Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 19:55:32 -0800 From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig) Subject: The Macintosh Secret Trick List Here is my New and Improved Macintosh Secret Tricks List. Enjoy, and I'll see you at MacWorld in San Francisco! ---------------- .__________. .__________________________________________________. | Contents | | | |================| | The Macintosh Secret Trick List | . | Hardware | | compiled by Brian Kendig (bskendig@netcom.com) | . | System | | ____ | . | Other software | | All-new for 1993! January edition. | OK | | . | Useful tips . | | `----' | . `-------------|\-' `--------------------------------------------------' . |_\ ................................................. (c)1993 bsk \ Welcome to the Macintosh Secret Trick List! A "trick", also known as a "cookie" or an "easter egg", is something amusing or otherwise nonproductive (like a poem, a picture, or a song) hidden in a program. It won't appear unless you do some action you wouldn't normally do, so you can't find it unless you know what you're looking for. Some really clever About boxes are mentioned in this list too, and I've also included a few interesting, useful, and little-known tips further down that are really handy to know. Please report corrections to me, no matter how insignificant! New info about tricks will be attributed and very much appreciated. You may (of course!) distribute information about these tricks freely, but please keep my name on this list if you pass it around whole. It's okay to distribute this list in electronic format (on disks or CD-ROMs, over Usenet or BBS's, &c.), but if you'd like to use this material in a book or newsletter, please contact me first for permission, and you'll get it. :-) It would also be nice to let me know if you're including this list in a users' group collection, or on a CD-ROM, or so forth. So far, this list has been printed in the BMUG newsletter, translated into Japanese and printed in the Japanese users' group "MuON" newsletter, used in the upcoming book "Maximizing your Mac", and distributed on Nautilus and Pacific Hitech CD-ROMs. Thanks to the people who have written similar lists, from which I've gotten plenty of ideas: J. D. Sterling Babcock and Mike Kimura, among others. For corrections to stuff I had wrong here, thanks go to Paul Franklin and Seth Pettie. The list has grown to such a size that I can't personally verify every trick here, so if you just can't get something to work, please tell me! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The information below tells what to do to make a trick happen, then gives away what the trick really is. If you don't want the trick spoiled (that is, you don't want to know what it does until you try it yourself), you can display only the instructions for making it happen (the lines that begin with an equals sign) with the Unix command grep '^=' tricks where "tricks" is the name of this file. (Or, have your favorite Mac text editor remove all lines that don't begin with an equals sign.) If you want to skip forward to the "Useful Tips" section, have your software search for three asterisks ('***') now. = -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = = Hardware = = Macintosh Plus = From the debugger, enter "G 40E118" (that's a zero, not an oh). = (To get into the debugger, press the button on the left side of your = machine closer to the back. If you're running System 7, just Shut = Down your machine, then while the "you may turn off your Macintosh = safely" dialog is displayed, press the button.) = This gives you a tiny "Stolen from Apple Computer" message in the upper left-hand corner of your screen. ---------------- = Macintosh SE = From the debugger, enter "G 41D89A". = (See the trick above for info on how to get into the debugger.) Four bitmap pictures of the Macintosh development team appear as a slideshow. Reboot (hit the button on the left side of the machine closer to the front, with the triangle on it) to get out of the endless cycle. = Also, try entering "G 4188A4" into the debugger. = This gives you a tiny "Stolen from Apple Computer" message in the upper left-hand corner of your screen. (Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock) ---------------- = Macintosh Classic = Hold down Command-Option-x-o right after you turn on or reboot the = machine. = The Classic starts