Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts
by Lon Poole
The next time you need to look through a plain text document--especially if you want to find specific text in it--try the Note Pad. John Burwell of Angleton, Texas, noticed that although the Note Pad has no Open command in its File menu, it can display the contents of a plain text document, including both types of SimpleText documents and text clipping files. To view a text file, you simply drag its icon to the open Note Pad. Reasons for using the Note Pad: it opens instantly; ordinarily it uses less than half the memory of SimpleText, BBEdit Lite, or Tex-Edit Plus; and unlike SimpleText, Note Pad has a Find command. The Note Pad can't create new files, but you can create new Note Pads by duplicating the one in your Preferences file. Drag the duplicate file to any folder (perhaps a folder named Note Pads in the Apple Menu Items folder), rename the duplicate if you wish, and double-click the file to open it.
Fragmented Memory
Q. Is there any way for me to defragment my RAM without having to restart? A shareware program, perhaps?
Allen Mann
Caldwell, Idaho
A. Memory fragmentation can occur as a normal side effect of quitting applications and desk accessories unless you quit them in exactly the reverse order that you opened them. When you quit them out of order, the resulting unused blocks of memory are separated by blocks of memory still in use by open applications. The Mac OS can reallocate the separate unused blocks one by one, but it can't combine them into one large block of unused memory.
In many cases you can fix memory fragmentation by quitting all open applications and then reopening the ones you want to continue using. That process should consolidate the open applications in contiguous blocks of memory and leave one large block of unused memory. There are a couple of shareware utilities that quit all open applications and desk accessories: Quit All Applications 2.0 by David Giandomenico and ClosingTime by Vinay Prabhakar. Current versions of these utilities do not quit faceless background applications, which do not appear in the Applications menu or in the About This Macintosh box, but most faceless background applications open before regular applications and thus do not contribute to memory fragmentation.
Sometimes quitting all open applications does not cure memory fragmentation. For example, if you use Open Transport 1.1, a standard part of System 7.5.3 and 7.5.5, memory can become fragmented if the TCP/IP control panel's "Load only when needed" option is turned on (this is the default setting). With that option on, Open Transport 1.1 allocates a block of memory for TCP/IP networking right after you open the first TCP/IP application, such as a Web browser or e-mail program. If you later quit the TCP/IP application and all other applications you have opened, memory may remain fragmented by the block of memory allocated for TCP/IP networking. Open Transport 1.1 releases this block of memory after about two minutes of no TCP/IP activity, except with some types of PPP (dial-up) connections. Once the TCP/IP memory is released, you can quit all open applications to clear up fragmented memory.
Open Transport 1.1.1 (available at http://www.info.apple.com) is not supposed to fragment memory on PowerPC Macs. With other Macs and Open Transport 1.1, the best way to avoid memory fragmentation is to turn off the "Load only when needed" option. Open Transport 1.1.1 must be installed over Open Transport 1.1, which you can install separately from the System 7.5.3 disks or CD, or the System 7.5 Update 2.0 disks or CD (see the next item if you need to install Open Transport 1.1 on top of System 7.5.5).
Open Transport considerations aside, you can minimize memory fragmentation by paying careful attention to the order in which you open applications and desk accessories. First open the applications and desk accessories you are least likely to quit, and then open the ones you are most likely to quit in a work session. True control panels do not count, since they are part of the Finder. But "control panels" that are listed in the Applications menu when they are open, such as Desktop Patterns, are actually applications and do affect memory fragmentation.
Owners of Performa and Power Mac 52XX, 53XX, 62XX, and 63XX models can't install Open Transport 1.1 (as suggested in January Quick Tips), but they can install Open Transport 1.1.1, according to Adam Wunn of Portland, Oregon. The installer checks for a hardware bug on those computers and won't install Open Transport 1.1.1 until the bug is fixed. Repairs are free from Apple-authorized service providers under a seven-year warranty-extension program. Open Transport 1.1.1 is available free on the Internet (http://support.info.apple.com/ftp/mirrors.html) or by mail ($13; 800/293-6617 to order).
Custom Install for System 7.5.5
Q. I wanted to install System 7.5.3's Control Strip by choosing Custom Install from the Installer's pop-up menu as described in the November 1996 Quick Tips. But I just updated to System 7.5.5 and the Installer wanted no part of it. Is there any way to still install Control Strip, and if so, are there any other goodies I might have overlooked? I already found Gerbils and the additional desktop patterns in the CD Extras folder.
Bill Sweeney
Hicksville, New York
A. To install Control Strip or another individual item like PlainTalk into System 7.5.5, you must use the installation disks or CD for System 7.5.3 or System 7.5 Update 2.0, because the System 7.5.5 Update disks do not include a full set of system files. That's no problem with the System 7.5.3 disks or CD--just choose Custom Install from the Installer's pop-up menu and select the items you want from the hierarchical list. But System 7.5 Update 2.0's Installer won't let you do a custom install on top of System 7.5.5. The solution is a special Installer script named Sys 7.5 Upd 2.0 Custom Install, which is available from the Unsupported folder of Apple's Software Updates Library (at http://www.info.apple.com, and on America Online, keyword AppleComputer). Be sure to back up your System Folder and follow the instructions that come with the special script.
Other items you might want to install individually include Desktop Printing (although there's a newer version in Apple's Software Updates Library as part of LaserWriter 8.4); Easy Access, which lets you move the pointer with the numeric keypad, type a key combination one stroke at a time, and so on; and Close View, which can magnify the display image. In addition, System 7.5 Update 2.0 can custom-install just the WorldScript Power Adapter extension, which, as I explained last month, contains the PowerPC-native versions of many Mac OS text-handling routines used with many Western languages. With the System 7.5.3 Installer you have to install all of WorldScript I or II, which includes files needed only for other languages, namely InputBackSupport and either the WorldScript I extension or the WorldScript II extension.
