This document reflects the latest information on At Ease version 3.0. Please read this document carefully. The software may have changed slightly since the manual was printed.
Installing At Ease
You should use the Installer program to install At Ease. Do not attempt to install At Ease by dragging files onto your hard disk. The Installer places the files in the correct locations on the disk.
Before using the At Ease Installer program, make sure you have quit all other application programs. If you have trouble installing, temporarily turn off all extensions by holding down the Shift key while you restart your computer. Then try installing again.
If you install At Ease 3.0 on a computer running system software version 7.0 or 7.1 and you later install version 7.5 on your computer, use the Custom Install option of the At Ease Installer to install the At Ease Guides.
Installing Mouse Practice
If your version of At Ease came with Mouse Practice, install it immediately after installing At Ease.
Removing At Ease
If you decide to remove At Ease, use the At Ease Installer program. Never attempt to remove At Ease from your System Folder while At Ease is turned on. See the manual for more information on removing At Ease.
Getting Help in At Ease
In addition to the manual and this Read Me file, there are several ways of obtaining online help in At Ease.
Apple Guide (System 7.5 Users)
If you are using system software version 7.5 or later, you can use Apple Guide to get instructions for using At Ease. At Ease Guide, the Apple Guide for the At Ease panels, is available from the Guide menu whenever At Ease is the active application program. At Ease Setup Guide, the Apple Guide for the At Ease Setup program, is available from the Guide menu whenever At Ease Setup is the active program.
At Ease Setup Help (System 7.0 or 7.1 Users)
If you are using system software version 7.0 or 7.1, At Ease includes online help for the At Ease Setup program. To use At Ease Setup Help, click the question mark button than appears on each page of the At Ease Setup program.
Balloon Help
------------
Balloon Help is available for almost every function of At Ease. To activate Balloon Help, choose Show Balloons from the Guide menu (system software version 7.5) or the Help menu (system software version 7.0 or 7.1). When you are finished using Balloon Help, choose Hide Balloons from the Guide menu or Help menu.
Upgrading From Earlier Versions of At Ease
For most upgrades, your administrator password (if you had one) will remain the same in the At Ease Setup program in version 3.0. When the At Ease Setup program asks for an administrator name, type "At Ease Administrator," which is the default administrator name.
Upgrading From Version 1.x
If you are upgrading from At Ease version 1.x to version 3.0, you must first remove the old version by using the At Ease Installer program that came with the old version. When the Installer screen is displayed, hold down the Option key to change the Install button to Remove. Then click Remove to remove the old version.
*** The information above is incomplete. The correct procedure to remove At Ease 1.0 is:
1. Double-click the At Ease 1.0 Installer.
2. Click OK to pass the "Welcome to the At Ease Installer".
3. Click on the Customize button.
4. Select At Ease in the window on the left.
5. Hold down the option key to change the Install button to a Remove button. ***
Any items you created in version 1.x are automatically assigned to a setup or user named At Ease 1.0.
Upgrading From Version 2.x
Upgrading from version 2.x to version 3.0 occurs automatically when you first run the At Ease Setup program of version 3.0. At Ease turns itself off at the end of the installation process, so you must run the At Ease Setup program to turn At Ease back on.
*** The information above is incomplete. It should state that:
To update At Ease 2.x machines to At Ease 3.0, you must first follow the normal installation process. You should first startup your computer with extensions off by holding down the shift key while starting your Macintosh until it says "Welcome to Macintosh, Extensions Off". Run the installer program from the installer disk. ***
Installing Other Programs While Running At Ease
You should not install programs onto your hard disk while running At Ease. Before you install programs, turn At Ease off in the At Ease Setup program and restart your computer. When you finish installing programs, turn At Ease back on and restart the computer again. Programs you install onto your hard disk are not automatically added to At Ease setups or users; you must use the At Ease Setup program to provide access to the new programs.
If some program buttons are not displayed properly in At Ease after you install new software, you should rebuild your desktop. To do so, turn At Ease off and restart your computer. While the computer is restarting, hold down the Command and Option keys until you see a message asking whether you want to rebuild the desktop file. Click OK. When the computer has finished starting up, turn At Ease back on in the At Ease Setup program and restart the computer again.
Restricted Finder Users
There are several things you should know about the restricted Finder environment.
Security in the Restricted Finder
In trying to maintain compatibility with other programs, the restricted Finder environment can sometimes allow programs to bypass some of the security features you selected in the At Ease Setup program. If programs you use seem to pose security problems, you may want to remove them from your hard disk.
Security is maintained for restricted Finder users by creating a list of "approved" application programs, desk accessories, and control panels that can be opened by the user. This list includes:
- all items in the current setup folder
- items in the Apple Menu Items folder (if you have given access to them)
- the Chooser (if you have given access to it)
- the Print Monitor
- items in the Startup Items folder (only if the setup will open them)
- items in the Shutdown Items folder
- items in the Control Panels folder (if you have given access to them)
- the At Ease Setup program (administrator password required)
- approved sub-launched programs (for more information, see "Sub-Launching Programs" later in this Read Me file)
If a document exists in any of these places, the application that created the document can also be opened.
The At Ease Setup program can always be opened because the administrator password restricts access.
The list of approved programs does not include programs in the user's own documents folder. (If it did, a user could copy a program from a floppy disk to his or her documents folder and attempt to open it without permission.)
Macintosh Guide and the Restricted Finder
Because of changes in the Finder made for restricted Finder users, instructions in Macintosh Guide (available from the Guide menu in system software version 7.5 or later) may not always be accurate. For example, when users who do not have access to control panels use Macintosh Guide to request instructions on adjusting the sound volume, they will not be able to complete the required steps.