up from a minimal ROM-disk which contains System 6.0.3, Finder 6.1x, and AppleShare. (This version of the System is not recommended for use with the Classic, so you probably shouldn't boot off it to do any important work.) If you look at the ROM-disk with a program able to see invisible files (like ResEdit or MacTools), you'll find a folder named "Brought to you by" hidden there, containing more hidden folders bearing the names of the Classic designers. (The keys `X' and `O' were chosen because the development name of the Classic was the "Mac XO", or was it OX?) Also, there's an invisible application in the System Folder named "Launch" and set as the startup application; anybody know what it does? (Thanks to Charles Gousha for more info.) ---------------- = Macintosh SE/30 (with MacsBug loaded) = Press the interrupt switch to dump yourself into the system debugger. = Use the command "dm 4082E853 20" to display a few bytes of memory from = location 4082E853 onwards. = The bytes there spell out, in ascii, "WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?" (Contributed by Esa Ristila) ---------------- = Macintosh IIci = Set the system date to 9/20/89 (the release date of the IIci), and set = your monitor to 8-bit color. Restart while holding Command-Option-c-i. = You'll see a color picture of the IIci design team. Click the mouse to continue. (Other color settings might also work...) ---------------- = Macintosh IIfx = Set the system date to 3/19/90 (the release date of the IIfx), and = restart while holding down Command-Option-f-x. = You'll see a color picture of the IIfx design team. Click the mouse to continue. ---------------- = Macintosh ROMs (any of them) = With a debugger, look at the last few locations on the ROM of your machine. = Developers put their initials there, as well as the date that the ROM was linked. For example, the 128k ROM (Mac Plus) contains, at $41FFC0- $41FFFF: ALR ELR BA BMB EHB JTC SC DLD PWD KWK LAK SEL BWed, Nov 6, 1985 which are the initials of ?, Erich Ringewald, Bill Atkinson, Bill Bruffey, Ernie Beernik (sp?), Jerome Coonan, Steve Capps, Donn Denmann, Pat Dirks, ?, Larry Kenyon, and ?. (Contributed by Scott Lindhurst and Ed Tecot) ---------------- = Apple Fax Modem = While holding down the button on the front panel, turn on the modem. = The modem will beep three times. After the three beeps, press the = button again three times, timed exactly in "rhythm" with the beeps. = If your timing is correct, the modem will speak the digitally-recorded voices of the three developers saying their names ("Peter, Alan, Neal"). (Contributed by Neal Johnson and Alex Rosenberg) = -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = = System = ("7.0" means 7.0.0 or 7.0.1 and probably 7.1 also) = = Multifinder 1.0 (distributed with System Software prior to 6.0) = Hold down Command and Option while selecting "About Multifinder" = from the bottom of the Apple menu. = A scrolling list of credits appears. (Contributed by Seth Theriault) ---------------- = Multifinder 6.0 = Select "About Multifinder" and leave the dialog up for about an = hour or more. (Yes, this means you can't use your machine meanwhile.) = A message will appear: "I want my" "I want my" "I want my l--k and f--l" You can also see this message if you snoop around in the 'STR#' resources of Multifinder for a while with ResEdit. (Contributed by Tony Cooper and James Boswell) ---------------- = System 6.0.7, 6.0.8, or 7.0 = Take a look through the data fork of the System File (with MacSnoop = or MacTools, or open it with MS Word). (It's short.) = The string "Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!" is in the data fork, with a list of the names of the Blue Meanies (the System 7 developers). (Contributed by Kevin Bolduan and Seth Theriault) ---------------- = System 6.0.7J (Kanjitalk) = Set the clock to January 1, 1992, and restart. = The startup screen says "Happy new year" in Japanese. (Contributed by Junio Hamano) ---------------- = System 7.0 = With ResEdit, take a look at STR# resource -16415 in the System file. The first string in the resource reads "May you code in interesting times." (Posted to Usenet by Nigel Stanger) = Also, while running System 7, try renaming a disk to "Like Wow Man. = HFS For 7.0!" (where the space after 'Man.' is actually an option-space; = you'll have to type this somewhere else like the Notepad then cut/paste = it into the disk name). Then eject the disk with Command-E, and double- = click on the greyed-out disk icon. = The Mac will ask you to please re-insert "HFS for 7.0 by dns and ksct". (The intials are of David N. Feldman and Kenny S. C. Tung, who wrote the HFS extensions for System 7.) Other disk names work, due to the way the name is checked; try "KMEG JJ KS" or "Hello world JS N A DTP". (Found by Francois Grieu and mentioned in TidBITS #143) ---------------- = Finder 7.0 = Hold down Option while choosing "About This Macintosh". = (The menu option changes to "About the Finder", and if balloon help is turned on, the balloon now reads "Displays a dialog with the original Finder picture.") The original picture of the mountains from "About the Finder" in System 1.0 appears. If the creation date of the invisible "Desktop Folder" is May 13, 1991 (System 7's release date) or later, the names of all the Finder developers through Mac and Lisa history also scroll by. Hold down Command-Option while choosing "About" to get a goofy-face cursor. ---------------- = Caches 7.0.1 (on a Quadra) = Turn on balloon help and point to the version number. = Also, try option-clicking on the version number. = The balloon reads "Wink, wink". Option-clicking makes the "040" icon whoosh to the side, revealing the name of the programmer. (Contribued by Kemi Jona) ---------------- = Caps Lock 7.0.1 (on a PowerBook 100, 140, 145, or 170) = Turn on balloon help and point to the Caps Lock file icon. = The balloon help reads: "This file allows your Macintosh TIM or Derringer to display an icon..." (These were the working names of the first PowerBooks; Apple forgot to change the extension before System 7.0.1 was released! Whoops.) (Contributed by Seth Theriault and Fabian Hahn) ---------------- = Color Control Panel 7.0 = Click on the Sample Text a few times. = The strings "by Dean Yu" "& Vincent Lo" alternate. ---------------- = Labels Control Panel 7.0 = Delete all the label names in the Labels control panel, and reboot. = The labels are now "None," "a", "l", "a", "n", "j", "e", "f". ---------------- = Map Control Panel = Type MID as the city name, and click Find. Also try: clicking on the = version number, option-clicking on Find, opening the control panel = while you hold down shift and/or option, clicking somewhere in the Map = and dragging off the edge of it, or copying the map from the Scrapbook = and pasting it while the Map control panel is open. = The stored point MID is actually "Middle of Nowhere", an insignificant location in the middle of the South Atlantic. (This one was added in version 7.0.) Clicking on the "7.0" puts "v7.0, by Mark Davis" into the city name field until you release the mouse button. Option-clicking on Find repeatedly will take you alphabetically to every city the Map knows. Opening the control panel while you hold down the shift key will display a magnified map (the resolution is the same, so it's very jagged). Opening it with option held down magnifies it more, and shift-option magnifies it even more to the point of being really blocky. Dragging off the edge of the map will scroll around the world. You can paste a new picture into the control panel; the Scrapbook that comes with System 7 includes a particularly good color map. (Contributed by Takeshi Miyazaki and Doc O'Leary) ---------------- = Memory Control Panel 7.0 (on a machine capable of virtual memory) = Turn on virtual memory and hold down Option while clicking on the = pop-up menu used to choose a hard drive for your swapfile. = This brings up a hierarchical pop-up menu with the names of the programmers; each name points to a submenu with a few comments. (Contributed by Povl Hessellund Pedersen) ---------------- = Monitors Control Panel 7.0 = Click the version number (7.0) in the control panel window. While you = hold down the mouse button, tap Option several times. = When you click, a box pops up with the names of the people who wrote Monitors. Pressing Option makes the smiley face stick out its tongue. After tapping Option several times, the names begin to get rearranged and some first and last names get replaced with "Blue" or "Meanies". ---------------- = Finder 7.0 and MacsBug = Turn on Balloon Help and point to the MacsBug file. = The balloon reads: "This file provides programmers with information proving that it really was a hardware problem..." ---------------- = QuickTime = Turn on Balloon Help and point to the QuickTime file. The balloon reads: "time n. A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past to the present to the future." (Contributed by Kristopher Nasadowski) = -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- = = Other Software = = Adobe Photoshop = Hold down the Option key and select "About Photoshop". = A dialog crediting "Knoll Software" as the original designers appears. (Contributed by Karl-Koenig Koenigsson) ---------------- = Blackjack (the shareware version by Ed Trice) = Even though the docs say this won't run on anything older than an SE< = try running it on a Mac Plus. = The dialog reads "This program requires at least a Macintosh SE. Please call Smithsonian to donate your antique." (Contributed by Mark Nagata) ---------------- = Claris CAD = Hold down the Option key and select "About Claris CAD". = A system configuration summary appears. (Contributed by Karl-Koenig Koenigsson) ---------------- = ColorSnap (comes with the Computer Friends ColorSnap 32+ card) = Select "About ColorSnap", and click on each of the two programmers' faces. = Clicking on the right face puts him in Freddie Krueger garb and adds the caption "Hacking the Freddie Krueger way". Clicking on the left face replaces it with a can of Mountain Dew with the caption "Mountain Dew, the programmer's beverage of choice". (Contributed by King Rhoton) ---------------- = CompuServe Information Manager 2.0.2 = Option-click on the spinning earth in the About box, and hold the = mouse button down. = The earth spins in the other direction. Eventually, other windows will appear, giving credit to the authors. (Contributed by Rene Ros) ---------------- = Dark Castle = Try playing the game on December 25 (or set your system's clock to = that date, and play the game). = A Christmas tree appears in the foyer. (Contributed by Philip Craig) ---------------- = DART (Apple's Disk Archiving and Retrieval) = Select "About DART", and click on the picture of the dartboard. = A credits animation will play; clicking on the text area while the credits are displaying will make them go by faster. (Contributed by Oliver Breidenbach) ---------------- = Disinfectant = Select "About Disinfectant", and hold a menu down to pause the = advancing virus names while the music plays (to prevent the foot = from arriving too soon and stopping the music). = John Norstad appears in one half of the dialog, while in the other half an animated sequence of virus names march out as the Monty Python theme song plays, until they get stomped by a huge foot. Holding down a menu pauses the viruses but not the music, and if you hold the menu down long enough, the entire theme song (John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March") will play! (You may have to release the mouse button every now and then if the music does stop.) (Contributed by Dave Claytor and Mitchell Marmel) ---------------- = FaxMaker (the fax utility that comes with the PowerBook 170) = Click on the icon in the about box. = The arrow pointer changes into a mouse, and a scrolling list of the developers appears. (Contributed by Fabian Hahn) ---------------- = Finale 2.x = Select "About Finale" and wait for a few seconds. = The conductor walks away. (Contributed by Arthur Rishi) ---------------- = FlashWrite II = Hold down Option as you select "About FlashWrite II" under the "star" logo. = A Mr. Mojo Risin' quotation appears. (Contributed by Dave Claytor) ---------------- = FrameMaker = Put the word "Interleaf" into a document, and spell-check it. = FrameMaker will substitute "FrameMaker" wherever it finds "Interleaf". (Interleaf is FrameMaker's competition.) (Contributed by Erik Ableson) ---------------- = HyperCard 2.x = Hold down Option as you select "About Hypercard...". = In 2.1, you get a dialog describing your system setup. In either 2.0 or 2.1, the chooser name, if you've entered one, appears in the "HyperCard by" title. (That is, if you entered "Joe Cool" as your name in the Chooser (6.0) or Sharing Setup (7.0), the top of the window will read "HyperCard by Joe Cool". If you have no Chooser name, one of the names of the many developers is put there.) Also, on any recent Mac (ones that require System 7.0.1 or 7.1), you will be told your system is a "Macintosh Macintosh". (Thanks to Seth Theriault for more info.) ---------------- = Installer = On version 3.0.1 (the one that comes with System 6.0.7 and 6.0.8), = after dismissing the initial welcome dialog, type "ski". A humorous list of the developers will appear, and you will be able to choose from five wait-cursors: the hand with the moving fingers (standard), a spinning globe, the familiar spinning disc, the even more familiar wristwatch, and dots that move. (Contributed by John DeRosa and John Hawkinson) = Here's another: On version 3.2 (the one that comes with System 7), = hold down command and option while the Easy Install screen is up. = The Help button becomes "About", and clicking on it brings up a few screens of credits. (Contributed by Matthew Russotto) ---------------- = Jam Session = Choose "About Jam Session". = The credits are displayed on the label of a record, and you can hear it click (as an old record does after it's played to the end). When you click the mouse to dismiss the dialog, you hear the scratching noise of the needle being lifted off the record. (Contributed by Joe Campbell) ---------------- = KiwiEnvelopes! 3.1 = Choose "About KiwiEnvelopes!". = A letter is deposited into a mail truck which then rolls off the screen. After it leaves, a marquee shows the names of the development team. (Contributed by Dave Claytor) ---------------- = MacDraw Pro = Hold down Option while selecting "About MacDraw Pro". = The dialog shows your system setup. (Contributed by Dave Claytor) ---------------- = MacPaint 2.0 (only the first few copies, before Claris caught it) = Hold down Tab and Space while choosing "About MacPaint". = A bitmap of a well-known painting of a nude zebra-striped woman atop a white zebra appears. ---------------- = Maelstrom = From the main screen (after it loads), press 'L'. This brings up a level select. "Turbofunk mode" makes the game play as quickly as the hardware you're using can support. = Also try pressing 'X'. = This brings up a rather interesting poem that I think is from a song. ---------------- = Metamorphosis Professional 2.0 = Hold down Command and Option while selecting "About Metamorphosis Pro". = A screen proclaiming "Bug Tussle Professional, The Totally Awesome Font Conversion Utility" is displayed, along with a list of developers. (Contributed by David Loebell and Karl-Koenig Koenigsson) (Extra thanks to David for sending me a picture of it, too! :) ---------------- = Microsoft Excel 3.0 = Open a new spreadsheet, then go to cell IV16384. (Press Cmd-Right = then Cmd-Down to jump there.) Use the scroll bars to scroll down and = right more until only that cell is showing, then set that cell's width = and height both to 0. All that will remain in your window will be the = little square in the upper-left-hand corner that you normally click on = to select the entire spreadsheet; click on it. The contents of the window will be replaced by a little Lotus-stomping then a list of Excel's programmers and beta-testers. When your normal Excel window comes back, scroll away to keep the show from repeating. (Contributed by Evan Torrie) = Here's another: set the style of any cell to "excel" (by selecting = "Format Styles..." and typing "excel" without the quotes). Then choose = "About Excel..." from the Apple menu and click on the big Excel icon. A brief animation ("So good, it hurts.") alternates with the names of the developers ("Recalc or Die!"). (Contributed by Rob Griffiths) = One more little one: On a color Mac running System 6, launch Excel = while you hold down Shift-3-D. = Excel's "tool bar" will have the System 7 "three-d" look to it, instead of looking boring and flat like it usually does under System 6. (Contributed by Randy Lambertus) ---------------- = Microsoft Word 3.01 and 4.x with the US dictionary (and maybe UK?) = Spellcheck the word "childcare". The spell-checker will suggest one word: "kidnaper" [sic]. (Contributed by Adam Shostack) = Also, try spellchecking "supression" [sic]. (Does this work on Word 3 too?) = The spell-checker will include "Cupertino" among its choices. (Could this be secret Apple-bashing? ;) (Contributed by Hiroki Morizono) ---------------- = Microsoft Word 4.0 = Select "About Microsoft Word" and command-click on the Word icon. = The resulting dialog gives the names of beta-testers. ---------------- = Microsoft Word 5.0 = Hold down Command and Shift as you select "Preferences" from the = Tools menu. = At the bottom of the preferences list will be a new item, Credits; select