File Locking
Q. I share a PowerBook with several colleagues, and I want to use a password to protect a single sensitive document. I can't find anything in file sharing to help me. Can I password-protect individual files on my PowerBook?
Andrew Cripps
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
A. In addition to the commercial software discussed in "Secure Your Mac" (November 1996), there are several low-cost shareware utilities. The $10 shareware application Big Al FileLock 2.03 by Al Staffieri Jr. locks document or application files so they can't be opened without the password. The program provides basic security with a basic interface. You select one file at a time to lock or unlock from a directory dialog box--no drag and drop. Someone who knows how to use a resource- or disk-editing program could crack FileLock's locking scheme and pretty easily extract the text.
For better security, you can lock and encrypt files with the $10 shareware MacEncrypt by J. Clarke Stevens. It supports drag and drop of one or more files, but not folders. Another shareware encryption program, the $25 QuickEncrypt 2.2 from Dejal Userware, lets you drag and drop multiple files or folders and optionally combines them into one encrypted file. It's by far the most versatile shareware encryption and locking utility. The $30 shareware compression utility StuffIt Lite 3.5 from Aladdin Systems (408/761-6200, http://www.aladdinsys.com) can encrypt and lock files and folders, although it doesn't support drag-and-drop encryption as the commercial version, StuffIt Deluxe 4.0, does.
Monitor Interference
Q. The picture on my 17-inch Apple multiple-scan monitor began shaking sideways when I moved to a new apartment. Moving the system to other electrical outlets doesn't help, but turning off all my lights and appliances cures the problem. The landlord is sending an electrician to evaluate the problem. Is my Mac or the display damaged? Is there a problem in the apartment?
Adam Dluzniewski
New York, New York
A. Electrical current induces magnetic fields that can cause monitor jitter and color shifting. Typical residential and commercial wiring doesn't cause a problem because the two wires in a circuit carry current in opposite directions and induce magnetic fields that cancel each other out. Certain wiring problems interfere with that self-canceling effect and cause jitter. If turning off all electrical devices in an area (room, apartment, house, building) stops the jitter, then the wiring problem must be in that area. Have an electrician check junction boxes, circuit breaker panels, and other places where the neutral (white) wires of two circuits are connected together. That wiring technique doesn't create an electrical hazard, but it can generate large magnetic fields because the current for one circuit flows full strength in one direction through the circuit's hot (black or red) wire, but half-strength in the other direction through both circuits' white wires. The electrician should be able to fix that wiring problem fairly quickly and easily. It's harder to fix the magnetic fields inherent in knob-and-tube wiring, which was the most common wiring method until about 50 years ago. With knob-and-tube wiring, a circuit's hot and neutral wires are typically about ten inches apart and can't cancel each other's magnetic fields as effectively as the adjacent wires used in more modern wiring.
If it's not feasible to fix a wiring problem in your area, or a problem outside your area is responsible for your monitor's jitters (turning off all electrical items doesn't eliminate the jitter), then you can buy a shielding enclosure for the monitor. A custom enclosure made of mu-metal, an expensive alloy of nickel, iron, and molybdenum long used by the Department of Defense to shield sensitive electronic components, costs several thousand dollars. Field Services (310/605-0808, http://www.fms-corp.com) makes adjustable enclosures lined with a similar but less costly alloy in three sizes that cost from $600 to $800.
Color shifting and smearing is caused by DC magnetic fields, which ordinary residential and office wiring does not induce. For example, Tiit Telmet says this problem plagues his office and many others in Toronto, Canada. After a year of sleuthing, he determined the cause to be the public transit's DC electrical lines, which run outside his office windows. In this instance, his only remedies are to move his office or buy shielding enclosures.
Sticky Menus
For those who envy the sticky menus of Windows 95, get a programmable mouse with more than one button, such as Logitech's Trackman Marble or Kensington's Thinking Mouse. If you assign a drag-lock function to one of those buttons, then you just have to place the cursor in the menu bar, click your drag-lock button, and your menus stay open with no strain on your fingers. To choose a menu item, highlight it and single-click with the main mouse button. This is especially handy with hierarchical menus, where you have to navigate levels of menus and sometimes backtrack.
Kerry Smith
New York, New York
You can also get drop-down menus by installing Night Light Software's (http://www.nlsoftware.com) $15 shareware control panel AutoMenus 3.2.1.--L.P.
Cookie Blocker
While reading the series of NetSmart articles about Web-browser "cookies" on Macworld Online (http://www.macworld.com/netsmart/), I realized that they didn't mention perhaps the easiest way to eliminate a cookie. On the Macintosh, a folder can't replace a file, and vice versa. You can use this fact to eradicate cookies. Simply copy the name of the cookie file (MagicCookie in Netscape, cookies.txt in Internet Explorer), delete the file, make a new folder in the same place, and rename the folder by pasting the copied name.
David Vasilevsky
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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LON POOLE answers readers' questions and selects reader-submitted tips for this monthly column. His latest book is Macworld System 7.5 Bible, third edition (IDG Books Worldwide, 1994).
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Shareware mentioned in Quick Tips is available from Macworld Online (http://www.macworld.com) or America Online (keyword Macworld).
We pay from $25 to $100 for tips on how to use Macs, peripherals, or software. Send questions or tips to quicktips@macworld.com or Macworld Quick Tips, 501 Second St., San Francisco, CA 94107. All published submissions become the sole property of Macworld. Due to the high volume of mail received, we can't provide personal responses.
February 1997
page: 167
Archive
Copyright © 1997 Macworld Communications, Inc.
