How to fit plugin window in small screen (in OS X)

[Susanna]

I downloaded the demos of FocalBlade and ColorWasher and am trying them, but the plugin window (the dialog box where you choose all your settings) for each of the plugins is bigger than my screen. Even if I move the window up as far as possible, I can't get to any of the controls and buttons on the very bottom of the window (They are out of sight and out of reach). My computer is an ibook -- one of the older, clamshell ones --- with a fairly small screen. I am running OS X (10.3.9)

There is a note in the manual on how to resize the window, but I can't get it to resize at all. There must be something obvious that I'm missing. . . I hope someone can help. Thanks!

Susanna

[HaraldHeim]

You are right, with a 800x600 screen resolution the dialog of the MacOS X version of the PhotoWiz plugins won't fit on your screen. The Windows versions of the PhotoWiz plugins were designed for 800x600, but as controls are larger on the Mac than under Windows, the dialogs don't fit on a 800x600 screen anymore.

You were the first person to complain about this problem within the last 12 months, but we will try to make the dialog fit on a 800x600 screen with the next updates of the PhotoWiz plugins. Thanks for letting us know.

By the way, can you switch your laptop screen to 832x624? At that resolution you can at least use the ColorWasher and FocalBlade plugins.

[Susanna]

Thanks for the reply. My ibooks offers me only two choices for display resolution, and 800 x 600 is the higher one.

I hope the next version of the plugins will be useable to me. (Couldn't the plugin dialog just be given a scroll bar rather than having to make the dialog smaller?) -- but before I give up on using the plugins for now, does anyone know of any program I could install that could give me a workaround, for example something that would enable the dragging of a window above the menubar or something to shrink the whole window a little bit?

I tried something called "Spooky," a set of applescripts that resizes windows in various ways-- but it's giving me errors (and I have a feeling it won't be able to do what I need it to do anyway). I tried a "virtual desktop" program in the hopes that I could see the bottom of the dialog in the virtual desktop just under the main one -- but it doesn't allow windows to span two desktops, so I still can't get to the lower part of the dialog. But maybe there's another program of this general sort that would allow it. Anyone know of one? or anything else that might work?

Susanna

[HaraldHeim]

Some video card drivers under Windows let you create virtual desktops. If you reach the bottom of the screen with the mouse then it scroll down to reveal the rest of the desktop. Hopefully there is something like that available for the Mac, too.

[plugsnpixels]

I checked with a utility called "Mactracker" and the clamshell iBook does indeed max out at 800x600 ("optimum"). It's only got 4 megs of graphics memory and can't go above 576 RAM.

Susanne, are you in any position to upgrade your machine (via ebay, etc.)? That iBook was great in its time but as you can see, it's holding you back now--especially for digital imaging. Not only in terms of screen resolution, but processing power (366 MHz max).

For about 8 years starting in 1997 I used a PowerMac 7300, and over time upgraded it to a G3 processor, more RAM, bigger hard drives, FireWire/USB cards, etc. But I just couldn't get OS-X to run on it (though there were hacks). By buying and selling older Macs on ebay, I was able to save up for a used G4 tower (also from ebay).

You can get these G4s pretty cheap now, and they will seriously outperform your iBook. I do a lot of the work for my website from home on a G4/533DP. In the office I enjoy a G5 iMac and Intel iMac, but I didn't have to buy those . They do make quite a difference though, especially in Photoshop.

Mike

[Susanna]

I appreciate your checking into it, and your suggestion. I only just recently got this ibook (it's a 466 mHz one) and it mostly serves my purposes fine, and is perfect for taking to and from work, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade.

I'm just now learning that the low screen resolution can be a hindrance (It makes certain things, like these plugins, unusable) -- but I'm fortunate to have a desktop computer that's current and big-screened enough to take over the tasks that are too much for the ibook.

Thanks again,
Susanna