it to see listed the names of the Word 5 developers. (Contributed by Jonathan Leblang) ---------------- = Norton Utilities = Command-click the little rhomboid just in front of the version number = in the About box. A list of the developers appears. (In 2.0, you get a great caricature.) (Contributed by Karl-Koenig Koenigsson and Larry Cunningham) = Also click on the man standing in front of the file tree. He holds up a flag in which scroll the names of everyone who worked on NU. = In the Wipe program, version 2.0, command-click on the rhomboid beside = the version number in the About box. The cursor turns into a hand holding an eraser. Move it around the About box; zeroes are left in its wake. Fill the entire box with zeroes; a brief melody plays, and a picture of the developers appears. (Contributed by Larry Cunningham) = In the Speed Disk program 1.0, command-click on the rhomboid beside the = version number in the About box. = The large letters that make up the name "SPEED DISK" swap themselves pair-by-pair until the name eventually unjumbles itself again. (Contributed by Andy Calder) ---------------- = PageMaker 3.02 = Hold down Shift while you select "About PageMaker." = A list of "PageMaker's Makers" is displayed. (Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock) ---------------- = Quark XPress 3.1 = Turn on Balloon Help, select "About QuarkXPress", and point to the = word 'Quark'. = The balloon reads "A fundamental particle." (Contributed by Reuven Lerner) ---------------- = QuicKeys 2.x = Open the macro definition window, and click on the logo to bring = up a credits window. Wait for about half a minute. = A bunny walks across the window beating a drum. After it crosses, the message "QuicKeys keeps on going!" is displayed. (There's also a way to get a safe to drop on the bunny, but I don't know how. Anybody have any ideas?) (Contributed by Kenny Wong) ---------------- = Ragtime 3.1 = Hold down Command and Option as you select "About Ragtime." = The signatures of the developers are displayed. (Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock) ---------------- = Remember? DA = Select "What About Me," and wait for about a minute. = A rather interesting message scrolls across the bottom of the dialog. (Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock) ---------------- = ResEdit 2.x = Hold down Shift, Option, and Command as you choose "About ResEdit." = You get the chance to enter "pig mode" (oink oink oink). When you put ResEdit into pig mode, resources will be compacted and purged each time ResEdit goes through its event loop (several times a second). (However, since this makes ResEdit slower, it's not of much use outside Apple.) (Contributed by Ian Neath. (Info about "pig mode" from Chris Webster and Russell Street.) Mr. Street adds that if you turn on pig mode while running ResEdit from a floppy disk the disk will "oink" a few times each second (most easily heard on an old Plus in a quiet room), but when I tried this my machine crashed. ;) = Also, just try holding down only command and option as you choose = "About ResEdit"... = ... to get some credits. (as in who made ResEdit, not as in Star Trek money) ---------------- = Simple Player (for QuickTime) 1.0 = Hold down Option as you select "About Simple Player..." = The two movie frames now have greyscaled cats in them. (Contributed by Scott Ryder) ---------------- = SoundEdit = Choose "About SoundEdit". A burning fuse bomb "system error" blows up. = Also, on version 2.0, hold down Option (?) while you pull down = the File menu. = "Close" becomes "Close for Joe". (Posted to Usenet by Nigel Stanger) ---------------- = Spectre = When playing the game, type "god". = You are treated to a bird's-eye view of the entire battlefield at once. (Contributed by Jeff Ivler) ---------------- = SpInside Macintosh and the Technical Notes stacks = Option-click on the tail-wagging dogcow. = It moof!s. There's much more to this than meets the eyes, too; by working the right sort of magic spell, you can eventually bring up a copy of the fabled Tech Note 31 in a window! I used to know how to do this. I forgot. If you can figure out how to get this secret trick, you'll get your name here in lights. :) ---------------- = Strip-Mac = Click on the icon of the author on the second "About" dialog. = The icon changes, and in version 1 a Foghorn Leghorn quote is spoken. In version 