Cool Mac Gear

One of my quests since beginning my OS X Odyssey has been to find an OS X native image editing application that I like as well or at least lamost as well as my venerable and beloved Color It! 4.1, which I have continued to use in Classic Mode. An OS X version of Color It! has been promised, but as yet it's vaporware. Many have suggested Graphic Converter, which I've been familiar with since Systam 7 versions, but GC, while a powerful and impressive program, has never really appealed to me as a substitute for Color It! for the sort of stuff I do with graphics, especially compared with Color It's virtually instant startup (if Classic Mode is already running, which for me it virtually always is), and lightning speed -- to be expected I guess with an application that works reasonably well on a 68020 Mac.

Other OS X native image editing software I've tried has been either too slow, too bloated, or too feature-challenged for my tastes, and I keep coming back to good 'ol Color It!

However, someday I would like to be able to say goodbye to Classic Mode at least for routine use, so I'm still hoping for that OS X port of Color It!, but also keep an eye out for potential Color It! replacements. One I'm checking out this week is a little application called ToyViewer.

I wasn't expecting a lot from ToyViewer, which is freeware and the name doesn't exactly elicit confidence, but ToyViewer has suprised me. This program ain't no toy. It's actually an amazingly capable image editor.

ToyViewer was developed originally on NeXTstep and then OPENSTEP. Currently it is for Mac OS X (Cocoa). ToyViewer has the simple editing functions that I use most often, and also offers filter services to other applications. If ToyViewer is installed in your Mac, you can see image files in PCX, PPM, Sun Raster, etc. on other Cocoa applications. It also supports the more popular image formats.

This version of ToyViewer also has a new "Wallpaper" feature with which you can make optimize an image for use as a Desktop picture (wallpaper) for your Mac. You can also hide windows of other applications to look at the wallpaper.

One shortcoming of ToyViewer from my perspective is that there is no way, at least that I've discovered, to create a blank new document. When you open a new document window it is filled by default with the contents of the Clipboard, and you can't select the image and delete it, although it can be otherwise edited and manipulated using ToyViewer's image editing tools.

However, this is a noce little graphics viewer and editor, with a very professionally slick user interface. Worth checking out, and the price is right!

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher

ToyViewer is freeware

For more information, visit:
http://waltz.cs.kobe-u.ac.jp/OSX/toyv-eng.html

Saving Browser text

From Jonathan Tyzack

Hi Charles,

Just to point out - if you want to save text in Safari (or OmniWeb), you can use Services to send highlighted text to TextEdit (Application menu>Services>TextEdit>Open Selection). If you want it as plain text, you can easily convert it from rich text in TextEdit by pressing command-shift-T to toggle the format. To my mind, that is a little less laborious than the approach Stephen Cades is using at present!

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan;

Yup. I use Services to save text from Safari to DEVONthink, which can also convert it to plain text (also opens Word documents, which is a convenience for someone like me who boycotts Word).

However, I still like being able to save clean text directly to a new document, which iCab does extremely well.

Charles

OS X install update and SpellTools replacement for OS X ?

From Alex Mathew

Hi Charles:

After a few days of using OS X - I am hooked!

I had to install a few utilities and tweak it a bit to get some of the features. I am sure you have discussed these utilities in your Odyssey's but my two most important utilities are: QuickAccessCM
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9106 and
Default Folder X
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7214

Backing up OS X is well accomplished by CarbonCopyCloner and Synk X (Synk has a better folder synchronizing capability).

Creating an Energency Boot Disk for OS X is a no-brainer with BootCD.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7957

Tweaking OS X for a G3 processor is well discussed in this article: and the two most significant changes were: Window buffer compression and reducing or eliminating font smoothing.

Optimizing Classic can be done by following http://www.osxguide.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=60 -- its easy and is a must to keep Classic from being bloated. As you suggested, its not a problem to keep Classic running at login - since OS X does a good job of handling processes.

However, one utility that was indispensable for me under OS 9 was SpellTools - especially the feature of pasting text in ANY application. I used it to paste different signatures when composing e-mails for various businesses that I have. Do you know of any such utility for OS X?

Thank you
Alex M

Hi Alex;

Delighted to hear that things are going well for you in OS X. Thanks for the reference links.

As for spellcheckers, I am a SpellTools fan too, The closest equivalent in an OS X native app. would be Spell Catcher X, which is $39.95 demoware. For more information, visit:
http://www.rainmakerinc.com/products/spellcatcherx/

Personally, I just use the built-in OS X spellchecker in the Edit Menu. It works in all Cocoa programs and even some Carbon apps. (Tex Edit Plus being a notable example of the latter for me).

