The Jolt extension provides a performance boost to the use of the Project Editor by altering the method that the PE uses to update its palettes.

Place the Jolt project in the Startup folder (not the Extensions folder) that is inside your SC Pouch. That’s it! Since this extension is activated on startup, you will need to quit and rerun SuperCard if it was already open.

Normally, whenever an object is selected or created in the Project Editor, it goes through the process of updating all the currently open palettes to reflect the new selection. However, on some Macs (especially on slower ones) the process of updating the palettes takes way too long. Up until now, the only way to minimize the update time was to collapse the palettes and then expand them when you need them.

Jolt is different. It allows you to leave your palettes open, but places a covering graphic over all updateable palettes (as well as the Project Browser) when the selection changes instead of updating the palettes or the Project Browser. This is much faster than having to update them all. This covering graphic makes the window appear “disabled”. When you need to have a specific palette (or the Project Browser) update, you simply click on the covering graphic and only that palette updates! Make your selections, and as long as the selection doesn’t change, the palette is now “live”. Change the selection and it disables again.

For example, suppose I had two objects: a draw rectangle called “Rect1” and a button called “Test”. Assume also that I just finished making some changes in the Property Inspector for grc “Rect 1”. When I click on the “Test” button, the PI disables with the cover graphic, like this:

When I click anywhere on the PI, it updates to show the currently selected button:

The windows affected by the Jolt extension are:

• Property Inspector
• Colors palette
• Text Palete*
• Project Browser

* The Text Palette has an additional button called “Update” that forces the palette to update when you have changed the selected text in an already open field. Normally, the PE will automatically update the text attributes of this palette if it is open, but with Jolt running, you need to click this button.