Action GoMac
Utltimate Launch Utility?
Reviewed by Jim Alley
As hard drives get bigger and bigger and software gets more complex, it becomes
increasingly more difficult to keep track of where everything is located, which
programs are running, and where their windows are. Mac OS 8 through 8.6 have added
features that can help somewhat, but it can still be a morass of buried folders
and buried windows.
Power On Software made a great start at providing help when it released Action Files
(which many Mac users consider to be one of the truly indispensible utilities),
and the company has now furthered the goal by releasing Action GoMac.
GoMac adds a "task bar" to the bottom of your Mac's screen. This bar offers
several features: a non-intrusive Control Strip replacement, as well as features
that allow you to quickly launch applications or switch to currently-running ones.
There's even a pop-up calendar.
The GoMac bar has several main areas. At the far left, there is the pop-up StartSmart
menu, which automatically configures itself to include important items: Internet
components (browsers, email clients), drives, programs, bookmarks (OS 8.5 and higher),
Control Panels, and various settings.
The next section of the task bar is the QuickLaunch area, where you can install
icons for the programs you use most often. A single click on the icon launches the
program.
The central area is devoted to "buttons" representing the programs that
are currently running on your Mac. Clicking on one of these buttons switches to
that program. If you click and hold on one of these buttons, a menu pops up that
gives you information about and control of that program. You can get info and change
settings. You can quit programs without the need to switch to them first. You can
even choose a specific window for that program. These are great features that can
both simplify tasks and make your use of time more
efficient.
At the right end of the task bar is an area where you can install Control Strip
modules and a clock. Clicking on the clock pops up a calendar for the month. You
can install whichever Control Strip modules you like. The calendar does not provide
any reminder features, but it serves as a handy reference, and it's easy to jump
from month to month or year to year.
There are plenty of other options, such as full drag-and-drop functionality and
mouseless program switching.
One of the features I like best is GoMac's ability to hide when it's not needed.
This option lets the task bar collapse until you move your mouse to the extreme
bottom of your screen. When collapsed, you hardly know it's there, but when you
move your pointer to the bottom of the screen, all of GoMac's features are instantly
available. There are a number of utilities that provide some of GoMac's functionality,
but none that I have tried is so smoothly implemented.
You can download a demo copy of Action GoMac from http://www.poweronsw.com.
Suggested retail price is $49.
Article from SMUG the Savannah Macintosh User Group. Jim Alley, Editor, is a professor
of graphic design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, a Contributing Editor
at Print magazine, and the editor of Mac Monitor. He has been working with Macs since
1984.
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