CyberFinder

CyberFinder was conceived in accordance with Aladdin Systems' principle of "Total Finder Integration" (tm). Much like the new Stuffit Deluxe 4.0, which allows the user to double-click on compressed Stuffit(tm) Archives and manipulate their contents in the Finder as if they were standard folders, CyberFinder adds bookmark-management capabilities to the Finder.

How it works:

Bookmarks are stored by CyberFinder in two completely separate forms: either as individual bookmarks, or as bookmarks in libraries (much as bookmarks are stored together in a file by a program such as URL Manager Pro).

Bookmarks

An individual CyberFinder bookmark acts just like a Finder alias -- double-clicking on it causes the Finder to lookup the URL, consult Internet Config as to the appropriate internet application to use with it, and tell that program to go to that address. A bookmark is treated just like any other file; you can do a "Get Info" on it which will reveal its URL. You can collect these and put them in a folder in your Apple menu items folder to make them readily available. Thus the Internet can be only a click and drag away.

How are bookmarks created? A new bookmark is created in the Finder by holding down the shift key and clicking on the File menu. You can then double-click on the new bookmark and enter a URL. If you have copied a URL onto the clipboard, the contents of the clipboard will be automatically copied to the dialog box, and you merely need to click on "OK." If you're working in a drag-aware application, such as WordPerfect 3.5 or TexEdit Plus, you can begin dragging the URL to wherever you like, then holding down the "shift" key, and a bookmark will be created in that target. A bookmark can also be grabbed from within any application: simply highlight the URL, hit command-option-G, and the highlighted text will be saved as a bookmark in the location you specified in the CyberFinder control panel. The advantage of bookmarks is that they can be used as simple aliases, and can be searched as files; however, on large hard disks, they can occupy a lot of space.

Libraries

A library, as the term indicates, consists of a collection of bookmarks. A new one is created simply by holding down the control key when clicking on the Finder's File menu. The result is a library. You can double-click on the untitled library to open it, and then drag into it your individual bookmarks. These can be renamed and reassigned by clicking on a name and choosing "Get Info" respectively. What about converting one's laboriously collected Netscape bookmarks? CyberFinder recognizes Netscape bookmark files as libraries of sorts. If you double-click on such a file, it will open as a library, and all of the bookmarks therein may be selected and dragged to an untitled library or selected individually and dragged to waiting specialized "libraries." Similarly, this window opened when I exported my bookmarks from a URL Manager Pro file as html and double-clicked on the resulting file. Libraries work more or less like folders in the Finder, with a few exceptions. They allow convenient organization of bookmarks, and save disk space, but they don't offer the convenience of isolated bookmarks.

Navigating

As said before, double-clicking on a bookmark launches the appropriate application and takes you there on the Internet. The same is true of individual bookmarks contained within library files. Yet CyberFinder offers yet another way: highlighting a URL anywhere and pressing control-option-L will take you there.

Conclusion

CyberFinder is an ingenious product, whose careful design is apparent in every detail. CyberFinder is offerred for $30 + $7.50 shipping & handling. It requires about 500K of RAM. You may download a demo version which will function for 30 days.