by Eric Apgar - apgar@apple.com Robert Hess - ENDPOINT@applelink.apple.com Adam C. Engst - ace@tidbits.halcyon.com and help from many others as well.... System 7 is without a doubt Apple's most ambitious system upgrade ever, giving us additional power and complexity

Although System 7 operates a little faster than System 6 in some cases, many find that it feels slower, especially in the Finder. Here are a few ways to increase your Mac's reaction time (playing video games on your Mac can help its eye/hand coordination too). Shape up your hard disk (1) Check your hard disk's interleave and reformat if necessary using appropriate formatting software

(12) If you have an existing Scrapbook file in your System Folder when you install System 7, the Installer will not replace it with the new file. The new Scrapbook file has some neat stuff, so you will want to combine the two using a utility such as SmartScrap if you need to keep the contents of the old one

(15) You can move the Trash anywhere you want, and it will stay there. You can make aliases of the Trash. If you're tired of the Trash warnings, select the Trash icon, Get Info, and turn "Warn before emptying" off. (16) You can move the copy dialog box (the one with the thermometer that goes across) to any place on the desktop (it will stay there!)

The following are Finder-specific preferences stored in the Finder Preferences file. Note that some preferences affecting portions of the user interface extend to other applications, such as window title shading. (25) Font used for Finder views (Views Control Panel) default: Geneva 9 (26) Icon Alignment Settings for Finder (Views Control Panel) default: straight grid, "Always snap to grid" not selected (27) Icon List View Settings for Finder (Views Control Panel) default: smallest icon; display sizes, kinds, labels, and dates; "Calculate Folder Sizes not selected;" and "Show Disk Info in Header" (28) Trash warning dialog (setting in Get Info for the Trash) default: "Warn before emptying" (

(31) Dragging a document onto an application icon launches the application and opens the document. You can use this technique with ResEdit to open the resource fork of any file. (32) If you need to find out exactly how much memory an application is using, turn on Balloon Help and point at the thermometer in "About This Macintosh." (33) If you hold down the option key while switching to another application (via the application menu or by clicking in its window) the Finder hides the application that you switched out of. (34) The functionality of the old Drive button in the System 6 Standard File Dialog box can be achieved in System 7 by pressing Command-LeftArrow or Command-RightArrow. (35) Font/DA Mover version 4.1 (which is System 7 compatible) does not ship with 7.0

(37) In System 6 you could save a PostScript text file by pressing option-f or option-k right after printing. This is built into the 7.0 LaserWriter driver as a radio button option

(40) If you use the normal method of copying a disk in Finder 7 with the Install 1 disk it will not be bootable. Instead, copy the disk under System 6 or use Apple's DiskCopy application. (41) If you hold down the shift key at startup, System 7 will not run any extensions or startup items

With the exception of date and time, all system-wide preferences are reset to default values by zapping the Parameter RAM (PRAM). If you wish to zap the PRAM, hold down shift-command-option and choose the Control Panel in System 6

As much as System 7 is perhaps the most stable of all recent system versions, there are some problems. Some of these that relate to low memory management and copying in the Finder have been fixed with System 7 Tune-Up, but others still lurk in the murky shadows

Apple is well known for including little messages in strange places and System 7 is no exception. (73) In the Color Control Panel, option-click on the Sample Text a few times. (74) In the Monitors Control Panel, click on the 7.0 in the upper right corner. (75) Type MID into the new city box in the System 7 Map Control Panel, and select Find. (76) In the Map Control Panel, click on the 7.0. (77) Hold down command-option and choose About the Finder