Fade to Black is a program designed to save your Macintosh screen. It’s possible for the image on a computer’s screen to get "stuck" when it is displayed for a long time, and remain visible, even when something else is on the screen. This is more of a problem on a Mac than other computers, because much of what is displayed on the Macintosh’s screen is white. But the problem is also easier to solve on a Mac than other computers, because of the flexibility of the Mac’s operating system. This is what Fade to Black does.
Fade to Black works by waiting quietly until you haven’t used your Macintosh for a while, and then causes the screen to slowly fade to black, so the image that was being displayed won’t become permanent. To let you know that your Mac is on, a copy of the current application’s icon and the current time float around the screen. When you want to use the Mac again, simply move the mouse, click the mouse button, press a key, or insert a disk and the screen will be restored. Much of how Fade to Black operates can be configured using the Fade Setup application, which is also used to install Fade to Black.
Fade to Black works on any Macintosh with a black and white screen. This includes the Macintosh 512K, 512KE, Plus, SE, SE/30, and the Macintosh II, IIx, and IIcx in black and white (one bit per pixel) mode. On the Macintosh 512K, Fade to Black suspends the current application while it is active. On other Macintosh models, the application running when Fade to Black fades the screen continues operating.
Fade to Black can be activated in a number of different ways. It can be activated when the Macintosh has been idle for a period of time, via a function key or desk accessory, or by moving the cursor into a corner of the Mac’s screen. You may choose which of these activates your copy of Fade to Black using the Fade Setup application (which is described in depth below).
Fade to Black can only be activated when an application is looking for user input. If an application is idle, it is continuously looking for input from the user, so Fade to Black can be activated. However, if the application is performing a task and isn’t properly designed, it may go for long periods of time before looking for input. Luckily, most applications are well designed, allowing Fade to Black to become activated. For instance, most applications look for input while printing (usually to allow cancelling printing), so Fade to Black can be activated at this time (and printing will continue on the Mac 512KE or later).
Fade to Black works with MultiFinder, although it always displays the Finder’s icon, not the icon of the application currently active. Fade to Black also works with Suitcase, although it displays Suitcase’s icon when in the Finder or when running under MultiFinder. Fade to Black works with Font/DA Juggler Plus as it would in a standard system.
When Fade to Black displays the time under the icon of the current application, it uses the time format defined in the System file, so if you have customized the time, or are using other than a US Macintosh system, the time will be displayed as appropriate.
I use Fade to Black with a number of common applications such as MacWrite, MacTerminal, HyperCard, Microsoft Word and Excel, Superpaint, Adobe Illustrator, and others, and Fade to Black should work with any relatively well behaved application. However, because I can’t test it with all software, you should be careful when trying Fade to Black the first time, and test it with the applications you normally use.
Changes from 3.0 to 3.2
Four changes to Fade to Black version 3.2 over version 3.0 have been made. In version 3.0, there was one case where Fade to Black didn’t detect that there wasn’t enough free memory for the screen to fade. This could result in Fade to Black resetting the machine. Also, when low memory was detected during an attempt to fade, Fade to Black 3.0 would beep regularly.
In Fade to Black 3.1, there was a problem running under Multifinder which could result in random crashes while faded.
Fade to Black 3.1.1 only worked on machines containing the MacPlus ROMs or earlier (the Macintosh 512K, 512KE, Plus, and SE). This meant that it wouldn’t work on machines with the Mac II ROMs but a black and white screen (the Macintosh SE/30, and the II, IIx, and IIcx in black and white mode).
These problems have been fixed. Fade to Black 3.2 now detects when there isn’t enough memory left, only beeps once per attempt to fade when memory is low, works properly under Multifinder, and works with any black and white screen Macintosh.
Configuring Fade to Black
The first step in using Fade to Black is to configure it to work the way you want. This is done using the Fade Setup application. Launch Fade Setup by double clicking its icon from the Finder. Once in Fade Setup, there are three steps to configuring Fade to Black.
Options
The first step is to check or uncheck items under the Options menu. Checking the first item in the menu, Add or Remove Immediately allows you to simply insert disks and have Fade to Black added to or removed from them and the disk ejected. See Adding and Removing Fade to Black below for more information.
The second and third items in the Options menu, Install Desk Accessory, and Install Function Key, determine whether or not the Fade to Black desk accessory or function key will be installed. Both provide an alternative method of activating Fade to Black. It isn’t necessary to have either installed.
