OtherMenu is an extension that creates a system-wide hierarchical menu somewhat similar to the Apple menu. It can be used for launching applications and documents, restart and shut down, various file management functions, and executing FKEYs. It requires System 7. OtherMenu takes up a minimum of about 30K of system memory, but uses more depending on the length of the menu and the number of submenus.
The first time you start your Mac with OtherMenu installed, OtherMenu creates a folder named OtherMenu Folder inside your System Folder. You will see a menu whose title is a round icon near the help menu. Initially, the menu will contain an item named “Recent Items”, an item for each disk on the desktop, a dividing line, and finally “About OtherMenu…”, which can be used to read this documentation.
Operation
Release the mouse button over any menu item. Applications, documents, control panels and desk accessories are launched. Folders are opened in Finder. FKEYs and OtherMenu externals are executed.
If you hold the option key as you release the mouse button over a menu item representing a folder, then the folder will not be opened, but it will be added to the “Recent Items” submenu. This can be used to get temporary convenient access to a deeply nested folder.
Configuring the Menu
The contents of OtherMenu’s menu is determined by the contents of the OtherMenu Folder, just as the contents of the Apple menu is determined by the contents of the Apple Menu Items folder. All files and aliases placed in the OtherMenu Folder become OtherMenu menu items. And unlike the Apple menu, you can insert folders, and aliases of folders and volumes, to create submenus up to 5 levels deep.
You can modify the order of menu items by adding special characters to the beginnings of their names. The first ordinary character in the Macintosh character set, the space, is particularly useful. I also like ◊, or shift-option-v, which comes very late in the order. Do not begin a file name with a period. To make a dividing line in the menu, create a folder with any name ending in “-***”.
OtherMenu’s menu will appear just as the contents of the OtherMenu Folder appear in “Name” view in Finder, alphabetically, by level. For example, if the contents of the OtherMenu Folder look like this,
then the menu will look like this:
The Preferences Dialog
If you select “About OtherMenu” with the shift key held down, you will see a dialog that controls several settings. Radio buttons near the right-hand side select five groups of settings, called “General”, “Menu”, “Volumes”, “Recent”, and “Font”.
General Preferences
The “Show startup icon” checkbox determines whether OtherMenu displays an icon during the startup process.
The “Off when At Ease but not Finder is running” option disables OtherMenu when At Ease is running (even in the background) but Finder is not running.
The “Warn on launch in tight memory” option shows a warning dialog if you launch an application when there is not enough memory to give the application its preferred amount. If this is not checked, the application may be launched in its minimum amount of memory without warning.
Menu Preferences
The “Menus cached” control determines how many submenus will be cached; higher values get you speedier response at the expense of some system memory.
The three radio buttons determine where the menu will appear: to the left of the help menu, just left of the application menu, or to the right of the application menu. If you have other extensions that install system menus, their relative positions may depend upon the order in which the extensions load at startup time.
If you uncheck “Menu title is an icon” then the menu title becomes “Other”. Changing this setting when the menu is at far right may cause some misalignment problems in the menu bar, which will be corrected by a restart.
By the way, if you would like the menu title to be a different icon, you can arrange that simply by giving OtherMenu a custom icon using the Finder. The new icon will appear on the menu bar after restart.
The delay setting affects the behavior of submenus, and it affects all software, not just OtherMenu. The “appearance delay” allows you to drag down a menu without submenus appearing and disappearing as you go past them. This parameter is also affected by Carlos Weber’s MenuTuner control panel, but OtherMenu maintains the new value actively instead of changing the standard values in PRAM. The number is in units of 1/60 seconds. Note that since the change takes effect immediately, you can try it out on the menu before dismissing the dialog.
Volume Items Preferences
OtherMenu can maintain menu items for volumes (floppies, CD ROMs, all removables, hard disks and disk partitions) that are mounted on the desktop by creating and deleting aliases to each volume. This feature may be turned on and off with the “Maintain volume items” checkbox.