2, Johnny Five from _Short Circuit_ says "Nice software!" (Contributed by Tim North) ---------------- = TeachText 1.1, 1.2, and 7.0 = Hold down the option key while you select "About TeachText..." = Some "Thanks to" credits appear. (Contributed by Andrew Stoffel) ---------------- = THINK Reference = In the entry for "FindWindow", go to the "Returns" section and see = what it says about "inDrag". = In parentheses it says "transvestites take note". ---------------- = To Do! 3.1 = Option-click on the copyright message at the bottom of the window. = A poem by the author appears. (You may have to make the window a little bigger to see all of it.) (Contributed by Andrew Stoffel) ---------------- = Vette! = Select course 3 (starting on the Bay Bridge), but turn around and = go _backwards_ for a ways (with the wall on your left and the ocean = on your right, and traffic coming at you -- be careful!). = After you've gone far enough, you will suddenly be in a very nicely- detailed area whose streets are named after the developers. ---------------- = WriteNow 2.2 = Select "About WriteNow", then option-click on the About dialog. = Little men run out and change all the letters one-by-one. = -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- *** Useful Things The Macintosh LC and Macintosh IIsi don't have restart and interrupt buttons like other Macs, so to generate these signals from the keyboard, press Command-Control-Power (the key with the triangle on it) for "reset" and just Command-Power for "interrupt." This also works with other newer Macs such as the IIvx. If your computer seems to have crashed or frozen up, or is taking WAY too long to finish doing some task that it won't let you interrupt, press Command-Option-Escape. This will sometimes bring up a dialog that reads "Force 'application' to quit? Unsaved changes will be lost." The dialog has two buttons, "Force Quit" and "Cancel". Sometimes, clicking on "Force Quit" will kill the active application, allowing you to continue using your Mac without having to restart. Take advantage of this to save your other work and restart your Mac as soon as you can, because a crashed application might have trashed other things in memory. Use this at your own risk! Sometimes it won't work, but if your machine's hung, it could come in handy. If you quit all your open applications then use Command-Option-Escape to kill the Finder too, the Finder will come right back to life again -- but if you're holding down Command and Option as it's doing so, you can rebuild the desktop files on your hard drives. This is sometimes more convenient then holding down Command and Option while your machine's booting up. (Thanks to Alan Gordon for reminding me of this trick.) If you want to make some windows invisible because they're cluttering up your screen too much, you can use "Hide Application" or "Hide Others" from the Application menu at the top right of your screen. But if you want to make invisible the windows of the application you're using right now, just hold down the option key and click in another program's window; as you switch to that other application, this one's windows will disappear. To zap the PRAM (reset all of your Mac's internal settings): Under System 7, hold down Control-Option-P-R on a reboot. Under System 6, hold down Command, Option, Shift, and Tab while you select the Control Panel DA from the Apple menu. (Is this great, or what? ;-) In the Apple HD SC Setup program, press Command-I to manually select a format interleave ratio for your hard drive. (Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock) In Disk First Aid, press Command-S to display a window that shows you in detail exactly what the program's doing. The Installer can be used to de-install things! Click on "Customize", and when you hold down the Option key, the "Install" button becomes "Remove", allowing you to de-install whatever the Installer would normally have installed for you. (Contributed by Seth Theriault and Fred Condo) If you want to eject a floppy disk at any time (even if your Mac doesn't notice that there's a disk in the drive), press Command-Shift-1 for the lower or internal drive or Command-Shift-2 for the upper or external drive. (If you press these when there's no disk in the drive, you might even be able to hear the drive mechanism moving.) If that doesn't work, reboot your Mac and immediately hold down