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September 30, 1998
1.0 review by Misha Sakellaropoulo
1.1 addendum by Marcus Session
SRP: $39.99 (web), $49.99 (packaged)
Action Utilities
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Pros: painless operation, improved productivity, fast and stable
Cons: Open/Save boxes still monopolize the screen when open
The open/save dialogue boxes are one feature of the MacOS which has remained stagnant through the years - it was changed a bit in System 7, but for the most part it is no different than it was years ago. Now Utilities tried to change the way these cumbersome boxes worked with Now Superboomerang, a component of Now Utilities 6, and while Superboomerang was a great idea, Now Utilities as a whole rendered your system somewhat unstable. Now that Now has discontinued support of its infamous Utilities, a group of its top software engineers have created a line of Utilities dubbed ACTION, the first in their collection being ACTION Files. ACTION Files makes the open/save boxes nicer and more practical, without any of the side effects of Now Utilities.
ACTION Files makes open/save boxes a more pleasant experience by adding some long-awaited new features to these previously bland boxes. Similar to Superboomerang, Files adds a MacOS 8-like menu bar across the top, with Finder-like menus. The File menu, for instance, gives you several commands found in the Finder, including the ability to use the Find application within the open/save box, make an alias of a file, or move it to the trash. From the edit menu, you can control what files appear in the Open and Save As submenus, change whether a file is considered recent, or select a file or folder to be a "Favorite," meaning it will always appear in the recent menus, complete with a user defined characteristic for being able to quickly distinguish it (a symbol, bold typeface, etc.).
Another impressive addition to the open/save boxes is the ability to see Finder-like information (size, kind, date modified, etc.) as you would in a list view window, along with being able to resize the open/save box, eliminating the 8 file limit that the standard MacOS boxes encroach and turning the "box" more into a window, complete with dragging capabilities. Naturally, these new viewing options are complemented by the View menu which presents you with the standard viewing controls of a regular Finder window, along with being able to customize the font and size the items are listed in.
Using the Folders and Documents menus you can jump to your recent folders and files along with your specified "favorites," which are never eliminated from the list. Finally, you can quickly jump to any open window in the Finder via the Finder menu, or by simply clicking on it if it any portion can be seen (this includes clicking the desktop to jump to it).
ACTION Files also attempts to eliminate the need for the open/save boxes by adding a submenu to the Save As.. and Open commands which adds a list of the recent files and their folders that were opened in the applications. For people who like to store all of their files in one place, this feature puts all of your important files only a few mouse clicks away, even if they are not stored in the same folder.
Alas, Files is not a perfect utility in its entirety. Although stability and speed are top notch, especially for a utility of this caliber, compatibility issues still exist. However small the problem may be, a few select programs won't comply with File's redefinement of the open/save boxes. In a few cases, the "Save Type As..." pop-up menus within the Save box weren't correctly drawn. Fortunately, the programs that suffer this problem tend to be rather outdated (Cricket Graph, for example) and while PowerOn Software readies an update to remedy these few conflicts, in the mean time one can simply tell Files to disable its functionality within those programs via its control panel.
Using a modest 300k of RAM to operate, ACTION Files adds functionality without the fat, although the $40 price tag may seem to those who can't warrant spending that amount of money to only improve their open/save dialog boxes. Nevertheless, Files is a great utility and introduction for a company that intends to crank out similarly useful utilities in the future.
ACTION Files 1.1 Addendum
Action Files 1.1, updated for OS 8.5 compatibility and a slew of other enhancements adds even more intuitive and useful features to your open/save dialog boxes. You can now assign keystrokes to files and folders, empty the trash via the Open or Save box, see just how much free space remains on any volume, the menus drop down considerably faster, and the Find File now tells you how many files it found and warns you about how many of those that particular application can display.
A handful of bugs have also squashed with version 1.1. Fixed is the problem where low disk space could damage crucial database files and make Action Files behave strangely or not at all. It now runs on system 7.5.3 or later and it's a few hundred K smaller than before ). Despite these changes it uses about the same amount RAM (250 to 300 K) and thanks to Power On Software's acquisition of Now Utilities, there's a $10 discount for owners of Now Utilities 6.7.
A few problems still exist with ACTION Files 1.1, though. You still can't paste phrases in the Find dialogue box, you may have to delete some of your version 1.0 files in order to upgrade successfully, you can't shift-select a number of items at the same time for deletion, and it doesn't work with a few select programs, there's a definite slowdown when displaying many files or accessing them from a slow remote volume, and there's a limit of 481 files it can display per folder (bad news for those of us with psychological conditions which demand that we have exactly 482 items in each and every folder). And of course you will sorely miss it if you're at another machine or low memory conditions make it not available.
Nevertheless, ACTION Files remains a top-notch utility and version 1.1 just makes it better.
© 1998 The MacNN Review