Charles

Re: OS X install update and SpellTools replacement for OS X ?

From Alex Mathew

Hi Charles:

SpellTools works in Classic Mode for me. I use it with Lotus Notes and a couple of other programs. The SpellTools app resides in the Dock as another Classic application but it cannot recognize any OS X application for its plug-in.

More than the Spell Checker, I miss the Stamp feature.

I'll take a look at Spell Catcher...but the price is steep..!

Thank you
AM

Found Typist: Partial SpellTools replacement for OS X ?

From Alex Mathew

Hi Charles:

I have discovered Typist that seems to do the Text Stamping...

Quote:
Typist is a handy utility that types text for you. Simply configure Typist with text you type frequently (like a return address, directions, instructions, or letter head). When you're ready to have the text typed for you, just select it from Typist's system-wide menu, or from Typist's popup window. End Quote.

Thanks for being my guide through this OS X transition process. I owe you one.

AM

Hi Alex

Sounds like Typist does some of the same things that TypeIt4Me does. If you haven't tried TypeIt4Me, you're missing out on one of the greatest Mac utilities in either Classic or OS X.

Charles

Re: SpellTools replacement for OS X ?

From Alex Mathew

Hi Charles:

I tried TypeIt4me and its indeed quite amazing - the way it is seamless in different applications.

Just for the record though, Typist is not that great - it is slow and has a few interface bugs. The text macro is all that it does and not at all as well as TypeIt4me.

I did find iKey
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6746 which does the text macro thing but also does other system actions through a menu, floating paletter or hotkey. I seem to like it the most out of all the utilities for the text macro.

Quote:
(Formerly Youpi Key) iKey is an automation utility which can save you hundreds of keystrokes a day and save loads of your precious time. iKey lets you create shortcuts which can run an action based on:

• a keyboard equivalent
• and/or an item of a menu
• and/or a programmed time/date.

End quote:

Thanks
AM

Hi Alex;

Glad you like TypeIt4Me. I'm addicted to it. One of the many cool things about it is that it works the same in both OS X and Classic. I use copies of the same TypeIt4Me data file with both of my OS X 'Books as well as my PowerBook 1400 running OS 8.6 and my UMAX S-900 running OS 9.1.

I must check out iKey one of these days.

Charles

Partitioning (again...)

From Aaron Gleason

Glad to hear your system is working great. It's not unusual for me to hear about OS X systems running for days... weeks... months... even YEARS without being rebooted. (The latter being in desperate need of running Software Update. Go to SpyMac.com and search the gallery for "uptime".)

As far as partitioning (on the systems that I bother putting Classic on anymore), I highly recommend at least a tiny OS 9 partition that is separate from OS X. Why? A couple of reasons:

1. If you need to restart into OS 9 and have to do the disk check because of a crash, it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to complete on a partition that includes the 90,000+ files that OS X is comprised. (168,295 on my iBook.)

2. On OpenFirmware-equipped Macs (meaning every Mac that Apple has blessed for installation of OS X), you can switch partitions at boot time by pressing and holding the Option key. This is a huge benefit if you've done something to your default booting operating system to cause it not to boot correctly, or if you're just lazy and don't want to boot OS X, reset the Startup Disk, then boot into OS 9 (or vice-versa).

3. Clean installs of OS X seem to be the way to achieve stability on major system upgrades (e.g., from 10.1.5 to 10.2). With Panther coming, I intend to back up my Home and Applications folders to another partition, erase the OS X partition, perform a clean install (yes, I know you can perform a "clean" install from the installer, but how "clean" is it?), and copy my Home and Applications folders back over.

I learned this when upgrading from 10.1.5 to 10.2. I was having some serious stability issues with my Blue and White G3 after the upgrade. Erasing the partition and performing a clean install of 10.2 resolved the issues. Why? I don't know.

By the way, the issue of having to keep a small 8GB or less partition at the beginning of the drive on some of the older systems also pertains to non-supported Mac OS X systems. I have a PowerMac 7500 with G3 upgrade (300MHz overclocked to 450MHz), 256MB RAM, 9GB IBM drive (partitioned into 8GB OS X and 1GB OS 9 partitions), ATI Rage 128, 100-Base-T network card, and USB card, that runs Jaguar like a champ! It has yet to Kernel Panic even once.

