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Tools We Use: X-Assist
When my PowerBook recently started behaving strangely, I went looking for startup items that might be disrupting things. One utility I disabled was ASM (Application Switcher Menu) 2.0.2, a utility that provides an application menu like that found in Mac OS 9. Although ASM didn't appear to be the cause of my problem, I quickly realized it offers a feature that I absolutely cannot live without: when I click a window belonging to an application (such as Eudora or the Finder), all of that program's windows are brought to the front.
<http://www.vercruesse.de/>
In fact, that's the only reason I installed ASM in the first place; I don't actually use the application menu. But being without that feature drove me crazy for several days.
The Finder's default window behavior is nutty. I keep four Eudora windows open at once: my In box, my list of mailboxes, the Task Progress window, and the Filter Report. If I'm in another application and I want to switch to Eudora, I want to see all four windows, not just the one I clicked on. But the Finder would prefer to layer windows like shuffled cards, with windows acting as separate entities instead of as groups of applications. Perhaps this makes sense from a software point of view, but it's contrary to how people work (at least, contrary to the way I work, but I can't be the only one). And having a Bring All to Front command in the Window menu of every program isn't helpful.
However, this isn't an article about ASM. Although I haven't had problems with it, the last freeware version of it is now a couple of years old. A 2.1 beta version is available as $15 shareware, but it currently has issues with Mac OS X Panther and doesn't appear to have been updated in over a year. If ASM were the only solution around, I'd happily pay for it, but I don't want to inherit problems.
Instead, I poked around online and found Peter Li's X-Assist, which seems to offer many similar features as ASM, such as an Mac OS 9-style application menu and a popout menu to access System Preference panes. It also features a plugin architecture for add-on capabilities and a list of recent applications, but frankly, I turned as many other features off as I could find. X-Assist brings my windows to the front the way they should behave, and that's all I want. Even better, the software is free, and, although its version number is 0.7, seems to be rock solid.
<http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pli/x-assist/>
It was pathetic that I would get angry at my Mac whenever I switched applications because of brain-dead window behavior. But now I'm much better, thanks to X-Assist.
<http://www.vercruesse.de/>
In fact, that's the only reason I installed ASM in the first place; I don't actually use the application menu. But being without that feature drove me crazy for several days.
The Finder's default window behavior is nutty. I keep four Eudora windows open at once: my In box, my list of mailboxes, the Task Progress window, and the Filter Report. If I'm in another application and I want to switch to Eudora, I want to see all four windows, not just the one I clicked on. But the Finder would prefer to layer windows like shuffled cards, with windows acting as separate entities instead of as groups of applications. Perhaps this makes sense from a software point of view, but it's contrary to how people work (at least, contrary to the way I work, but I can't be the only one). And having a Bring All to Front command in the Window menu of every program isn't helpful.
However, this isn't an article about ASM. Although I haven't had problems with it, the last freeware version of it is now a couple of years old. A 2.1 beta version is available as $15 shareware, but it currently has issues with Mac OS X Panther and doesn't appear to have been updated in over a year. If ASM were the only solution around, I'd happily pay for it, but I don't want to inherit problems.
Instead, I poked around online and found Peter Li's X-Assist, which seems to offer many similar features as ASM, such as an Mac OS 9-style application menu and a popout menu to access System Preference panes. It also features a plugin architecture for add-on capabilities and a list of recent applications, but frankly, I turned as many other features off as I could find. X-Assist brings my windows to the front the way they should behave, and that's all I want. Even better, the software is free, and, although its version number is 0.7, seems to be rock solid.
<http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pli/x-assist/>
It was pathetic that I would get angry at my Mac whenever I switched applications because of brain-dead window behavior. But now I'm much better, thanks to X-Assist.
05:42pm Mar 2, 2005 PST
