Drag & drop an application to AppHider and the app will be "hidden" from the Finder.
Why, you may ask, would you want to do that? Well, let's say you have two versions of the same app and you want the Finder to temporarily use the older version when launching documents. Just drag the newer app to AppHider and it will be hidden from the Finder.
An example: SimpleText and TeachText both have the same creator signature: 'ttxt'. If you have both apps installed, chances are that the Finder will use the latest version, SimpleText, for all 'ttxt' created files. To force the Finder to use TeachText instead, without erasing SimpleText, simply drag SimpleText to AppHider.
To undo a hidden app, simply double click on the app and AppHider will unhide it. (The app will appear as a plain document icon when hidden.) If you hold down option when double clicking the hidden app, it will be launched instead of unhidden.
New features added for version 1.1:
• Launching AppHider by itself reveals about box dialog.
• Option key launches hidden app instead of unhiding it
• Nifty color icons, thanks to Aaron Freimark.
There are no error messages in AppHider, the only feedback is audible if an error occurs.
Technical info:
When an app is first dragged to AppHider, the 'type' is changed to the 'creator' and the 'creator' is changed to AppHider's signature. When the hidden app is processed, the 'creator' is changed to 'type' and the 'type' is changed back to 'APPL'. Simple!
I wrote this utility when working on an "updater" that had to deal with 5 different versions of an application - AppHider enabled me to easily "enable" a given version of the program.
AppHider is "ThankYouWare". If you find it useful, all you have to do is say "thank you."
