Bernie ][ The Rescue 2.5

Preferences

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Communications | Printing | Preferences | Total Integration

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1. Introduction

> 1.1 Window Behavior

2. Presets

> 2.1 What's a Preset?

> 2.2 Creating a Preset

> > 2.2.1 Creating a Preset File

> > 2.2.2 How Presets Are Stored

> > 2.2.3 Choosing a Preset

> > 2.2.4 Adding Preferences to a Preset

> > 2.2.5 Dropping a Control Gives You an Error Message

> > 2.2.6 Adding All Preferences (Copy Globals)

> > 2.2.7 Adding Special Features

> > 2.2.8 Replacing Items

> > 2.2.9 Deleting Items

> 2.3 Applying Presets

> 2.4 Deleting Presets

3. Disk Preferences

> 3.1 Attaching Preferences to Disk Images

> 3.2 Applying Disk Preferences Automatically

> 3.3 Deleting Disk Preferences

> 3.4 Shared Volumes and 3.5" Floppies

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1. Introduction

Bernie features a wide range of customizations. A few selected options that you might need to change often are available directly from the Setup menu. These include:

- turning sound on and off
- turning low-level mouse emulation on and off
- turning low-level disk support on and off
- turning speed control (SpeedNanny) on and off

The vast majority of customizations, though, is available through Bernie's Preferences window. This chapter explains the various preferences panels, how you can create presets, and attach preferences to disk images.

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1.1 Window Behavior

To open the Preferences window, choose "Preferences..." from the Setup menu. If you open the window for the first time in a session, this operation may take a few seconds as a lot of initialization has to take place.

To close the Preferences window, click the window's close box. Closing the window does not affect the preferences - all options retain their setting.

The Preferences window is rather large if you have a small monitor. Therefore, Bernie lets you shrink the window by clicking the zoom box of the Preferences window:

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2. Presets

Bernie is offering a wide range of customizations. This allows you to get the most out of available resources.

Unfortunately, this also means that different applications require different setups. For example, you might want to configure Bernie to work as fast as possible with productivity software while entertainment software should also deliver rich sound. To free you from going through all the preferences, Bernie lets you create presets.

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2.1 What's a Preset?

A preset is a group of preferences of your choice. A preset may contain options from one panel, selected options from multiple panels, or even a complete dump of all available customizations.

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2.2 Creating a Preset

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2.2.1 Creating a Preset File

The last panel - Presets - in Bernie's Preferences window lets you create, edit and delete presets. To create a new preset, open the Presets panel and bush the button "New Preset...":

A dialog appears asking you for a name for the new preset. The name you enter here must be a valid MacOS file name.

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2.2.2 How Presets Are Stored

Presets are stored as files in a special folder. This folder is created automatically when you start Bernie for the first time. This folder is called "Preferences Sets" and is located in Bernie's application folder:

You do not need to bother about how Bernie stores presets since both creating and deleting preset files is done via buttons in the Preferences window. However, you might want to look at the preset files if you'd like to exchange presets with other users.

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2.2.3 Choosing a Preset

Upon creating a preset file, you can start editing it. However, you first need to tell Bernie which preset you'd like to edit:

The Edit Preset popup menu lists all currently available presets. (The "Harddisk" item is a disk image - please turn to chapter "Disk Preferences" to learn more about an interesting variant of the presets concept.)

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2.2.4 Adding Preferences to a Preset

Now that you've chosen a target preset, we're ready to add preferences.

Adding preferences to a preset basically means copying global preferences to the preset. There's a special shortcut for adding an option: clicking a control while holding down the command key.

When you command-click a control, the control retains its setting and becomes movable. It follows the movement of the cursor until you release the mouse button. At the same time, the white area at the bottom of the Preferences window pops up. This is a drop box where you can drop the control. The control will then be added to the currently selected preset. Such an action might look like this:

The option "Speed Control" has been clicked while holding down the command key,
and then moved to the presets drop box.

Keep these things in mind:

- When adding a control to a preset, it will be added with its current setting. Thus you might need to change the setting before adding it to the preset.
- To add a slider to a preset, be sure to command-click the slider. Command-clicking its labels will not work.
- You can only add controls, not group boxes or panel icons. (You can, however, add all preferences in the Presets panel.)

If you have command-clicked a control by mistake and would like to not add it to a preset, just drop it anywhere but in the presets drop box. A control will only added when it has been moved into the presets drop box.

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2.2.5 Dropping a Control Gives You an Error Message

Remember that we first had to choose a preset in the Presets panel. In some situations Bernie deselects the current preset and reverts to the "none" item. This happens when:

- deleting the current preset
- mounting, unmounting (ejecting) or remapping a disk or disk image

In such cases, just open the Presets panel again and pick the preset you'd like to edit.

