XMenu

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Xmenu For Mac
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Alan Zisman on the Mac

XMenu is a menu utility for X. R studio for mac os x. XMenu receives a menu specification in stdin, shows a menu for the user to select one of the options, and outputs the option selected to stdout. XMenu can be controlled both via mouse and via keyboard. As a dmenu fan, I was dismayed when I couldn't find a clone for OSX, so I made one. UI stuff isn't my strong suit, but contributions are welcome! Xmenu is not a full clone of dmenu as it is missing vertical list support, but otherwise it should work fine. XMenu Add one or more out of six menus to the right side of your menu bar. They give you access to your applications, folders, documents, files, and text snippets. Launch any app with a single menu choice or insert text snippets into your documents. Xmenu-xlayer is a versatile, javascript driven DHTML menu that works on. Internet Explorer Windows 5 and later (5, 5.5, 6) Gecko (Mozilla, Mozilla-Firebird, Galeon, Netscape 6, 7, etc.) Opera 6, 7; Internet Explorer Macintosh 5 and later (5, 5.1, 5.2). Description: Xmenu is an elf loader with a basic gui.

- 2009.07.15 -Tip Jar

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way Mac OS X has evolved.But whenever I get a new Mac - or reinstall OS X on an old one - thereare a few pieces of software that I add ASAP.

I'm not talking about major applications - not Microsoft Office orAdobe Photoshop or anything. I mean the little stuff that makes theday-to-day operations smoother.

You probably have your own favourites. Here is one of mine. Nicely,it's free.

Windows vs. Mac

15 or so years ago, polling data suggested that a big differencebetween Mac users and DOS/Windows users was that the PC folks tended touse a relative handful of applications; Mac users on average had - andused - more different pieces of software. I haven't seen any data onthis since then.

But in the interim, starting with Windows 95, Microsoft addedsomething to its operating systems to make it easier for users to workwith lots of applications - the Windows Start Menu. For the Windows 95launch, the company licensed the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up,suggesting this was that version's key usability feature.

The Start Menu isn't perfect by any means - installing a bunch ofsoftware on a Windows computer results in both a desktop and Start Menucluttered with disorganized icons pointing to ReadMe files,uninstallers, help files, and more things that no one ever clicks on.Most users don't have any idea how to clean up and organize the mess,but it does give users a relatively straightforward way to startapplications.

When Windows-switchers move to the Mac, it's one of the first thingsthey look for - some programs are on the Dock . . . but forothers? How do you access them? How do you even know what you've gotinstalled?

No Room on the Dock

In the Classic Mac OS, many users (and I was one of them) got in thehabit of putting aliases to frequently used applications in the Applemenu. But starting with OS X, Apple made that undoable. (Yes, Iknow about Unsanity's Fruit Menu and used it for along time. But it broke when Leopard was released, and although a newversion was eventually released, I got out of the habit.)

So what's a new Mac user to do to find applications not in the Dock?Well, you can click on the Finder icon. Then click on the Applicationsfolder (or its icon on the left of the Finder window). Then scrolluntil you find the program you want. That may be second nature to you,gentle reader, but many new Mac users never get in the habit.

Or you can put the Applications folder in the Dock. Personally,though, I find folders in the Dock an awkward way to work, at least ifthere's more than a handful of things in the folder. Fan View (right)is cute, but displays a tiny portion of the applications - a veryawkward way to access 116 more!

Setting the docked folder options to display in Grid View (below) isbetter - now, instead of a single curved row, folder contents aredisplayed in a rectangle - now there are only 62 more items to view inmy Applications folder. But even without displaying all the contents,the grid is too dense - I find it hard to scan to find somethinghere.

New in Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' is List View (right). Actually,this is more like how docked folders worked prior to OS X 10.4with a scrollable list in alphabetical order. This is actually, in myopinion, relatively usable. But I don't find the location on the rightside of the Dock a particularly user-friendly place to put this sort offeature.

XMenu to the Rescue

The first thing I add to my Macs is XMenu fromDEVONtechnologies. Noted PC Magazine columnist and gadflyJohnDvorak recently called their DEVONthink program 'about as close toa killer Apple app as anything I've seen since VisiCalc in the late'70s.' (In the same column, the longtime PC user said, 'if I was goingto buy a new laptop this minute, a MacBook Pro is probably what I'dget, too.' )

While DEVONthink costs $149, the good people at DEVONtechnologieshave made a number of small utilities available for free download,including XMenu.

By default, XMenu pops a little icon up near the right-hand side ofthe menu bar, near Spotlight's magnifying glass. It's easy to overlook- the new version's icon is a tiny version of the stylized A on Apple'sApplications folder. Clicking on the icon drops down a scrollable,alphabetized list of the contents of the Applications folder, completewith small images of each application's icon. (There may be a slightdelay the first time, as the icons are cached. Subsequently, the menuwill pop up much more quickly).

Make it a Self Starter

All it takes to install XMenu is to copy it to your Applicationsfolder, but you probably want it to load automatically whenever you logon to your Mac. Making that happen is not one of Mac OS X's mostintuitive operations.

Open System Preferences and click the Accountsitem. Go to the Login Items tab. To make changes, you may need to clickon the picture of a padlock and enter your password to 'unlock' thesepreferences. Then you can either drag the XMenu icon from theApplication menu into the list of login items or click the [+] tolocate it in a dialogue box. Don't click the Hide checkbox.

Always Check the Preferences

I'm a big fan of always checking anapplication's preferences - you may not want the defaults set by theprogrammers. To get to XMenu's preferences, right-click orcommand+click on the icon.

You can use it to add multiple menus - each gets its own little iconon the menu bar. Perhaps you want to add one for your Documents folderor Home folder, for example. You can change the size of icons in themenu or remove them entirely for perkier performance.

For ultimate control, you can choose theUser-Defined menu, either in place of the standard Applications andother menus or all by itself. When that's selected, folders and aliasesin your ~/Library/Application Support/XMenu/ folder appear in the menu.I created a set of folders, categorizing my applications - Accessories,Applications, Games, Graphics, Internet, Multimedia, etc. - and placedaliases to the appropriate applications in each. The result is a quickand organized way to get to all my applications, filed in a way thatmakes sense to me. I even includes some often-accessed documents.

At some point, though, I gave up on this sort of organization; Idownload and try out too many applications. Some are keepers, othersnot. It just got too much for me to keep the aliases up to date; if Ifailed to put an aliases in the XMenu folder, I would tend to forgetthat I had the application.

Back to Basics

Even though I think we all should get in the habit of checkingprogram preferences, in the end, I've gone back to XMenu's defaultsettings.

It's a tradeoff: XMenu's default Applications menu is long anduncategorized, but it always accurately reflects the contents of theApplications folder. (I could create subfolders in the actualApplications folder with those same category names, dragging thevarious programs into the appropriate location, but that would again bemore work - and need continual fussing to keep it accurate as I triedout new software.)

It's not perfect, but it's pretty good - making it unnecessary tokeep a bunch of icons in the Dock for less-often-used programs butstill making it easy to find them when I need them. XMenu is one of mymust-have utilities to fill OS X's holes.

Thanks, DEVONtechnologies.

Xmenu Start

(What are your must-have utilities - especially free ones? Let meknow!)

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Alan Zisman is Mac-using teacher and technology writer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Many of his articles are available on his website,www.zisman.ca. If you find Alan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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