the mouse button until the disk ejects. If THAT still won't work, unbend a paperclip and (very carefully!) push it straight into the small hole to the right of the drive slot to manually force the mechanism to eject. If things still really feel stuck, then DON'T FORCE the mechanism; your disk might be caught in the drive, and forcing things could damage your drive. Bring your Mac in for repairs. If you have more than one monitor hooked up, go into the Monitors control panel and hold down Option. A smiley-face will appear on the screen placement area for whichever monitor currently has the menu bar on it; clicking on other screens will move the menu bar to other monitors. (Contributed by Seth Theriault) Option-clicking on "Options..." in the Monitors control panel will let you set the gamma correction on your monitor. Gamma correction is used to help colors be less washed-out. If you're running System 7 on a slow machine (a Plus, SE, or Classic), there's a way you _might_ be able to get things to run just a bit faster. Many System file and Finder resources are stored in compressed form to save disk space, but of course the tradeoff is that it takes time to decompress them before they can be used. With ResEdit, carefully copy all the resources in the System file or the Finder and paste the resources back in on top of themselves (use the same ID's), and save your work; this effectively decompresses all the resources for good (because ResEdit can't save compressed resources). DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK -- you'll certainly want to have clean copies of your System and Finder around for a while after you do this, just in case. If you need to fit the System 7.0 printer drivers on an 800k System 6.0.5 (or .7 or .8) boot disk (for example, to use an old Mac without a hard drive on a network with System 7 machines), you can use ResEdit to remove enough resources from the "LaserWriter" 7.0 driver to make it fit. (As usual, do this at your own risk.) These resources, which are only useful in System 7 or with the TrueType INIT, are: All of types icl4, icl8, ics4, ics8, hwin, hdlg, dctb POST -8150 to -8084 STR# -8192 to -8182, -8138 to -8136, -5694 If you like playing with the Puzzle desk accessory (and even if you don't), you can copy the picture of two linked squares from the Scrapbook and paste it into the Puzzle. In fact, you can paste any picture into the Puzzle, and it will be sized to fit. You can also copy the picture from the Puzzle and look at the clipboard to see what it will look like solved. (Contributed by Povl H. Pedersen) QuickTime 1.5 has a nice undocumented feature: you can name a movie file to "Startup Movie" and put it in the System Folder, and it will be played on startup when QuickTime loads. (Contributed by Jim Kelm) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- And now for something completely different! Mark Nagata has reported a really nifty trick to me that I don't have the resources to confirm, but I'd be muchly appreciative of any hacker with time on his hands who'd like to pin this one down. The ingredients: One Macintosh SE/30 System 7.0 or 7.0.1 Kerry Clendinning's "Easy Keys 1.5" Control Panel, or any other INIT/FKEY that patches _Launch, like OutToLaunchFKEY or LaunchFinderFKEY QUED/M 2.09 (The text editor from Paragon; little brother of NISUS) Assign some key combinations in Easy Keys Control Panel. Launch QUED/M, and press the key combination. Then, an "address error" bomb alert comes up, but you can click on "Continue" to keep going -- go ahead and click "Continue". Everything is normal again until you quit QUED/M, at which time the screen blanks to all white except for a Mac icon and a "Mac SE/30 Engineering Hall of Fame" list. The only way out is to press the reset button. Perhaps the address error hit the address for the "Hall of Fame" accidentally. Hence my request: can anyone pinpoint what this address is to run the credits? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Another one: On an SE/30, go into MacsBug or the interrupt debugger, and type "g 04d98a". Something happens; what? Tell me, and I'll add it. :) -- _/_/_/ Brian Kendig Je ne suis fait comme aucun /_/_/ bskendig@netcom.com de ceux que j'ai vus; j'ose croire _/_/ n'etre fait comme aucun de ceux qui existent. / Nolite te bastardes Si je ne vaux pas mieux, au moins je suis autre. / carborundorum. -- Rousseau