© 1992 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 14. no. 9, pp. 36-37.
Most people who think they want to use ResEdit are, to put it bluntly, wrong. ResEdit is designed for creating and modifying resources, and most Macintosh users lack the time and background to learn the proper definition of”resource,” much less the technical details of how they should, or should not, be created and modified.
On the other hand, they do have a need, or at least desire, to look at resources, or merely snoop around. For these purposes, the perfect solution is CanOpener 2.0, a commercial utility from Abbott Systems. Putting the case more strongly, CanOpener may be better than perfect, since it can do several things that ResEdit cannot.
CanOpener comes in two flavors: a DA (desk accessory), for use with System 6.0.X, and an application, for use with System 6 or 7. It can open up any file (ResEdit can only open up files with resources) and can search these files for text, pictures, and sounds. It can display whatever it finds, which in the case of pictures is quite striking: it handles MacPaint, PICT, PICT2, MacDraw II, TIFF, EPS, icon and color icon formats. When it finds a sound, it can play the sound.
Once you’ve found what you are looking for, you can copy the text, picture or whatever into another application, or print it, or launch the program that created it (System 7 only). Even more impressive, you can file the information away in a CanOpener Library. Because it handles a greater range of”things” than the Scrapbook, and comes with a table of contents, you may soon find that Apple’s Scrapbook is, at least on your Macintosh, extinct.
CanOpener is also “non-invasive,” which means it cannot modify the files it opens, making it far safer than ResEdit. Want to peek at the System file, while it is active? Go ahead, it won’t hurt a thing.
Because it can open data files, which ResEdit cannot, CanOpener is also a life saver when things go wrong. If PageMaker crashes and corrupts the file you are working on, or your HyperCard stack full of addresses and phone numbers dies, all you can do is curse. But with CanOpener, you can “look” inside the damaged file and extract the text of your PageMaker document or your names and addresses from HyperCard. ResEdit can’t.
CanOpener has one final trick up its sleeve: it can search for information, even if you don’t know where to look. Tell it to look for the word “Microsoft,” for example, and it will find filenames, such as Microsoft Word, but also find the word buried inside the code within programs, or within letters or documents that you have written. Did you write a note to Barbara but misplace it, and can’t remember what you named the note? Just tell it to look for “Barbara,” and it will search every file on every drive connected to your machine, and display exactly where it found her name.
CanOpener: don’t boot your Mac without it.
Name: CanOpener 2.0
Price: $125
Publisher: Abbott Systems, Inc.
Address: 62 Mountain Road Pleasantville, NY 10570
800 Number: 800-552-9157
Phone: 914-747-4201