HoverBar 1.3.1
It shouldn't be necessary to review HoverBar. After all, you've installed it on your Mac, haven't you? But, given the rare possibility that you haven't, let me proceed with a short, positive review.
HoverBar is like Apple's Launcher, only better. It features palettes of icons that float over everything else on your screen. You single-click an icon to launch programs, display folders and files, access control panels, etc. In other words, you can access almost any item without rummaging around your system. Sure, you can launch using other utilities, including Apple's, but none gives quicker and easier access than HoverBar.
Here's how it works. Create a new bar on your desktop. Then simply drag the icon of, say, Excel to the 'plus' sign on the bar. From now on, simply click the Excel icon on the bar and your spreadsheet program opens. You can also launch files by dragging them over their associated program icon on the bar. The latter is especially useful for files that need to be launched via Stuffit Expander, for example.
The number of icons is limited by the space available on your monitor. I have 15 icons (mostly applications) in a single vertical bar on the right side of my screen.
You can choose from three icon sizes (the mid-sized version seems about right for my eyes and my 17-inch monitor). If a bar gets in your way, you can hide it with a Control-Escape key combination. The same combination toggles it into view again. You can move a bar anywhere by Control-dragging.
HoverBar is $5 shareware. It requires System 7.5 or better (and indeed works fine on 8.x through 8.6) and downloads in just a minute or so (220KB). You can find it in many shareware sites or go directly to the author's home page at < http://www.wenet.net/~hedgeboy/hoverbar.html >.
