When Apple released System 7, I was impressed by the colour 3-D windows and scroll bars. However, I was disappointed that the buttons were still in only black and white. They looked so flat! So, I wrote this little hack to finish the job that Apple started. "Greg's Buttons" is a control panel that replaces the standard black and white push buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons with colour 3-D ones designed to blend in with rest of the System 7 interface (including the colour tinges that you can select in the "Colour" control panel). "Greg's Buttons" also colourizes the stop sign, caution, and note alert icons.
Version 2 includes options to replace the standard Chicago system font with a version of Helvetica (the system font on the NeXT), and to change the background colour of the menu bar to gray. Version 2 adds a control panel interface, and the button drawing routines have been partially rewritten to be faster, more memory efficient, and generally bug-free.
Version 2.2 now lets you choose your menu background colour, as well as the background colours for Finder windows and (most, but not all) alerts and dialog boxes. The Helvetica font substitution feature is more stable, and in particular, it should work properly with MacWrite II, FrameMaker, and the Alarm Clock. If Greg's Buttons was enabled at startup, then changes made in the Control Panel will take effect as soon as the control panel is closed (the menu colour will take effect with the next application launched, and the Finder background colour will take effect the next time a Finder window is opened). Also, the Control Panel no longer crashes under the influence of EvenBetterBusError.
Greg's Buttons works only on machines with System 7 and Colour QuickDraw.
To install this control panel, just drag it to your system folder and click "OK" when you are asked if you want to put it in the "Control Panels" folder. All of the features can be turned on and off using the "Greg's Buttons" control panel (except for the colour alert icons, which are enabled whenever "Greg's Buttons" is "On"). "Greg's Buttons" will be disabled if you hold down the mouse button when it loads at startup.
NOTES: If you have already customized the menu background colour, such as with ResEdit or Kolor, then this will override the "Menu Bar and Menus" colour feature of Greg's Buttons. The "Alert and Dialog Box" background colour feature may cause problems with a variety of applications that assume that their dialog boxes are in black and white. Such applications may display dialog boxes that are either inconsistently coloured, oddly placed, or genuinely garbled. If you encounter such problems, and if you consider them sufficiently annoying, then simply turn off the "Alert and Dialog Box" background color feature in the control panel.
"They don't look like buttons unless they're Greg's Buttons." -- A registered user
REGISTRATION:
"Greg's Buttons" is SHAREWARE. You may try it out for ten days. If after that time, you think it is a frivolous waste of processor time and disk space, trash it. If you want to keep it, you must register by sending US$10 (either a check drawn on a US bank, a postal money order, or a $10 bill) to the following address:
Gregory D. Landweber
10 Wallingford Drive
Princeton, NJ 08540
Starting October 1, 1992, I will also be able to accept payment of 6 UK pounds sterling (either cash or a check drawn on a UK bank). In ENGLAND, I can be reached by mail at:
G. D. Landweber
P11 Blue Boar Court
Trinity College
Cambridge CB2 1TQ
NOTE: I am unable to accept any other foreign currencies or checks from outside the US or UK. In particular, this includes Italian and Spanish currencies. I cannot convert them. Please make the check payable to me, "Gregory D. Landweber", NOT to "Greg's Buttons".
Please write your version number on the check. With the check please include your own address (internet e-mail if possible), and where you obtained your copy. Once you have registered, you are entitled to turn off the "Annoying Shareware Message" check box in the "Greg's Buttons" Control Panel.
The author, Gregory D. Landweber, makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the fitness of the "Greg's Buttons" control panel for any particular purpose. Use the "Greg's Buttons" control panel at your own risk. The author claims no liability for data loss or other problems caused directly or indirectly by the "Greg's Buttons" control panel.
