Today Benoît Widemann has announced AliasMenu version 2.1. AliasMenu is a control panel allowing users to add customized menus to the menu bar.
After the great success of version 2.0 (chosen by thousands of users, selected as "Top Pick" by Download.com on C|Net, recommended by many web sites and Macintosh magazines all over the world, localized to German and Japanese), this new version adds a serious feature to AliasMenu: BeHierarchic support. If BeHierarchic 4 is installed, any folder placed in an AliasMenu menu becomes a hierarchical submenu, like in the Apple menu.
"I'm very happy with that," says Benoît Widemann, author of AliasMenu, "Submenus were the most wanted feature, lots of users asked for it. I think it's great to get it through BeHierarchic support, as it's precisely BeHierarchic's purpose and specialty, instead of multiplying extensions doing exactly the same thing."
Fabien Octave, author of BeHierarchic: "With BeHierarchic and AliasMenu together, the user can personalize his workspace without cluttering the screen with floating palettes or spring-loaded tabs. This is very efficient and still simple to use. More, there's no risk of conflicting inits when authors work together!"
This collaborative work by Benoît Widemann and Fabien Octave is a good example of a new kind of relationship between independent authors. "Small" programs become more and more interactive, each bringing additional features to the others and becoming a piece of the entire puzzle. The user is free to assemble pieces to his liking, to personalize his computer.
Thus, AliasMenu is supported by BeHierarchic, which in turn is supported by KeyQuencer. DefaultFolder is also supported by BeHierarchic and supports Apollo (and should support AliasMenu soon). AliasMenu is supported by Glidel and is even better used with CMTools, and so on. To activate hierarchical submenus in AliasMenu, one must click the appropriate checkbox in... BeHierarchic's preferences!
These interactions avoid any risk of conflicts between those extensions, as authors work actively together to make their programs compatible. It becomes a true alternative to much more expensive programs which confine users to closed solutions. Here, on the contrary, the puzzle remains open, pieces can be added or replaced at the user's wish.
The Mac market has an extraordinary shareware market driven by some of the most creative and talented Mac programs out there. This is an excellent resource that many Mac users take for granted.