What is David Pogue's Premium Utilities (Macworld)?

Notes On POGUE¹S PREMIUM UTILITIES: The 14 Hottest Free And Shareware Utilities
A Macworld Exclusive Collection

======= WELCOME =========

Welcome to a special Macworld software utility collection! On these two disks, you¹ll find 15 programs  a wide variety of control panels, system extensions, and application programs to make using your Mac more efficient, safer, and more fun.

Before you dig in, please read the important installation instructions below. Each program comes with its own manual on the disks; this document offers just enough to get you going. You may want to print this document out right now (choose Print from the File menu).

Note: Several of these programs are shareware  that is, ³try before you buy² software. The programmers encourage you to try out their programs at no charge. But if you wind up using a program regularly, the honor system dictates that you send the programmer the requested small fee. The address and amount are provided within the software, or in the instructions.  Fight ridiculous three-digit software prices  support shareware!

Note too: Many of these programs require System 7 or later. You¹ll find specific requirements in each program¹s on-disk manual.

=======WHAT¹S ON MACWORLD DISK 1 =========

AREACODEFINDER
     What else? AreaCodeFinder finds the area code for any of 109,000 American cities (or vice versa). It can even show them on a U.S. map with time zones indicated, so you know whether or not you¹re about to wake somebody up when you call.

--> Installation and Setup: Open the AreaCodeFinder folder; double-click the AreaCodeFinder program icon. Type in an area code or city, press Return!

COMMENTKEEPER
     Here we are, almost at System version 8, and the Mac still wipes out whatever comments we¹ve typed into the ³Get Info²  boxes for our files  whenever we perform the common troubleshooting tactic of rebuilding the desktop file. This ingenious extension preserves those comments at last!

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the CommentKeeper folder. Drag the CommentKeeper icon onto your System folder, click OK, and restart your Mac. To rebuild your desktop file, and thus to see this program in action, press the Command (with the Apple logo on it) and Option keys while your Mac is starting up. (Note: this extension won¹t save your comments if you use TechTool, included in this collection, to delete your desktop file.)

COPLAND EXTENSION
     Copland, also known as System 8, has some great new features. Too bad it won¹t be out for  a long time  and requires a Power Mac.
     You, however, don¹t have to wait. This extension gives your Mac, right now, two of the neatest Copland features: the new window look, and the little icon on each window¹s title bar that, when clicked, collapses the window into a neat tab at the bottom of your screen. Click that tab to expand the window again. Try collapsing several windows into tabs  they line up!

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the Copland Extension folder. Drag the Copland Extension icon onto your System folder, click OK, and restart your Mac.

FOLDER ICON MAKER
     The perfect solution to a problem you never knew you had: how to dress up your folders so that they represent what¹s inside.

--> Installation and Setup: Open the Folder Icon Maker folder; drag any icon of yours (some program or document, for example) onto the Folder Icon Maker program icon. In just a moment, a new folder appears  with the tiny picture of your file¹s icon inside the picture of the folder! Several folder-style settings are included.

KARMA MANAGER
     An anagram is a phrase created by scrambling the letters of another phrase. We at ³Macworld magazine,² for example, are either an ³amazing lame crowd² or a ³magical warm dozen,² depending on how you scramble it. Or you might discover the secret sub-message in the term Œinformation superhighway:¹ ³New utopia? Horrifying sham!²
      With Karma Manager (which itself is an anagram), you can create your own anagrams  of your own name, for example. You may have to hunt through the program¹s thousands of candidates before finding the really funny ones  but be persistent. It¹s worth it!

--> Installation and Setup: Open the Karma Manager folder; double-click the Karma Manager  program icon. Choose ³Capture to file² from the File menu, type  a name like ³my anagrams,² click Desktop; click Save. Finally, choose New from the File menu and type in whatever phrase you want to anagram-ize. Click OK, and stand back! (When it¹s all over, open your ³my anagrams² text file in your word processor.)

MACMAN CLASSIC PRO
     I couldn¹t give you all work and no play, right? This clever, color edition of the famous PacMan arcade game is about the most addictive non-productivity program I could think of!

--> Installation and Setup: Open the MacMan Classic Pro folder; double-click the MacMan Classic Pro  program icon. Choose Play from the File menu. Move your little man around by pressing the direction keys Y, B, G, and H  (you can change these). Don¹t get eaten.