Use the editable text box labelled “Volume items folder or path” to specify where volume items will appear. To make volume items in OtherMenu’s main menu, leave this box blank; volume aliases will be maintained in the OtherMenu Folder, as shown here.
To make a submenu of volumes, enter the name of a folder; volume aliases will be maintained in a subfolder of the OtherMenu Folder, with volumes appearing as items under this name, like so:
To make a deeper menu, enter a path with components separated by colons. For instance, to create a main menu item called “Aliases” with a submenu named“Volumes” with a submenu of volumes, enter “:Aliases:Volumes:” which will maintain volume aliases in a folder named “Volumes” inside a folder named “Aliases” inside the OtherMenu Folder. OtherMenu will offer to create a new folder, but all but the last folder in a path must already exist.
You can specify a prefix of up to 4 characters that will be added to the names of all volume menu items, in order to group and position them in the menu.
Finally, there are checkboxes by which you can specify that volume items should be accumulated, rather than being automatically deleted when the volumes are unmounted. (If there is an individual item that you wish to protect from automatic deletion, you can simply lock that alias using Finder or the File Info external.)
Recent Items Preferences
OtherMenu can also maintain a folder of aliases to items that have been recently selected using OtherMenu or standard directory dialogs. This feature may be turned on and off with the “Maintain recent items” checkbox.
In the text box labelled “Recent items folder or path”, enter the name of a folder to contain the aliases, which will be a subfolder of the OtherMenu Folder; a submenu of recent items will be maintained under this name. Unlike volume items discussed above, you cannot leave this box blank to put recent items into OtherMenu’s main menu. To make a deeper menu, create a path with components separated by colons. For example, “:Aliases:Recent:” will maintain recent items in a folder named “Recent” inside a folder named “Aliases” inside the OtherMenu Folder. OtherMenu will offer to create a new folder, but all but the last folder in a path must already exist. When you change the name of the recent items folder, the previous recent items folder is not deleted automatically; you will have to trash it manually.
Items chosen from OtherMenu’s main menu will not be recent menu items because they are readily accessible. You can choose the number of recent items you would like OtherMenu to maintain with the “Maximum recent items” control; up to 50 are allowed. You can have OtherMenu automatically delete all items from previous sessions with the “Clear recent items at startup” checkbox.
Menu Font Preferences
Using these pop-up menus, you can set the font used in OtherMenu’s menu. The size setting 0 means the standard size for the system font. In U.S. systems, the system font is Chicago 12.
You can also assign a style, or combination of styles, to folders, aliases, or other files. Note that an alias to a folder or disk counts as an alias, not as a folder.
OtherMenu Externals
OtherMenu has code modules, similar to FKEYs, of file type '*Cmd', '*CMD', or '*Sub'. They use system memory and can be placed in the menu and executed with less overhead than applications. '*Sub's have their own submenus, while the other types do not. You need not install the full set of externals. If you hold the shift key while selecting an external, it will display an About box, which can allow for adjustment of settings, or might just show the version number. If you are a programmer, you can write your own externals. Sample code is available as a separate “OtherMenu Developer Kit” from some of the same sources as OtherMenu, such as CompuServe, America Online, and bigbird.csd.scarolina.edu.
About FKEYs
An FKEY is a small program without a full user interface that performs a simple task and quits. When you press command-shift-3 to take a screen snapshot, you are executing an FKEY installed in the System file. You can place FKEY files, and aliases to FKEY files, in the OtherMenu Folder, and use the menu to execute them. Such files should have file type 'FKEY', and contain exactly one resource of type 'FKEY', plus possibly resources of other types.
Modal Dialogs
Usually, you don't have much freedom of action when the front window is a modal dialog. You know, the kind of window that has a border like this:
You can’t switch to another application, and you can’t even switch to another window within the same application. Yet, you can use OtherMenu to execute externals and FKEYs while a modal dialog is showing. This freedom entails some risk, because the programmers who wrote your applications and other extensions probably didn’t anticipate that you could do such a thing. In fact my own programs Open-wide and Dialog View were only recently made compatible with showing a directory dialog on top of another directory dialog.
