I have occasionally been getting confused by the interface
model on MacOSX. MacOSX applications do not cover the
whole screen when you maximise them. A window can occupy most
of the screen, but this can cause unexpected side effects when
side drawers need to be opened. I am simply not used to the
"document centric" interface, I have been using Microsoft's
"application centric" interface for years so sometimes it's a
bit disorienting using the Powerbook.
I spent several hours looking for setting and other methods
to get around this. I arived at
Proteron's
website and found
LiteSwitchX. This utility looks just like
Apple's new
Application switcher.
LiteSwitchX gives The Switcher a good
middle round between the MacOSX way and the Windows way.
You can click on an application or document, and all other
applications will hide themselves leaving only the application
or ducoment selected on the screen. LiteSwitchX has a
preferneces panel that allows changin of a few settings, but
the most usefull option, to me, is that you can use
Apple+TAB and select an application and exclude it from
the hiding process. In my case I have the Finder and Grab
excluded.
LiteSwitchX's Apple+TAB functionality
showing menu (large).
In explanation of today's title: it seems that
Proteron has had this utility available since May 2002 and
Apple included an almost exact visual copy of this in Panther.
Proteron wrote an "Open
Memo to Apple Computer" about this.
Proteron's LiteSwitchX is a much more capable application
switcher, I encourage all switchers to buy it to make their
lives a little easier on the Mac. I installed the 30 day demo,
but will most likely purchase it in the next few days, it's
very handy. LiteSwitchX costs $14.95 US and is available
from Proteron's
online shop.
Update: I un-installed LiteSwitchX before the trial expired. I did not use
the extra features after the first few days.
A function that seems to be inexplicably missing from
MacOSX is sound recording. I cannot find a way to record
sound from the built-in microphone! I've looked at every
pre-installed application that offered some form of audio
functionality and couldn't find anything. Maybe I didn't look
hard enough, but everything else has been fairly obvious, if
there was an included recording application it too would be
obvious.
I used Google to find "Audio
In", available for free. Audio In
seems to crash when exiting the application one in every two
times, but aside from that it is exactly what should have been
included by Apple with MacOSX! Quite an oversight, why
would anyone supply a hardware feature and not allow the owner
to use this hardware feature?
Audio In showing it's drawers (large).
WindowsXP has a sound recording utility, it can be
executed by selecting "Start/All
Programs/Accessories/Entertiainment/Sound Recorder", it offers
a similar interface to Audio In, but doesn't
crash.
