| This Contextual Menu Module (CMM)
plugin takes advantage of OS 8's new contextual
menu to implement the ability to quickly open
files with applications other than the applications
that created them. For example, a Macintosh PICT
file is most likely to open in SimpleText when
double-clicked. But you may not want to open this
PICT in SimpleText. If you're like me, this PICT
is probably a screenshot, and it will need to
be brought through Adobe Photoshop to prepare
it for the web or for print. Previously, to get
this PICT into Photoshop, I couldn't double-click
the image, because that opened it in SimpleText.
Instead, I had to open Photoshop first, and then
open the file through Photoshop. Navigating to
the file through Photoshop was sometimes annoying,
as the file may be 4 or 5 folders or more deep
on my hard drive, while the folder containing
the file was open on my desktop and easily accessible.
Using Bubble Pop's With It, I can now select the
PICT on my desktop, invoke OS 8's contextual menu,
select
Open With from the bottom of the menu, and
open the PICT directly into Photoshop without
having to navigate the dark corridors of my hard
drive.
With It is very simple to install and to use.
To install With It, simply drag it to your closed
System Folder, allow it to be placed into its
proper folder, then restart your Macintosh. To
use With It, select a file and invoke the contextual
menu by pressing CONTROL + CLICK. Select
Open With from this menu. The first time With
It is used, it searches your computer's hard disks
to locate all the available applications. This
will take a few moments or minutes, depending
on the number and sizes of your hard drives. With
It will only need to do this the first time it
is used. For all future uses, With It will determine
which applications can open the file you've selected
and then list those applications by default. The
result then is a dialogue
box with all capable applications listed alphabetically.
Choose an application and click OK. The application
will launch and the file will be opened with that
application.
With It's application list dialogue box provides
more than a simple list of applications capable
of opening a particular file type. When the "Show
More" check box is activated, applications which
can open any document type and duplicate applications
are listed. Applications then have the volume
name appended in parentheses to indicate the
volume where they reside. With the "Show More"
check box deactivated, applications which can
open any document type and duplicate applications
are not displayed.
There are also occasions when you upgrade or
install a new application. When you do, you can
have With It search your drives again and update
its list of applications. To do a new search,
invoke With It and click on the small arrow beside
"Options"
to open the options menu. From this menu, you
can search for the new or upgraded applications
on your local drives, and if you have selected
"Search Remote Volumes" and/or "Search Read-Only
Volumes", search those volumes as well. When you
activate either the "Search Remote Volumes" and/or
"Search Read-Only Volumes", With It displays a
message
cautioning you that a search may take a few minutes
to complete. Typically, I find that With It takes
about 2 minutes to search all 3 of my drives,
totalling about 18 gigabytes.
With It's more sophisticated than it may at first
appear. Once a file type has been opened with
an application, it "remembers" which application
has been used to open files of that type in the
past, and then lists these applications in a hierarchical
menu in the future, so users can now choose
the application they've used previously or they
can choose to view the list of applications again
to choose another application. With It remembers
these "favorite" applications and lists them all
in a hierarchical menu for future use when a file
of that same type is selected. You can also select
more than one file at a time and invoke With It
to open them. As long as the files are all of
the same type, With It will appear in the contextual
menu and will allow you to pen them. If the files
are of different file types, With It is not displayed
in the contextual menu.
With It rarely makes an error when deciding which
applications can open which file types. I have
yet to have this error appear on my watch! With
It is very good about determining which applications
can open which file types. In fact, the Read Me
file notes that With It takes advantage of Internet
Config (or File Exchange under OS 8.5) to help
determine which applications can open which types
of documents. If a file is an unknown document,
or has a file extension (such as .sit, .hqx, &
etc.), With It will use Internet Config to find
a corresponding file type and application for
the extension in its file mapping database.
Bubble Pop also provides great customer serivice.
They are prompt to respond to inquiries and errors.
While using With It 1.0, I sometimes received
an obtuse -108 error message when selecting an
application from With It's hierarchical menu.
I emailed Bubble Pop when I couldn't solve this
problem, and they responded within 24 hours requesting
some information and clarification to help them
troubleshoot the problem. All successive emails
have been answered as quickly, or within hours
in some instances. In fact, they sent a pre-release
updated within days of the -108 error that corrected
the problem. They identified the error as an out-of-memory
error and rewrote the error message to clarify
this error as a memory error. This pre-release
version became 1.0.1 and is available on Volume
3 of MacWichita's
quarterly CD.
It is only with such small developers that such
great customer service seems possible. I have
yet to receive responses to messages sent to larger
companies regarding their products.
Bubble Pop's With It CMM plugin is a useful,
effective and intelligent utility for those who
need to open files with applications other than
the applications that created them. Despite its
features, however, the price tag of $15 is steep
for this plugin. When compared to other shareware
utilities that do a lot more, with price tags
of $18 - $25, With It should be priced between
$5 - $10.
With It was reviewed on a Power Macintosh 6500/300
running OS 8.5.1 (and OS 8.6) with 128mb RAM.
5/99 |
|
With
It Menu 
Hierarchical
Menu
Dialogue
Box
Options
Show
More
Search
Option
|
