PowerAlias is designed to minimize desktop clutter by providing for the consolidation of up to five application aliases into one utility. PowerAlias uses real, System 7 aliases and AppleEvents to mimic those Finder aliases we have all grown to love. You can launch PowerAlias either by double clicking on its icon or by dragging and dropping a document onto the PowerAlias icon. You specify which of the five applications PowerAlias launches by simultaneously holding down a key on the keyboard.
••• Set Up
To set up PowerAlias double click on its icon. You will then see three buttons, the middle one of which is “Set up...” Click on that button. You will see five rows of two boxes each.
Type the key you want to use to launch a specific application into the box on the left hand side of a given row. Valid keys are “a” through “z” and “0” through “9”. Capital letters are automatically converted into lower case.
Specify the application to alias in the right box of a given row. When you click anywhere inside the right box you will get the standard open file dialog box, from which you can select an application.
That's about it. Click on “OK” if you like your choices, “Cancel” if you do not. But you knew that.
••• Using PowerAlias
When you hold down a key for which you have already assigned an alias, PowerAlias acts just like a single, standalone alias to that application. To use a relatively popular piece of software as an example, let's say you have assigned the letter “w” to Microsoft Word. To launch Word, hold down the “w” key while double clicking on the PowerAlias icon. PowerAlias will beep when you can take your finger off the “w” key. Word will then be launched.
Now to take the example one step forward, let's say you have a generic text file that you want to open in Word. Double clicking on the text file will just get you the standard, “Do you want to open the document in TeachText” dialog box. Instead, drag the icon of the text document onto the PowerAlias icon. Hold down the “w” key and release the mouse button. PowerAlias will beep when you can take your finger off the “w” key. Word is then launched and opens the generic text file.
If you drag and drop a document onto PowerAlias without holding a key down, PowerAlias will default to the application listed on the first line of the Set up box.
Again, that's about it. As soon as the application is launched, PowerAlias quits.
••• Why PowerAlias?
A valid question. Why put a neat little utility on the desktop when you can use standard issue, run-of-the-mill Finder aliases?
I've found it's easier to have one place on the desktop to target for launching applications, instead of remembering the specific location of five separate icons. It depends on your own personal style of doing things. PowerAlias has been invaluable to me while I search through CD-ROM’s with many different types of files for which I lack the original application but do have an equivalent application. Using our previous example, if you were to drop a MacWrite document onto the PowerAlias icon while holding down the “w” key, then Word would open the MacWrite file. Similarly, if you were to drop an MPW Pascal document onto the PowerAlias icon while holding down the “p” key, then PowerAlias could open the document in Think Pascal (assuming you had set it up that way). And then my favorite set up—drop anything onto the PowerAlias icon while holding down the “r” key and PowerAlias opens it in ResEdit. It's a great hack around utility.
••• Limitations
PowerAlias will only alias applications. I may eventually add support for document and/or folder aliases, but I felt the most important initial use would be applications and so I focused on that.
Because of its use of the Alias Manager, PowerAlias is System 7.0 dependent.
PowerAlias will try to launch any document/application combination you give it, even if the application can't open the document. For example, if you drop a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet onto the PowerAlias icon while holding down a “w” key (for Microsoft Word), Word will be launched and will be told to open the Excel document. What you will get, while an interesting look into the file structure of an Excel spreadsheet, will not advance your analytical abilities much. Other document/application combinations might not be so nice.
••• Fun Facts
As these are real, System 7 aliases (technically, 'alis' resources) , they have the same features across networks as do regular aliases.
The icon uses the full 32x32 grid so that you have a nice big launching pad on which to drop a document.
The reason I only allow “a” to “z” and “0” to “9” as valid keys has to do with the intricacies of the Macintosh Finder. Shift, option and command can all tell the Finder various things that I did not want to deal with. Hence the limitation.
When PowerAlias launches a program, it opens the biggest memory partition it can, up to the preferred partition size of the application (but not less than the minimum partition size). This is similar to the way the “Tuned Up” System 7 works.
••• Closure
Please let me know what you think. I'm especially interested in seeing if people think this type of interaction (holding down a key while dragging and dropping) is easy and neat or just the worst possible thing someone could inflict on another person. I am also interested in comments, suggestions and any undocumented features that crept into the program.
I would like to thank my test lab, Carol Pereira and Mark Graves, and give special thanks to Michael Stack for help above and beyond the call of duty.
PowerAlias is shareware. If you decide to keep it, a $5 fee is requested.
