Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib. I think most of the Psion
community could tell very early on in ExtraBars development that it was
something special. Not because of what it does - providing shortcuts to
documents and applications - the freeware Macro5 does
that just as well. But because of how it does it. After the myriad of
first generation EPOC utilities with useable, if slightly unique, interfaces,
Jason Kneen's ExtraBars is a
revelation. By mimicking the way the Series 5's own Extras bar works, it fits
in so seamlessly that you'd think it was part of the operating system. I've
been looking at v1.00F, grabbed from Palmscape.
 Instead of hiding shortcuts away on a text-based grid or forcing
you to stick them in a specific folder, ExtraBars simply pops them up on 'mock'
'Extras' bars, scrolling smoothly up in the right place. Each shortcut can
point towards either an application or document (obviously!) or a macro,
favourite web site or folder. This latter is very important and at last gets
round the Series 5's limitation of only one built-in 'bookmark'. For example,
you could make up a bar of icons, one for each of your favourite 8 folders, and
in each case tapping on the name/icon would take you on the system screen
itself to that folder. Very neat.
The option to link to macros is also significant. Following widespread
concern over the number of competing macro systems available now for EPOC,
Jason Kneen has worked well with the authors of Macro5 and HotKeys to provide
either direct support or import modules for macros already created in these
systems. His own BackLite+ macro system has evolved and is now renamed EScript.
As ever, macros transform the possible uses of the utility tremendously, though
I'd advise getting used to all ExtraBars' other functions before you start
playing too much with EScript - there's more to life than tinkering with Psion
computers, you know!
Jason has considered the user interface very well (thanks largely to a truly
awe-inspiring number of beta versions!), with special 'wizards' that guide you
gently through the configuration of each shortcut. Screens which just convey
information are kindly provided with "Don't show this screne in
future" check-boxes, which is a nice touch.
Displacing many other smaller utilities, ExtraBars also contains enough
functionality to run bars of shortcuts automatically when it's started or when
the Series 5 is powered on. With a little planning and a few well-chosen
macros, ExtraBars may turn out to be the only utility you ever need.
It's elegant, mind-bogglingly comprehensive, well-supported and more or less
fully working even in its unregistered state. Highly recommended!
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