This article explains how to assign more memory to an application program that is running under Mac OS 9 or earlier.

You can set up your application to request more memory from Mac OS. Follow these steps to allocate additional memory to an application program:

1. Quit the application if it is open.

2. Locate and click once on the desired application icon on your Macintosh hard disk (not the icon in the Launcher or an alias to the application).

3. Choose Get Info from the File menu.

4. Make sure the Kind: is application program and not folder, alias, or document. If it does not say application program, there is no Memory Requirements area.

5a. For System 7.1 through Mac OS 8.1, select the number next to the Preferred Size box in the Memory Requirements area.

5b. For Mac OS 8.5 through 9.1, select Memory from the Show pop-up menu. (See figure 1)

Figure 1 Show pop-up menu

6. Increase the amount of memory allocated to the application in the Preferred Size box by 25 to 50 percent. (Example: change 1000 K to 1500 K)

7. Close the Get Info window.

The next time the application is opened, the system is asked to allocate the amount of memory in the preferred memory size box. If the system does not have the requested free RAM available, it tries to allocate a progressively decreasing amount of RAM until it decreases to the amount in the minimum requirements box in the Get Info window. If the amount of free RAM available falls below the minimum, the system reports there is not enough memory open the application.