The one feature of System 7 that prompted me to utter the words "it's about time", is the ability to drag a file from a window in back to the front window. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to copy files between windows on a small screen mac. How many times have you had to move windows to make sure that neither the source file or target folder would be covered up during the selection process? Sometimes I even found myself dragging the target folder onto the desktop, copy files into it, and then putting the folder back in its proper position. FinderSelect was written to solve this problem and even though System 7 also adds this functionality to the Finder, FinderSelect improves upon it.
This INIT is useful for both System 6 and System 7 usersand it only uses about 170 bytes of memory.
For System 7 users, FinderSelect allows you to do multiple selections (using the drag box) in the background window so you can copy more than one file at a time to the front window. The Finder's automatic scrolling of a window during multiple selection also works during the background selection.
Since FinderSelect was originally written for System 6, users who haven't switched to System 7 will get the most benefit from FinderSelect. FinderSelect adds the following functionality to pre-system 7 Finders:
• allows you to drag files from a window in the back to the front window using the same method as System 7 (ie. no holding down Shift, Command, ... ).
• allows you to just select files in the background window. This means you can perform operations like Open and Get Info on files and folders in background windows.
• allows multiple selections in the background window using the drag box or shift-clicking.
• allows you to manipulate the scroll bars of windows in the background. However, the scroll bars won't appear until you click on them and even then won't appear entirely.
How to install FinderSelect:
Just drag a copy of the file into the System Folder of the boot disk.
How to use FinderSelect:
FinderSelect uses a background selection method similar to System 7. That is, no modifier keys (eg. shift, command, ...) are required, just a pause on the part of the user. This means that if you perform a quick click on the background window, it will be brought to the front. If, after clicking, you pause briefly with the button held down, the window will not be brought to the front. This pause is required for all background selections including multiple selections and scroll bar usage.
NOTE: The pause required is currently set to 1/6 of a second (hardly a pause at all!). It can be modified by using Resedit to change the TIME resource in the FinderSelect file.
