Please read this entire document, as imposing as it may be — believe it or not, it might just help you! I know Mac users hate manuals, but please read this one. It can’t hurt!
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
This great utility requires a few things to be of any use to you all. First off, you need a Mac with color (surprise!). Actually, gray-scale will work just great, so all you really need is a Mac that is not monochrome. The next thing that you MUST have is System 7 or greater. Hope this isn't a problem.
With that out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff ! ! ! !
What is ColorKey 4.0?
ColorKey is a combination of a system extension and a control panel that, when you hold down ***COMMAND*** (that’s the key) and ***OPTION*** while you click the mouse, will cycle through the screen depths you select (black and white, 4 color, 16 colors, 256 colors, etc.).
Installation
To install ColorKey 4.0, simply drop it on your System Folder. When you do this, the System will tell you that ColorKey is being placed in the "Control Panels" folder. When you reboot, you will see the ColorKey icon during startup which tells you that it has loaded. Once you arrive at the Finder, your setup is complete and you are ready to use ColorKey 4.0.
How To Use ColorKey 4.0
To activate ColorKey 4.0, hold down the ***COMMAND*** and ***OPTION*** keys while clicking the mouse anywhere on the screen. It's that easy.
If this is the first time you are running ColorKey, you will see the configuration dialog appear on the screen. This allows you to immediately jump to any color depth and to select the depths you’d like to cycle through. If you would like to see this dialog EVERY TIME you activate ColorKey, check the “Always Show this Dialog” button at the bottom of the dialog. If you don’t, you must hold down the ***CONTROL*** key (as you Cmd-Option-click) to see it again.
The six checkboxes at the top determine which depths are cycled through with repeated Command-Option-Clicks. To cycle through all of them, select all of them. If you don’t select any (why, I’d never know - kinda' defeats the purpose), ColorKey will automatically select the Black And White check box. What most people find useful is selecting the 1-bit and the 8-bit boxes. This allows you to switch between these 2 depths with ease (no trips to the Control Panel!!!). If you only have an 8-bit graphics card, the "16 bit" and "32 bit" checkboxes will be dimmed.
The six radio buttons to the right allow you to immediately jump to any depth you wish. If the “Switch Now to:” button is checked when you click OK, that depth will immediately be jumped to, ignoring the cycle altogether. If you want to cycle to the next depth you’ve checked from the dialog, you have to disable the “Switch Now to:” feature which is automatically enabled every time you open the config dialog. Again, the "Thousands" and "Millions" buttons are grayed if your video card can't support them. If it can, more power to you!
There are also two buttons on the left that let you choose between gray scale and colors. These are fairly self explanatory.
An Everyday Example
Let's say that you normally use 8 bit mode (256 colors), but you do a lot of text editing, and you have some games that don’t like color. Switching back and forth every time would be a pain in the rear *IF* you used the Control Panel. With ColorKey 4.0, you open the Configure dialog (Control-Option-Command-Click), select the “1 bit (BW)” and the “8 bit (256 colors)” checkboxes and click OK. Every time you do a Command-Option-Click (without the Control key, of course) your monitor will now quickly switch between 2 and 256 colors! Wow!
Now let’s complicate the matter a bit. Let’s say you also play SimCity™ Classic frequently (all work and no play...). Since SimCity requires 16 colors (4 bit color), you have to switch depths every time you want to play. On top of all this, you do a lot of text editing and you play other games that don’t like color, but you still want your full color desktop. You have two options. One, you can select the “1 bit (BW)”, the “4 bit (16 colors)”, and the “8 bit (256 colors)” checkboxes and click OK. This would then let you cycle through 1 bit, 4 bit, and 8 bit as you repeatedly invoked ColorKey, but that can get annoying if you don't play SimCity much. Your best option would be to select the two you use most often (probably black and white and 256 colors) in the checkboxes and then use the “Switch Now to” feature to jump to 16 colors whenever you wanted to play SimCity (this is what I do).
Example of the Control Panel
I mentioned at the start that ColorKey 4.0 is both a system extension and a control panel. Let’s see what we can do with the control panel. To open it, double-click on the ColorKey icon in the Control Panels folder. This brings up the window. You may also want to drop an alias of ColorKey into the Apple Menu Items folder so it appears it your menu!
The first thing you see in the control panel are the familiar Colors To Cycle Through checkboxes. See the previous example for their usage and meaning. Any changes made to these checkboxes are saved for the next time you invoke ColorKey. Also in the window is the same Show Icon At Startup checkbox.
Next to the checkboxes is a list of applications under which ColorKey is disabled. An explanation is better suited by an example. I do a lot of Hypercard scripting, but the Cmd-Opt-click sequence is already used by Hypercard to show more information about a button. If ColorKey is enabled with Hypercard, I can never use this handy shortcut since ColorKey gets dibs on the click and Hypercard never sees it. The solution is simple: add Hypercard to the list of applications in which ColorKey is disabled. Now when you Cmd-Opt-click when Hypercard is the foreground application (it’s menubar is at the top and it’s windows are in front) ColorKey will let the click through so Hypercard can process it! Zowee! Now I know what you’re thinking. This does not affect any other running applications, only the ones you choose and only when they are in the foreground!
Everything you never wanted to know about ColorKey
ColorKey 4.0 is a major overhaul of versions 1.0, 1.3, 2.0, and 3.0 which I released about 2 years ago. If at all possible, use this version over any other. Also, if you see another version elsewhere (a BBS, Compuserve, America On-Line, ftp site, etc.....), ***please replace it with this one***. A few lucky (sic) individuals out there have version 1.3, which is an FKEY version of this INIT, and also has many more stupid bugs. Version 1.0 only lets you switch between 2 and 256 colors. Help me stamp out earlier versions by uploading this one everywhere you can!
One last note. The screen depth is not saved anywhere and will revert to whatever is specified in the Control Panel on the next startup. If you want to make any permanent changes to the monitor depth, you have to use the Monitors cdev.
SHAREWARE NOTICE
One really last note. This program is now sort of Shareware. This means that I’m charging for it and I retain all the rights to the program and its documentation, but the idea behind Shareware sets out to make people feel guilty about not paying for software - almost a “Big Brother Is Watching You” type of deal - I don’t want to do this to people! I want people to feel good about using my software!
I have spent a lot of time and effort on this so if you like it (or anything else with my name on it for that fact), I’d appreciate it if you sent me what you think it is worth - a better name would be Pay-If-You-Use-It-Ware. The only reason 4.0 came out (and I keep toying with this damn computer) was because a good number of people sent checks (usually about $10) and ideas to me!!
Mike Pinkerton
7506 Charmant Dr. Apt 813
San Diego, CA 92122
INTERNET: pinkerton@UCSD.edu
The StuffIt file on here is for distributing these files anywhere you please under the following conditions:
1. ***This document accompanies ANY OR ALL files***
2. My name is not removed from any program IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM
3. The code is not changed, fiddled with, or eaten.
4. You tell me how you like it and how well it works.
5. You MAY decompile the INIT to see how it works, but you may not alter the code or any of the resources. I learned how to do this INIT from poking through the Monitors cdev. You learn a lot that way.
