Here's a look at each of the menu items in Leech, with an explanation as to each command's purpose.
Leech
Here you'll find Leech's version number, along with the build number (in parentheses), along with a little thank-you and copyright notice.
An (optional) news page where you can read about new releases, tips and tricks, and other Leech-related news.
Opens the Settings window.
Toggles a very basic private downloading mode on and off. When enabled, Leech won't add new downloads to your History, and will truncate names in the Downloads window. When in private mode, notifications are suppressed. This is not a complete private downloading solution, so don't rely on it as such!
Access to the standard OS X Services feature.
Hide's Leech's window.
Hide everything but Leech's window.
Unhide all hidden windows.
Well, yea, what it says.
File
Opens a window into which you can paste a list of URLs for Leech to download.
You can also open text files (UTF-8 encoded) that contain URLs. Leech will attempt to parse the URLs out of the text file, and add them to the queue.
The section shows a list of locations where downloads will be saved; pick one to set it as the download location. One entry will always match what you've set in Leech's Settings; others are listed based on being used in a rule or having been set manually.
This menu item lets you specify a different location in which to save the downloads.
Hold down the Option key, and the Other menu item becomes , which will clear out any download locations you've added.
This menu item gets you into Leech's Rules section, where you can define rules that control how downloads are handled.
Edit
This is the standard OS X Edit menu; no need to explain what these all do, because (a) you probably already know, and (b) most of them don't make sense to use in Leech anyway.
View
This menu controls how the Downloads list is sorted in Leech. The arrow indicates a sub-menu; slide over the arrow, and you'll see these choices:
- Queue Position
- Host
- Name
- Progress
Select the one you'd like to use, and the queue will be sorted by that value. In addition, you can choose Ascending or Descending that same sub-menu to control the direction of the sort. Note that sort order has no effect on actual download order.
If enabled, the window will show the full URL to each download (the in-the-back window in the following screenshot). If disabled, then Leech will display the last portion of the URL, which is typically the filename (the frontmost window in the screenshot):
A sub-menu offers you a choice of Lively Background, Subtle Background, or Pill. Here's how each of those look, in order, in one heavily-doctored screenshot:
and When viewing help—and if you can read this, then you're reading help!—these menu items will increase and decrease the zoom level of the page you're viewing.
Hides the toolbar at the top of the Downloads window. If it's presently hidden, this menu item becomes Show Toolbar.
Choose this menu item, and you can change the layout of Leech's toolbar, and even add a set of "start/pause according to schedule" buttons to it, if you wish.
Enters full screen mode, but Leech (being an assistant that works with other apps) doesn't have a full screen mode, so it's grayed out.
Queue
When checked (the default), items added to the queue will begin downloading immediately. Unchecked, and items will be added to the queue, but will not start downloading.
Begin any queued downloads.
Any queued items that have not yet begun downloading will be paused; currently downloading items are not affected.
Pause all activity, including active downloads.
Cancels all downloads—you will be asked if you're sure before Leech deletes everything.
Removes completed downloads from the Downloads window.
Unlike the "sort by" option in the View menu, which strictly controls the visual order of items in the queue, this option actually reorders your download queue: The files in the queue will be downloaded in the order set by this menu.
You can choose to rearrange by Date Added, Host, Name, or Progress. If one or more of these choices is grayed out, it's because the queue is already sorted in that order. If an option is not grayed out, you can choose it to rearrange your download queue. You can also Invert the order, or Shuffle it, to have your downloads randomized.
History
In a fit of amazingly prescient naming, the History menu keeps track of your download history. There's a search box to search through history, a list of your downloads (up to the limit specified in the History section of Settings), and a Clear History entry that (surprise!) clears history.
If you select one of the entries (as seen in the drop-on-hover menu on the History line above), a sub-menu lets you open, open with a specified app, reveal in Finder, move to trash, copy path, open or copy the original URL, and download the file again.
Window
This is the standard Window menu, found in most macOS apps (we're not even going to show it all; you know this menu). One difference is that Leech offers a Keep in Front option, which will force the Leech window to float in front of all your other windows. You can also zoom, center, and close the Leech window from this menu.
Help
The Help menu is how you probably reached this very document, so clearly you know what it does.