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MacHome 1999 February/March
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MacHome CD (February and March 1999).iso
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MacHome 99.02⁄99.03
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MacHome 99.02_99.03.rsrc
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1998-12-10
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Possibly the most essential tool an Internet downloader will ever
have. Just drag-and-drop any compressed file (even ZIP files
from the PC) on Expander’s icon and it is expanded and decoded
exactly where you want it to be. Expander even works with your
browser, expanding files automatically download is complete. The
industry standard and rightfully so.
 
DragThing is an application dock designed to tidy up your desktop.
You can store applications, documents, folders, disks, servers,
and URLs in docks, and there is a special process dock that shows
running applications. DragThing supports Mac OS 8 contextual
menus. Version 2.6 includes new dock styles and colors,
individually floating docks, and full support for Mac OS 8.5.
 
SwitcherSetter controls Mac OS 8.5's Application Switcher
window. SwitcherSetter's easy-to-use interface allows you to
explore and set every option from icon size to the keystroke used
to switch between applications. SwitcherSetter now supports the
"Quit" AppleEvent and is an APPC type of application that
automatically routes to the Control Panels folder.
 
AliasMenu adds drop-down menus to your menu bar that remain
accessible regardless of the application you have open. You can
place folders in the AliasMenu folder, place icons on the folders
that symbolize what each folder means to you, and fill the folders
with any aliases you like. These items will show up in the pull-
down menus.
 
Click, There It Is is a system extension for the Mac OS that extends
the Open and Save dialog boxes. It allows you to click on a Finder
window and change the current folder to the one you want. This
aptly named program even works when Finder windows are
obscured by document windows. Another small feature is its
ability to drag the Open and Save dialog boxes (in case a Finder
window is completely eclipsed).
 
Dock Manager is a small application that picks up where the
Appearance control panel leaves off. It allows you to completely
customize every visual aspect of the Application Switcher dock bar
and set scroll options and the keyboard switching key combination.
Dock Manager also supports contextual menus, drag and drop, and
balloon help, and lets you save and load user-defined settings.
 
DocMaker gives you powerful tools for creating self-contained and
self-executing multimedia documents complete with graphics,
information, and links to othersoftware and information. You can
use incorporated QuickTime video, sound, Apple Events, "hot
picture" buttons, and more to create your multimedia documents.
The reader needs no other software to open your documents.
 
  
DP Autochanger updates the desktop picture at user-specified
intervals. The new picture is randomly chosen from a folder you
select and fill with the pictures you would like displayed. DP
Autochanger keeps track of the pictures as they are shown so that
all the pictures in the folder get shown.
 
DragAnyWindow is a control panel that allows you to move any
kind of window, including dialog boxes, alerts, game windows, and
other usually immovable windows. It lets you bring any window
that has gone out of sight back to the desktop, as well as center the
front window on the main screen with a single keystroke. IThis
version is Mac OS 8.5–savvy.
 
Icon Tools is a contextual menu plug-in that lets you not only copy
and paste icons via control-click actions, but also customize your
icons in many ways with the same easy access. The Icon Tools
option makes it possible for you to copy and paste icons, reset an
icon to its original form, rotate or flip an icon, darken or lighten
an icon, make an icon invisible, give an icon special effects, or
make an icon's border mor distinct.
 
IconDropper allows you to customize your Mac's icons on the fly
through the use of drag-and-drop technology. Instead of having to
copy and paste custom icons from folders on your hard drive,
IconDropper stores all icons in custom-designed sets called
"packs." A single click is required to update any folder's icon and
view the results in real time.
 
Kineticon is a system extension which replaces normal, static
icons on your Macintosh's desktop and in its windows with chosen
animated icons. Kineticon is fully configurable, allowing you to
choose which icons should animate simply by enabling them within
Kineticon's editor.
 
PandoFrame is a freeware Macintosh application that allows
you to place picture frames on your desktop. It's like Stickies
for pictures. The picture frames set above any desktop pattern
or picture you have, and can be arranged anywhere on the desktop.
Frames can be any of nine shapes and come in a variety of colors
and patterns.
 
