Want to add flexible menus to the Mac OS X user interface? The folks at Proteron LLC say they’ve got just the thing for you: MaxMenus.
MacCentral got a sneak peak at the upcoming utility at this week’s Macworld Expo San Francisco. If you were a fan of such tools for the traditional Mac OS as Now Menus, ACTION Menus, and ACTION files, you’ll probably love MaxMenus. Not only do the product’s menus have some similar features to those other products, they’re customizable and streamline access to common items on your Mac.
“Mac OS X lacks a consistent and easy way to get to the files you need, and MaxMenus solves that problem,” Proteron President Samuel Caughron said in demoing MaxMenus for MacCentral.
The Mac OS X only tool is designed to simplify the locating and launching of applications, documents, volumes, preferences, recent items, photos, music playlists, and more. It comes with several preconfigured menus, but also offers expandibility options so users can design and create menus to suit their needs.
In addition to its flexible menus MaxMenus permits the assignment of hot keys to menu items “on the fly.” Keyboard combinations can be set up to provide shortcuts to a your most common destinations. MaxMenus also supports drag and drop into spring-loaded menus and utilizes Mac OS X’s event management so that it uses no extra processor time, Caughron said. The software also honors the new operating system’s memory protection for “extreme stability beyond anything that would have been possible under Mac OS 9,” he added.
MaxMenus can be preordered from the Proteron Web site and is expected to ship early next month. The cost is US $29.95, with competitive upgrades for competing and similar products expected when it’s released.