Apple products for Windows - Apple's products for Microsoft Windows graphical user interface - Windows Watcher - Column

Home Office Computing, July, 1992 by Kay Yarborough Nelson

Apple's OneScanner for Windows and the Personal LaserWriter NTR Both Connect To MS-DOS Computers

I couldn't believe it. There I was, in a press briefing at Apple Computer in Cupertino, California, and the Apple people were saying things like, "Your autoexec dot bat" and "Your config dot sys." It alerted me to an astonishing development: Apple is doing Windows.

Because many people have both Mac and MS-DOS systems, Apple has introduced reasonably priced new products that work with either system. The first of these are the OneScanner for Windows and the Personal LaserWriter NTR, which connects to both MS-DOS and Mac computers.

As far as I can tell, the Windows scanner is almost idiot-proof, just like the Mac-only version. If you insert the image you want to scan crookedly, the OneScanner straightens it for you. No more tweaking your image for 20 minutes just to get it right.

The printer is both System 7.0-savvy and optimized for Windows 3.1 printing. When you send a job to the printer, it figures out where it's coming from and says, "Aha! A PC job!" or "Must be a Mac job!" and prints. This is what computing should be.

Make yourself a customized daily work group. If there are a few files you use every day, why not create a custom work group so that you can find those documents quickly? To set up a daily work group, choose Properties from the Program Manager's File menu, then click New Program Group. Name it whatever you like and click OK. Then open the File Manager and drag the icons of the documents you want to include into your new daily work group.

The only catch is that you need to add extensions to the files to associate them with their programs. To do that, just highlight the document and choose Associate from the File Manager's File menu; then select the program that created those documents in the first place.

Stupid (and not-so-stupid) Windows tricks. Some of the tricks in this month's column are pretty wacky, and others you might find real use for.

Programmers often build secret, hard-to-find effects, called Easter eggs, into the programs they create. These are usually screens of credits listing everybody who had a special role in developing and testing the program.

To find the Easter egg in Windows 3.1, press the Shift and Ctrl keys and keep them down through the entire procedure. Now, choose About Program Manager from the Program Manager's Help menu. Double-click on the Windows icon; then click OK. Nothing will happen, so repeat the procedure. This time you'll see the flag wave and a message appear. Now do it again. When you double-click on the Windows icon this time, you'll hear a sound, and you'll see a randomly chosen character presenting a list of credits for just about everybody who worked on Windows 3.1. The characters represent the giants at Microsoft: Bill Gates (he's the one with the bow tie), Steve Olmer, Brad Silverberg, and T. Baer (he's the one that looks like a polar bear). I did this over and over until I saw them all. Useless, but so much fun.

Attention, Winword users. If you use Word for Windows 2.0, you've got to try this trick, which is hot news on the electronic bulletin boards. What you'll see is the bad, bold green WordPerfect monster attacking tiny Word for Windows users until one of them topples the great Winword icon onto the WordPerfect monster. Somebody at Microsoft had a lot of fun with this one. I couldn't believe it until I tried it myself.

To view this loony 'toon, choose Options from the Tools menu and make sure that Paragraph Marks isn't checked. Then choose Macro from the Tools menu, enter "Spiff," and click Edit. You'll see SubMain, a paragraph marker by itself, and EndSub. Delete everything except that paragraph marker, then choose Close from the File menu. You'll then be asked whether you want to save the changes; say Yes. Choose About from the Help menu, click once on the Windows icon, and enjoy the show. Stay tuned for the fireworks display and rolling credits afterward.

Press Esc to stop the cartoon. After everything's over, you'll be asked if you want to save the global changes. Say Yes so that from now on you can just click on that Winword icon to show your friends this amazing display.