RAMGAUGE
     RamGauge is a small, simple, and very useful control panel. One glance at the menu bar, and you know exactly how much free memory you have to burn (for launching another program). RamGauge allows you to switch its display on and off, move it around, and so on. RamGauge is especially nice when there is so little available RAM in your machine that the Finder won't even let you use the "About This Macintosh..." command to check your RAM situation.

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the RamGauge folder. Drag the RamGauge icon onto your System folder, click OK, and restart your Mac. Check your menu bar! Use the control panel to change the settings.

TYPEIT4ME
     This awesome control panel does one thing very well  lets you create abbreviations that automatically expand as you type. When I type ³RA,² I get my return address. When I type ³teh,²  I get ³the.² (Auto-correction: a big hot feature in Microsoft Word 6, huh? TypeIt4Me fans have had that feature for years   in EVERY program!) This program saves typos, time, effort, and risk of chronic typing injuries.

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the TypeIt4Me folder; drag the TypeIt4Me icon onto your System folder icon; click OK and restart your Mac. Now you have a new, tiny, ³A² menu to the left of your Apple menu. To create an auto-expanding abbreviation, first type out the expanded version in some word processor. Copy it. Choose ³Add an entry² from that  ³A² menu; type the abbreviation you prefer; click OK. Now try typing your abbreviation somewhere! The space bar, or any punctuation, will expand your abbreviation.

 TEACHTEXT
    You¹re using TeachText right now. It¹s a stripped-down word processor just right for reading Read Me files like this one. You¹ve probably got 50 copies already, but just in case...

--> Installation and Setup:  Just double-click!

=======WHAT'S ON MACWORLD DISK 2 =========

DISCOLOUR
     System 7¹s icons are great  they¹re in color, and everything  except for floppy-disk icons. They¹re in lame black-and-white! This extension makes floppies appear on your desktop as full 3-D color icons. A small point  but perfection is in the details.

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the Discolour folder. Drag the Discolour icon onto your System folder, click OK, and restart your Mac. 

QUICKPOP
     This powerful control panel, a shareware relative of QuicKeys, lets you use either a keystroke or a ³pop-up anywhere² menu to launch a pre-selected program, control panel, document, or Apple Menu Item. It also lets you change your monitor depth (colors) or speaker volume settings with just one keystroke.  

--> Installation and Setup: Open the QuickPop folder; drag the QuickPop icon onto your System folder icon; click OK and restart your Mac. Now choose Control Panels from your Apple menu; read the enclosed manual for what to do next.

TIMER DA
      This compact 9K desk accessory, when opened, shows how long your Mac has been running right now. Click the S, T, R, or ?  buttons to operate the Start, Stop, Reset, and Help stopwatch functions.

--> Installation and Setup:  Open the Timer DA folder. Drag the Timer DA icon onto your System folder, and click OK. Choose Timer DA from your Apple menu.

PHONEBOOK PLUS
     So many features, so little disk space! This full-fledged address-book program does it all: imports names and addresses from another program (or lets you type them in); alphabetizes them by last name, using pop-up ³tabs,² much like a real-world  desktop phone directory; dials your numbers for you; prints mailing labels or phone books; logs your phone-call time; holds notes for each person; and more.

--> Installation and Setup: Copy the PhoneBook Plus folder to your hard drive; open the PhoneBook Plus folder; double-click the PhoneBook Plus 3.0.1 program icon; click OK; click New. You¹re ready to begin entering your names and addresses (by choosing New Record from the Edit menu).

TECHTOOL
     This program, developed by a commercial software company, is one of the most useful troubleshooting programs you can own. It has five useful functions: 1) Checks your system files for damage. 2) Resets your ³parameter RAM²  that battery-preserved piece of memory that, when corrupted, causes all kinds of glitches and freezes. 3) Rebuilds the desktop, another important troubleshooting trick, especially for the ³blank icons² syndrome. 4) Tells you a wealth of information about your Mac and hard drive. 5) Shows when your Mac was made and how many hours you¹ve used it  total!

--> Installation and Setup: Open the TechTool folder; double-click the TechTool program icon. For complete instructions, choose Help from the File menu.

=======  FINAL THOUGHTS =========

I hope you enjoy these programs as much as I do. Please read the entire set of instructions for each program. If you run into trouble, first contact the appropriate programmer (e-mail and other contact information is generally included in the manual or in the software). If you have no luck there, call us at Macworld.

Have fun!

David Pogue, contributing editor
Macworld magazine

Download David Pogue's Premium Utilities (Macworld) for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II