Editing Mac OS 8 (section)

==Mac OS 8.5==
Released October 16, 1998,<ref>{{cite web|first=Paula|last=Rooney|url=http://www.crw.com/news/1998/weekending100298/oct02dig01.asp|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19990427233206/http://www.crw.com:80/news/1998/weekending100298/oct02dig01.asp|title=Apple Plans Oct. 16 Rollout of Mac OS 8.5|magazine=[[Computer Retail Week]]|archivedate=April 27, 1999|date=October 2, 1998|accessdate=January 1, 2025}}</ref> Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to run solely on [[Mac (computer)|Macs]] equipped with a [[PowerPC]] processor. If Mac OS 8.5 is installed on a 68k system, the [[Sad Mac]] error screen will appear. As such, it replaced some, but not all, of the 680x0 code with [[PowerPC]] code, improving system performance by relying less on [[Mac 68k emulator|680x0 emulation]].

It introduced the [[Sherlock (software)|Sherlock]] search utility. This allowed users to search the contents of documents on hard drives (if the user had let it index the drive), or extend a search to the Internet. Sherlock plug-ins started appearing at this time; these allowed users to search the contents of other websites.

Mac OS 8.5 includes several performance improvements. Copying files over a network was faster than prior versions and Apple advertised it as being "faster than Windows NT".<ref name="Mac OS 8.5 Press Release">{{Cite web |title=Apple Introduces Mac OS 8.5 - The Must-Have Upgrade |url=https://www.apple.com/ca/press/1998/10/MacOS85.html |access-date=May 10, 2011 |archive-date=April 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423123845/https://www.apple.com/ca/press/1998/10/MacOS85.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[AppleScript]] was also rewritten to use only PowerPC code, which improved AppleScript execution speed significantly.

Font Smoothing, system-wide [[Font rasterization|antialiasing]] for type was also introduced. The [[HTML]] format for online help, first adopted by the Finder's Info Center in Mac OS 8, was now used throughout. This made it easier for software companies to write online help systems. The PPP control panel was removed and replaced with Remote Access, which provides the same functionality but also allows connections to [[AppleTalk Remote Access]] (ARA) servers.

The installation process was simplified considerably in Mac OS 8.5. In earlier versions the installer worked in segments and often required a user to click to continue in between stages of the installation. This was a holdover from the days when the OS was distributed on multiple floppy disks, [[disk swapping]] promoting a natural segmentation model. The Mac OS 8.5 installer generally required very little user interaction once it was started. Customisation options were also much more detailed yet simpler to manage.

From Mac OS 8.5 onward, MacLinkPlus document translation software is no longer bundled as part of the Mac OS.

Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to support [[Appearance Manager|themes]], or skins, which could change the default Apple Platinum look of the Mac OS to "Gizmo" or "HiTech" themes. This radical changing of the computer's appearance was removed at the last minute, and appeared only in beta versions, though users could still make (and share) their own themes and use them with the OS. The Appearance control panel was also updated to support proportional scroll bars, and added the option for both scroll arrows to be placed at the bottom of a scroll bar.

Along with themes support, 8.5 was the first version to support [[32-bit]] [[icon (computing)|icons]]. Icons now had [[24-bit]] color (16.7 million colors) and an [[8-bit]] [[alpha channel]], allowing for transparency-translucency effects.

The ''application palette'' made its debut with 8.5 – the application menu at the right side of the menu bar could be resized to show the active application's name, or 'torn off' into a palette of buttons. This palette could be customized in many ways, by removing the window frame and changing the size and layout of the buttons. Apple provided no user interface to set these options, instead making them available via AppleScript and [[Apple Events]] and relying on third parties to provide a user interface for the task. By setting it to display horizontally and turning off the window border, the palette's look and function could be configured to resemble the [[Windows 95]] task bar.

===Mac OS 8.5.1===
Mac OS 8.5.1, released December 7, 1998, was a minor update to Mac OS 8.5 that fixes several bugs that caused crashes and data corruption.