General Configuration
Next, choose General Setup... from the Fade menu. A dialog like the one shown on the next page will be displayed.
The first items that can be changed are the "Events" for which Fade to Black will watch. These can be chosen by checking and unchecking appropriate items near the left of the dialog. Once Fade to Black has been activated, an occurrence of any of the checked events will cause Fade to Black to restore the screen.
Next, decide whether you want Fade to Black to be activated automatically, and check or uncheck the Fade after box near the bottom of the dialog as appropriate. You can also change the amount of time Fade to Black waits before being activated by entering a new value and choosing a new unit (seconds or minutes), if necessary. If the Fade after box is checked, Fade to Black will watch for the events checked. If none of them occurs within the time specified, Fade to Black will activate itself. If the box is not checked, Fade to Black will only be activated by the Desk Accessory or Function Key (if installed), or if the cursor is moved into the appropriate corner of the screen (this will be explained further below).
The third item that can be modified is how the screen will be cleared when Fade to Black is activated. This is done by choosing one of the buttons in the top center of the dialog. Flipping is the fastest - the screen will just be cleared. Fading causes the screen to fade to black, and is slightly slower than clearing the screen. Sliding slides the current screen down, while sliding the cleared screen in from the top. It is the slowest of the three, taking approximately eight seconds to clear and restore the screen.
Next, you can choose to have a bouncing or gliding icon. If you choose Bouncing, the icon and time will be moved to a random location on the screen once a second. If Gliding is selected, the icon will glide around the screen, caroming off the edges.
The last configuration information that can be changed with this dialog is the size of the icon to be displayed. A small, normal, or large icon can be displayed by selecting the appropriate button in the bottom center of the dialog. The time of day will be displayed in a size appropriate for the size of icon chosen.
The four buttons at the right side of the dialog can be used to control whether or not the changed information will be saved. The OK button is used to close the dialog and save any information that was changed. The Cancel button closes the dialog without saving the changes. The Revert button restores the configuration to what it was when the dialog was first opened. Default chooses the default configuration, which is pictured above.
Corner Configuration
The last step in configuring Fade to Black is to determine what corner actions will be available. To do so, choose Corner Configuration... from the Fade menu. A dialog like this will be displayed:
By placing the cursor in one of the four corners of the Mac’s screen, Fade to Black’s behavior can be modified. The right hand corners decrease the amount of time until Fade to Black is activated, while the left hand corners increase the amount of time until Fade to Black is activated. By checking and unchecking the boxes in the dialog, you can choose which corners have an affect on Fade to Black.
The four buttons at the bottom of the dialog have the same effect as those in the General Setup... dialog.
Saving the Configuration
The changes you make to the configuration are saved automatically when you quit Fade Setup. If you launch Fade Setup again, you won’t have to change the configuration to install Fade to Black on additional startup disks.
Adding and Removing Fade to Black
Once you have chosen the options you like, you must install Fade to Black on your startup disks. If you own a hard disk, you may be able to install it just once, on your hard disk. If you don’t own a hard disk, you may want to install it on each of your startup disks. At times you may also want to remove Fade to Black from one of your startup disks. Both can be done by choosing items in the Fade menu.
Remember that when you install something like Fade to Black, you should do it on a copy of your startup disks, and make sure you have a backup of any disk you’re going to use while Fade to Black is installed. Although I don’t know of any problems with Fade to Black (and have it installed on my own hard disk and other startup disks), it’s possible that Fade to Black may interact badly with some applications I haven’t used with Fade to Black.
Adding Fade to Black
To add Fade to Black to a startup disk, choose Add... from the Fade menu. A dialog like the one shown below will be displayed.
If you’ve chosen not to install both the desk accessory and function key, the text at the top of the dialog will be different, indicating what will be installed, based on your choices under the Options menu.
The name of the current disk is displayed in the middle of the dialog. You can cycle through the available disks by clicking the Drive button, or pressing the Tab key. If there are no other available disks, the Drive button will be dimmed.
You can eject the disk named in the dialog by clicking the Eject button, or typing -E. If the current disk isn’t ejectable (perhaps it’s a RAM disk or a hard disk), the Eject button will be dimmed.
To add Fade to Black to the disk whose name is displayed in the dialog, click the Add button, or press Return or Enter. If the disk isn’t a startup disk, doesn’t have enough free space to install Fade to Black, or is write protected, an appropriate alert will be displayed.