Thanks for the great articles!
-Aaron-

Hi Aaron;

Thanks for the comments. They reinforce my argument that partitioning is the way to go for dual booters. Indeed, when the day comes that I own a Mac that won't boot into OS 9, I will still partition and install a second OS X system on another partition. I'm just too addicted to having at least two bootable systems on my hard drive. Even the 20 MB drive of my Mac Plus is partitoned and has both System 7.0 and System 6.0.8 installed respectively.

As for clean installs, I would neve argue against them, but my Pismo is still running very stably on a system that has been upgraded in increments from OS 10.0 to 10.2.6.

Charles

Tex Edit Crash

From Tom Bender

Hello again:

Thank you for the kind words concerning Tex-Edit Plus in a recent column of yours (OS X Odyssey 395). Great article, by the way.

Of course, I am interested in the crash that limited Tex-Edit to only 15 days of service. Would you mind sending me a copy of the crash log? ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Tex-Edit Plus.crash.log

(Also accessible through the Apple System Profiler.)

I realize this is an inconvenience, but I greatly appreciate your help. This may help prevent future tragedy for some poor soul juggling 50 documents.

Thank you again!
Tom
http://www.tex-edit.com/

HI Tom;

No trouble at all. Happy to oblige.

I wasn't annoyed by the crash, as I had been pushing the program pretty hard.

Charles

Error in your review of Eudora 6.0b31

From Jeffrey K. Bounds

Charles,

Just came across your mini-review of Eudora 6.0b31. Though I thought you did a good job of summing up the changes, I was surprised that you claimed, regarding SMTP relay personality, "I tried it and it works, but the ISP host email account goes out as the return address, which limits its usefulness." I don't know how you set your personalities up, but I've had this feature working for some time now, and each personality uses its own return address with no problems when relaying to another account's SMTP server. Of course, my ISP doesn't do return address checking on mail send (unlike, for instance, mac.com). Perhaps your problem is with your SMTP provider rather than with Eudora.

Bottom line, if your ISP allows you to use various return addresses, the new Relay Personality feature will allow you to have each personality use its own return address.

Regarding other aspects of the new Eudora, I still have problems with it locking up for long periods of time if my airport connection to the Internet drops (very frustrating!); I think most of the new icons are pretty hideous; and I *really* wish you could set the printing appearance independently of the on-screen appearance (I use light fonts on a dark background on screen, but with this arrangement printing to a LaserWriter is hopeless!). Overall, though, I'm still quite fond of Eudora, though I wish Qualcomm seemed to be more interested in feedback from their customers (I haven't been able to locate any email contact address for feature suggestions from their loyal customers).

Regards,
Jeff

Hi Jeff;

After receiving your message I went back and played with the configuration again. I did succeed in getting it to send messages with the respective return addresses of several of my email accounts, but although they appeared to send OK and I didn't get bounce notifications, the test messages only showed up in my ISP account mailbox, among several accounts I sent them to.

Not sure what's happening, but perhaps they were getting caught in spam filters that noted the mismatched sending server and return addresses. Anyhoo, at least for me and my setup this feature appears to be too undependable to use. I'm glad to hear that it works satisfactorily for you.

On the other matters, I don't have Airport, so can't comment on your lockup issue except to say that it indeed sounds frustrating. I'm not crazy about the new icons either, but with the final version you will be able to switch back to the old ones. These new ones are a bit too Windows-esque for my taste.

However, like you , I remain fond of Eudora, and although I've tried many email clients, it's the one I keep coming back to.

Charles

Re: OS X problem

From Jim Dickey

"I've learned that kernel panics, at least in the 0S 10.2 era, are almost always related to a hardware issue of some sort,"

Charles,

Thank you again so much for this information regarding the kernel panics on this iBook. I have gone so far now as to erase the hard disk and reinstall from scratch; lo and behold, kernel panics still occur! It has 256 MB RAM, so I removed the extra 128 today, it seemed to work fine, but then, not a kernel panic, but all of a sudden it just turned off as if all power had been cut off. When I removed the RAM, I was careful to reseat the battery, etc. I have been inside Macs since my Mac Plus in 1986, so know my way around fairly well, and also know not to go too far.

Thankfully, I bought AppleCare with this iBook last summer when I bought it for my daughter, and now it looks like I will have to take it to a local Apple dealer here in Japan. I'll let you know the outcome. This has cost me about 8 hours of work so far...

Thanks, Charles, and blessings to you.
Jim Dickey

Hi Jim;

I'm glad to hear that you have AppleCare, because this is beginning to sound like it might be a motherboard issue, or some other internal hardware glitch.

Let me know what the techs come up with.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore