Quite a lot of my activity in the last few days has been on screen. With the introduction of the new MacOS 10.2 it was really time to switch, and so I finally moved to MacOS X. (I have been trying to befriend all versions of osX so far, starting with the Beta, but came out with scratches every time.)
I had to say good-bye to my favorite little application, which had followed me around since 1990. The name of this little gem is “Capture” and the creator is Yves Lempereur. My Apple-“,” key combination would allow me to create a screen-grab of any portion of the screen at any time in any situation. Capture was a really important little piece of software for me. (I know this sounds really nerdy, but it really was.) It was programmed so well, it worked equally well under System 6.0.7 as under MacOS 9.2.2. Hmm. I really wondered if Yves was about to write a Jaguar version. I found him via Google, of course, since he wrote the original application before the invention of html, or browsers or the WWW. He responded very nicely and even sent me an upgrade for the software, (written in 1996) but he had no plans on ever writing a simple screen-capture application for MacOSX… So it looks like I will have to use Snapz Pro from now on? I think I will need to write to the Ambrosia guys about capture. The beauty of Capture was that it just did not get in my way whenever I wanted to make a screen-grab. It just sat there in the background, waiting for my key combination. And when I typed the key combination, my cursor would just turn into a little cross. I could then make my selection, and then paste the grab into Photoshop. No menu to look at, unless I wanted to change some settings. Otherwise, OsX is just quite excellent. I am feeling a bit like in the early days when it was so important to adjust all the little settings in all the little control-panels and change the look of things to create an ideal working environment.
I upgraded all of my Adobe applications to run in X, and they still have their own little secret screens, like back in the days, at least Photoshop and Illustrator do.
The next step was to find the right little hacks and apps to adjust the macOSX user interface. First thing to add was TinkerTool. It fixes some tiny little things about the dock as well as about scrollbars, among other things. Next thing that needed a fix badly was the upper right corner of the screen. There used to be an Application switcher menu there since the very first Macintosh operating system, but somebody must have decided that the new Dock could replace it. Well not quite for me, and thus there is the very useful ASM (Application Switcher Menu). It brings the full functionality back. Very nice. In the other corner of the screen used to be the Apple menu. It used to contain some of the stuff that somehow belonged there, the Calculator, the Control Panels, the recently used applications. It was now replaced by some strange promotional item (“Get OSX software”), but not for long. Under my Apple is now FruitMenu, a little helper application that brings back the old functionality and even some of the stuff we liked in FinderPop. Next stop on the interface improvement journey was the Dock itself. It somehow began to become cluttered with all the little helpers and friendly utilities which wanted to be there, so they could be easily accessed, but really did not need to be in my face all the time. The helper here became Dock Extender, a nice little application that allows up to 10 (in the paid version) menus that sit in the dock. They look like any application or any icon you can find on IconFactory, but are in fact popup manus which can contain anything the user desires. Way to go. While in the dock, let’s take a look at the home icon and the trash… They might need some help, you think? Try CandyBar, a beautiful little piece of software by Iconfactory and Panix. Candybar can turn any of the original OSX system icons into one of those (yeah, you like them, and yes, I know that I am repeating myself here).
So what is left to adjust after all this? Well, the fonts in some of the older applications just did not look quite as smooth as what I now really liked about the new Quarz look. And there is help in shape of Silk it smoothes all fonts in applications that do not do it correctly themselves. It makes the system feel pretty nice.
Oh, one more little friendly app. It is called WeatherPop and puts, when it works, a little weather station into your menu bar. I like it very much. I hope the glu.com people fix it, as promised by September 3rd. I actually bought this little friend. Yes, I am one of the guys who pays for their Shareware at some point. Can you imagine?
Have a wonderful labor day. All the best.