When Fade to Black is added to a disk, any existing versions of Fade to Black are first removed, allowing you to change the configuration, and reinstall Fade to Black without first explicitly removing it.
If a small lock appears to the left of a disks name in the dialog, that disk is locked, so Fade to Black can’t be added to it. The Add button will be dimmed in this case.
If Add or Remove Immediately is checked in the Options menu, while the above dialog is displayed you can insert a disk and Fade to Black will be added to it automatically, then the disk ejected. Holding down the option key while inserting a disk will cause the disk to be mounted normally, and it’s name displayed in the dialog.
If you install Fade to Black on the current startup disk, it will also be installed in memory, allowing you to use Fade to Black immediately, without first rebooting your Macintosh. If you don’t want Fade to Black installed in memory, you can hold down the option key after selecting the Add button. Fade to Black will beep, indicating it was not installed. You can also hold down the option key when booting to prevent Fade to Black from being installed in memory.
Removing Fade to Black
To remove Fade to Black, choose Remove... from the Fade menu. A dialog like this one will be displayed:
Fade Setup always attempts to remove all parts of Fade to Black, regardless of the choices made in the Options menu.
As in the add dialog, the name of the current disk is displayed in the middle of the dialog. This can be changed using the Eject and Drive buttons, as you would when adding Fade to Black to a startup disk.
To remove Fade to Black from the disk being displayed, click the Remove button, or press Return or Enter. Fade Setup will not display an error if the disk isn’t a startup disk or doesn’t contain Fade to Black (if the disk isn’t a startup disk or doesn’t contain Fade to Black, the intent of removing Fade to Black has been achieved - a disk without Fade to Black).
If a small lock appears to the left of a disk’s name in the dialog, that disk is locked, so Fade to Black can’t be removed from it. The Remove button will be dimmed.
If Add or Remove Immediately is checked in the Options menu, while the above dialog is displayed you can insert a disk and Fade to Black will be removed from it automatically, then the disk ejected. Pressing the option key while inserting a disk will cause the disk to be mounted normally, and it’s name displayed in the dialog.
If you remove Fade to Black from the current startup disk, it will also be removed from memory.
Key Equivalents
There are a number of key equivalents available in Fade Setup. The table below lists these equivalents.
File menu:
Quit -Q
Edit menu:
Undo -Z
Cut -X
Copy -C
Paste -V
These menu items only have an effect when a desk accessory is open. Otherwise, they are ignored.
Options menu:
Add or Remove Immediately -I
Install Desk Accessory -D
Install Function Key -F
Fade menu:
General Setup... -G
Add... -A
Remove... -R
General Setup dialog:
OK button Return or Enter
Cancel button -.
Revert button -R
Default button -D
Disk Insertion checkbox -1
Keystroke checkbox -2
Mouse Click checkbox -3
Mouse Movement checkbox -4
Fade after checkbox -F
Seconds radio button -S
Minutes radio button -M
Bouncing icon radio button -B
Gliding icon radio button -G
Corner Setup dialog:
OK button Return or Enter
Cancel button -.
Revert button -R
Default button -D
upper left corner checkbox -1
lower left corner checkbox -2
upper right corner checkbox -3
lower right corner checkbox -4
Add dialog:
Add button Return, -A
Cancel button -.
Eject button -E
Drive button -D, Tab
Remove dialog:
Remove button Return, -R
Cancel button -.
Eject button -E
Drive button -D, Tab
Passing on Fade to Black
Everyone is encouraged to pass on Fade to Black, as long as you pass on this documentation and the Fade Setup application, both of them unmodified. You may not sell Fade to Black, or use it as an inducement to purchase another product. Fade to Black may be included in collections of Public Domain and Shareware software, again as long as both the Fade Setup application and this documentation are included unmodified.
If you like Fade to Black, feel free to send me what you think it’s worth, but even if you don’t send any money, feel free to use it. You’re under no obligation to send me anything (although it would be appreciated). My address is:
Brian L. Matthews
10513 SE 219th Street
Kent, Washington 98031
USA
Macintosh, MacWrite, MacTerminal, HyperCard and MultiFinder are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Superpaint is a trademark of Silicon Beach Software. Adobe Illustrator is a trademark of Adobe. Suitcase is a trademark of Software Supply. Font DA/Juggler Plus is a trademark of ALSoft, Inc.
