Mini Conversion is a small utility, which can manipulate file Type and Creator signitures as well as changing weather files are visible, name locked or stationery. It can convert single files or scan and convert folders of files.
In simple terms, Type and Creator signitures are the codes by which the Mac OS associates files with applications - that's how when you double clicked on this SimpleText file, the Finder opened it with SimpleText!. They also effect the icon which a file displays on the desktop. It can be useful to be able to change these if you, for example, have a bunch of text files which you saved while surfing the World Wide Web. The trouble is that you don't want to have to open them opening in your web browser every time you double click them - you want to open them with a great text editor like BBEdit, so you change the files type and creator codes so that when you double click on your text files they open straight into BBEdit. You're not changing anything about the actual file, just what program the Finder thinks they were made with. Mini Conversion is also compact so that you can leave it running in the corner of your monitor while you work :)
• Requirements
Mini Conversion requires the Drag Manager be present in your system. Drag Manager is integrated in System 7 Pro and System 7.5 upwards. Mini Conversions Ram requirements are farily low - it can run on 120K with one pad open but with the recommended 230K, lots of pads can run simultaneously.
• How to use Mini Conversion
Detailed Instructions:
I designed Mini Conversion to be fairly easy to use. For basic usage, just run the program, and drop files onto the 'pad' which opens automatically. You will notice that when you drop files onto the pad, the display changes to reflect the state of that file. In effect you are 'lifting' the details from that file so that you can stamp it on to a different file. To perform a 'stamp' just drag files onto the pad but this time, hold down the command key (sometimes called the apple key of the flower key). The file will then take on the new Type and Creator and any other attributes that are set in the pad - stationery, invisible etc. This approach allows you to quickly change one file to the type of another.
Quick instruction list:
• drag files onto pad - sets pad settings to that file
• drag files onto pad with command key down - sets the file settings
• drag folders onto the pad with command key down - changes every file within the folder
• drag folders onto the pad with command AND shift key down - changes every file within the folder and ALL subfolders
- please exercise caution when using the 'command-shift' option. Every subfolder will be scanned and resulting file altered.
• click in check boxes - changes pad settings
• click in Type or Creator box on pad - manually enter type and creator signitures
• File Menu -> New Pad - creates a new pad
• File Menu -> Close Pad - closes the selected pad
• File Menu -> Make Visible... - makes the file you choose visible
For power users:
Pressing the left and right arrow keys while a pad is the front window cycles through sets of type and creator codes defines in STR# resources. Open Mini Conversion with ResEdit and take a look at the STR# resources. STR# resources numbered sequentially from 2000 can be used to store frequently users type and creator sets which are accessed with the left and right arrow keys - you can edit/add extra entries if you wish. A few are provided - the names of the resources give descriptions. I hope to improve Mini Conversion with a display of these resource names in the pad window so users know what type/creator set they are looking at.
Notes:
Sometimes the Finder can be slow to catch on to changes that you have made to files. It usually take a couple of seconds for the Finder to refresh the display and give files the appropriate icons etc. Files in folders usually update immediately or after the window has been closed and reopened. I find that files which you change with Mini Conversion which reside on the desktop sometimes do not updates until you restart the machine. Duplicates of changes file will display the changes immediately but originals will not. Remember: the file information is always changed, it's just that the Finder does not always detect these changes straight away. Rebuilding the desktop is a last resort to files which do not seem to take on the changes.
• Version History
Version 1.2 11th/9/98
* Mini Conversion now supports the dropping of folders to convert the files within.
Version 1.1 27th/6/98
* Added the "Make Visible..." - should have been in version 1.0 really.
Version 1.0 12th/6/98
* Initial release.
• Registration
For now registration of Mini Conversion is just $5! For $5 you get tech support via email with me, free updates forever and you get to feel really good about yourself! Please do not send money straight to me, instead follow the guidelines below.
If you are familiar with the Kagi registration service then registering will not be a problem. Below is an overview of registering with Kagi. It may seem like a complicated system but really it is just a matter of filling out a form, printing it and sending it. Many shareware developers use this system and the little 'Register' programs are all over the place :-)
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Paying for Mini Conversion is fairly simple. Open the Register program that accompanies Mini Conversion. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you wish to purchase (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi. Kagi handles my payment processing.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-OMH
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical. If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment.
Kagi can not invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
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• About the author and techie stuff
Mini Conversion was written in Metrowerks C by me, 16 year old Thomas Riley who lives in the town of Wootton Bassett in England. I write software for the Mac in C/C++ and also develop CGIs in Perl and build web sites.
