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From: dweisman@umiami.ir.miami.edu (Ordinary Man)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Copying files in the backround of sys 7
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.235116.8823@umiami.ir.miami.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 91 03:51:16 GMT
References: <50219@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Organization: Univ of Miami IR
Lines: 33

In article <50219@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, tigger@freezer.it.udel.edu (david faust) writes:
> Ok....people have been talking about System 7 allowing you to put the
> copying of files in the backround. So how does one go about doing this?
> Also, if you know of any other system 7 goodies I would appreciate knowing
> them. Thanks for your help,
> Dave

Well, it's pretty simple. You just drag copy a file or files from one disk
to another and the ensuing copy status dialog becomes semi-modeless. What this
means is that you can move the window around but can't click anywhere else on
the desktop. You *CAN*, however, click in the menubar, specifically in the top
right corner where the application menu is. You can the switch to another
application that is currently running. Ah, that's the catch. You can't start
an application after starting a copy, but you can resume one. For example, you
run MS Word and load up your term paper. You then switch back to the finder and
drag your big 400K file from one disk to another. The copy status box shows
the familiar status bar as the copy progresses. You then can switch back to 
Word while the file is copying and continue typing. This is pretty neat. It's
a little jumpy during a background copy, but otherwise fine. It sure beats
waiting a few minutes for the copy to finish when you could be comparing text
from your term paper to your rough draft or something like that.

Dan

-- 
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