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Viewing Options


More About This Mac Pro
provides flexibility in configuring the About window and how the applications’ memory use and process information is displayed.

 

Application Order

The View menu contains four viewing options for ordering the applications in the More About This Mac window:

by Name orders the applications alphabetically.

by Starting Size orders the applications by the size of their initial memory partition.

by Starting Time orders the applications in the order that they were opened or launched.

by Location In Memory orders the applications by their positions within the computer’s memory address space. Any gaps between applications are also shown, using bars labeled (no application), that indicate the amount of memory which is in use or available. In this view, the Finder is shown in a separate bar, instead of being lumped together with the System Heap.

 

Memory Bar Options

There are three options for the way memory bars are displayed:

with No Bars shows only the applications’ icons and names, without any bars at all. This display is useful when using the About window as a launcher or for quickly switching between applications.

with Standard Bars shows each memory bar divided into segments representing memory in use, on the left, and memory available, on the right, as described above. For each application, the complete memory bar represents memory that is currently reserved for that application.

with Enhanced Bars shows the memory bars of RAM Charged applications with a third segment (seen below, at the right end) representing additional memory that is currently available to that application but not reserved for it. This is only available when RAM Charger is installed and providing this type of "expansion" space for an application.

 

Layout Options


Figure 2. The More About This Mac Window viewed with Header w/ General Info and Large Icons (& CPU Bars) .

More About This Mac Pro offers two options in the View menu to configure the layout of the About window:

Header w/General Info lets you choose whether or not to display the header of the About window. Disabling the display of the header leaves only the list of applications and can reduce the size of the window considerably. In addition to the familiar information that Apple’s About window has always provided in the header, More About This Mac Pro adds the Total Unused Memory and Virtual Memory figures, as well as reporting on RAM Charger being installed and active.

Large Icons (& CPU Bars) adds a second bar to each active application in the list that shows the percentage of processor or CPU activity devoted to each application. Large size application icons are also displayed when this option is enabled.

 

Window Location
and Sizing

More About This Mac Pro includes options in the View menu that affect the sizing and location of the About window:

The Allow Width Change option enables or disables a standard window "grow" box in the lower right corner with which you may manually adjust the window to the desired size and shape.

Enabling the Auto-Adjust Height option lets More About This Mac Pro automatically adjust the window height to keep as much of the application list as is possible, visible on the screen without scrolling.

Zoom Window Position is a command that does the same thing as clicking in the window’s "zoom" box: it switches the window between a custom size/shape that you have selected and a standard full view.


Figure 3. The More About This Mac Window sized and positioned as an application switcher/launcher with Header w/General Info turned off.

One interesting use of these features is to make a simple but efficient application switcher/launcher. Just reduce the window so that only the icons are shown. In this form the window will fit nicely in the upper right corner of the screen where it is readily available yet not in the way. Enable Auto-Adjust Height and the window is kept only as tall as necessary to show all of the listed applications. You can use this small window to launch programs, switch between applications, hide applications, get info, and drag/drop files onto applications to open them (see Figure 3). Also, with a click of the zoom box, you can get the full view with memory bars and info–then with another click it shrinks back out of the way.

 

(MOpViewA -- 03/03/98)



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Copyright © 1995-98 Jump Development Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Jump, OptiMem, RAM Charger, and More About This Mac are trademarks of Jump Development Group, Inc. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.