Review: OneClick
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I will say it right off the bat that OneClick is cool. It is a powerful, intelligent, easy-to-use piece of software, that does what it is supposed to do beautifully. What is it you ask? It is a macro editor with a graphical interface.
OneClick does what it says, it makes everyday tasks simpler, quicker, and more painless. Via floating palettes, buttons are displayed for you, with each one executing some task. OneClick allows you to make custom palettes, custom buttons, and custom libraries of buttons. It is quite a smart setup.
It's Got Moxie!
It is the buttons that have the power in this software. One button may empty the trash for you, another may select all the text in the window. It is these kind of tasks that OneClick makes as simple as clicking the mouse. But don't think that is the limit of OneClick, it's not. It has its own scripting language (that I have yet to learn) that allows for some very powerful creations.
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For instance, I have a palette specifically for Netscape that displays the amount of free RAM Netscape has. When that number goes below 1000, a message box pops up telling me that memory is getting dangerously low. Impressive, no? I have many simpler tasks performed by OneClick. For instance, in Claris Emailer, I have a button that creates a pop-up menu with a list of different signatures to use in a letter. I have my TRM (The Real MacOy) sigs, my personal sigs, and my professional sigs. Each is stored in a text file in the prefs folder, and OneClick opens, copies, and pastes the text into the letter instantly, invisibly, all by pressing one button. I must confess, I did not make either of these buttons, but am grateful for those who did. How about giving SimpleText a 'save every 15 minutes' function? That is definitely cool. (It even saved this article!) This is just a glimpse at what OneClick can do.
Yet, due to my inexperience with the scripting language (and all in general) I cannot make an educated report on its power. All I can say, is that from the looks of some of the buttons out there, it is very powerful indeed. This goes way beyond assigning keyboard shortcuts to menu items. This is total customization.
As you may have realized, OneClick allows for total customization. From the color of the button, to the size of the palette, everything is customizable. You can edit already-existent scripts, and replace certain criteria with some that matches your needs. You can create your own buttons from scratch, and implement them anywhere.
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Puttin' It All Together
The main tool of OneClick is the OneClick editor, accessible through a newly-added menu. This editor allows for complete control over your palettes. Within it, you edit everything, the button size, color, style and function. You edit the palette size, shape and what-not. You even write and edit the scripts from within here. It is your main tool in creating palettes.
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The palettes themselves are customizable. You can make a palette either a global palette or a application palette. This means that if you were to make a palette global, it would remain open and accessible in all apps. If you make it an application palette, it would only be open for certain applications, and close when you quit or moved out of that program. There are also sets of buttons designed specifically for an application. Take the Claris Emailer library. Some of the buttons are Connect Now... and Connect Again.... Well, these wouldn't work in the finder, or SimpleText, so they aren't part of that library. That doesn't mean they can't be used at all in those programs, it is just that the organization of OneClick makes the possibility of creating unusable palettes unlikely.
Yet, one of the greatest things of this software, is something that does not come in the packaging. That is the following this software has developed. The OneClick ButtonCircle is a group of people who share their buttons with the world, for free, in an effort to get the most out of this software.
You can find a button for quite a few things if you look for it. Sometimes you may have to do a little tweaking to get just what you want, but it's not that hard to figure out. Usually it is just a noun or two. WestCodeSoft, the creators of OneClick, offer an assortment of libraries, buttons, palettes and more at their web page. You can also find other web pages devoted to this.
The Bad Points?
Now for the kicker. I could not find anything seriously wrong with this software. There were a few things, like not being able to copy out a script, or for that matter, paste one in, but these are not really problems. I guess my only gripe was with the first version, this problem has since been fixed. If you crash, your palettes may be damaged permanently, and require a clean reinstall. But this is not a problem anymore. And then, other than the fact that it does take up about 300k memory, it's perfectly fine. I haven't crashed due to this software (at least knowingly), and it always functions like it is supposed to. My final gripe is the fact that the palettes can get in the way at times, obscuring your view. But you can choose to add a title bar, which supports window shading. So that is not a big problem either.
All in all, this is a superb piece of software. It is a little pricey at $100, but that does not mean it is not worth it. If it is something besides the price that is holding you back, buy it. You will thank yourself. It's powerful, smart, easy-to-use, and it does what it says. What else can you ask for?
| Chris DeAngelus is the Editor-In-Chief for The Real MacOy, where this review was originally published. |
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