Word: resedit
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Dates: during 1987-1987
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...With ResEdit, the hacker or casual user can modify any program's resource files. Thus you can even edit the system file. Modifying the system file can help break the monotony of boring icons and messages. For example, the annoying little watch that always shows up on the screen to remind the user how slow that little Macintosh really is can be changed to the infinity sign, an hourglass or even a tasteful obscenity...
...real power of ResEdit goes beyond simple cosmetic surgery which improves the style but not performance. Editing menus and command keys allows users to custom tailor programs to fit their individual styles...
...Happy Hacker frequently likes to use a bold type style when writing papers in Word. Before ResEditing his Word disk, however, switching to bold took several keystrokes (not to mention a lunge for the mouse); the menu had to be chosen and then the Hacker had to click on bold. ResEdit has allowed the Hacker to define the command-1 key (i.e. pressing the little squiggly key simultaneously with the 1 key) as performing the same function as selecting Bold on the Character menu; no more grasping for that non-teflon paded mouse...
Another way to improve a program's useability through ResEdit is to completely change around the command key options. In Word, for example, the Happy Hacker has given command key options to all of the selections on the Character menu (such as Bold mentioned earlier) and also to the choices on the Paragraph menu (Left-Justify, Center...
...ResEdit can also be used to play around with the fonts, editing them in a similar way to the Fatbits command in MacPaint (this is also how icons are modified in ResEdit). Thus some of the uglier letters in the London font can be cleaned up. More practically, this feature is useful for creating special characters, such as logical notation symbols, within standard fonts. On one of the Happy Hacker's disks, there are no more asterisks in Geneva and New York instead there is the often-used `existential quantifier' symbol (an oversized backwards E that is a favorite...