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Tip #23, Mac OS 8, the rest of the CD.

In a recent MacTip we talked about the Mac OS 8 installer and recomendations for what to install. This week we'll look at the rest of the CD. There are some gems in there that you might not find without a little digging.

Listed below is every file of significance on the Mac OS 8 CD and specific comments about the ones that can benefit from a little more explanation than the title provides.

Mac OS Read Me Files These files are here for one of two reasons. Either to educate you as to the best manner in which to implement the software it is written about, or the place to look when all other sources of information fail. ;) Simply reading these, and other informational documents can save both time and frustration.

About English Text-to-Speech

About Multiprocessing Software

About QuickDraw GX

About QuickDraw 3D

Mac OS 8 Install Manual.pdf

Open Transport Information

Open Transport/PPP Information

CD Extras The CD Extras contain most of the more exciting and useful items on the CD.

Acrobat Reader 3.0 is Adobe's Portable Document Format reader. This format has become the standard for electronic manuals and informational files included with much software. It is required for reading the Mac OS 8 Install Manual included in the Mac OS Read Me Files folder.

Additional Desktop Patterns are actually mostly desktop patterns that were shipped with previous versions of the system software. Just double click the Scrapbook file and drag the ones you want into the pattern area of the Desktop Pictures control panel.

Additional Desktop Pictures provide a few more options for your desktop besides the 4 that are installed in your Apple Extras folder.

Additional Modem Scripts are provided to add support for additional modems than come with ARA or OT/PPP. The additional modems show up in the Modem control panel pop up. If your modem is already in the list or you don't use ARA or OT/PPP this won't do anything for you.

Apple Telecom is only for PPC Macs using the Geoport Telecom Adapter or Express Modem. This installer does provide fax, voice, and voice mail support for the Geoport Adapters and includes the 33.6 software.

AppleCD Player is a new addition to the lineup. It not only provide the ability to play normal audio CDs but also enhanced audio CDs that can contain multimedia information in addition to the audio information.

At Ease Updaters

Eric's Solitaire Sampler

HyperCard Updates

Iomega Tools are also included as one of the CD extras. The version on the CD is 5.03 which is more than likely a later version than the one that came with your Zip or Jazz drive. Also included in the Iomega Guest application which installs the Zip or Jazz drivers instantaneously so you can access your Iomega drive even if you started with extensions off or didn't have the Iomega software installed. I always keep this one handy, it has saved me many a restart.

Movie Player Extras contains animation, music, and photos that demonstrate some of the capabilities of QuickTime.

Pointer Mode Control

QuickDraw 3D Extras contains sample applications and files that demonstrate some of the capabilities of QuickDraw 3D.

QuickTime Sample. The Old Apartment - BNL is a QuickTime movie also included on the CD. It is over 60 megs in size but is a good example of QuickTime to show your friends when they come over. If it seems to play choppy, copy it to your hard drive and play it from there. (That is if you have enough spare room!) Who are these guys anyway?

Spanish Text-to-Speech 1.5 provides the ability to read Spanish text out loud. Another use for this is to install the Spanish Voices and use them to have your English text read with a Spanish accent.

 

Internet Extras, America Online, & Internet Explorer

AOL 3.0 (1) Internet Explorer 3.01

America Online & Internet Explorer is also included in the internet package on the CD. Although Netscape is included in the internet install, Explorer 3.01 and AOL 3.0(1) are included on the disk as separate installs. If you use AOL or want to try Explorer these can save you some download time or save the time looking for that AOL disk. (As if you don't have 5 AOL disks within reach anyway!)

Castanet Tuner Installer PointCast Network

Castanet Tuner & Pointcast are two examples of the "Push technology" that everyone is all excited about. The idea behind the push is that you set up categories or subjects that you want information about and your Mac checks in every so often and picks up only the information you specified. Generally products of this type pay for themselves by selling the advertising that is displayed along with your requested information. If you have a direct connection to the internet these products can provide almost live information from the world around you. If you must dial out over a modem to access the internet the information can be as current as you want to go and get. These are worth checking out, just keep in mind that for these products to function as designed, they must be kept running all the time and that requires processing resources and memory.

Software Installers. The Mac OS installer that you more than likely used to install Mac OS 8 in just an application that launches all the other installers contained in this folder. If you look inside each folder you will find the individual installers for each component. Each of these components can be installed independently. Check out MacTip #21 for more info about each individual component.

ARA Client Install

Cyberdog

English Text-to-Speech

InfoCenter

Internet Access

Location Manager Install

Mac OS Runtime for Java

MacLink Plus

Open Transport/PPP

OpenDoc

Personal Web Sharing

QuickDraw 3D

QuickDraw GX

System Software

Utilities & Disk Tools

5xxx/6xxx Tester 1.1 According to the read-me "This application checks Power Macintosh and Performa 5200, 5300, 6200, and 6300 series computers for hardware problems that may cause the computer to freeze." If you have one of these computers and this application informs you of a problem, you should contact Apple and they will take care of it.

AppleShare 3.6.5 or later is required for installing Mac OS 8 over a network. Simply replace the old one in your Extensions folder with this one and restart and you can install Mac OS 8 over the network.

Disk Copy 6.1.2 allows you to mount, copy, create, and convert disk images. It provides similar functionality to ShrinkWrap. (I talked about Disk Images and ShrinkWrap in MacTip #7) There seem to be some comparability issues with ShrinkWrap 2.1 and Mac OS 8, so for now I'm using Disk Copy until ShrinkWrap 3.0 is released.

Disk First Aid is a great tool for letting you know if there are problems with your hard drive that may be causing you problems. I always use Disk First Aid before I let Norton or any other disk utility take a crack at it. If you do use Disk First Aid be sure to use the one that came on the Mac OS 8 CD. Older versions may report trouble even if there isn't any when confronted with a Mac OS 8 hard drive.

Drive Setup has recently been expanded to support some non-Apple brand drives. (3 out of the four I've tried it on so far.) This is good news in that Apple system installers will automatically let you know if it needs to be updated thus saving you a call to La Cie, FWB or someone else to see if you need to get an updated version of your hard drive software.

SimpleText. It's simple, text.

Make Disk Tools floppies Also on the CD is little application that will build two disk tools disks for you. Between the two of them you should be able to boot any Mac that is supported by Mac OS 8. These little wonders include not only the basic system software but also Disk First Aid and Drive Setup. These can be handy for those times when you run into trouble and can't boot your Mac. You can be sure that I'll keep these close at all times.

I hope this MacTip helped you find or take advantage of something on the Mac OS 8 CD that had as of yet escaped your grasp.


Tip #23 apeared August 20th 1997.

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