Beyond the Blue Finder!



Author: Steve Bonaduce, M.U.D. slinger

Date: December, 1992

Keywords: HAND-Off II software utility program review

Text:
Whenever I see new software demonstrated, I usually have one of two
reactions -- either a kid-like, ''Gee-whiz-that's
-way-cool-I-gotta-have-it!'' response, or a jaded opinion that some
programmers just have way too much time on their hands.
I guess it's the difference between something like Gryphon Software's
MORPH program, with which you can create effects similar to those in
Michael Jackson's ''Black or White'' video, and any personal time
manager software you care to name (if you spent the time being
organized that you spent getting organized with those applications, you
wouldn't need them in the first place!). 
HAND-Off II falls into neither of these categories, though. I wasn't
that excited about it when I received it at July's meeting, probably
because its purpose sounded so esoteric: ''a complete Finder
enhancement solution to simplify launching applications and opening
documents.'' My reaction was, ''So what? I launch applications and open
documents just fine, thank you. What do I need this for?''
Well, I don't need it -- and probably you don't, either. But I sure do
like it, now that I've got it.
HAND-Off II offers three major benefits: a customizable, pop-up Launch
Menu; ''on-the-fly'' application substitution; and, under System 7, a
Supermenu enhancement to the Apple menu. I'll detail each of these in
turn.
The PopUp Launch Menu is the only obvious change HAND-Off II makes to
your desktop after you launch its idiot-proof Installer. By default, a
small icon representing (what else?) a pop-up menu appears in both the
upper-right and upper-left corners of your screen. These icons give you
access to the Launch Menu itself, as well as its dialog box (see screen
shot above). It seems to me that the Launch Menu allows you to create
what is, in essence, your own Apple Items menu -- without actually
creating aliases and putting them in the Apple folder. And unlike the
Apple menu line-up, HAND-Off II allows you to set your own preferences
and hot keys to control various features and functions of your Launch
Menu.
In setting up the Launch Menu, you can add applications, folders,
documents, and (of course) aliases to a pull-down menu that you can
further customize by grouping these items according to your own
preferences. You can assign color depths and sound levels to items in
your Launch Menu, so that when you switch on that item, your Mac's
set-up switches too -- automatically.
In the screen shot , for example, I have added all the applications I
am most likely to use in the course of a typical day, and specified
32-bit color for my screen when-ever I'm in Adobe Photoshop. And since
I have a folder titled ''Current Projects'' that contains all my
ongoing work, I added that to the launch menu as well. Other settings
enable you to specify which files and applications -- if any -- you
want opened or launched upon start-up.
We're probably all familiar with the warning that a file couldn't be
opened because its application is missing (it's almost guaranteed to
appear during M.U.G. demos). Rather than display the familiar
hand/stop-sign dialog box, HAND-Off II lets you specify a substitute
application you'd like to use to open the recalcitrant file.
You can make it ''remember'' what it did too, so that in the future,
when you double-click on the documents created by the same ''missing
application,'' HAND-Off II launches your preferred substitute
immediately. And get this: if you later add the missing application to
your system, HAND-Off II automatically bypasses its substitution
routine in favor of launching the correct creator application!
Supermenu, HAND-Off II's Apple menu enhancement, speeds access to
control panels, files, applications, aliases, and folders in your Apple
menu by creating hierarchical sub-menus across your screen. You launch
an application in your Apple menu by moving the cursor across the
hier-archical menus and clicking once! I must admit I really like this
feature, as well as the Auto Drop setting that activates menus as your
mouse passes over them -- you don't have to click and hold to keep them
on the screen anymore.
HAND-Off II comes with an easy-to-read, intelligently organized User
Manual. It supports Balloon Help, but System 6.x users aren't left out
in the cold, since it also features dynamic ''help'' dialogs that
ap-pear as you move the mouse over various items.
This article by no means exhausts the list of features and benefits you
get from HAND-Off II, but I think it gives you an idea of what you can
expect. But now the real question: is this application worth buying,
and if so, who should buy it?
First of all, if you use your Mac for just one function (such as word
processing or games) or if you don't do much file sharing, then I think
HAND-Off II would be gilding the lily. You probably know where all your
files are and it's no trouble to launch them by double-clicking.
I use my Mac for heavy-duty graphics, desktop publishing, and creating
multimedia presentations. This necessarily involves a lot of file
sharing and I may have files I need spread all over my hard drives. It
is very handy to have a menu to access everything I need, no mater
where it may actually reside.
But as useful and helpful as HAND-Off II is (and I'm sure I will come
to rely on it more and more as time goes by), I could never recommend
it for the suggested retail price of $99. For that kind of money I'd
expect it to bring me my morning coffee (and maybe the paper and a
doughnut, too). But MacWarehouse lists it for $55; now you're talking
(although I'd be more comfortable with a $35-$45 price range). If you
have the need for what this application does, I doubt that you'll find
another application as well thought-out and easy to use as HAND-Off II.

Copyright © december, 1992 by Steve Bonaduce, M.U.D. slinger