Q: Where does the funny name come from?
A: Beyond the obvious reasons, the name is a tribute to David Drew Zingg. "Uncle Dave" was a New Jersey-born photographer and writer who moved to Brazil in the sixties and died recently. He was a long-time Mac fan and is greatly mourned by the Brazilian Mac community.

Q: Why do I need this in Jaguar/Panther/Tiger, where there already is an "Open With" contextual menu in the Finder?
A: Zingg! is more configurable; the "Include Always" option is very convenient, as it allows you to open folders with certain applications such as Aladdin's DropStuff. Jaguar's menu appears for files only. If you select several items, the Jaguar menu shows only the "Other..." option; Zingg! works even with multiple items, showing applications which can open all items. There are other configuration options which make Zingg!'s menu faster and smaller than the Finder's.

Q: Why doesn't it work with my Intel Mac?
A: I apologize, for various reasons I'll be unable to make a Universal version of Zingg! in the near future.

Q: Why do all these weird applications show up? Can't you remove them from your built-in list?
A: Sorry, you either really have them somewhere, or have had them in the past. Zingg! just asks the system for its registered applications list - there's no built-in list at all. If you rebuild the Launch Services cache, some of those may go away. Or use the new preferences to cut down the list to a manageable size.

Q: I marked <application> as "always", but it doesn't show up in the menu!
A: Zingg! checks if the application can really open that item - if it doesn't show up, it's because it can't. If you want an application to show up regardless of this test, use the "Always Include (Override)" option. The application may, however, reject the item or even crash.

Q: I installed <application>, but it doesn't show up in the configuration list!
A: If an application doesn't show up there, it's not registered with the system. You should always install applications into the standard Applications folders. Applications installed elsewhere usually show up after they're executed once.

Q: Why do you need an installer at all? Why not allow drag & drop installation?
A: Contextual menu extensions need to be installed in one of two folders - the "Contextual Menu Items" folder in either the User Domain (~/Library) or in the Local Domain (/Library). For many users, this will be the first contextual menu to be installed, and neither of these folders may exist; they also may not know the exact location and spelling for these folders. The Zingg! Installer explains about this, checks if a previous version is installed, creates the correct folder in the appropriate location, and installs the configuration application inside the Zingg! plugin. Finally, it forces the first-time user to look at the preference settings. Anyway, the installer does nothing beyond that. No hidden files are installed, no system files are changed, no administrator password will be asked for.

Q: I absolutely love <some classic contextual menu extension>! Why can't you include the same features into Zingg!?
A: I'll usually say NO to any requests of this kind. Zingg! was meant to be a simple piece of freeware, not a jack-of-all-trades. Both simple and free means I must resist creeping featuritis, a dreadful disease which has attacked many developers before me. Zingg! is supposed to help you fast-launch files with applications. That's all it will ever do. If you want something different, it belongs in a different application. Also, I made Zingg! originally for my own use. A feature request has chances to be implemented only if: 1) it's related to "fast-launching files with applications", and 2) I'm likely to use that feature myself, and 3) it's relatively easy to implement, and 4) I find time to work at it - apparently this means over the Christmas holidays :-).

Q: I have long folder names/many nested folders/many names in non-Western scripts, and Zingg! breaks under those conditions. Can't you do anything about that?
A: Unfortunately the programming interfaces to handle the installed application list, and to check which applications can launch a certain Finder item, have those limitations. There are no alternatives. Apple is supposed to be working on this; write a polite but insistent e-mail to them explaining why this is important to you.

Q: Why don't you configure Zingg! from a System Preferences pane?
A: It would be one more piece of software to install, uninstall, and keep versions synchronized; and the System Preferences window can't be widened to show more of an application's path.

Q: Can you pre-scroll the submenu to the application that was selected the last time?
A: No. Although I could store this information somewhere, I can't affect how the menu will show up the next time.

Q: I want to localize Zingg! into French/German/Japanese/Portuguese/Lower Elbonian for you!
A: Thank you very much. German and Portuguese I could do myself, actually... but at present each added language would mean a 300KB or so increase in application size, and I'm very concerned about that for a variety of reasons. So the answer is, no localizations are planned for now.

Q: I absolutely want to do a manual install!
A: OK, have it your way:
1) Create or find the contextual menu items folder in the appropriate place (I assume you know how and where).
2) Copy the Zingg! Installer from the disk image to your desktop. 3)
Open the copy's package with the contextual menu's "Show Package Contents" and navigate to the "Resources" folder inside the "Contents" folder.
4) You'll find a file called "Zingg! Contextual Menu.plugin". Move (don't copy) it to the folder you created or found in step 1. Close the package.
5) Open the plugin's package and, here again, navigate to the "Resources" folder inside the "Contents" folder.
6) Move (don't copy) the copy you made in step 2 to the "Resources" folder. Rename it to "Zingg! Configurator". Double-click it to setup your preferences. Close the package.
7) You may have to log out and back in again to activate the plugin. Next time, perhaps you'll want to use the installer...