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First, for best operation, you should make sure that your Workspace Manager's dock is set below the other window tiers. Do this by alt-clicking on the Workspace icon (you can check by dragging some regular window over the Workspace Manager's dock - if it covers the dock, you're all set). If this is not done, you won't be able to drop stuff on the Fiend dock when it's in the territory of the Workspace Manager's dock. Other than that, there will be no difference in operation of the program.
Preferences and Defaults:
On the preferences panel, you can:
Toggle sound effects
Set the Fiend Dock icon size
Set the Fiend Shelf icon size
Toggle the Fiend Shelf grid
Set a background image file name,
and toggle tiling for that image
In addition, there are some dwrite'able values:
dwrite Fiend HideIcons YES
to make the Fiend Dock hide icons for apps
that it launches
dwrite Fiend SizeFont NO
to leave the title font alone when changing
the icon size
dwrite Fiend ShowProgress NO
to get rid of the Fiend initialization progress
panel
dwrite Fiend ShowSelPanel NO
to avoid seeing the informational panel when
pasting on the shelf.
Managing the Dock:
To place icons on the dock:
Drag them on top of the Fiend Dock icon, or cut from Fiend Shelf or Fiend Dock, then paste using command-v or "Edit->Paste to Dock" on the menu (see "Cutting and Pasting", below).
To move docked icons:
Just drag them around. A ghost image will show you where the icon will land. If you drag a docked icon over the Fiend dock, the ghost will appear in the original space, with a red 'X' over it. This means that if you drop the icon, it will be removed.
To remove docked icons:
Either drop one on the Fiend dock icon, or alt-click a docked icon, or shift-click to select then cut, or choose "Dock->SelectAll" on the menu then cut (see "Cutting and Pasting", below)
To select items on the dock:
Shift-click individual icons, or choose "Dock->SelectAll" on the menu.
To add a level to the dock:
Choose "Dock->Add Level" from the menu.
To delete a level from the dock:
Choose "Dock->Delete Level" from the menu.
To clear a level (ie, delete the icons, but not the level):
Choose "Dock->Clear Level" from the menu.
To move a level to another position:
Choose "Dock->Move Level" on the menu, then enter the level to move the current dock to.
To go to a specific level:
Choose "Dock->Go To Level" on the menu, and enter the level to go to.
Find a docked icon with a certain path:
Choose "Find String" from the Dock menu, and enter a string. The Fiend dock will try to find an icon with a path that matches.
Open or close the dock:
The dock can be toggled open or shut by clicking the Fiend Dock icon, or by choosing "Dock->Toggle Dock" on the menu.
Rotate Dock:
You can make an entire dock level rotate around the Fiend Dock icon by control-clicking the Fiend Dock icon, or by choosing "Dock->Rotate Level" menu.
Go to next/previous dock level:
Command-click the Fiend Dock icon, or choose "Dock->Next Level" from the menu. Shift-command-click to move in reverse, or pick "Dock->Previous Level" from the menu.
Toggle autolaunch for docked icon:
You can choose a docked app icon for auto-launching by control-clicking (a red hilight will appear over the icon). Toggle it off by control-clicking again.
The top button on the Fiend Dock icon moves to the next level; the lower one activates Fiend. The field on the lower right of the Fiend Dock icon displays "X-Y" where X is the index of the current dock, and Y is the number of docks.
Managing the Shelf:
To add icons to the shelf:
Either drop them on the desktop, or cut from Fiend Dock or Fiend Shelf, then choose command-V for "Edit->Paste to Shelf" on the menu.
To move shelved icons:
Just drag them around. If the grid is enabled, a ghost image will be displayed, showing where the image will land. If you want to move or drag a shelved icon without removing it from its previous position, just shift-drag instead of dragging.
To remove shelved icons:
Either alt-drag a rectangle around the icons that you wish to remove, or alt-click individual icons to remove them, or select icons individually or in groups, then cut (see "Cutting and Pasting" below)
To select shelved icons:
You can shift-click individual icons, drag a rectangle around the icons that you want to select, or choose "Shelf->SelectAll" from the menu.
To clean up the shelf:
You can select "Shelf->Snap To Grid", or "Shelf->Select All", cut, then paste.
Double clicking on the Fiend Shelf activates Fiend.
Cutting and Pasting:
Since the windows in Fiend never become active, you must specify which item (the shelf or the dock) you wish to affect when performing cuts and pastes. Basically this means that you can select (and therefore cut/copy) from either the dock or the shelf, but not both at once. If you make a selection on the dock, then try to select something on the shelf, the items on the dock will be de-selected.
Of course, this also affects pasting, with the net result that you must use command-v ("Edit->Paste To Dock") to paste to the dock, and command-V (command-shift-v, "Edit->Paste To Shelf") to paste to the shelf.
NOTE: There are three extra things to know about pasting to the shelf. First, when you paste to the shelf, you need to specify where you want the stuff pasted. You do this by mouse clicking where you want them to go. Second, the shelf tries to paste icons in a square. If you just want it to paste in a line from right to left, use control-click to place the paste, instead of a regular click. Third, if any of Fiend's panels with editable or selectable fields are open (like this one), they are going to receive the cut and paste events, not Fiend - so you should make sure they're closed when you try a pasteboard operation.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.