Power Windows lets you drag the entire contents of a window
instead of just the dotted outline that the Mac OS normally allows
you to drag. Version 2.0.4 fixes two bugs introduced in version
2.0.3: problems dragging pop-up windows and crashes that
occurred while creating and dragging pop-up windows when using
Solid Dragging in certain applications (particularly Netscape).
 
SoundApp is a handy utility that can play and convert a wide range
of sound files, including AIFF, WAV, MOD, MIDI, raw GSM, MPEG
2.5 Layer 3 (including MP3 WAV files), Atari AVR, and many
other formats. Among other features, the program includes a
playlist that's great for grouping your favorite sound files
together.
 
Startup Doubler seeks to decrease the time you spend waiting for  
your computer to start up. It adds a second-level disk cache that
works especially well with older hard disks or hard disks that
have slower access speeds. Startup Doubler is compatible with
other popular optimization programs such as Speed Doubler 8.0.
Among other improvements, version 1.2 fixes a rare freeze bug
and now supports Mac OS 8.5.
 
Mac OS 8.5 introduced Sherlock, the operating system's advanced
new search engine that searches not only your hard drive, but the
Internet as well. Included here are a selection of Sherlock Internet
Search plug-ins to allow you to use some of the Web's premiere
search engines to locate content online.
 
WormScanner scans your local drives or remote volumes for
Autostart 9805 worm variants and will also alert you to unknown
files with suspiciously similar properties. Worms may lurk
inside disk image files, but unless the disk image is mounted,
WormScanner will not be able to look inside. WormScanner now
alerts you if it fails to delete something for which you've given it
permission to do so.
 
Clean-Install Assistant makes the process of upgrading to a new
system much easier. It'll carefully collect your additions and move
them to a separate folder while you update the System Folder, then
move them back to the right places inside the new one a single click!
 
GoMac adds a Windows 95-style taskbar to the bottom of your
screen, letting you navigate among active applications and launch
others. Version 1.6 introduces 8.5 compatibility to GoMac.
Moreover, the Start menu had been further refined; for example,
the Start button is now customizable, so you can steer clear of
Windows decor, and the application memory settings are now
accessible via contextual menus.
 
Tired of the appearance of your boring old desktop? Jazz it up
with this control panel and get 3D folders, retractable windows,
and customizable Finder window backgrounds. Plug-ins are being
added all the time, giving this program even more power. Visit
http://www.kaleidoscope.net every week to get a look at the very
latest uploaded schemes or browse the vast scheme archive.
 
MacHome has selected some of the best Kaleidoscope 2.0 schemes
on the Net and packaged them together for your enjoyment. Give
your Mac a face lift every day with these excellent schemes from
some very talented designers.
 
FinderPop adds a submenu to the Mac OS 8 Finder's Contextual
Menus. This submenu behaves somewhat like the Apple Menu in
that its contents are taken from a special FinderPop Items Folder;
you can add aliases of applications, servers, folders, etc., to this
folder and they'll appear in the FinderPop menu.
 
Does the opposite of StuffIt Expander: automatically creates com-
pressed and coded files simply by dropping them onto its icon. If
you have a PowerPC, the Expander Enhancer makes the freeware
utility StuffIt Expander PowerPC-native and allows it to recognize
even more compression formats.
  
 
A reader for PDF files, a very common document format on the
Internet. Documents saved as PDF files retain all of their complex
formatting and are readable by anyone on any system (PC, Mac,
whatever) so long as they have a reader. Acrobat is a full-featured
reader and includes a plug-in for Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer to automatically read PDF files on Web pages.
 
The king of screen capture programs. With just one keystroke,
you can capture images from your display in any format you choose,
give them names you can remember, and get only the image you
want. The Snapz control panel offers the choice of capturing the
entire screen or just a window, a menu, or even a block of space
you choose. Finally, Snapz Pro puts puts your images where you
want them and can make project folders to organize your work.