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2.2.6 Adding All Preferences (Copy Globals)

If you'd like to add many preferences or all to a preset, it is very tiresome to add all controls one-by-one. That's why Bernie features a button in the Presets panel that lets you copy all preferences in one batch. Please note that this operation will overwrite any previously added preferences.

To add all preferences to a preset, push the Copy Globals button in the Presets panel.

Even if you don't need a complete set of preferences, adding all options first may be faster than adding individual settings. You can later remove specific items easily.

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2.2.7 Adding Special Features

As mentioned in the introduction, some of Bernie's preferences are not accessible from within the Preferences window and thus can't be added to presets as outlined above. These features include mouse, sound, disk, and video emulation modes and are listed in the Setup menu.

For this reason, the Presets panel has a popup menu with which you can add those preferences to the currently chosen preset:

Upon choosing one of the items from the Special Features menu, it appears in the list.

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2.2.8 Replacing Items

If you need to change the setting of a preset's item, you basically need to overwrite it with the same preference and the changed setting:

- make the desired preset the current setting
- activate the panel containing the desired feature
- command-click the control and drag it into the preset drop box

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2.2.9 Deleting Items

It is likely that you might want to remove one or several settings from a preset at one point. Imagine you have a preset that looks like this:

The illustration above shows a preset where multiple items have been selected. You have the following possibilities:

- click an item
- use the Shift key for making a contiguous selection
- use Command for making disjunct selections

Upon making a selection, push the key Delete Items to remove the selected options from the preset.

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2.3 Applying Presets

The reason you created presets is that you can easily set a number of preferences items to a predetermined value.

To apply a preset, you have to choices:

- Make the desired preset the current preset (by selecting it in the Edit Preset popup menu) and push the Apply button below
- Open the Setup menu and the Presets... submenu. This submenu lists all available presets. Selecting a preset from this menu applies the preset.

When Bernie is running, the settings it is using are those of the Preferences window. The settings are the global settings and the only ones Bernie is considering. When applying a preset, Bernie copies the preset's settings to the global settings. It is not possible to revert to the original global settings with an undo operation or a similar function.

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2.4 Deleting Presets

To delete a preset and all settings contained within, make the preset the current preset and push the Delete Preset button.

Theoretically, a deleted preset and an empty preset both do nothing. Technically, however, an empty preset is still occupying (very little) disk space while a deleted preset is removed entirely from disk.

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3. Disk Preferences

A preset has to be applied manually by choosing the corresponding menu items. Bernie also supports a concept referred to as "Disk Preferences". Disk preferences are presets that are associated with disk images. They are not stand-alone preferences files but rather attached to disk image files.

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3.1 Attaching Preferences to Disk Images

Creating disk preferences works almost identically to creating presets. Instead of creating a new preset, however, you only need to mount the disk image you'd like to attach preferences to. Bernie automatically makes available all mounted disk images in the Presets panel. In the example below there are three disk images mounted:

In the this particular case, there are three mounted disk images. They are listed in the Presets panel. To attach preferences to a disk image, just make it the current preset and start adding preferences.

In other words, the Edit Preset menu in the Presets panel is a dynamic list that always includes all mounted disk images plus presets you may have created on your own.

Please note that ejecting a disk image makes the disk unavailable and thus any preferences attached to it can no longer be edited, deleted or applied.

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3.2 Applying Disk Preferences Automatically

So, what's the benefit of disk preferences over regular presets? Since disk preferences are associated with a particular software, you can tell Bernie to apply attached preferences whenever you are booting from such a disk image. In other words, whenever Bernie is booting from a disk image that is including preferences, Bernie is applying the settings.

You can enable and disable this functionality in the Presets panel. The check box Apply Disk Prefs When Booting From Image controls whether Bernie is allowed to apply disk preferences or not. If you disallow Bernie to apply disk preferences, they behave exactly as presets and you need to apply them manually.

Typical use of this feature is to configure games for sound support and joystick emulation. (You might even want to tell Bernie to switch to Power Mode each time you boot your favorite demo software.) You might want to configure your productivity software for maximum performance

Limitations

Please note that Bernie does only apply preferences during the boot process. For example, if you boot from a GS/OS boot disk and then launch a software that resides on a different disk image, there's no way to tell Bernie to apply settings for that particular application. You would only be able to specify settings for the GS/OS boot disk.

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3.3 Deleting Disk Preferences

As with presets, you can delete disk preferences by pushing the Delete Preset button. In the case of disk preferences, Bernie does of course not delete the disk image. (Remember that disk preferences become a part of the disk image file.) The preferences are removed but the disk image stays intact.

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3.4 Shared Volumes and 3.5" Floppies

Because disk preferences can only attached to disk image files, it is not possible to create disk preferences for (physical) 3.5" floppies and shared volumes.

Registering | Getting Started | Audio/Video | Storage
Communications | Printing | Preferences | Total Integration

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