CursorAnimator or distribution as an endorsement to buy another product is prohibited without written consent from the author. The copyright statements for the animations included in the ╥Cursor Collection╙ folder are listed in the ╥Credits╙ section of this document.
It would be nice if you let me know how far this little program traveled. A simple picture postcard of your home town is enuogh.
Thanks to all those nice people who sent a postcard for 'Cusror Animator' 1.0bx. Thank you for all the nice letters, but please don't expect me to send a reply. I'd rather spend the time on improving 'Cursor Animator' and get new versions out to the world.
Send any correspondence to:
Wilhelm M. Plotz
Siedlungsstr. 21
A-4222 St. Georgen / Gusen
Austria / Europe
I do not have an e-mail address of my own, but if you send your mail to Alexander Falk, he promised to forward it to me:
AppleLink: FALK2
InterNet: FALK2@applelink.apple.com
GEnie: FALK2
Delphi: FALK2
BitNet: K360950@AEARN.BITNET
FidoNet: Alexander Falk, 2:310/16
KNOWN BUGS & LIMITATIONS:
Some aplications use cursors that look exactly like standard cursors, but differ from standard cursors in some bits (e.g. the watch cursors in 'WORD 4.0' and 'TRAPEZE'). While users usualy don't realize the difference, 'Cursor Animator' does. Such cursors will NOT start an animation! This is NOT a bug in 'Cursor Animator'! I tried to avoid such conflicts, but it's impossible to fix what all these crazy programmers did wrong. I can't immagine any reason for this behavior. May be it would help if you all send them a bug report for this reason.
Sometimes Pyro¬ 4.0 will not go into sleep mode if you try to force a sleep by selecting ╥Sleep╙ from the ╥Special╙ menu in the Finder or by moving the mouse into the designated corner of the screen. Sleep caused by inactivity will, hoever, still occur. This is not 100% reproducible.
FUTURE PLANS:
These are ideas in my mind, but I can't promise that I will implement/publish any of the listed features/programs. Your sending back a picture postcard will, however, help convince me that there is a need for these things:
-> Animated Color Cursors
-> Aplication specific animation
-> Cursor and Cursor Animation Designer
CREDITS:
CursorAnimator has been written in THINK C¬ 3.0. I am very thankful to Alexander Falk, who has supported me throughout the entire development phase and who has also designed some of the included animations (see ALF╒s cursors below).
The many cursor animations in the ╥Cursor Collection╙ folder have been collected from various sources. My thanks go to Read Fritsch who was a big help in collecting some of these cursors. Wherever the authors of the cursors were known to me I have tried to contact them and as a result these cursors are redistirbuted as part of the CursorAnimator package with explicit permission from their authors:
ALF╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Alexander Falk
David╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by David Rakowski
Herb╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Herb Goodman
Jim╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Jim Trudeau
Mike╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Mike Kazmierczak
Norbert╒s Cursors ⌐1986,87,88,89,90 by Norbert Mƒller
Trader╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Paul McGinnis
Willi╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Wilhelm Plotz
I was unfortunately unable to contact all of the authors known to me. Therefore the following cursors are included with CursorAnimator even though I did not receive explicit permission to do so. They have, however, previously been distributed on various Bulletin Boards and Public Domain Software collections, so that their redistribution as part of this non-commercial package should not infringe any rights:
Adam╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Adam Freedman
Apple╒s Cursors ⌐1984-90 by Apple Computer, Inc.
Dave╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Dave Stockwell
Donald╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Donald Perreault
Eric╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Eric Weis
George╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by George Stamas
Wes╒s Cursors ⌐1989,90 by Wes Henley
The cursors in the ╥Anonymous╙ Folder are (as the name implies) from authors not known to me. I have decided to nevertheless include them in this version of CursorAnimator, because they are simply great animated cursors. I want to take this opportunity to thank both these anonymous authors and the authors listed above for creating their cursors. Should the use of any of these cursors constitute a copyright infringement (or should you simply want your name to appear in the credits section of the next release of CursorAnimator), please contact me immediately.
P.S. THE FUTURE OF 'CURSOR ANIMATOR' DEPENDS ON YOU SPREADING THE PROGRAM - NOT ONLY THE WORD!