Tips & Tidbits

By Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief

Tip of the Month

There is a “lifesaver” in the MPW Commando dialog. If, when you dismiss the dialog, you press the Option key, you will find that the command line appears in the front window (normally Worksheet) and executes. That’s a whole lot easier as a way to capture the command line for later use than selecting the command line in the Commando dialog, Copy it, cancel the dialog, and Paste. (Or, you can dismiss the Commando dialog using the Enter key, and this will copy the command line into the foremost window and execute the command.)

You can also dismiss the Commando dialog with the Command key held down. This prevents the execution of the command. If Option is also down, the command line is copied into the foremost window. This ability isn’t needed so often.

Finally, as an alternate way to invoke Commando, use this command in some window (Worksheet, as usual, comes to mind): Commando Rez Now you get the regular Commando dialog for Rez. When you dismiss it, the command line is copied into the window in which you typed the command, but not executed. No modifier keys required.

-- John Baxter

A Better way to copy

When creating picture resources for your application it is often convenient to use a drawing program such as Canvas. These resources are often much larger than they have to be since Canvas stores non-Quickdraw information (Bezier curves, rotated text, etc) as PicComments within the Picture.

To slim an application make sure you delete these picComments. The best way is to hold the option-shift keys down when you originally copy the pictures from Canvas.

- Brooks Bell

Without a Programmer’s Switch

If you're writing code for a Mac that doesn't have a programmers switch, such as the LC, you may have trouble resetting your machine.

Sometimes the System 7 Shift-Option-Command-Escape key combo doesn't work. There is another way. To reset the Mac, press the Control-Command-'Power On' key.

- William Modesitt