DoubleScroll 2.2b3 Sleeper 3.0 Better Edit Keys 1.1 Review

DoubleScroll 2.2b3
Author: Edward Voas
Shareware: $10.00
http://www.amargosa.com

Many long time Macintosh users may know of a Control Panel called DoubleScroll, which places double arrows at the top and bottom of your scroll bars. But what many Mac users may not know is that DoubleScroll is now Mac OS 8 compatible and that a few new features have been added with the new release.

DoubleScroll lets you have double arrows at both ends, or only at the bottom right of your scroll bar, greatly limiting the amount of mouse movement required to scroll up and down in a window. In addition to the double arrows, DoubleScroll enables live scrolling and many modifier key shortcuts. Option-clicking the arrows will act as a page up/page down, Command-clicking the arrows will act as a home/end feature, and Shift-clicking in the elevator region of the scroll bar will automatically cause the thumb to jump to the location you clicked and start tracking from there.

DoubleScroll has a filter feature that will let you tell DoubleScroll which applications are incompatible with DoubleScroll, and which features to enable in them. DoubleScroll also supports on-the-fly preference changes (all changes are made active upon closure of the Control Panel, instead of on restart) and a scrolling throttle which lets you change the scrolling speed and the scrolling delay.

The Summary
DoubleScroll has many features that I have wanted for a long time. Even though the Mac OS 8 finder has live scrolling, many applications and dialog boxes still don’t, which makes DoubleScroll essential to me. And if you are a fan of double arrows, then DoubleScroll is the way to go. I find myself disabling many good utilities because they are incompatible with only one of my applications, or because they simply don’t have enough options. DoubleScroll does not have any of these problems. DoubleScroll lets you take control of its features, instead of its features taking control of you.

Download Double Scroll 2.2

Sleeper 3.0
Company: St. Clair Software
Shareware: $25.00
http://www.stclairsw.com

Sleeper is another veteran Macintosh shareware program, and it has been greatly improved in version 3.0. Sleeper is a Control Panel that allows you to spin down your hard disks, power down your monitor, shut down your computer, activate a screen saver, and much more.

Sleepers’ main feature is disk sleep, which lets you spin down your hard disk(s). It is compatible with both internal and external, IDE and SCSI hard disks, and removable drives such as the Zip from Iomega. You can also power down your Energy Star-compatible monitor and shut down your computer when it is idle for a certain amount of time. There is also a screen saver that lets you set the delay time, brightness, and hot corners for dimming your monitor.

You can configure Sleeper to request a password upon wake up, and enable a hotkey or hotkey combination for each of its features. And what if your computer needs your attention while you are away? You will know because the LEDs (the lights on your keyboard for number, caps, and scroll lock) on your keyboard will flash.

The Summary
I have only scratched the surface when it comes to Sleeper’s many features. The only way to experience the true power and innovation of this Control Panel is to download it. I have not found one compatibility problem, and it is a true joy to configure and use. A first glance at the Control Panel may cause you to think that $25.00 is too much to pay for Sleeper, but once you discover how much you can really do with it, I think you will find that $25.00 is well worth it.

Download Sleeper 3.0

Better Edit Keys 1.1
Author: Alessandro Levi Montalcini
Shareware: $10.00
http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~alm

Better Edit Keys is a Control Panel that allows you to use the shift, option, and control keys with the arrows, delete, forward delete and clear keys in any standard text editing field, including basic text editors such as SimpleText. This makes it much easier to work with text without reaching for the mouse.

Better Edit Keys enables nine key combinations that are as follows:

shift + any arrow: extend the current selection.

option + left/right arrow: move to the previous or next word.

control + left/right arrow or option + up/down arrow: move to the beginning or end of the current line.

shift + option + any arrow: move like option + arrow while extending the selection.

option + delete: delete up to the beginning of the current word (or clear selection).

forward delete or shift + delete: delete the next character (or clear selection).

option + forward delete or shift + option + delete: delete up to the end of the current word (or clear selection).

clear: clear the current selection, if any.

option + clear: delete the current word (or clear selection).The Summary
Many people may find Better Edit Keys to be very handy, but honestly, I didn’t. I had a hard time remembering the key combinations, and I was always picking the wrong one, which would perform a function that I didn’t want. My advice: download Better Edit Keys, and give it a try. I had no compatibility problems, and it worked fine with Mac OS 8 and all my text editors.

True, it is time consuming to move back and forth from the mouse to the keyboard, but I find this much easier then accidentally deleting work because I was trying to remember a key combination.