Desktop Items and the Restricted Finder
When a user connects to (mounts) a disk other than the startup disk, items on the desktop of the disk are placed in a folder called "Items for Desktop," located at the top level of that disk. When the user disconnects from (unmounts) the disk, the items are not replaced on the desktop.
Copying in the Restricted Finder
If a user drags a folder for which he or she doesn't have access (such as another user's folder) into his or her own folder, the computer will not copy any files from the dragged folder, but it will add an empty folder of the same name to the hierarchy for the user's folder.
File Sharing and the Restricted Finder
File sharing does not work with the restricted Finder. When a restricted Finder user logs in, At Ease turns off file sharing. The next regular Finder user who logs in and wants to use file sharing must return to the Sharing Setup control panel and turn file sharing on again.
Do not use file sharing on computers that will be updated via the Update Computers command in At Ease Setup.
RAM Disks and the Restricted Finder
Do not use RAM disks if any user works in the restricted Finder; doing so may cause your computer to crash.
Sub-Launching Programs
Sub-launching is the process by which one program opens another program (called a subprogram) without the user having directly opened the subprogram. The security features of At Ease can sometimes interfere with a program's ability to sub-launch necessary subprograms. When a program attempts to sub-launch a subprogram to which a user has not been given access, the computer will usually display a -5000 error code.
There are two ways to allow programs to sub-launch the subprograms they need. In either case, the subprogram bypasses the security that At Ease provides.
- In the At Ease Setup program, open the Settings menu and choose Application Preferences. Add the necessary subprograms to the list, and then select each subprogram and click the checkbox labeled "Can be launched by other applications." This setting applies to all users and setups, so you need to follow this procedure only once. You should be aware that this setting allows all users-including restricted Finder users-to open the subprogram.
- In the At Ease Setup program, give access to all the necessary subprograms. This procedure allows you to specify which users or setups have access to the subprograms. The disadvantage of this procedure, however, is that users see a button for each subprogram even though they normally won't need to open the subprograms directly.
At Ease 3.0 and Kid Pix Studio
Kid Pix Studio sub-launches each subprogram a child uses. But because of a software incompatibility, At Ease does not view these subprograms as application programs. To allow Kid Pix Studio to sub-launch its subprograms successfully, choose Application Preferences from the Settings menu of At Ease Setup and click the Custom button in the screen that appears. In the Custom Add screen, add each of the following subprograms:
Name File Creator
----- ------------
KPS 0 Kîd0
KPS 1 Kîd1
KPS 2 Kîd2
KPS 3 Kîd3
KPS 4 Kîd4
KPS 5 *** Kîd4
This information is incorrect the original Read Me states to type Kîd4 again for the KPS 5 name, it should read Kîd5 ***
To type the î character in the file creator names, hold down the Option key while you type the letter i, then release the Option key and immediately type the letter i again.
For more information on using the Custom Add screen, see "Application Preferences" later in this Read Me file.
At Ease 3.0 and Control Panels
Users who start out in the At Ease panels and switch to the Finder may experience problems when opening control panels. If they choose Control Panels from the Apple menu of the Finder, the Control Panels folder appears as expected. If they choose a particular control panel from the Control Panels submenu, however, they are returned to the At Ease panels. In most cases, the selected control panel appears in front of the At Ease panels. But for certain control panels, such as the Extensions Manager in system software version 7.5, a message appears saying that the selected control panel can't be opened in At Ease.
To avoid these problems, At Ease users who switch to the Finder should not use the Control Panels submenu. Instead, they should choose Control Panels from the Apple menu of the Finder and then double-click the control panel they want in the Control Panels window that appears.
At Ease 3.0 and CD-ROM Discs
At Ease can display only one CD-ROM panel at a time. If a user inserts another CD-ROM disc to which he or she has access, a message appears indicating that the disc can be accessed using buttons. If the user ejects the first CD-ROM disc, the second CD-ROM disc appears as a panel.
The CD-ROM Preferences feature does not work properly with audio CDs.
At Ease 3.0 and the Find File Feature in System 7.5
While At Ease is running, Find File finds only those items in locations to which the user has complete access, including the user's documents folder and the Trash folder. Most other locations (including server volumes and the user's setup folder) do not return any information when Find File is used.
At Ease 3.0 and the Startup Items Folder in System 7.5
Any item in the Startup Items folder will be opened at startup, even if you didn't give the user access to the item or to the program used to create it. If you don't want all users to have access to an item, don't place the item in the Startup Items folder.
Application Preferences
The Custom button in the Application Preferences screen should be used only when At Ease security settings are interfering with a program's ability to sub-launch other programs that it needs and the "Can be launched by other applications" setting doesn't solve the problem. It is very unlikely that you will need to use the Custom button.
When you click the Custom button, the Custom Add screen appears. You provide a name (which can be anything you like, since it's needed only for display in the list of applications) and the file creator for each subprogram you are having difficulty sub-launching. You must type the file creator exactly, including any spaces and special characters. (You can usually get the name of the file creator from the developer of the software.)
The Custom button also allows you to remove programs from the Application Preferences list-even programs that you added to the list using the Add Other button. To do so, click a program's name in the list and click the Custom button. If the Custom Add screen does not already include a name and file creator for the program, type the program's name (exactly as it appears in the list) and its file creator. Then click Remove.
Database Consistency Checking
At Ease 3.0 uses a sophisticated database for handling user information. If a problem is detected, the At Ease Setup program alerts the administrator and asks whether it should verify the database files. When the verification is complete, a file called Consistency Check Report appears on the startup disk.
The administrator can also manually start the verification process by holding down the Command key while starting the At Ease Setup program.