Certain externals (currently QuickAlias and QuickTrash) take control of the Other menu, so that you can’t invoke other externals when they are running.
Directory Dialogs
Directory dialogs (Open and Save dialogs) are a special kind of modal dialog, and as such the previous section applies to them. However, OtherMenu has another use within these dialogs: You can use OtherMenu to select a folder to be displayed in the directory dialog, simply by pulling down the menu and releasing the mouse over the name of a folder. In the case of Open dialogs, you can select a file (other than an external or FKEY) to make that file become selected in the Open dialog. If OtherMenu fails to select the file you asked it to select, it will beep. This can happen if you select a file that is not the right type for that Open dialog, or if the folder contains many files that start with the same letter. The “rebound” feature in Super Boomerang or similar utilities may interfere with file selection, but not folder selection.
Tips For Running OtherMenu
In some cases, there may not be enough room on the menu bar for all of an application’s menus plus the system menus. If you have selected the “menu at left” setting, OtherMenu will be the first to disappear. You may want to use a utility such as MICN or Cram Bar (freeware) or Menuette (shareware) to lessen menu-bar crowding.
OtherMenu launches most documents (i.e., items other than applications, desk accessories, FKEYs, and OtherMenu externals) by telling Finder to open the file. When this happens, Finder will momentarily come to the foreground. If there is not enough memory to open the file, Finder will display an alert box telling you about the problem.
Many of the functions of OtherMenu and its externals require that Finder be running. OtherMenu can launch applications (including Finder itself), but not documents, when Finder is not running.
Before you ask: No, you can’t assign keyboard equivalents to items in OtherMenu’s menu, even with QuicKeys.
Occasionally it may be convenient for your menu to contain an alias to a folder or volume (perhaps a server) but not have a submenu hanging from it. You can get this effect by changing the file type of the alias to something generic like '????'. The File Info external could be used to do this.
Compatibility problems have been reported with Myst, SpeedyFinder 1.5.4 (later versions may be OK), Menu Enabler 1.0 and Pyro! 4.0.
Shareware Fee
The shareware registration fee for OtherMenu is US$10 per copy. An individual with several computers need only pay for one copy. Please pay by personal check, international postal money order, or cash in U.S. funds, sent to the address listed below. (I understand that it is illegal to mail cash in some countries, but not in the U.S.) When you register, tell me your e-mail address if you have one.
James W. Walker
3200 Heyward Street
Columbia, SC 29205
CompuServe users can register online. GO SWREG; the ID is 1208.
I do not claim that I can or will enforce the shareware fee. But the more payments I receive, the more likely I am to make further enhancements to OtherMenu. If you have any feature requests, I will be much more likely to listen to you if you have paid.
For a separate fee of US $5, registered users may request a disk containing the latest version of the OtherMenu software.
Contact me for information on site license discounts.
Distribution
OtherMenu may not be sold or offered for sale, or included with another software product offered for sale, except with the express written permission of the author. The author’s failure to give permission promptly should not be taken as consent. Companies that distribute public domain/freeware/shareware software for profit are expressly prohibited from distributing OtherMenu. This restriction does not apply to bulletin boards, commercial on-line services such as America Online, CompuServe and GEnie, and nonprofit Macintosh user groups which hold regularly scheduled public meetings.
No warranty
OtherMenu uses some undocumented techniques. Use it at your own risk. I will attempt to fix any bug that I can duplicate on my own machines, but will not buy other people’s software for compatibility testing. If I cannot fix a bug or conflict that prevents you from using OtherMenu, then I will refund your shareware payment.
Author’s address
I can be reached by e-mail at the following addresses. For a regular mail address, see the Shareware section above.
CompuServe: 76367,2271
America Online: JWWalker
Internet: walkerj@math.scarolina.edu
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Susan Lesch for helpful feedback, testing, and user interface assistance during the development of OtherMenu, and to Leonard Rosenthol for programming tips and assistance with some externals. Thanks to others who beta tested, especially Mark Nagata and Bill Johnston.
