On Jun 16, 2010, at 01:23:02, godette wrote:
> I've just installed Growl on my Mac 10.6 and I'm wondering what it is that
> Growl does exactly? I know I know, it's a dumb question, but I'm very new to
> all things tech and I thought all it did was tell me when I got new emails.
> However, I went to the Growl website and it seems to do a whole lot more, so
> I'm just wondering what and how do I use it to best effect?
Growl is actually much more basic. The way it works is:
1. Something happens in an application.
2. The application tells Growl that something happened.
3. Growl presents that information to you.
The example you cite is simply one instance of this:
1. You receive mail in a mail client.
2. The mail client (or a plug-in for it, such as GrowlMail) tells Growl that
you received mail.
3. Growl presents that information to you.
There are others:
1. One of your instant-messaging contacts signed on.
2. Your messaging client tells Growl that they signed on.
3. Growl presents that information to you.
1. You upload a file to a server, or download it from a server, and that
transfer finishes.
2. Your transfer client tells Growl that the transfer finished.
3. Growl presents that information to you.
etc.
Growl itself doesn't go out and get any of this information. Growl is simply a
display mechanism, enabling applications to provide you with information like
this in a consistent, configurable way. Applications don't have to all
implement their own notification displays, and they won't step all over each
other.
If you want Growl notifications when more things happen, use more programs that
can send such notifications, or install plug-ins for the programs you already
have. We have a list of software that supports Growl:
http://growl.info/applications.php
As I mentioned above, Growl is configurable. You can tell it to display certain
notifications in a different way—whether by giving them a different look, or by
telling Growl to read them aloud or send them as email or SMS messages. We have
a list of available visual displays:
http://growl.info/styles.php
(Say, I should add Christopher Lobay's styles to that page. Link:
http://fixedgear.ca/ )
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Growl Discuss" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en.
